scholarly journals Vibrotactile sense and hand symptoms in blue collar workers in a manufacturing industry.

1997 ◽  
Vol 54 (12) ◽  
pp. 880-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
B T Flodmark ◽  
G Lundborg
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghav Sriram

A study done by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics found that of men ages 25 to 54, 13.2% were without work (Eberstadt). The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) believes this can be attributed to the increased use of robots—specifically in the manufacturing industry. Since 2000, industrial robots have replaced 1.7 million manufacturing jobs worldwide, and of these 1.7 million jobs, 260,000 were lost in the United States (Robots’ 'to replace up to 20 million factory jobs' by 2030) displaying the massive contribution automation has had on America’s unemployment crisis. According to Workism Is Making Americans Miserable, blue-collar jobs produce tangible products such as coal steel rods, and houses (Thompson) allowing manufacturers to easily replace them with more economically efficient robots. When 1,896 experts were asked the following question, “Will networked, automated, artificial intelligence (AI) applications and robotic devices have displaced more jobs than they have created by 2025?” Half responded that they envision a future in which robots and digital agents have displaced significant numbers of blue-collar workers with much-expressing concern that this will lead to vast increases in income inequality and a breakdown of social order. The other half believed technology will have not displaced more jobs than it creates by 2025 and predicted human ingenuity will create new jobs, industries, and ways of living to ensure jobs are created (Smith). This uncertainty for what lies ahead in the future makes it imperative to determine the extent automation in the manufacturing industry has impacted blue-collar workers in present society. While automation has led to the development and creation of many new jobs, most of these jobs are unattainable for the traditional blue-collar worker causing many to be replaced and without work. Manufacturing corporations must address this issue by improving the effectiveness of worker training programs and providing financial support for workers who have been displaced.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Koekemoer ◽  
Hendrik Le Roux Fourie ◽  
Lene Ilyna Jorgensen

The purpose of the present study was to explore the experience of subjective career success among an understudied population such as blue-collar workers (BCWs) in a South African context. Employing a qualitative approach, a nonprobability, purposive voluntary sample of 20 workers were drawn from a manufacturing industry. Semistructured interviews were conducted and examined through a comprehensive thematic analysis. The analysis revealed that BCWs experience career success when certain needs are fulfilled in their careers. According to the findings, participants highlighted specific aspects in their work (e.g., support from the organization, aspiration for progression, working to provide, responsibility toward others, and work-related preferences). For BCWs, these aspects fulfill particular needs that lead to specific feelings of career success (e.g., recognition and value, competence and skills, performance, purpose and meaning, working in a conducive environment, and financial gain).


ILR Review ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Carrington ◽  
Kenneth R. Troske

This study of interplant sex segregation in the U.S. manufacturing industry improves on previous work by using more detailed information on the characteristics of both workers and firms and adopting an improved measure of segregation. The data source is the Worker-Establishment Characteristics Database (a U.S. Census Bureau database) for 1990. There are three main findings. First, interplant sex segregation in the U.S. manufacturing industry is substantial, particularly among blue-collar workers. Second, even in analyses that control for a variety of plant characteristics, the authors find that female managers tend to work in the same plants as female supervisees. Finally, they find that interplant sex segregation can account for a substantial fraction of the male/female wage gap in the manufacturing industry, particularly among blue-collar workers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Tiina Saari ◽  
Minna Leinonen ◽  
Katriina Tapanila

Research on the meaningfulness of work has increased in recent years, yet there is a limited body of qualitative studies on the topic. This article analyzes how the four basic psychological needs, namely autonomy, competence, relatedness, and beneficence, are articulated as sources of meaningful work by blue-collar workers. The research data consist of responses (N = 679) to one open-ended question in a survey and semi-structured interviews (N = 29) with blue-collar workers from property services and the manufacturing industry in Finland. The data were analyzed by theory-driven content analysis. The main findings are: first, autonomy, competence, relatedness, and beneficence appear as sources of meaningfulness in blue-collar work. Second, blue-collar workers see their work as autonomous and requiring diverse competences. Relatedness in blue-collar work entails having good relations with co-workers and striving to maintain those relationships. Beneficence is multilevel: helping clients, co-workers, organization and even the whole society through work. Organizations should develop organizational practices that may enhance the meaningfulness of work, such as opportunities to use and develop occupational skills. This article participates in the discussion about how satisfying these four basic psychological needs can be a source of meaningful work and offers a sociological-contextual perspective on the discussion about meaningfulness of work.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adela Reig-Botella ◽  
Sarah Detaille ◽  
Miguel Clemente ◽  
Jaime López-Golpe ◽  
Annet de Lange

The purpose of this research was to analyze the relationship between the time perspective of Spanish shipyard workers in relation to burnout compared to other blue-collar workers in other sectors, including a total of 644 participants in a shipyard in northern Spain and 223 workers in other sectors. The ages were between 20 and 69 (M = 46.14, SD = 10.98). We used the Spanish version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Instrument (ZTPI) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey (MBI-GS). The mean of the three reliability coefficients of the emotional exhaustion factor was 0.887. In respect to the five factors of the ZTPI questionnaire, the mean of those five coefficients was 0.86. A Student’s t-test for independent samples comparing shipyard naval workers vs. the control group in personality variables and burnout was used. The psychological difference between workers in the naval sector and those in other sectors is better predicted based on two variables: emotional exhaustion and professional efficacy. Workers in the naval sector have a higher risk of becoming burnt-out than workers in other sectors due to a negative past, present and future time perspective. This can be a consequence of constant understimulation and monotonous and repetitive work, as well as a lack of autonomy and social support at work.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-17
Author(s):  
Reyhan Bilgiç ◽  
Merve Betül Bulazer ◽  
Elif Bürümlü ◽  
İbrahim Öztürk ◽  
Ceyda Taşçıoğlu

Background: In the current study, the mediating roles of safety climate and trust in the relations between leadership styles which are transformational and transactional and safety outcomes which are safety compliance and safety participation are studied.Methods and Material: 101 blue-collar workers from a company in Zonguldak were participated in the study.Results: The results showed that transactional leadership is strongly associated with safety climate. As predicted, transformational leadership is found to be significantly correlated with safety participation.Conclusions: Moreover, transactional leadership is strongly correlated with safety compliance. Both safety climate and trust showed significant correlation with both of the safety outcomes. The mediating roles of trust and safety climate within the relations between transactional leadership and safety compliance and transformational leadership and safety participation are also found.


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