Exploring Participation in SkillsUSA Among Postsecondary Students

Industries across the United States are facing a shortage of skilled technical workers. This qualitative case study investigated how participation in SkillsUSA, a career and technical student organization, influenced community college students' preparedness for the workforce and their connection to campus. Data were gathered from interest questionnaires, interviews, resumes, and observations. Using the psychology of working theory to frame the study, findings revealed participation in SkillsUSA influenced students' work choices, initiative, and confidence in overcoming obstacles. Participants also reported benefitting from a supportive campus community. The study provided an extension of the psychology of working theory to community college populations and has implications for practitioners and policymakers.

Domestic and Family Violence and Associated Correlates Among Muslims in Australia

Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a significant social problem that is found in all societies, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds. Australian-Muslims are under-researched on DFV issues. This chapter explores the correlates associated with DFV using focus group data with various community-leaders living in South-East Queensland. Findings illustrate some unique characteristics of DFV relevant to Australian-Muslims that distinguish them from mainstream Australians such as misusing religious text and scriptures, contribution of culture, burden of men's financial responsibility vs women's work-choices, clash of cultures when living in Australia, loss of extended family support and social support networks, in-law contribution to abuse, and foreign spouses lack of awareness of the law. Findings are important for the design of effective strategies that challenge core assumptions towards DFV which promote and justify DFV. It highlights the importance of working within the cultural and religious framework in preventing DFV for cultural groups.

YOU EARN as YOU LIVE as YOU VALUE

Purpose In economic theory, the relationship between working/earning decisions and consumption/lifestyle decisions has been conceptualised in an almost entirely unidirectional manner: income from work taken as a given governs consumption and so lifestyle. This involves a narrowly inaccurate view of the consumption–work interaction. The purpose of this paper is to argue that this economist’s way of thinking about consumption and work needs to be replaced by a conception in which not only does realised income determine one’s consumption possibilities but also the desired level of consumption is itself a choice and a key determinant of how and how much one decides to work. Design/methodology/approach The paper is designed as a conceptual contribution in which the above insight is linked to the extensive literature on sustainability. Findings When consumption is no longer thought of as determined by a given income constraint, it becomes possible to consider how people by modifying their consumption aspirations may be led not only to work less or differently but also to live and consume in a more sustainable manner. As a result of lesser pressure to work ever more, they may also be led to an ethical reappraisal of the way they work. Research limitations/implications The conceptualisation suggested is rich in implications for future research, for example, on links between consumerism and corruption; and on the impact of more ethical work choices on well-being. There is an implicit critique of much of HRM theory and practice which tends to instrumentalise work. The implications of artificial intelligence for future work are noted and, in this context, are surprisingly positive. The macro level implication of the need to move away from gross domestic product to more appropriate measures of socio-economic performance and well-being such as Social Progress Index (SPI) are noted. Practical implications The link between this widened conceptualisation of the consumption–work decision and the notion of voluntary simplicity is explored in detail and the latter is shown to apply also to the types of work/job chosen. This in turn is shown to have implications for management (especially HR) practice and for government policies both at micro and macro levels. Social implications This carries clear implications for work-life balance in people’s daily lives; and by choosing more ethical ways of working or types of job, there may be a significant pro-social impact. Originality/value This paper points to a widening of the notion of voluntary simplicity beyond merely consumption choices to apply also to work choices. In the discussion of moral philosophical underpinning of voluntary simplicity, the link is made with Buddhist wisdom of the Middle Way and sufficiency economy and with the Golden Mean of Stoicism.

How not to waste: appropriateness in medicine

The idea that the author promotes is that the term waste amounts to inappropriateness whatever the economic environment referred to. The hope is that it can act as a prod for those people who wish to make more rational and economically more convenient work choices by reducing the opportunities for conflict, the loss of time, the legal disputes, the bottlenecks, the incompetence. Two possible approaches to waste are presented. The first represents the point of view of the industry, it is only apparently distant. Thought, the lean organization requires an effort of reading and perhaps greater analysis but, mutatis mutandis, the areas of waste, that is of inappropriateness, are perfectly adaptable to the health world. The second was born in the health world, originates from a work of an important author in the world of quality in medicine, identifies six categories of waste and was taken up in our country by the GIMBE Foundation, giving inspiration or a strong debate. Reflection on each category allows the expert physician to translate his content into his everyday life and draw hypotheses and stimuli for a possible change in clinical organizational practice, in a vision of contrasting inappropriateness. Homo medicus continually needs to be solicited and have elements of reflection to make choices that minimize, in this case, the behavior of inappropriateness (waste) prescriptive and organizational. KEY WORDS waste; appropriateness; lean production.

A theory of venturing: A critical realist explanation of why my father is not like Richard Branson

This article presents a theory of venturing using a critical realist approach. Venturing is presented as an outcome of reflexive engagement between individuals and circumstances, where opportunity is perceived in relation to some idiosyncratically defined value. Traditionally, venturing has been considered as necessarily involving financial value orientation. Removing the primacy of financial ambitions affords better explanation of real-life business activity. Venturing is presented also as temporally informed and informing through a lifetime, and thus it influences ongoing work choices, including further venturing. The benefits to theory and practice are outlined, including informing support of disparate venturing and of entrepreneurship as a specific type.

Rethinking Volunteering as a Form of Unpaid Work

This article aims to problematize the ways in which volunteering is presently conceptualized, theorized, and studied by positioning it as a form of unpaid labor. Over six focal points, the article highlights areas that deserve closer scrutiny: the question of when volunteering is work; the formal–informal and paid–unpaid distinctions of work; the notion of “choice,” especially volunteering as the lack of paid work choices; the assumption that volunteer work is similar to informal work; and a recognition that volunteering consists of many different forms of activities, not just one.

Globalization and School–Work Choices in an Emerging Economy: Vietnam

We examine the effect of increased industrial jobs on educational attainment in Vietnam, where WTO accession stimulated a massive increase in foreign direct investment. District-level intensity of jobs in foreign-invested firms is negatively associated with propensity to be in school for all urban teenagers and for rural females. High dropout rates are due in part to access to labor markets offering almost no premium for high school learning. The decision to join the workforce before completing high school will likely have long-term implications for individuals and for aggregate growth because global competitiveness depends on sustained increases in labor productivity.