Working may be fun

Press, 4 March 1980, Page 6

Working may be fun

PA Dunedin In years to come, working will probably be more flexible, more meaningful, more rewarding, and less stressful, according-to the chairman of the Institute of. Industrial? Relations at the* University of California (Professor Louis Davis). Speaking at a seminar organised by the OtagbSoiithland Employers’ Association, Professor Davis said the next five to 10 years might show increased efforts by managers, union leaders, technical designers, and planners to improve the quality of working life. He said the rigidities concerning working schedules would be replaced by flexible arrangements between employees and organisations, accompanied by job-sharing and other forms of part-time employment. “The effects of shift ’ work will be lessened in part by new forms of organisation and job

designs,” said Professor Davis.

Employee participation will become widespread in the working, supervision, and management of organisations. “A variety of rewards for performance will become available, ranging from money to earned time off, but they will not be widespread. Civil rights in the work place will become visible, although still in limited form. “Innovative mixtures of working and schooling will become available for all ages of employees. Sextyping of occupations will be less extensive, and women in supervisory, managerial, and technical positions will be more commonplace.

“New forms of unionmanagement collaboration to improve the quality of working life will exist, and new forms of collective agreement that support the quality of working life will begin to surface,” said Professor Davis.

He said the continuing increase in the levels of education would require the development of ways to use superior, unspecialised talents; At the same time, there would continue to be a need to bring the undereducated into the workplace and thus into the economic mainstream of society. “We’ll realise that stress at work is throughout all levels of organisation and is present in many occupations. This will be coupled with demands, including legal ones, to alleviate the effects. “There will be strong pressure to restructure' organisations and redesign jobs to prevent or minimise stress at work,” he said. While many improvements in the quality of working life would occur over the next 10 years, he added, the demand for further improvement would be strong.