An investigation of the work characteristic composition in blue-collar, white-collar, and knowledge work

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management

Volumn 1, Issue 2-4, 2001, Pages 283-303

  Beruvides, Mario G ^a   Koelling, C Patrick ^b  

^a Texas Tech University   (United States)

^b Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University   (United States)

Author keywords

Knowledge work; white collar work; work analysis; work characteristics; work measurement

Indexed keywords

EID: 84879833452     PISSN: 14656612     EISSN: 17415160     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/ijhrdm.2001.001011     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. Taylor, F.W. (1911) The Principles of Scientific Management (1967 ed.), W.W. Norton & Company, New York.
2. By this it is meant all cultures that make up mankind as we know it. To the authors’ knowledge, some form of work is practiced in all known cultures.
3. Ruiz-Quintanilla, S.A. and Wilpert, B. (1988) ‘The meaning of work – scientific status of a concept’, in V. de Keyser, T. Ovale, B. Wilpert and S.A. Ruiz-Quintanilla (Eds.), The Meaning of Work and Technological Options, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England, pp.3–14.
4. Beruvides, M.G. (1993) ‘An investigation of the universe and anatomy of work’, PhD Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, p.249.
5. Beruvides, M.G. and Koelling, C.P. (1992) ‘Management tools: a technological issue in white-collar/knowledge work’, in T.M. Khalil and B.A. Bayraktar (Eds.), Management of Technology III, Industrial Engineering and Management Press, Norcross, Georgia, pp.1357–1363.
6. Beruvides, M.G. and Koelling, C.P. (1993) ‘Technology space mapping of tools: a management issue in understanding work’, Productivity and Quality Management Frontiers – IV, Industrial Engineering and Management Press, Norcross, GA.
7. Drucker, D.F. (1974) Management: Task, Responsibilities, Practices, Harper & Row, New York.
8. For further details see [4].
9. Beruvides, M.G., Omachonu, V.K. and Sumanth, D.J. (1989) ‘A conceptual framework of work: the measurement of white collar/knowledge productivity’, in Productivity Management Frontiers – II, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., Geneva, pp.39–46.
10. Beruvides, M.G. and Sumanth, D.J. (1987) ‘Knowledge work: a conceptual analysis and structure’, Productivity Management Frontiers-1, February, pp.127–138.
11. The B/W/K work model is explained in detail in this paper.
12. Chippello, C.J. and Templin, N. (1992) ‘Work ethic aside, some US employees still live very well: a look at families in Detroit, Toyota City shows how Americans stay ahead’, Wall Street Journal, 24 February, pp.A1,A10.
13. Davis, B. and Milbank, D. (1992) ‘If the US work ethic is fading, alienation may be main reason’, Wall Street Journal, 7 February, pp.A1,A4.
14. Morganthaler, E. (1992) ‘The work ethic is a living thing to the Morgans’, Wall Street Journal, 26 February, pp.A1,A6.
15. Schlesinger, J.M. (1992) ‘A US professor takes an unusual course in a Japanese factory’, Wall Street Journal, 30 March, pp.A1,A7.
16. Trost, C. (1992) ‘To cut costs and keep the best people, more concerns offer flexibility work plans’, Wall Street Journal, 18 February, pp.B1,B12.
17. Lublin, J.S. (1992) ‘Seeking wisdom of seasoned veterans, more firms rehire departed executives’, Wall Street Journal, 29 April, pp.B1,B12.
18. Nussbaum, B., Palmer, A.T, Cuneo, A.Z. and Carlson, B. (1992) ‘Downward mobility’, Business Week, 23 March, pp.56–63.
19. Pearl, D. (1992) ‘The upwardly mobile find hopes dashed on suburban plateaus’, Wall Street Journal, 30 March, pp.A1,A5.
20. Ansberry, C. (1992) ‘The genteel poor’, Wall Street Journal, 10 February, pp.A1,A7.
21. Horowitz, T. (1992) ‘Working class culture erodes Britain’s rank in a unified Europe’, Wall Street Journal, 11 February, pp.A1,A10.
22. Milbank, D. (1992) ‘The modern Okies: industrial Migrants scour US for work, with dwindling luck’, Wall Street Journal, 2 March, pp.A1,A4.
23. These many citations are but a fraction of the articles and issues currently being debated about how we do work. For those interested in other articles on the many facets of work currently being debated, explored or commented on, see [24-29] to mention a few.
24. Baker, S., Woodruff, D. and Weiner, E. (1992) ‘Detroit south, Mexico’s auto boom: who wins, who loses’, Business Week, 16 March, pp.98–102.
25. Brennan, R.J. (1992) ‘Union ratifies Conrail contract to reduce crews’, Wall Street Journal, 7 February, p.A6.
26. Deveny, K. (1992) ‘AT&T unionist seeks great role in management’, Wall Street Journal, 26 February, p.A6.
27. Ferguson, T.W. (1992) ‘Tales of the CAT and GM, joined by a union’, Wall Street Journal, 14 April, p.A19.
28. Keller, J.J. (1992) ‘AT&T will cut managers’ posts of 2000 workers’, Wall Street Journal, 7 February, p.A7.
29. Machalaba, D. (1992) ‘CSX bids to reduce train crews wins union ratification’, Wall Street Journal, 21 April, p.A4.
30. Nadler, G. (1963) Work Design, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Homewood, Illinois.
31. Sumanth, D.J. (1994) Productivity Engineering and Management, McGraw-Hill, New York.
32. Sumanth, D.J. (1979) ‘Productivity measurement and evaluation for manufacturing companies’, PhD Dissertation, Illinois Institute of Technology (Published by University Microfilms International, #80-03,665), Ann Arbor, Michigan.
33. Kendrick, J.W. and Creamer, D. (1965) ‘Measuring company productivity: handbook with case studies’, Studies in Business Economics, No. 89, National Industrial Conference Board, New York.
34. Sink, D.S. (1985) Productivity Management: Productivity Measurement, Evaluation, Control and Improvement, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
35. Ruch, W.A. (1982) ‘The measurement of white collar productivity’, National Productivity Review, Autumn, pp.416–42.
36. Ruch, W.A. (1980) ‘Knowledge worker productivity’, Manufacturing Productivity Frontiers, August, pp.11–14.
37. Kurstedt, H.A. (1990) ‘Management systems theory, applications, and design’, Vol. 1, Working Papers, Management Systems Laboratory, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
38. Kurstedt, H.A. (1990) ‘Management systems theory, applications, and design’, Vol. 2, Working Papers, Management Systems Laboratory, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
39. Wilson, J. (1990) Thinking with Concepts, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
40. The use of these cases as explained by Wilson [39] are to ‘flesh out’ the concept (isolate the relevant ideas) and subject them to the scrutiny of scientific analysis. Note, Wilson’s procedure is an 11 step process (not all the steps need to be used, nor are they necessarily to be used in sequence).
41. The three subject groups are representative of what most people would classify as traditional blue-collar, white-collar, and knowledge workers. Their selection was based on this premise and not on their possible representativeness as to the work definitions described previously. This was done to try to avoid circularity in the research. The use of self-logging (described later) was incorporated into the study to avoid the potential of bias as well as the issue of circularity. Also, six experts in the field were consulted as to the representativeness of the sample populations so as to avoid any possible tautological questions concerning this research.
42. The names of the organisations have been changed to maintain their anonymity.
43. A discussion with the management representative for the Print Shop and ABC corporation on the type of work these subjects do assisted the researcher in deciding to use the workers as subjects.
44. The decision to use these subjects was also based on conversations with the University department management representatives as to the representativeness of the workers’ work.
45. The mainly W and K-work sample populations had similar methodologies, but the mainly B-work sample population used a different methodology. This is due to the work constraints of these sample populations. This is explained in detail.
46. Subject training was required to assist them in discriminating the differences in the levels of each of the eight work characteristics.
47. A sample of the form used to log the data can be made available upon request from the authors.
48. Although it would have been preferable to have all three groups self-log their information, the management at the B group site was opposed to this method. The adopted method was used to accommodate the management’s wishes and decrease the possible interruption of production personnel. Many precautions were used to avoid the possibility of researcher bias, thus a script was prepared and followed to assure the researcher did not influence workers’ responses. This was done due to the fact that two different data collection approaches were required to complete the study.
49. For the B-work group, more subjects were used with fewer observations per subject so the average numbers projected here are equivalent to those of W and K work groups.
50. What was being hypothesised and tested were the definitional work characteristicsin relation to the type of work (B, W and K). This collapsing is viewed as acceptable because the sample populations are assumed to be homogeneous. In effect, the design used stratified sampling.
51. For further elaboration of stratified sampling see [52-54].
52. Cochran, W.G. (1977) Sampling Techniques, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
53. Cochran, W.G. (1968) ‘The effectiveness of adjustment by subclassification in removing bias in observational studies’, Biometrics, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.295–313.
54. Conover, W.J. (1971) Practical Nonparametric Statistics, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.
55. Refer to [54,pp.140–145] on (2 x 2) contingency table analysis.
56. Refer to [54,pp.140–145] on (2 x 2) contingency table analysis.
57. To account for type 1 error due to the two additional tests being run, the alpha level was set at .05 (the original being at .10). This was done using Bonferoni’s method.
58. Anthony, M.G. (1984) ‘IEs measure work, write standards for white collar workers at financial institution’, Industrial Engineering, January, pp.197–200.
59. Calmes, R.A. (1981) ‘Career planning and performance appraisal techniques for improving salaried employee productivity’, Institute of Industrial Engineers Fall Conference Proceedings, pp.29–34.
60. Cochran, W.G. (1977) Sampling Techniques, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
61. Cochran, W.G. (1968) ‘The effectiveness of adjustment by subclassification in removing bias in observational studies’, Biometrics, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.295–313.
62. Kurstedt, H.A. (1991) ‘The student guide to the research process’, Working papers, Management Systems Laboratory, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
63. Leedy, P.D. (1989) Practical Research: Planning and Design, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York.
64. McGee, J.P. and Welsh, R.L. (1982) ‘The need to redirect industrial engineering toward office productivity’, Proceedings of Institute of Industrial Engineers Annual Conference, pp.361–367.
65. Mundel, M.E. (1978) Measuring and Enhancing the Productivity of Service and Government Organizations, Asian Productivity Organization, Hong Kong.
66. Niebel, B.W. (1988) Motion and Time Study, 8th ed., Irwin, Homewood, Illinois.
67. Patton, J.A. (1982) ‘Managers and productivity … no one to blame but themselves’, Management Review, October, pp.13–18.
68. Sink, D.S., Das, S.K. and Tutle, T.C. (1987) ‘Measuring and improving ‘white collar’ productivity: a NASA case study’, Productivity Management Frontiers-1, February, pp.155–163.
69. Sumanth, D.J, Omachonu, V.K. and Beruvides, M.G. (1990) ‘A state-of-the-art review of research on white-collar/knowledge worker productivity’, International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.337–355.
70. Yarbrough, W.V., Koelling, C.P. and Beruvides, M.G. (1993) ‘White-collar work: a classification of clerical endeavors’, Productivity and Quality Management Frontiers – IV, Industrial Engineering and Management Press, Norcross, GA.