Suchergebnisse

In this article, I describe the work performed by service providers, defined broadly, and the changes in this work engendered by an increasing reliance on encounters as a form of service delivery. This delivery mechanism facilitates the view of service providers as labor costs to be managed and reduced rather than human resources to be nurtured and developed. The provision of services by encounters may be a prelude both to the substitution of machine providers for humans and to large-scale unemployment.

An analysis of disputing in organizations, based on research & theory about people's encounters with organizations, rather than the traditional dispute processing literature. Following a brief introduction defining key terms, focus shifts to the existence of a "dispute paradox" in organizations, ie: although disputes are natural, normal, & perhaps even healthy components of organizations, they are usually taken as indicators of organizational failure. Exemplars of current research on disputing in organizations are provided, & five directions for future research suggested, emphasizing the fifth, ie, the utility of distinguishing the structure of interaction among groups of organizational actors, called mass contact vs individualized contact. 1 Table, 62 References. Modified AA

Survey researchers usually assume that retrospective data become less accurate with the passage of time between event & interview. Available research focuses on retrospective behavioral data, although the findings may be assumed to generalize to retrospective attitudinal data. Tested here is the assumption that attitudes in the past are recalled less accurately over time. Data come from a national sample survey (N = 1,491) of adult Americans, collected at the Survey Research Center, U of Mich, in 1973. Analyses utilize the 792 Rs who had least one experience with one of seven government agencies & compare correlations across five different time periods. Results show that people who recall attitudinal information about a bureaucratic encounter which occurred ten or more years in the past generally showed the same pattern of relationships among aspects of the encounter as did people who had contacted a government agency only two or three months prior to the interview. These results have implications for survey research methodology. 2 Tables. AA.