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Characteristics and values of employees in transition from this century into the next
Abstract
Since changes are producing and creating stress and related coping problems among employees, employees need to learn about change and how to adapt to the myriad of situations imposed upon them by their employers for their own personal health and productivity reasons. The literature suggests that employees must acquire adaptive measures to business and technology, career and work, and social and cultural changes to be successful in the next century. The purpose of this study was to identify and list characteristics and values which are critical for successful adaption in business, industry, and institutions. A self administered seven point semantic differential attitude survey was developed to determine the degree of readiness for adaptive change of employees. The result of the survey has produced a profile of successfully adaptive employees and a possible measure for training, which must be of a special quality, to address the transitional needs of employees involved in the business and technology, career and work, and social and cultural malaise. Through testing, the study verified that employees are in a period of transition from the Industrial Era into a new era. The study finds successfully adapted employees attain higher levels of formal education,(masters/doctorate) and are generally self-employed or working for an institution. Females demonstrate higher levels of adaptation than their male counterparts. No significant differences were found among the age groups in this study. A total number of 376 employees were tested with diverse occupational backgrounds at random from different regions of the country and locally in Eastern Nebraska. Their replies reinforce and support the literature that indicates the new era characteristics and values of the next century are oppositional to those of the traditional Industrial Era. The mean scores of respondents' perceptions produced ranked listings which are the critical behaviors for successful employee adaptation to be used by executives when developing goals for programs to assist employees to learn coping strategies and adaptive skills.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education|Labor relations
Recommended Citation
Cummings, Edward M, "Characteristics and values of employees in transition from this century into the next" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9022989.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9022989