8.

0 Working Conditions

Health and Safety,

 Working Conditions
 Health and safety: The number of occupational
hazards is awesome and generally unrecognized.
 U.S. Census Bureau indicates that about five
thousand workers are killed on the job each year.
 The director of the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) says thirty-two workers are
killed on the job each day, more than doubling the
Census figure.

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 Working Conditions

 Census Bureau statistics reveal that the rate of

industrial injury has been declining since 1960.
 But the absolute number of workers disabled at
work every year is ever increasing – about 3.7
million men and women.
 Job-related injuries and illnesses cost the nation
$65 billion a year – $171 billion when indirect
costs such as lost wages are included.

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 Working Conditions

 Employers clearly have a moral obligation not to

expose workers to needless risks or to negligently
or recklessly endanger their lives or health.
 Employers, however, are not morally responsible
for all workplace accidents caused by coworkers’
negligence or failure to exercise due care.
 In some circumstances or in certain occupations,
an injured worker can reasonably be said to have
voluntarily assumed the risk.

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 Working Conditions

 Problems with voluntary assumption of risk: It

presupposes informed consent, which requires the
worker to have been fully informed of the danger
and to have freely chosen to assume it.
 Employees have a moral right to refuse dangerous
work (upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court).
 Employers, in turn, have a moral obligation not to
expose workers to needless risk.

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 Working Conditions

 What causes accidents? Accidents don’t just

happen, but often result from poor job practices
and environments that fail to prioritize safety.
 OSHA: With the 1970 Occupational Safety and
Health Act, regulation of working conditions
passed from the states to the federal government.
 The thrust of the act was to ensure safe and
healthy working conditions and impose a duty on
employers to provide those conditions.

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 Working Conditions: New health
challenges
 The scope of occupational hazard is greater than
many people think.
 The numbers harmed by work-related injuries
and illness may be generally underestimated.
 These include musculoskeletal disorders, shift work,
fatigue, and stress.
 OSHA’s enforcement of existing regulations has
too often been lax.

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 Working Conditions

 Management styles: Nothing affects environment

more than management style and quality.
 In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor
described two management styles:
Theory X managers believe that workers dislike
work and try to avoid.
Theory Y managers assume that employees
basically like work and view it as something
natural and potentially enjoyable.

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 Working Conditions

 Theory X managers coerce and bully workers into

conformity with organizational objectives.
 Theory Y managers believe that workers are
motivated by pride and self-fulfillment as well as
money and job security, not dodging responsibility
but accepting it and even seeking it out.
 Other management styles include Theory Z managers,
who hold Japanese-style respect for workers.

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 Working Conditions

 One management style eschews a traditionally

masculine approach (hierarchical, aggressive, winner-
take-all) in favor of one more congenial to women
(personal, empathetic, and collaborative).
 Managers who operate with rigid assumptions about
human nature, or who devote themselves to infighting
and political maneuvering, may damage employees’
interests and lose their respect.

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 Working Conditions

 Day care and maternity leave:

 Women still bear the primary responsibility for child
rearing.
 So their increased participation in the paid workforce
has led to a growing demand for maternity-leave
policies and child-care services.
 In its research of 168 countries, a Harvard School of
Public Heath study found that more than 160
guarantee paid maternity leave, whereas the U.S.
mandates only unpaid leave (except in California and
Washington).
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 Working Conditions

 Business and child care: Some argue that offering

child care as a fringe benefit, and dealing flexibly
with employees’ family needs, can prove
advantageous for most employers.
 Such policies can be cost-effective in the narrower
sense – decreasing absenteeism, boosting morale and
loyalty, enhancing productivity, and attracting new
recruits.

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 Working Conditions

 Three moral concerns:

(1) Women have a right to compete on equal terrain
with men, and paid leave can reinforce that right.
(2) Development of potential capacities is a moral ideal,
and perhaps a human right, so women should not be
forced to choose between childbearing and pursuing
careers.
(3) The work world often reproduces the traditional
male-female division of labor within the family.

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Redesigning Work: Dissatisfaction on the job
 The Work in America report (1970) identified four
chief sources of worker dissatisfaction:
(1) Industry’s preoccupation with quantity, not
quality; rigid rules and regulations; and the
monotonous repetition of small, fragmented tasks.
(2) Lack of opportunities to be one’s own boss.
(3) “Bigness.”
(4) workers’ feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness,
isolation, and self-estrangement or
depersonalization.

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 Redesigning Work
Factors affecting job satisfaction:
1. Employees at all occupational levels value
interesting work,
2. enough support and information to accomplish
the job,
3. enough authority to carry out the work,
4. good pay,
5. the opportunity to develop special skills,
6. job security, and
7. a chance to see results of their work.
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 Redesigning Work

 Importance of job satisfaction: The design of work

materially affects the total well-being of workers.
Example: Studies show that job satisfaction is the
strongest predictor of longevity.
Therefore, work content and job satisfaction are
paramount moral concerns.
Satisfied workers are also more productive.
Business has an economic reason as well as a
moral obligation to improve work quality.

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 Redesigning Work

 Quality of work life: For some firms, this means

providing workers with less supervision and more
autonomy.
 For others, it means providing work opportunities to
develop and refine skills.
 For still others, it means providing for greater
participation in the conception, design, and execution
of their work – that is, with greater responsibility and
a deeper sense of achievement.

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Thank you

18
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8.0 Health and Safety
8.0 Management Styles
8.0 Day care & Maternity Leave