<p>One tenet of labour process theory is the contention that, when confronted by degraded work, people will resist through militant behaviour or in other ways. However, that "resistance hypothesis" has been tested rarely.</p> <p>Canadian postal workers have manifested some considerable militancy, for instance through legal and wildcat strikes and through frequent recourse to the grievance mechanism. Too, their work has been subjected to technological change often pointed to as a prime example ofjob degradation. But not all aspects of postal work have been subjected to technological change.</p> <p>Thus, postal workers constitute a test ofthe "resistance hypothesis:" if degraded work provokes militancy, then ceteris paribus postal workers involved in automated work will be more militant than those who are not.</p> <p>In this study, a group of postal workers employed in "Cancity" in 1985-6 (N=152) were surveyed regarding their attitudes and experiences. Factor analytic techniques were used to construct a scale of attitudinal militancy, and hierarchical set analysis - summarised using dummy variable path coefficients -- was used to examine the causal links between this outcome and logically prior factors, including job degradation, employment history, and achieved and ascribed statuses including sex.</p> <p>The results indicate that job degradation does have an impact on attitudinal militancy, but that this impact is modest at best, and weakens as other influences are taken into account.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Bakgrund: Muskuloskeletal smärta är vanligt förekommande bland postarbetare, ofta på grund av tunga lyft och repetitivt arbete. Tidigare forskning har främst fokuserat på att identifiera förekomsten och utbredningen av smärta bland postarbetare. Det råder dock brist på kvalitativ forskning som syftar till att förstå postarbetares upplevelser av smärta och deras erfarenheter av att hantera smärta på arbetet. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att utforska postarbetares upplevelser och erfarenheter av att arbeta med muskuloskeletal smärta. Metod: En kvalitativ design användes, där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med fem deltagare. Urvalet av deltagare skedde genom en kombination av bekvämlighetsurval och snöbollsurval. Databearbetningen utfördes med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Deltagarna beskrev varierade upplevelser och erfarenheter av smärta på arbetet. Analysen ledde fram till tre teman och nio subteman. De teman som identifierades var: “Smärta har flera dimensioner”, “Arbetsmiljöfaktorer påverkar smärta” och “Möjliggörare för att arbeta med smärta”. Konklusion: Studien visade att muskuloskeletal smärta påverkade deltagarnas fysiska och psykiska välmående och att arbetsbelastningen var en betydande faktor bakom smärtan. Deltagarna använde strategier som pauser, stretching och massage för att hantera smärtan, men betonade även att besök hos fysioterapeut var viktigt för att kunna fortsätta arbeta. Trots att ergonomiska åtgärder ansågs viktiga för att minska smärtan, kunde hög arbetsbelastning och stress hindra implementeringen av ergonomiska åtgärder. Organisatoriskt stöd betonades som avgörande för att förbättra arbetsmiljön och minska smärta bland postarbetare. / Background: Musculoskeletal pain is common among postal workers, often due to heavy lifting and repetitive work. Previous research has focused primarily on identifying the prevalence of pain among postal workers. However, there is a lack of qualitative research aimed at understanding postal workers' experiences and management of pain at work. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore postal workers’ experiences and perceptions of working with musculoskeletal pain. Method: A qualitative design was used, where semi-structured interviews were conducted with five participants. The selection of participants took place through a combination of convenience sampling and snowball sampling. The data processing was carried out using qualitative content analysis. Results: The participants described varied experiences of pain at work. The analysis led to three themes and nine subthemes. The themes identified were: “Pain has several dimensions”, “Work environment factors affect pain” and “Facilitators for working with pain”. Conclusion: The study revealed that musculoskeletal pain affected the participants' physical and psychological well-being, and that the workload was an important factor contributing to the pain. The participants used strategies such as breaks, stretching and massage to manage the pain, but also emphasized that visits to the physiotherapist were important to be able to continue working. Although ergonomic measures were considered important to reduce pain, high workload and stress could hinder the implementation of ergonomic measures. Organizational support was emphasized as critical to improve the work environment and reduce pain among postal workers.

High-profile instances of workplace violence and increased pressure from competitors have threatened the viability of one of the nation's largest employers, the United States Postal Service (USPS). As a result, the USPS began a massive change effort in the early 1990's. One of the initiatives implemented to improve labor-management relations was a derivative of the self-managed work team known as the crew chief program. This study provides a mixed-methods and multi-level approach to understand the impact this unique program had on organizational attitudes. The first aim of this study was to investigate whether the crew chief program reduced employees' stress and strain and improved job and supervisory satisfaction and company and union commitment, while controlling for the nesting of employees within sites and employee demographic characteristics. The second aim was to replicate and extend the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model of stress and to determine whether employee perceptions of crew chief support moderated the relationships between stressors, strain, and outcomes. I evaluated Aim 1 using data from 177 mail processors from 27 units matched from baseline to one-year follow-up with hierarchical linear modeling. This was followed up with an implementation analysis of qualitative data to determine the extent to which the program was implemented compared to the original design. I evaluated Aim 2 using structural equation modeling from 538 mail processors who participated at follow-up. There was little quantitative support for Aim 1. However, the results of the implementation analysis suggested that the crew chief program was not functioning as conceived. Aim 2 received strong support, with almost all of the main effects of the SSO model replicated. However, there was no support for the moderator effects. Additionally, I found role ambiguity to have direct relationships with other organizational outcomes beyond the indirect effects via strain and that crew chief support was strongly related to stressors and outcomes. These findings reinforce the notion that employing both quantitative and qualitative methods can dramatically improve the quality of organizational research. Based on these findings, I describe several suggestions for improvements to this specific program and for improving future initiatives aimed at enhancing labor-management relations.