CAPITAL TIMES, November 15, 1989
Center's concern is working-life quality
Mary V. Kiehn
Capital Times Contributor
The Center for Quality of Working
Life is actively promoting awareness of
its existence and purpose.
A new brochure highlighting
previous projects of the center and
detailing the services available will soon
be ready for distribution and will be
included in the promotional materials of
the university.
The center's goal is "to improve the
general business climate of Pennsylvania
by stimulating improved organizational
effectiveness and quality of working
life," and "to act as a catalyst and focal
point for solution of productivity and
quality of working life problems,"
according to one of its publications.
Dr. Rupert F. Chisholm, Co-director
of the center, promotes those ideas when
he speaks at various industry and
management conferences, such as a
recent Harrisburg conference of the
Department of Labor and Industry for
employment security personnel and a
conference in September sponsored by
the York Area Labor/ Management
Council.
The center has:
•Helped to establish a labor- After 12 years of managerial
management committee serving the experience, including employee relations
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§ Beacon Lodge §
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Positions available for students §
interested in providing a summer of 1
recreation for blind and visually
handicapped children and adults.
Beacon Lodge, located in central
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counselors for ten and twelve week §
camping programs. In addition to
General Counselors, there is a need §
for a WSI, Canoeing Instructor,
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tor, Nature Specialist, and Nurses 1
and Lifeguards. The summer offers §
a well-rounded program of activities 1
from bowling to overnight canoe trips §
down the Juniata River. To request 1
an application and/or additional
information, write:
P.0.80x 428, Lewistown, PA 17044
or call 717-242-2153
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Camp for the Blind
York/Adams County area to improve the
business climate of that region.
•Assisted the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation in
developing a survey of employees on
productivity and quality of working life.
•Published for lour years a bi
monthly newsletter on labor
management issues that went to 4,500
labor leaders, managers, and others in
Pennsylvania.
•Established a collection of case
studies, books and other literature
maintained by the center as resource
material.
Dr. Chisolm says that as a consultant
the Center for Quality of Working Life
enters bids with firms or organizations
seeking assistance. It has extensive
academic resources and the advice given
is not driven by economics because of
its affiliation with the university. The
center adds to its own reserve of
information through its consulting
work.
Dr. Chisolm recognized from his first
day of business experience that
employees could do more than they are
given an opportunity to do. "There is a
lot of wasted talent in the work place,"
he said.
CAMPUS
manager and personnel policy advisor for
Exxon, he left the business world to earn
a Ph.D. in organizational behavior.
Improvement in the quality of his own
working life was one of his goals as
well as having an opportunity to
influence others through teaching.
Although management sometimes
feels threatened by efforts to improve
working life, Dr. Chisolm says,
"Employee psychic satisfaction, which
follows challenge, opportunity for
growth and involvement in planning,
can benefit the employer as well."
The Center for Quality of Working
Life was founded at Capital Campus in
August 1978 by Dr. Chisolm and Dr.
Melvin Blumberg, Director of the school
of business under grants from the
National Center for Productivity and
Quality of Working Life and the
Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Chisolm received his doctorate
from Case Western Reserve University
and a master's degree in industtrial
Somewhere
Beyond the
Mary Lee Schnable
Capital Times Staff
Warsaw--Budapest--Prague.
Solidarity--Iron Curtain--Communism:
All are words that call to mind different
ways of life in far away places; places
that, in the spring of 1990, students at
Penn State Harrisburg have a chance to
visit.
"This is a time of great change (in
Eastern Europe)," said Dr. Robert
Simko, the tour leader, who spent six
weeks in Hungary in 1988 as a
Fulbright Scholar.
Sweeping reforms are taking place in
Hungary and Poland. At first people in
Eastern European countries were looking
over their shoulders, not knowing
whether to believe that reforms would
actually happen, Simko said. Now they
see that the changes are for real. The
pace of change is accelerating, and their
nervousness is giving way to optimism.
Tour participants will have the
opportunity to witness first hand the
kinds of things they can only see on TV
now, he said.
The group will depart from PSH on
February 25 and return on March 7. The
$1563.00 cost of the 11-day trip includes
transportation, accommodations in First
Class hotels, two meals per day, the
services of English speaking guides,
taxes, tips, transfers and all required
visas.
While the tour is scheduled to
coincide with the spring semester break,
participating students will miss three
class days during the week following the
break. In the past, Simko says, students
have worked out absenses resulting from
educational tours with their professors
with no problem.
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The tour will focus on the capital
cities, but the itinerary allows
considerable free time for participants to
relations from Cornell University. He is
a Professor of Management in the
graduate programs in Public
Administration at Penn State Harrisburg.
Dr. James T. Ziegenfus, Jr., co
director of the center, is an Assistant
Professor of Health Care Management at
Penn State Harrisburg. He had six years
of experience as a research and
organizational development consultant in
private practice prior to joining the
faculty at Penn State Harrisburg.
Dr. Ziegenfus received his his Ph.D.
in social systems sciences from the
Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, a master's degree in
psychology from Temple University,
and a master's degree in Public
Administration from Penn State
Harrisburg.
There is a relationship between
satisfaction in one's working life and
personal life Dr. Chisolm believes, and
he is enhancing the quality of his own
life by learning to fly.
far, far away:
Iron Curtain
shop and sightsee on their own.
In Warsaw the group will tour the
city and explore the Old Town, the
Warsaw Ghetto, and the historic
residence of kings at Wilanow. The last
evening will include a gala dinner
accompanied by a traditional folklore
show.
Sights in Budapest include Buda
Castle, the 13th century Mathias
Church, Fisherman's Bastion, Gellert
Hill, and fashionable Vaci Street. A
farewell dinner will include
Gypsy/Hungarian folk music.
The tour of Prague will include the
Bohmenian castles of Karistein and
Konopiste, the Old Jewish Quarter,
Wenceslaus Squeare and the
Astronomical Clock. Live folk music
will highlight the last evening in
Prague. After a brief stopover in
Helsinki, Finland the tour will return to
the United States.
While the trip is part of Public
Policy 497, special Topics: Eastern
Europe, the study tour may be taken
without enrolling in the course. Persons
wishing to take the course, however,
must participate in the tour.
So if good, food, gypsy music, and
the chance to see history in the making
appeal to you, act now! The last day to
submit the initial $250.00 deposit is
November 20th. The balance is due by
December 18th.
For more information, call Dr.
Robert Simko at (717) 948-6047. He is
an Associate Professor of Geography and
Planning in the Public Policy
department at PSH.
Portions of this article were taken
from the pamphlet "Experience Eastern
Europe, An Educational Study Tour and
Public Policy 497: Special Topics,"
Continuing Education Department,
PSH.