• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.109-137
• /
• 2007

One of the key features of the Korean labor market is that, even though the central axis of employment has shifted from manufacturing sector to service sector, the ratio of part-time work is very low. Its major reasons are low wage rate, insufficient fringe benefits including social insurance, and deficient job security, even though part-time work has positive characteristics. This study examines whether part-time work would be a decent one and an alternative to full-time work by answering two questions: one is who chooses part-time work and another is whether part-time work is satisfactory. Analyses of 3,971 wage workers in the 8th wave of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey reveal that, as expected, part-time work is prevalent among the young, married women, and the old supporting the results from previous studies and that choosing part-time work on one's initiatives has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction for women while it is not for men. Form the result, it can be concluded that part-time work can be an appropriate alternative for full-time work if one chooses it voluntarily.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.81-90
• /
• 2006

The Strain Index(SI) has been commonly used to evaluate the musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) of upper extremities. Recently, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists(ACGIH) adopted the Threshold Limit Value for hand activity level (HAL TLV) focused on the hand, wrist, and forearm. The MSDs risks of 37 repetitive works conducted at an automobile climate control system manufacturing factory were evaluated using both the HAL TLV and the SI, and the results by two methods were compared. Also, measured repetitive frequencies of upper limbs joint were mesured using electromyogram and electrogoniometer. The evaluation results of the HAL were related with the repetitive frequency data of upper limbs joint by electrogoniometer, and the NPF was related with %MVC of ECU. The evaluation result of HAL TLV was highly related with the SI score(r=0.66, p<0.01). Of total 37 tasks, 25 tasks(67.6%) were exceeded the TLV and 34 tasks(91.9%) exceeded the SI limit. Although there was a high relationship between the HAL TLV and SI score, the HAL TLV underestimated the risk in comparison with the SI. The correlation coefficients(r) between the HAL TLV data and the repetitive frequency of upper limbs joint were 0.45~0.55(p<0.01). The MSD symptoms was significantly different between high risk groups and low risk groups evaluated by HAL TLV(p<0.01), but was not different between two groups by SI. In conclusion, the HAL TLV is a proper tool for repetitive works.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.3 no.4
• /
• pp.278-286
• /
• 2012

Objectives: Authors investigated the pattern of the rate of occupational injuries and illnesses (ROII) at the level of enterprises in order to build a network for exchange of experience and knowledge, which would contribute to workers' safety and health through safety climate of workplace. Methods: Occupational accidents were analyzed at the manufacturing work site unit. A two step clustering process for the past patterns regarding the ROII from 2001 to 2009 was investigated. The ROII patterns were categorized based on regression analysis and the patterns were further divided according to the subtle changes with Mahalanobis distance and Ward's linkage. Results: The first clustering of ROII through regression analysis showed 5 different functions; 29 work sites of the linear function, 50 sites of the quadratic function, 95 sites of the logarithm function, 62 sites of the exponential function, and 54 sites of the sine function. Fourteen clusters were created in the second clustering. There were 3 clusters in each function categorized in the first clustering except for sine function. Each cluster consisted of the work sites with similar ROII patterns, which had unique characteristics. Conclusion: The five different patterns of ROII suggest that tailored management activities should be applied to every work site. Based on these differences, the authors selected exemplary work sites and built a network to help the work sites to share information on safety climate and accident prevention measures. The causes of different patterns of ROII, building network and evaluation of this management model should be evaluated as future researches.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.43-74
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of perceptions of work and family life on employee job satisfaction and to form a policy approach that contributes to the enhancement of worker satisfaction. In particular, we wanted to analyze how the characteristics of each variable appeared in industry groups with different gender ratios of workers. A notable point of the study was that the respondents who answered that work and family had similar importance were satisfied with their working conditions. In addition, it was found that the higher an employee's evaluation of the work-family reconciliation policy, the higher the employee's satisfaction with their working conditions. As a result of a path analysis, it was found that the most male-dominant industry was manufacturing, and the most female-dominant industry was health and social welfare. In the case of respondents who were employed in the most-male dominant industry, the degree of an employee's understanding of the work-family reconciliation policy recognition, rather than the relative priorities of work and family life, had a greater effect on job satisfaction. On the other hand, respondents who were employed in the most-female dominant industry confirmed that their level of education was highly related to the degree of institutional recognition.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.283-309
• /
• 1992

This study examines work and family life of married women employed in a manufacturing industry. Data were gathered from the use of fact-to-face interview method from a sample of 230 married working women. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows : (1) With high rates of change of job, most of the respondents remain unstable in their working situation. It was shown that the important factors influencing job satisfaction of married women are women's life cycle, degree of contribution of wife's income toward total family income, and husband's attitude toward wife's empolyment. The degree of job satisfaction is also strongly influenced by labor structural factors such as pay, work environment and fringe benefits. (2) The amount of household labor time was limited by job-related factors rather than by family-related factors, because among these working women employment itself is necessarily for their subsistance. (3) It was shown that wives participated more actively in their marital communications than their husbands. Most of the respondents showed the syncratic type of the decision making patterns, but this results does not necessarily mean wives exercised an equal power with their husbands. The economic factors and the emotional instability of the husband are the ones mostly influencing marital conflicts of the employed women. It was found that the respondents easily revealed marital conflicts related to personal problems of their husbands(such as extramarital affairs, gambling and alchoholism). However, they tried to overcome the structural conflicts related to authoritarian attitudes of their husbands or economic problems without any complaints. (4) Mothers have difficulty in controlling their adolescent children, due to the weakening of parental authority. Although most of the respondents perceived their employment as having negative impacts on their children, they still have high expectations toward their children. Inspite of low degree of father role expectations and facther role performance of their husbands, most of the respondents anticipated expressive roles as well as traditionally instrumental role from their husbands. Finally, these findings would help us determine family welfare policies in Korea. Improvements in paid and household labor structure of married women should be accomplished at the national level. Also, the acting programs for parent education, marital councelling services, and law enforcement for equal employment between men and women should be provided in our society.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.131-140
• /
• 2012

Though there might exist not a few differences between cyclic works and atypical works, many researchers have applied the same assessment techniques that used for repetitive works, which may result introduce bias in their conclusions. This research aimed to verify whether there exist non-negligible work characteristics and/or dissimilarity among works with different work nature and whether one of the most prevalent assessment techniques for assessing ergonomic hazards of musculoskeletal disorders, REBA, can be applied to atypical works. For a general hospital, an automobile repair shop, and two auto-part assembly plants which manufactures quite different parts, a questionnaire survey and field investigation and ergonomic assessment were carried out and analyzed statistically with reference to the 3rd Quantification technique. The results showed that there exist remarkable difference between physical factors in cyclic works and atypical non-cyclic works. As for repetitive work, body posture was significant factors affecting on musculoskeletal disorders while atypical works seemed to have none which implied that the necessity of taking psychosocial factors into account for assessment of hazards. Complain rate in repetitive works was highest shoulder, back, and neck or wrist in sequence. However, there existed no consistent trend in complain rate in atypical works. And, though weight of manufacturing objects was a common factor that can partly explain musculoskeletal complain, time duration was significant in atypical work whereas repeatability and body posture were significant in repetitive works. As being the results, to summarize, it could be said that application of conventional ergonomic assessment techniques regardless of repetitiveness would be fruitless, and that the necessity of a unique methodology focused on atypical non-cyclic works should not be neglected.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.203-208
• /
• 2018

This study is concerned with the introduction and operation of smart factories. In order to accomplish the purpose of research, we made a standard system of smart factory and investigated the recognition system. This study was conducted as a grounded theory methodology among qualitative research methodologies. The results of the study are the necessity of a tool to appropriately evaluate the new manufacturing process management system and related management activities to achieve the successful introduction of smart factories and the management performance of the organization. In order to successfully implement the Smart Factory Certification System, it is necessary to establish a certification organization system, enact relevant laws and amendments, operate government-led pilot projects, train professional workers, and establish incentive policies.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.70-77
• /
• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze effects of cardiovascular disease prevention in small scale enterprise using community-based approach. Method: The target work site included 4,050 small scale enterprises which were under 50 in non-manufacturing workplace and total 20,986 employees were enrolled. Data collection was conducted from March to December, 2008 by 46 occupational health nurses who were registered in Korean Association of Occupational Health Nurses. Results: The rate of smoking was decreased from 39.9% to 34.6%, and normal BMI group was increased from 61.6% to 64.0%. Evaluation of post-intervention blood pressure(BP) outcomes revealed that significant reductions in systolic BP and diastolic BP(3.25mmHg and 1.89mmHg, respectively) were achieved. In addition, the amount of reduction in total cholesterol level was $180.89{\pm}28.22mg/dL$ at pre-ntervention and $177.71{\pm}24.73mg/dL$ at post-intervention. Conclusion: Cardiovascular prevention program by community-based approach was an effective strategy for quitting smoking and improving BMI, BP, and cholesterol control.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.343-346
• /
• 2007

Recent advances in automation and robotic technologies in the manufacturing industry suggest that the greater level of automation may be extremely beneficial for the construction industry. However, only some of the high-technology advances may be applied to the construction industry due to the fast-changing construction environment in which work locations are constantly changing and material, equipment, and workers are always moving. The earthwork operation for site development is a good candidate for applying automation technology, because it is a very repetitive and tedious task and needs lots of construction equipment. This paper presents the model of a construction environment and a moving plan for an automated earthwork system, which can produce an effective moving path of an excavator platform with an Octree model. To generate the moving path, the know-how of skilled operators and construction managers is added in the proposed model.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.88-95
• /
• 2009

There are many assessment techniques used for occupational risk factors of MSDs in the workplaces. However, because all ergonomic assesment techniques or tools are based on theoretical background derived from workphysiology, biomechanics, psychophysics, industrial hygiene, work system, and etc, it is impossible to compare the assessment techniques. This study was conducted to compare the excess rates of risk factors among ergonomic assessment techniques and to make alternative methods. Site-visits to 6 automobile products and parts company provided data for process repeated work where the produced data was examined for evaluating the relationship between workplace lay-out and work posture by using ergonomic assessment techniques. We evaluated 157 jobs for simple repeated work and 37 jobs for manual materials handling (MMH). In simple repeated work, the exceeded rates of AC were 36.3% in OWAS method and 93.0% in RULA method. The exceeded rate for RULA method was significantly higher than those for OWAS method (p<0.05). In MMH, the exceeded rates of AC were 80.0% in NLE method and 76.5% in WAC method. Statistically significant differences were not identified in the exceeded rates for NLE and MAC methods (p<0.05). The analyzed results among ergonomic assessment techniques (OWAS, RULA, NLE/WAC) were applied to the same work places performing simple repeated work and manual materials handling simultaneously. The applied results showed statistically significant differences (p<0.05) among ergonomic assessment techniques (OWAS, RULA, NLE/WAC). Exceeded rates of four ergonomic assessment techniques in decreasing order was "RULA>NLE>WAC>OWAS". The RULA method was the strongest assessment technique for automobile products and parts company. We discovered that the results could easily be overestimated or underestimated when the ergonomic assessment techniques were not applied correctly during the evaluation process. Therefore, we recommend using at least 2 methods when evaluating and analysing the results.