Work Isn't What it Used to be: Implications, Recommendations, and Strategies for Vocational Rehabilitation.

Despite rehabilitation efforts, a majority of Americans with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 64 are not working, and that number has not changed since 1986 despite the fact that a majority of non-employed people with disabilities in the working age population want to work (Taylor, 1994). Thus, employment is a challenging task for today's consumers and rehabilitation professionals due to a complex array of interrelated factors, such as the heterogeneity and uniqueness of client needs, the complexity and constraints of rehabilitation service delivery systems, and the everchanging nature of work. Surprisingly, the changing nature of work may pose the most formidable challenge for professionals and consumers alike.

This paper examines some of the most compelling work trends that are changing the nature of work such as the global economy and technology, the increase of multi-dimensional jobs and a concomitant demand for workers who possess new critical skills, population shifts, and changes in quality of life and leisure, and presents some implications, recommendations, and strategies for the vocational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. The trends presented indicate that a great deal of flux, uncertainty, and complexity characterizes the global economy. Accordingly, the picture of work life that emerges may be perceived as somewhat pessimistic and unpredictable. However, the knowledge of these trends can change the way professionals, workers, and potential workers, plan for, prepare for, and adjust to, the emerging world of work. After all, knowledge is the first step towards preparedness, and it is in this spirit that the emerging work place and work force are examined. So rehabilitation counselors, and consumers, beware, read, and be prepared to ride the roller coaster of work trends into the 21st Century.

Work Trends

The nature of work is rapidly changing due to a number of interrelated factors such as the global economy and new technology (e.g., Drucker, 1993; Hammer & Champy, 1993; & Hedley, 1992), and population shifts (Chicago Tribune, 1993; Time, 1993). Implicit in these changes are changes in the quality of life and leisure (Mishel & Bernstein, 1993; Schor, 1992), changes in job opportunities (e.g., OOH, 1992; Petras & Petras, 1993) and changes in job requirements (e.g., Herr & Cramer, 1992; Reich, 1992; Thurow, 1993). The globalization of the economy, new technology, and population shifts are examined to better comprehend emerging work trends and their implications for the workplace, workers, and potential workers.

The Global Economy and Technology

The American economy exists within a larger global economy that is multicultural and multinational, an economy that is constantly changing, becoming increasingly competitive, and undergoing continuous and tremendous technological innovation and transformation. The new global American economy has been described as post-industrial (Hage & Powers, 1992; Hedley, 1992), post-capitalist (Drucker, 1993), and Third Wave electronics-driven (Wirth, 1992).

Global sourcing and the development of a world capital market evolved through a "telecommunications-computer-transportation logistics revolution" (Thurow, 1993, p. 16). From this, a new organizational form has emerged, the transnational corporation (TNC), which is characteristic of a new way of doing business in a world of increasing international production and competition (Hedley, 1992). The TNC is a formal business organization that has spatially dispersed operations in at least two countries with investment, trade, and technology under its aegis. Advances in information and communications technology has eliminated the deleterious effects of space and time. Organizations with branches and subsidiaries throughout the world can be as effectively managed, and provide as much up-to-the-minute information as organizations located at just one site (Hedley, 1992). The challenge facing the new world economies "... is to increase the potential value of what its citizens can add to the global economy, by enhancing their skills and capacities and by improving their means of linking those skills and capacities to the world market" (Reich, 1992, p. 8). The characteristics of post-industrial work are a mandate for new skill requirements for America's workers.

Characteristics of Post-industrial Work

The following description of post-industrial societies implicitly describes the American economy and the context of work: post-industrial societies have formally defined labor forces; are highly organized; have developed infrastructures capable of responding to the needs of the populace; are extremely energy intensive; are technologically innovative; and are increasingly geared to the provision of services rather than the production of goods (Hedley, 1992, p. 21).

The American economy and the world of work are also identified by the following factors: Organizational structures, computerization, and a concomitant proliferation of knowledge and change, with a growing demand for administrative and professional services, and occupations that require complex, non-routine, face-to-face interactions (Hage & Powers, 1992; Hedley, 1992). Accordingly, there are many implications for the workplace and workers.

Post-industrial Implications

The American workforce is being transformed by the demands of the new global economy. There is a shift from production workers to knowledge and service workers (Drucker, 1993; Hage & Powers, 1992), task oriented workers to process outcome workers (Hammer & Champy, 1993), and a transition from high-volume production to high-value production (Wirth, 1992) to accommodate emerging consumer values such as convenience, customization, variety, quality, and reasonable cost (Hage & Powers, 1992).

The knowledge explosion is one of the defining qualities of the post-industrial era. The most obvious contemporary manifestation of the knowledge explosion is the "... quantum leap in research and development where knowledge creation occurs, the accelerated implantation of knowledge in machines through automation for flexible manufacturing, and the accelerated implantation of knowledge in people through expanded higher education" (Hage & Powers, 1992, p. 41).

Knowledge is now the key resource for all Work (Drucker, 1993). The addition of new knowledge will transform occupational roles into a more complex process in which mechanization will involve sophisticated instruments that yield better information for workers to act upon.

There will be few specific rules and a great deal of opportunity for individual worker initiative and problem solving. Task emphasis will be on customized responses and an information search. There will be a proliferation of specialized fields and an upgrading of skill levels required for most work roles. Primary performance criteria will be innovation, quality, customization, and personalized service, the aforementioned "new" consumer values, which are attributed, in part, to increases in the educational levels of post-industrial citizens (Hage & Powers, 1992).

The two new dominant labor groups in post-capitalist society are knowledge workers and service workers. Organizations which employ them will necessarily become integral structures for continuous learning as well as employment. Every organization will have to build into its structure "the management of change." The entity known previously as the "labor force" has been transformed to "human resources" with rewards for qualitative, knowledge-based skills, as well as the ability to constantly learn and relearn. Partnerships between organizations and responsible knowledge workers and service workers will be the essential means to improve quality and productivity.

The growth of knowledge- and information-oriented industries in the new economy generates more professional, managerial, and technical jobs, and fewer blue-collar positions (Ehrenhalt, 1993; Hage & Powers, 1992). Organizational employment predominates and the fundamental skill requirement of workers is the ability to adapt to change, to learn, and relearn (Ehrenhalt, 1993). Work tasks will consist of information gathering, problem solving, the production of creative ideas, and the ability to respond flexibly to new situations or to adjust flexibly when interacting with others (Hage & Powers, 1992). As the economy, society, and the nature of work are being transformed, the population of workers and potential workers are also changing.

Population Trends

Recent population estimates suggest that by 2050, American society will be almost evenly divided between minorities and non-Hispanic whites, with the greatest growth occurring in California, Florida, New York, Texas, and other states in the Southwest (Chicago Tribune, 1993). Specifically, the projections are as follows: Angle 52%, Blacks 16%, Latino 22%, Asian 10% (Time, 1993). Higher birth rates among blacks and Hispanics, and a substantial influx of immigrants, documented and undocumented, account for the increased diversity and this trend is expected to continue.

Women will continue to join the labor force in increasing numbers. Women comprised 40% of the total labor force in 1975; by 2005, they are expected to constitute 47% (OOH, 1992). The proportion of young workers is declining and the number of older workers is increasing, and the level of educational attainment of the labor force has risen (OOH, 1992). These population shifts suggest that certain worker populations will experience greater economic hardship if they are not prepared to meet the demands of the new workplace. These workers include people with disabilities, especially women and racial and ethnic minorities.

Population Shift Implications

The Economic Policy Institute (1993) reported that despite the economic growth that occurred between 1983 and 1989, minorities and children were especially vulnerable to high poverty rates. Some reasons given include wage decline and the failure of the "safety net," i.e., the government's system of taxes and transfers designed to ameliorate poverty. "The only type of family that experienced income growth from 1979 to 1989 was married couples with a wife in the paid labor force" (Mishel & Bernstein, 1993, p. 41). Further, "Women's average wages are consistently lower than men's average wages in all countries, even after adjustments for differences in working hours" (Rubery, 1989, p. 282). For example, in the United States nearly 75% of full-time working women earn less than $20,000 as compared to 37% of full-time working men, and one-third of families headed by women live below the poverty line, which was $13,359 for a family of four in 1990 (WAC, 1993). Additionally, disabled women workers earned 38% less than nondisabled women workers in 1987 (WAC, 1993). Moreover, it appears that women and minorities are overrepresented in the contingent workforce--part-timers, temporaries, freelancers, and consultants. "They generally work without health care and pension benefits and are excluded from a whole battery of labor and civil rights laws, covering everything from minimum-wage legislation to age, gender, and racial discrimination; from occupational health and safety to sexual harassment" (Judd & Pope, 1994, p. 87).

Economists have identified that greater education and more work experience (from accumulated knowledge and seniority) are associated with wage growth both for individuals and the economy. It is therefore imperative to improve educational and training opportunities and outcomes, and accessibility to jobs which offer greater power, pay, and prestige to people with disabilities, particularly women and members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Increases in real wages are likely to contribute to improvement in quality of life and the enhancement of leisure activities.

Leisure

Work hours have risen across a wide spectrum of American workers (Schor, 1992). Workers across industries and occupations, of all income levels, married and unmarried, with and without children are finding themselves working more hours and earning less money. The average person in 1987 has increased his or her work time by 163 hours, or about one month per year above the annual hours of paid employment in 1969. Contributing factors include: (a) the necessity of holding more than one job at a time in order to make ends meet due to a disappearance of stable positions that pay a liveable wage, (b) an increase of casual and temporary service sector employment, and (c) increased overtime which allows employers to meet increased output demands without hiring additional workers. Further a "consumerism" demand for goods and services has created an insidious cycle of "work and spend" from which a new dynamic is created that diminishes the time available for a relaxed and leisured way of life (Schor, 1992).

The National Study of the Changing Workforce, a survey of 3,400 workers sponsored by The Families and Work Institute, found that workers, especially those with children, feel overburdened by increasing demands at work and cheated of time for themselves and their families (USA Today, 1993). Workers indicated a desire for a work environment that allows them to balance work and family needs. Critical skills that are up to date and marketable in the new world of work are an essential component to attaining a good job and an enjoyable and enduring quality of life and leisure.

Skills in the New World Of Work

Customers, competition, and change characterize the new international economic marketplace. Accordingly, a new world of work has emerged. Task-oriented jobs are on the decline and multidimensional jobs have proliferated. Workers are expected to make choices and decisions on their own, often as members of teams, and companies have begun to organize around process. Process is defined as "... a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer" (Hammer & Champy, 1993, p. 35).

New critical skills are necessary. Several factors are behind this shift toward new skills for work: (a) greater use of information technologies, (b) the move away from craft and assembly manufacturing toward computer-mediated processes, (c) the larger amount of knowledge work in almost every occupation, (d) new requirements for education and the ability to manage complexity, (e) the redesign of many jobs to include computer-based work, and (f) frequently many skills will be combined into one job often with a new job title and increased individual responsibility (Coates, Jarratt, & Mahaffie, 1991).

Reich (1992) devised three broad categories of work to characterize the workforce of the emerging global economy: routine production services, in-person services, and symbolic-analytic services. These three functional categories cover more than three out of four American jobs.

Routine Production Services

Routine production services involves repetitive tasks guided by standard procedures and codified rules. Wages are based on the amount of hours worked or on the amount of work produced Routine producers must be able to read and perform simple computations. Employee qualities are reliability, loyalty, and the ability to follow directions. By 1990, routine production work comprised about one quarter of American jobs and the number was declining.

In-person Services

In-person services also involves simple and repetitive tasks; however, these services are provided person-to-person and thus are not marketed worldwide. Included in this category are retail sales workers, waiters, waitresses, hotel workers, janitors, cashiers, hospital attendants and orderlies, nurse's aides, taxi drivers, secretaries, hairdressers, auto mechanics, real estate agents, flight attendants, physical therapists, and security guards. In 1990 these jobs comprised about 30% of American jobs and their numbers were rapidly growing.

Symbolic-analytic Services

Symbolic-analytic services can be traded worldwide. Such services include problem-solving, problem-identifying, and strategic brokering activities. It involves the manipulation of symbols, data, words, oral, and visual representations. Such tasks are found among research scientists, design engineers, software engineers, public relations executives, investment bankers, lawyers, real estate developers, and accountants. Income depends on the quality, originality, cleverness, and speed with which they solve, identify, or broker new problems. Most of the individuals with these skills have graduated from four-year colleges or universities and many have advanced degrees. Currently no more than 20% of American workers hold such positions.

Routine production services, in-person services, and symbolic analytic services constitute the emerging employment marketplace. However, routine production service jobs are declining and in-person service positions are increasing generating growth in both skilled and unskilled service jobs, positions that require greater interpersonal facility and flexibility. The skills of the symbolic analyst, in contrast, will emphasize more advanced skills that are most closely aligned with the demands of a global economy. Such jobs, though fewer in number than in-person services, are likely to offer the best salaries and benefits, the most opportunities for advancement, and more reasonable prospects of job tenure.

In sum, there will continue to be a range of job opportunities available for workers with disabilities. However, there will also be a range in the quality of salaries, benefits, length of employment, work hours, working conditions, and worker skill requirements associated with individual jobs. The challenge facing workers, potential workers, and rehabilitation professionals will be to identify, prepare for, obtain, and retain the best job(s) possible for individual clients in an economy that is constantly changing and becoming increasingly competitive and complex.

Labor Force of the 21st Century

The labor force of the twenty-first century to a great extent will "... be comprised of highly educated professionals and technicians involved with the production, manipulation, recording, and distribution of knowledge, thus consolidating the information revolution that we are currently experiencing" (Hedley, 1992, p. 18G). The growing demand worldwide is for workers With symbolic analytic skills such as those obtained through liberal arts, professional, and technical degree programs that emphasize and refine four basic skills: abstraction, system thinking, experimentation and collaboration (Wirth, 1992).

Abstraction involves discovering patterns and meanings so that raw data can be shaped into workable patterns. Analogies, models, constructs, formulas, categories, and metaphors are utilized. System thinking involves discerning larger patterns, causal connections, relationships, and consequences in order to see new possibilities. Critical experimental inquiry is needed to test new ideas which also involves sub-skills such as testing hypotheses, observing, comprehending causes and consequences, and drawing appropriate conclusions. Collaboration implies teamwork. Individuals communicate with each other and explore problems and solutions as a group, ultimately leading to consensus.

Summary of Work Trends

Manual workers succeeded farm workers as America's largest occupational group. Currently, blue-collar preeminence has given way to the quintessential workers of the global economy, the knowledge workers with symbolic analytic skills which require advanced education and continued learning and which prepare potential employees for jobs which offer good pay and greater worker autonomy.

Economic shifts and work trends are summarized as follows:

1. The globalization of the American economy and a more advanced service and small business economy.

2. On-going economic restructuring that will continue to transform our nation's economy, in which some industries grow and others decline (Reskin & Padavic, 1994).

3. "Economic restructuring is upgrading some jobs and deskilling or reducing the complexity, skill, and knowledge--of others. The decline in manufacturing jobs has cost the economy many skilled and semiskilled blue-collar jobs. At the same time, the growth of the service sector has created both skilled and unskilled jobs...., however, low-skill service-sector jobs will predominate" (Reskin & Padavic, 1994, p.166).

4. The increased competition for markets which results in frequent organizational restructuring and downsizing with the net effect being the elimination of many jobs and the creation of new ones. Accordingly, it is estimated that American workers will change professions three times over their work lives, and that they will change jobs six times, sometimes by choice, sometimes at the employer's request, and sometimes because of new technology that makes jobs obsolete or radically different (Kleiman, 1992). However, it is important to remember that job opportunities, salaries, benefits, working conditions, and job security will vary over industries and geographic areas (Petras & Petras, 1993; Wright, 1992).

5. Technological advancements.

6. The loss of manufacturing jobs due to increased automation, foreign competition, defense cutbacks, and reduced demand for commercial, as well as military aircraft (Goodman, 1994).

7. "... The secular shift of the economy away from manufacturing and toward services has contributed to a shift from blue-collar to white-collar work, leading to a decline in demand for the motor skills required in production work and an increase in the cognitive and interpersonal skills needed in clerical and professional positions" (Gittleman, 1994, p. 19).

8. The increased role of women and minorities in the labor force.

9. Accompanying these changes are social and occupational transformations:

9. Workers are working more and earning less, with little time for leisure activities and an actual decline in spendable income.

10. Many available jobs are part-time or of short duration, offering no security, no opportunities for career advancement and no benefits or worker protections. Women and racial and ethnic minorities tend to be over-represented in these jobs.

11. The increased participation of women in the labor force will bring concerns which have historically been identified as women's issues into the forefront. Issues such as sexual harrassment, family leave planning, child care, similar pay for similar work, and so forth, are fast becoming more broadly known as family and/or workplace issues.

12. There will continue to be a range of employment opportunities for all workers; however, the choicest jobs, the positions that will offer the best salaries with opportunities for career advancement, will be for those persons who possess symbolic analytic skills, can adapt to change, and who are willing to continue to learn new skills and refine old ones.

13. There will be greater emphasis on the development of human resources--improving the quality of the labor force in order to maintain a workforce that is qualified to meet the ever-changing needs of the world economy. Additionally, there will be an increased need for companies, agencies, organizations, and small businesses, to develop models of "Managing Diversity" in the workplace due to the increase of minorities, women, and persons with disabilities in the workforce. This approach identifies, values, and utilizes the unique skills and abilities of all workers.

Implications and Recommendations

The following implications and recommendations for vocational rehabilitation service delivery are based on the aforementioned work trends:

1. Reportedly, 3.8% of disabled women have college degrees, as compared to 20% of nondisabled women (WAC, 1993). Thus, there is an urgent need to improve educational and training outcomes for our nation's citizens, particularly for people with disabilities who are women and/or members of racial and ethnic groups, so they may compete more successfully in an increasingly knowledge-oriented economy and qualify for an expanded array of employment opportunities. Needed supports such as child care, the accommodation of diverse learning styles within educational environments, and mentoring relationships can assist in this process.

Additionally, counselors and clients should consider work goals that offer full-time employment, liveable salaries, benefits, and opportunities for advancement and promotion. This is particularly crucial for women with disabilities who are single parents, and for persons of racial and ethnic minority groups, in order that they may be assisted out of the cycle of poverty and into a satisfying and enduring quality of life and leisure. Such an endeavor would involve more than merely matching someone's interests and abilities to the requirements of a potential job. It also involves paying closer attention to client economic needs, the salary structure and benefits that accompany particular jobs, and the opportunities and requirements for individual growth and development in a particular field.

2. A rapidly changing economy will continue to contribute to organizational and structural downsizing and restructuring, offering most workers little job security regardless of job title or skill level. Therefore, all workers must expect to change jobs with increasing frequency and learn to compete fiercely for available jobs. The unemployed must be able to identify and access alternative employment options efficiently and quickly, making job seeking skills a necessary survival tool for all workers. Moreover, industry growth is strongest in business services and health care but national projections must be tempered with local information due to economic diversity across geographic regions and differential employment rates across and within industries.

Most importantly, clients need to know that there is no "job for life" anymore. Consequently, they need to know how to look for a job and how to cope with job loss and extended periods of unemployment. Future referral information for these services can be provided by the rehabilitation counselor prior to termination of the case process. Additionally, all clients should possess the basic skills/tools required to obtain employment. For example, clients should know how to prepare a resume, how to interview for a job, the proper attire to wear to the interview, and how to access available jobs in one's community. Further, it is important to recognize that there will always be individuals with disabilities who will need assistance in finding work. Persons with cognitive disabilities or individuals who experience mental health difficulties should be expected and advised to seek help as often as it is needed. Accordingly, they should be aware of the resources in the community to which they can turn for assistance. Clients also need to know that losing a job is not necessarily their fault. Economic factors beyond their control are likely to be the primary reason for both job loss and job creation.

3. The economy and the nature of work will continue to change. Therefore counselors need to apprise themselves of economic trends and their implications for work and workers. This should be done frequently in order to keep up with current information. This data can then be incorporated into vocational rehabilitation counseling strategies so counselors can assist clients to prepare and compete realistically for available jobs. Ideally, formalized training could be offered by employers for rehabilitation staff on a regular basis. However, counselors' can independently avail themselves of such information.: Resources include newspapers and periodicals such as the Money Section of USA Today, Business Week, the New York Times, and The Futurist. Further, counselors can, and should, encourage their clients to be on top of the major work trends and how they may affect one's profession or job. For example, simply reading the business section of the local newspaper and joining professional associations can enhance one's knowledge of the fluctuations within the American economy and the implications for the world of work.

4. Since many available jobs will be part-time with limited benefits, if any at all, counselors may want to consider advising and assisting clients to obtain more than one job. In today's economy there are many who must rely on at least two sources of income in order to survive. For some individuals this could be presented as an "interim goal" wherein a worker may also continue to look for a full-time job which offers a better salary and/or benefits. Or part-time workers may opt to pursue education or training while working in order to advance to a technical or professional degree and better employment opportunities.

5. Education and on-the-job learning to refine the four basic skills of the symbolic analyst need to be developed and emphasized to enable our country and its citizens to compete in the global economy and to prepare America's workers to qualify for and obtain the choicest jobs. Initiatives such as the recruitment and preparation of qualified persons with disability, particularly women and members of racial/ethnic minorities, into occupations that utilize the skills of the symbolic analyst such as research scientist, design engineer, software engineer, public relations executive, investment banker, lawyer and accountant would likely enhance individual marketability, career advancement, and quality of life and leisure.

6. Computer skills, numeracy, and literacy appear to now be essential for all workers regardless of job rifle. Educational and vocational counseling and guidance programs need to emphasize these "critical" skills. All workers, regardless of occupation or skill level, should have exposure to computer technology and operations. Moreover, these skills are likely to transfer to a number of jobs and occupations.

7. The ability to work independently, the ability to work in a diverse workplace, and as members of teams, are likely to be expected of all employees at one time or another. Educational and training programs and management initiatives that emphasize and value "diversity" cooperation, conflict resolution, and team building are needed.

8. Workers must expect to "relearn" and "retool" periodically throughout their work lives in order that they may keep pace with technological and knowledge-based changes that are occurring in the workplace. Therefore individuals should plan for and expect on-going education and skill acquisition initiatives throughout their work lives. Continuing education and remediation should be considered and recommended for all workers. For as United States Labor Secretary Robert Reich (1994) pointed out

   Well-educated and skilled workers are prospering: those whose skills are
   out of date or out of sync with industrial change anxiously contemplate
   their prospects; those without education or skills drift further and
   further away from the economic mainstream (p. 3A).

While education, training, critical skills, and continued learning appear to be the essential ingredients to worker economic prosperity and survival, it is important to remember that a great number of persons with disability may experience great difficulties in learning situations or may be unable or unwilling to participate in such programs. Prior learning difficulties, the existence of learning disabilities, mental health problems, the unavailability of educational resources in one's community, family obligations, or worker preferences, can, individually, or together, make a return or continuation of schooling unfeasible. The task for rehabilitation professionals and consumers then becomes more complex.

Some potentially useful remedies rehabilitation professionals and consumers may wish to consider to deal with some of these situations might be: (a) to utilize job coaches and/or tutors on an intermittent basis for those workers already employed who must learn new job tasks or procedures and who require individualized and supportive one-on-one teaching and learning due to disability factors, also encouraging employers to sponsor such services as a component of reasonable accommodation through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (1990) in the management of human resources and diversity; (b) for those persons Unable or unwilling to advance their education selective job placement initiatives that not only assist them to find a job but also assist them to identify and obtain the best job(s) available, scrutinizing pay, benefits, and working conditions more closely; (c) encouraging some workers to consider relocating to geographic areas that are likely to offer improved employment options and more reasonable costs of living; (d) providing job coaching and/or tutoring services that can be individualized to meet the learning style of a particular student or worker in order that they may have an improved chance of succeeding in school and/or on the job; and (e) assisting some persons to obtain more than one job in order to meet their economic needs.

Counseling and Guidance Initiatives

The following vocational counseling and guidance initiatives are offered in order that rehabilitation counselors and other professionals may assist their clients to prepare adequately for the new world of work:

1. Career counseling and guidance sessions should reflect a "working alliance" relationship between counselor and client (Meara & Patton, 1994). Such an orientation, facilitated by the vocational rehabilitation counselor, emphasizes that the work in career counseling proceeds most effectively when it is undertaken as a collaborative and purposeful endeavor in which counselor and client, together, identify problems and search for solutions. It is thought that strong working alliances can assist clients in participating fully in the career counseling process, in making sound career decisions, smoother career transitions, and better lifelong career adjustments. For example, clients can be encouraged to conduct their own independent vocational exploration by reviewing materials on placement rates associated with educational/training programs they are considering through local colleges and technical schools.

2. "Counseling for personal flexibility" with evaluative and training emphases on the behaviors, skills, and attitudes that industrialized societies are seeking are essential in preparing workers to adapt and function within a global economy (Herr & Cramer, 1992). "This term represents a summary of the perspectives held in parallel with such terms as personal competence and life development skills. As such, the term personal flexibility creates a focus toward the likely interaction of person, occupational opportunities, and the dynamics of the work places in the twenty first century" (p. 120). The elements of personal flexibility in a global economy include basic academic skills, literacy, numeracy, and communications. Additionally, adaptive skills such as skills of problem recognition and definition, handling information, analytical skills, skills of implementation, human relations and learning skills are also needed:

   In such a view, the targets of intervention for counseling for personal
   flexibility may be one or more of the following skill sets for particular
   individuals: cognitive or physical skills, that is, alternative models of
   conceiving problems, problem solving, or reasoning about self or others or
   way of performing or doing certain tasks; interpersonal skills such as
   initiating, developing, and maintaining relationships (for instance, self
   disclosing, communicating feelings accurately and unambiguously, being
   supportive, and being able to resolve conflicts and relationship problems
   constructively); and intrapersonal skills such as developing self control,
   tension management and relaxation, setting goals, taking risks, and so on
   (p. 119).

Career motivation factors are also embodied within the concept of personal flexibility Three components comprise work motivation: being resilient within a context of constant change, having insight into one's self and one's environment, and being able to identify with one's job, organization, and/or profession as career goals.

Summary and Conclusions

There is evidence which suggests that "... persons with disabilities tend to be hired in good times--even more so than those without disabilities--and displaced in bad times--again, even more so than those without disabilities. Thus, the labor force participation of persons with disabilities would appear to be tied to phenomena that transcend economic cycles themselves" (Yelin & Katz, 1994, p. 42). Accordingly, the challenge facing today's consumers and rehabilitation professionals is to prepare for an ever-evolving society, economy, and labor market that is extremely difficult to discern and predict. However, it is evident that many new types of work are appearing and much of the work to be done requires new levels of personal commitment and capability of its workers. Further, many jobs will come and go quickly due to factors beyond the workers' control. Jobs will change, and they will change rapidly, requiting workers to constantly learn and relearn in order to stay competitively employed.

The emerging employment marketplace will demand critical skills of its workers, particularly for the choicest jobs, and are likely to offer them less real earned income and less time and money for leisure pursuits. Many available jobs will be part-time with no benefits or opportunities for advancement. Unfortunately, some workers will be hit particularly hard by these work trends. People with disabilities, particularly women and racial and ethnic minorities, groups who traditionally have held disadvantageous economic positions in American society, will need to prepare themselves now more than ever. They will need to learn new skills and how to compete more fiercely in the world of work. They will need to learn how to cope with job loss and how to readily access information and services that can assist them in identifying and finding new jobs.

Persons with cognitive and mental health impairments who have experienced difficulties in learning environments are also likely to be particularly challenged with the accelerated emphasis on cognitive skills and education and training requirements that will continue to be a component of not only obtaining good jobs but also retaining them. Rehabilitation professionals, consumers, and employers will need to work together in new and creative ways to provide the individualized supports and services that will likely be necessary in order to facilitate employment successes for these individuals.

Work is likely to continue to be a central force in defining individual life styles. As such, the entity known as work, the preparation for work, and being able to obtain and maintain work, becomes increasingly important. Workers, potential workers, employers, and professionals must incorporate the importance of higher education and continued learning, into their respective life and work roles, for, as suggested by an analysis of earnings by occupation in the 1980's, more educated workers tended to experience gains in average earnings (Gittleman, 1994).

Because vocational rehabilitation services are time limited, and the demand for vocational services in the emerging workplace is likely to be intermittent, counselors and consumers must recognize the need to work together in order to forge a "working alliance" with a goal of counseling for "personal flexibility" Such strategies can assist workers with disabilities to become adaptable, marketable, and productive in the new American economy.

Acknowledgement

Preparation of this manuscript was supported, in part, by Grant H133B30052 from the national Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.s. Department of Education. However, the views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the funding agency.

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Received: December 1994

Revision: February 1995

Carole P. Ryan, Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services, 2000 West Kilbourn Avenue, P.O. Box 342, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201.