Change at Work

a Far-reaching Transformation Is Taking Place In The Us In The Relationship Between Employers And Employees. The Lessons Learned From Japan And From Best Practice Companies Like Ibm About How Job Security, Training, And Internal Development Can Improve Employee Commitment And Performance Have Given Way To A New Set Of Lessons About How Companies Can Redue Fixed Costs, Increase Flexibility, And Improve Performance By Eliminating The Elaborate Employment Systems That Prepared Employees For Long Careers In The Company. where The Old Arrangement Protected Employees From Outside Market Forces, The New Ones Drag The Market Right Back In Through Downsizing, Contingent Workforces, Hiring On The Outside For New Skills, And Compensation Contingent On Overall Organizational Performance. New Work Systems That Reengineer Processes And Empower Employees Flatten The Organizational Chart, Cutting Management Jobs In Particular And Reducing Opportunities For Career Development. The New Arrangements Shift Many Of The Risks Of Business From The Firm To The Employees And Make Employees, Rather Than Employers, Responsible For Developing Their Own Skills And Careers. They Also Increase The Demands Placed On Workers While Reducing What They Receive Back For Their Efforts. While Morale Is Down And Stress Is Up, Employee Performance Seems To Be Rising Largely Because Of Fear Driven By The Shortage Of Good Jobs. change At Work Explores The Theme That Employees Have Paid The Price For The Widespread Restructuring Of American Firms As Illustrated By Reduced Security, Greater Effort And Hours, And Reduced Morale. In This Important Study—commissioned By The National Planning Asociation's Committee On New American Realities—the Authors Consider How Individuals And Employers Need To Adapt To The New Arrangements As Well As The Implicatioons For Important Policy Issues Such As How Skills Will Be Developed Where The Attachment To The Firms Is Sharply Reduced. the Future Is Uncertain, But The Authors Argue That The Traditional Relationship Between Employer And Employee Will Continue To Erode, Making This Work Essential Reading For Managers Concerned With The Profound Impact Corporate Restructuring Has Had On The Lives Of Workers. A far-reaching transformation is taking place in the US in the relationship between employers and employees. The lessons learned from Japan and from "best practice" companies like IBM about how job security, training, and internal development can improve employee commitment and performance have given way to a new set of lessons about how companies can redue fixed costs, increase flexibility, and improve performance by eliminating the elaborate employment systems that prepared employees for long careers in the company. Where the old arrangement protected employees from outside market forces, the new ones drag the market right back in through downsizing, contingent workforces, hiring on the outside for new skills, and compensation contingent on overall organizational performance. New work systems that reengineer processes and empower employees "flatten" the organizational chart, cutting management jobs in particular and reducing opportunities for career development. The new arrangements shift many of the risks of business from the firm to the employees and make employees, rather than employers, responsible for developing their own skills and careers. They also increase the demands placed on workers while reducing what they receive back for their efforts. While morale is down and stress is up, employee performance seems to be rising largely because of fear driven by the shortage of good jobs. Change at Work explores the theme that employees have paid the price for the widespread restructuring of American firms as illustrated by reduced security, greater effort and hours, and reduced morale. In this important study--commissioned by the National Planning Asociation's Committee on New American Realities--the authors consider how individuals and employers need to adapt to the new arrangements as well as the implicatioons for important policy issues such as how skills will be developed where the attachment to the firms is sharply reduced. The future is uncertain, but the authors argue that the traditional relationship between employer and employee will continue to erode, making this work essential reading for managers concerned with the profound impact corporate restructuring has had on the lives of workers. This book estimates and analyzes the changes currently under way in the U.S. workplace. The book's seven chapters are: (1) "The Pressures To Restructure Employment" (effects of labor law and public policy, increased competitiveness, new markets, financial restructuring, investor pressures, new management techniques, faces and effects of restructuring); (2) "Downsizing and Employment Insecurity" (nature, scope and effects of downsizing; corporate policies to ease the burdens of downsizing; employer and employee responses to downsizing); (3) "Work Organization" (high-performance work organizations, work organization and performance, prospects for diffusion); (4) "Job Training Programs and Practices" (theories about company training, ways of measuring training, dimensions of company training, movement toward a new national training policy); (5) "Implications of a 'Skills Gap' for Policy" (jobs and skills in the future, employers' needs, the supply of skills, employer choices); (6) "The Effects of Restructuring on Employees" (trends in unemployment, layoffs and job security, job tenure, temporary jobs, wages, hours of work, workloads, stress, morale and attitudes performance, the social contract at work, revision of the psychological contract); and (7) "Conclusion" (implications of the new work system and options for parties in a new psychological contract). Fifty-eight tables/figures are included. Contains 414 references. (MN) Change at Work explores the theme that employees have paid the price for the widespread restructuring of American firms as illustrated by reduced security, greater effort and hours, and reduced morale. In this important study - commissioned by the National Planning Association's Committee on New American Realities - the authors consider how individuals and employers need to adapt to the new arrangements as well as the implications for important policy issues such as how skills will be developed where the attachment to firms is sharply reduced. The future is uncertain, but the authors argue that the traditional relationship between employer and employee will continue to erode, making this work essential reading for managers concerned with the profound impact corporate restructuring has had on the lives of workers. Contents......Page 10 Contributors......Page 12 Introduction......Page 16 1. The Pressures to Restructure Employment......Page 28 2. Downsizing and Employment Insecurity......Page 79 3. Work Organization......Page 102 4. Job Training Programs and Practices......Page 135 5. Implications for Policy: A "Skills Gap"?......Page 167 6. The Effects of Restructuring on Employees......Page 186 7. Conclusions......Page 221 References......Page 240 A......Page 264 C......Page 265 D......Page 268 E......Page 269 G......Page 271 H......Page 272 I......Page 273 J......Page 274 L......Page 277 M......Page 278 O......Page 279 P......Page 280 R......Page 282 S......Page 284 T......Page 285 U......Page 286 W......Page 287 Y......Page 289