From Publishers Weekly
Several decades after USC professor O'Toole contributed to a Department of Health, Education and Welfare task force report called "Work in America," he and coauthor Lawler, another USC professor, commissioned 16 papers reviewing its conclusions, which are summarized here in workmanlike style. The 1973 study described workers trapped in dehumanizing jobs, which damaged economic productivity and workers' health and happiness; it prescribed job enrichment, improved education (especially technical and mid-career training) and government-funded research. However, the original study missed the three major forces that were transforming the workplace: "globalization, technology and the nature of equity ownership." Tracing the effect of these changes through the early 1990s, the new study concludes that they have eased but not eliminated the older problems, while introducing new ones. Another gap in the first study was to focus solely on solutions from governments and employers, while it was changes by workers that drove much of the progress. Arguing that the old recommendations still apply, the authors also propose new ones, including support for entrepreneurs, eased immigration, reduced employment-based taxes and resurrection of a Nixon-era plan for government-subsidized private health insurance. The number of contributors and the long time period under consideration give weight to the conclusions, but the layers of summary, from the original data, academic papers and commissioned papers, in addition to time lags from publishing delays, dull the message and reduce topicality.
(July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Following their groundbreaking 1972 study
Work in America, O'Toole and Lawler take a fresh look at how life at the office has changed in the last 35 years. Their not-so-startling conclusion is that the U.S. is attempting to implement tomorrow's competitive strategies with yesterday's managerial ideas and public policy infrastructure. Many U.S. companies trying to find a middle ground to serve the new global economy are shackled with an antiquated corporate mentality that does not keep skilled workers engaged in their careers or meet their aspirations. Companies have taken steps over the years to enrich workers' jobs along with trying to meet their personal needs for recognition and control. Studies in the early 1970s clearly demonstrated that satisfied workers were productive workers. But it's no surprise that health care, work-life balance initiatives, pay incentives, training and development opportunities, and other perks that many American workers consider their birthright are being challenged and eroded by offshore outsourcing, productivity pressures, decreased job security, and a host of other economic realties that bring the idea of a global economy into every cubicle in America.
Gail WhitcombCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Edward E. Lawler III sent the following posts to customers who purchased The New American Workplace