Customer Reviews

The New American Workplace

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Obviously, a great deal has (and has not) happened in what O'Toole and Lawler characterize as America's "crazy-quilt world of work" since 1972 when a task force was created by then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Elliott L. Richardson, to evaluate the state of working conditions in the United States. A year later, the task force presented its report, Work in America. That was 33 years ago. In this volume, O'Toole and Lawler rigorously examine "some clearly identifiable developments" which help to explain what has happened in the recent past, and, what is likely to happen in the future. They began their analysis by inquiring about the values and needs of American workers. "In a democracy, it is appropriate to begin from the perspective of the aspirations of the citizenry." Over time, they also examined various ways in which American workers aresupervised. They identified and discuss three "emerging management models that are becoming dominant."

What we have in this volume is what O'Toole and Lawler learned from their extensive as well as intensive research. While completing it, they identified several key themes:

Insufficient creation of "good jobs"
Increased choice and risk
Increased influence of competitive and economic drivers
Increased tension between work and family life
Mismatch between skills and business needs
Increased social stratification based largely on educational attainment
Changing nature of careers
Reduction in community and commitment
Shortcomings of the healthcare system
The boomer demographic imperative
Unrealized opportunities to make more effective use of human capital

Please go back and re-read this list.

Now that you have done so, ask this question: "How many of these themes are relevant to me and to my own situation?" Chances are, many (if not most) of them are. What to do? O'Toole and Lawler assert that "the greatest opportunity for the improvement of work in America" exists in the choices that business executives make relating to working conditions. At this point, many of them may well protest that they have no choice but to match the worst employment practices of their competitors. In this volume, O'Toole and Lawler document numerous example of business leaders "who have found productive alternatives to the standard workplace practices in their industries and created significant advantages in the process."

Of special interest to me is what O'Toole and Lawler learned when they examined companies in which executives have more choices than commonly assumed in terms of creating and sustaining workplace practices "that serve the multiple needs of their various constituencies. They include diverse companies such as Alcoa, Costco, WL Gore, Harley-Davidson, Nucor, SRC Holdings, and Southwest Airlines. It is no coincidence that many of the companies on Fortune magazine's annual list of those most admired reappear on the annual list of those most profitable. They serve the three deepest needs of workers: financial resources and security, meaningful work that offers the opportunity for human development, and supportive human relationships.

Indeed, there have been a number of signficant changes in the American workplace since the HEW's task force produced its report in 1973. And yes, a great deal has not as yet happened...but can be achieved if (huge "if") decision-makers in dysfunctional organizations absorb and digest the material in this book, complete appropriate modifications of the employment practices of exemplary companies, and then make and sustain a full commitment to serving the multiple needs of everyone involved.

Warren Bennis claims that "It would be impossible to understand the 21st century workplace without this book." He's right.

"The new American workplace" is a broad, comprehensive view of work and business in American. It is an update of a 1974 book with a similar focus, with commissioned papers and large databases contributing to the text. Topics and chapters include careers, health and safety, performance pressure, compensation, training and development and public policy. Such scope will almost automatically include some generalities that don't always apply and even some errors. As to the latter, on p. 165, the authors claim that Continental "was able to acquire U.S. Airways." I think not. As to the former, the authors claim that only low-cost suppliers "are predicated on a basic tenet of capitalist economics: the consumer is king." (p. 174). I do believe either point: "The customer is king" is not a basic tenet of capitalism and other firms, especially globally competitive firms believe in this concept and succeed globally by treating customers as kings. In fact, this phrase is relatively old and foreign; firms have been treating customers well for years. They tend to survive and to thrive in a competitive, global economy.

O'Toole and Lawler generate eleven broad characterizations (listed in full in another review) of the American workplace over the last twenty-five years and categorize firms in one of three clusters: Low-cost (LC), global competitors (GC) or high involvement (HI). The eleven themes (pp. 15-18) include the widely popular yet controversial loss of good jobs complaint ("insufficient creation of new `good jobs'"), work and family life tensions (not really that new), social stratification based on education (unsurprising, given the booming knowledge economy), reduced employee commitment (a two-way street if there ever was one), shortcomings in the healthcare system (without acknowledging the incredible advances in healthcare and longevity), and underutilized human capital (the reader needs to refer back to the point of social stratification based on education).

The authors clearly prefer the HIs and almost show disdain for the LCs. They cite Wal-mart employee complaints and contradictions, e.g., "I like Wal-mart...they need to fix it." (p. 174). And Wal-mart is showing signs of age and even weaknesses in their low-cost strategy, as stores such as Kohl's, Target, and Costco offer consumers more of what they really want from a store. They demonstrate that an LC like Southwest can focus on the customer yet also be committed to high-involvement policies and employees (p. 175). They recognize the need for personal responsibility for exercise and weight control (p. 178) yet they make this a corporate responsibility, e.g., "All companies can and should make an effort to educate workers about their responsibilities..." Their chapter on Public Policy (Chapter 16), which includes Education (pp. 186-194) ignores this exercise and weight admonition other than to endorse pre-natal care. They prescribe universal pre-school and small schools but ignore the power and potential of school choice. They lament the decline in state's shares of state college and university funding (p. 199), while ignoring that most of the increases in college costs have little to do with education, that financial aid continues to rise faster than tuition, and state schools sit on billions of dollars of untapped endowments while they increase tuition and enrollments at a rate that almost defies the laws of economics.

In the end, too much credit is given to broad educational initiatives rather than a close examination of enduring drivers of a country's or company's sustainable comparative advantage. Education is important and powerful but it is not the entire solution. There are important cultural, social and political issues that underscore and undermine education, issues such as demographics, ("illegal") immigration, and the burgeoning gambling and pornography industries. This is an important yet incomplete book.

This book presents a fascinating, highly informative and clearly written portrait of the diverse ways in which Americans now work, how they think about their work - and why and how their work and their relationship to it has changed over the last three decades. Its strength lies in its comprehensiveness and balance, I strongly recommend to anyone interested in the dynamics of the American workplace.

This book by O'toole and Lawler provides useful context and definintions of organization types alluded to in Lawler's more recent works such as "Talent."

It's a very good book with full contexts about new American workplace.You won't be regret reading this one.
The quality of the book is excellent!

I don't have much to say since the price is on the bottom possible. I'm totally satisfied with this purchase.

This is the best business book I have read in a long time. The authors do an excellent job in providing a comprehensive picture of the state of the workplace in the US today. One conclusion the authors draw is that satisfying work is a basic human need that establishes individual identity and self-respect and lends order to life.

Many important questions will be asked throughout the book. For example, if the United States wishes to continue to be the world's leading economic power, what workplace practices and public policies are required to ensure that it succeeds? The solution to this and other questions must serve both the well-being of employees and the effectiveness of their employing organizations in the belief that doing one without the other is not viable in the long run.

What follows are notes I took of this essential book:

Good work satisfies all three of the following fundamental needs (p. 8):
1. The need for the basic economic resources and security essential to lead good lives.
2. The need to do meaningful work and the opportunity to grow and develop as a person.
3. The need for supportive relationships.

Jobs satisfying the requirements of one, or even two, of the above needs may not satisfy them all. For example, a job may pay well but, at the same time, be dull and unfulfilling. A truly fascinating job may pay poorly, and a well-paying, interesting job may be overseen by an abusive supervisor. All three needs must be satisfied before most people will say they have a good job.

Research shows that satisfying the needs of Americans for good jobs is important, if not essential, for the prosperity, health and social well-being of the nation. The costs of an insufficient supply of good work include a declining standard of living, a lower quality of life, increased social conflict, and the loss of America's unique standing in the world as the leading economic power.

Researchers found the following key themes in US companies (p. 14-18):

1. The US is suffering from insufficient creation of new 'good jobs.'
2. Workers today face a wider array of choices than ever before, choices concerning what career to pursue, how much and what form of education to obtain, where to work, when to change jobs and careers, and when, or if, to retire.
3. Today, most companies put the needs of shareholders above the needs of workers.
4. There in now increased tension between work and family life. Among lower-paid workers, the cause of this tension is that two parents increasingly need to work long hours to make ends meet.
5. The primary and secondary educational system in the United States is failing to provide the skills millions of workers need to escape minimum-wage and dead-end employment.
6. In terms of real wages, executives and technically skilled workers have fared spectacularly in recent years, and college graduates, in general, have fared well relative to the rest of the labor force. At the same time, the relative wages of blue-collar workers have lagged significantly behind their better-educated and white-collar peers, and low-skilled workers have fared disastrously relative to other Americans.
7. Almost all young, educated people today expect to work for multiple employers, to move back and forth between work and education and between work and family responsibilities, and, perhaps, never to retire.
8. The high and growing costs of health insurance are driving countless business decisions, causing companies and industries to be unprofitable, putting American exporters at competitive disadvantages in world markets, discouraging the creation of jobs and leading to the export of others.
9. Current workplace practices, such as the use of contingent and part-time workers, preferences for younger over older workers, underfunding of training, growing gaps between the salaries and benefits of executives and average employees, and a 24/7 working environment, appear to be having negative effects on worker turnover, motivation, loyalty and job satisfaction.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, most U.S. manufacturing companies--and many service providers, as well--adopted or experimented with self-managing work teams to cut payroll costs and/or to enrich jobs. In most cases, such efforts led to increased employee motivation and to lower levels of turnover, absenteeism and stress-related illness. When managers give workers authority over their work and then reward them for doing the right thing, they address basic human needs for recognition, control and belonging, needs that are more important determinants of employee morale and performance than are the physical conditions of work. Particularly when people work together--as opposed to being separate cogs in a machine--social bonds are formed that lead to cooperation and a desire to help each other succeed (p. 46-47).

Recent studies show that the leading causes of absenteeism in the United States today are family-related, and that one out of six people who fail to show up for work offer stress as the reason. Studies show that social support can moderate elevated blood pressure, and that socially supportive workplaces tend to be the healthiest for most workers.

Since the 1970s, there has been a major increase in employee stock ownership. Employee-owners are more inclined to exhibit positive behavior on the job, to stay with a company as a result of their equity interest, and to pay more attention to its financial performance, all of which are positive behaviors from a company's point of view (p. 119). The plus side of employee-ownership of stock is that it often increases the likelihood that workers can influence how their company operates. On the negative side, their jobs depend on the continuing success of their employing company (p. 120).

The workplace always has been where people meet, converse, connect, and form friendships. Indeed, relationships at work are the most meaningful ones for most adult Americans outside their families (p. 133).

All managers and business owners should read this book.

In 1974, Louis 'Studs' Terkel interviewed 130 working men and women about the realities of employment in America. His book, entitled "Working," was based on a study authored by O'Toole and Lawler, called "Work in America." This long-awaited follow-up to both popular works chronicles the multitude of workplace changes during the past 30 years. Touching on compensation, training and work/life balance, among others, these authors examine future workplace scenarios for workers and companies.

It's an academic yet fairly comprehensive approach to a subject that every businesswoman should understand. So, while not for everyone, I found this book to be extremely informative.

The objective for "The New American Workplace" is to identify workplace practices and public policies required for the U.S. to continue to be the world's leading economic power. Unfortunately, the authors missed the two biggest elephants in American labor economics - Asia's seemingly infinite supply of motivated and talented workers available at one-tenth the cost of Americans, and the horde of illegals already within our borders.

"Insufficient creation of new 'good' jobs" is listed as one of today's issues, and the authors point out that U.S. manufacturing jobs have fallen from 25% in the early '70's to 10%, and then conclude this "should have led to creation of new higher-value-added, higher-paying service-sector jobs, but has not done so to the extent expected." My questions are, "What data exists to support this proposition?" Alternatively, "Why wouldn't one instead conclude that factors (eg. high costs) leading to loss of good manufacturing would also lead to loss of good service jobs?" The authors' assumption, however, precludes useful conclusions.

Another major error is their conclusion that only "22% of our GNP is related to international merchandise trade" - thus, most is immune to outsourcing. However, the 22% is a RISING figure. Today's paper brought news of a new development - building refineries overseas to supply America's gasoline; what will tomorrow's bring? (The authors do mention that America has gone from a $33 billion trade surplus in manufactured technological goods in 1990 to a $24 billion deficit in 2004, but fail to recognize its long-term significance.) Secondly, Wal-Mart's business model is wreaking havoc on retailing and grocery businesses across the U.S. - true, Wal-Mart is not be outsourcing store staff, but the effects are highly similar. Then there are plans to build a new port in Mexico to transfer Asian-made goods in containers to Mexican truckers (SERVICE industry) paid less than one-fourth that of Americans. Etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile, governments at all levels are being squeezed by declining inflation-adjusted median family incomes and underfunded pensions and healthcare benefits for retirees.

"The New American Workplace" goes on to offer some "heartening" news about "on-shoring" by foreign manufacturers (mostly automobiles), forgetting to mention that the primary impetus for doing so is compliance with American content laws passed during the Reagan years, not some American competitive advantage.

Still another major distortion involves UPS vs. FedEx. UPS' higher salaries leads the authors' to conclude something along the line that well-paid, happy workers = productive, successful companies, telling us that UPS' market share is increasing. True, it is increasing in air shipments, having started from 0% relatively recently; however, in the much bigger ground market UPS' share is DECREASING due to high costs and unreliability due to strikes. (Regardless, if well-paid, happy workers are so important to company success, what happened to the biggest airlines, auto-manufacturers, and railroads? Finally, O'Toole reports that higher-paying Costco stock has outperformed Wal-Mart RECENTLY - however, over the last decade the two performed equally.)

As for the decline of unions, I suspect this is due to outsourcing (both private and public), not their failure to emphasize job-enrichment, as the authors suspect. (Oh yes, the team assembly methods used by Volvo and cited in the book were enriching, but fail to match the Toyota lean production system's quality or costs, and are NOT used in the U.S.)

So what should we do? Toole and Lawler recommend improved education, especially in science and engineering. But what good does that do when more and more manufacturing is being outsourced? How does that explain my college friend with a PhD in chemistry and decades of experience now training at H&R Block? Or my physics and MBA degrees being employed driving tractor-trailers? True, those who have not graduated from high-school have lost out to outsourcing AND illegals within the U.S., but lately real-wages for college graduates are falling also. (And I make more truck-driving than most college graduates, while the jobs are much easier to get.)

On the positive side, their recommendation for government assuming healthcare costs, to avoid having to compete with overseas firms that do not have to provide this benefit, should be taken seriously.

In 1972-73, a survey was conducted to examine working conditions throughout the United States. THE NEW AMERICAN WORKPLACE brings that survey to the 21st century, examining all aspects of work and the American worker in today's global economy. In many industries, we were the international leader in the 1970s and 1980s, whereas now there is serious competition from many European and Asian countries.

In the era of human capital, employee involvement, along with self-managing work teams, employee stock ownership, high worker-satisfaction levels and job enrichment are concepts that now drive many American businesses. "Americans today feel that they have more freedom and opportunities to learn on the job, and to do more meaningful work than they did in the 1970's." The work Americans do now tends to be more "enriched, challenging, and controlled by employees."

Broken into five parts --- the introduction, Changes in the American Workplace, Consequences for the American Worker, Choices and Future Directions, and Conclusions --- THE NEW AMERICAN WORKPLACE examines the cultural, economic and global attitudes in America's work environment today.

Employee benefit costs have risen to a staggering 42% of payroll costs. The costs of jobs held by employees versus contract workers, independent contractors, outsourced and temporary workers must be a factor in the cost of a company's product or service. New employment contracts and performance-based compensation with the growth-in-knowledge work equals skill-based pay. Careers, work/life balance, employment-based legislation (such as the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993), workplace health and safety, and stress are examined in detail, as well as job and life satisfaction.

Performance pressures sometimes lead to ethical dilemmas at work. "Given the changes in the nature of organizations, work, and reward systems...it is hardly surprising that Americans feel they have to work harder and faster." Union membership fell to 12% in the American workforce, as team environments and total quality initiatives gave workers more freedom, autonomy and voice in the work they do. "If unions improve their products and more effectively address the real concerns of workers in the future, they might be able to regain some of their lost membership and the strength of their voice, but to do so they will need to rethink their positions and roles relating to such issues as education and training the individualization of work relationships, and, especially, cooperation, with regards to improving business performance."

Other areas of concern include worker training as it relates to transferable skills, the lack of equity between large corporation CEOs and their minimum-wage workers, average executive compensation versus the performance and profit of the company, a sense of community in the workplace, the movement to understand and communicate ethics in the workplace, the economic impact of employee behavior on organizational performance, and public policy.

This is an extremely thorough sociological study of the American worker within the construct of the American workplace and the pressures to excel globally, balanced against the American economy. I urge anyone with a managerial role in business today not only to read this important book but to live its message.

--- Reviewed by Marge Fletcher