The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce [Hardcover]

Peter Cappelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1999

In this thought-provoking book, the author argues that the relationship between employees and employers - an association that both defines and drives the American workplace - is in a state of profound transition. Organizations that once provided long-term job security and lifetime career development are abandoning these programs in favor of market-based employment transactions: short-term contracts, temporary staffing, and outsourcing. Peter Cappelli explores recent developments in employment relationships and causes us to rethink our long-held assumptions about managing people. He reveals that the new arrangement shifts many of the risks of business from employer to employee, as individuals must now assume responsibility for developing their own skills and careers. Yet, when internal development programs are reduced or nonexistent, how can employers retain the employees they need and secure the commitment and specialized skills that so many projects demand? Cappelli's conclusions make for important and compelling reading for employees, managers, policy makers, and anyone concerned with the market forces that shape the American workplace.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The days of lifetime jobs and employee loyalty are over. Instead, competition and other market forces lead companies to lay off people, and employees to leave for the highest bidder, writes Peter Cappelli in The New Deal at Work. These changes in the workplace are making a salient impact on companies, employees, and the nation. For instance, companies are less likely to provide employee training and development, for fear employees will be poached by other firms. At the same time, companies are more apt to hire outside consultants than full-time employees, in order to stay competitive in a rapidly changing environment. This affects everything from national educational policy to employee morale to corporate management and payment principles, warns Cappelli, who is a Wharton School professor of management and codirector of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce. The book, well researched and filled with footnotes, provides historical perspective and insight for company leaders looking to manage the current economic reality. It's aimed primarily at managers, but anyone concerned about the nation's economic policies will gain some valuable insight. --Dan Ring

From Publishers Weekly

Cappelli, a professor of management at the Wharton School, provides an excellent summary and analysis of the fundamental changes in the relationship between employers and employees wrought by the postindustrial economy. Presenting industry trends over the past 15 years, Cappelli shows how, as companies increasingly based their business strategies and organizations on market forces, employee job security has effectively disappeared in the frenzy of cost-cutting and downsizing. Often, a job exists only so long as market conditions allow an employer to keep a worker. In addition, companies no longer perform many of the functions they once did for employees (e.g., prospective employees may have to obtain their own new-skill training in order to be employable). Most interestingly, Cappelli also warns that the new deal at work poses problems for employers, pointing out that, with the tightening of the labor market since 1996, companies have had to confront the thorny task of hiring and retaining committed, skilled workers. Thorny does not mean insoluble, Cappelli argues, and he presents many workable strategies (golden handcuffs policies, team building and joint ventures, among them). The new deal has triggered new attitudes among workers as well, with workers committing to an occupation rather than to an employer. Most of Cappelli's discussion concerns the remarkable adaptations the market has made in response to the new deal in the workplace, but he also warns that an unchecked mania for optimal short-term market efficiency may shortchange questions of fairness and social equity.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (February 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875846688
• ISBN-13: 978-0875846682
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,582,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management and director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, and he conducts research in human resources practices, talent and performance management, and public policy related to employment. He is also the editor of Academy of Management Perspectives.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Analysis of Complex Trends, August 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce (Hardcover)

Cappelli's main idea -- that HRM is changing because the external marketplace is being brought into the firm -- really gets to the essence of changes in the employment relationship. Once you've read the first two chapters, you'll never think about HRM the same way again. However, I wish Cappelli had explored the complexity of labor markets and practices more deeply -- we really have a multi-model HRM now, rather than the "new deal" he outlines, and probably always will because of differences in product and labor markets and industries.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wakeup Call for Middle Managers !, January 13, 2001

By 

JohnQ (bedminster, nj United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce (Hardcover)

Cappelli provides an understanding of the changes in the social and psychological contracts between employees and their employers in todays world. I feel as if blinders have been removed from my eyes and that I now have the tools to understand the changing work environment and labor market of the new economy.

A must read for those in large companies that have existed longer than 40 years (or are over 40 years old themselves).

For for those who believe they have security and entitlement based upon their "knowledge of the company"... Here's a News Flash " Organizational man is dead ..."

Thanks Professor for the heads up !

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Reading, July 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market-Driven Workforce (Hardcover)

The New Deal explores the breaking of the structural ties that modern employees have with employer. It strives to explain the employee's basis for his association with his managers. A good read..no doubt.