So, for now, just "cruise" around the course site, and get to know the direction that this course will take, and the issues it will explore. Read the assigned articles for this week.
I will write more in this blog later this week.
To get you thinking, here is a quote to reflect upon:
Decades of research establish the fact that three major human needs can be satisfied by gainful employment: 1) the need for the basic economic resources and security essential to lead good lives; 2) need to do meaningful work and the opportunity to grow and develop as a person; and 3) the need for supportive social relationships. (The New American Workplace (2006). J. O'Toole & E. Lawler)
Why do you work?
Chuck Piazza
Week 1, Part II: Taking a Look at the American Workplace--Some Current Trends
There is no doubt, the 21st century workplace will be vastly different than that of the late 1990s. Many researchers are trying to chart these changes, exploring the shifts taking place in the American workforce, and discussing how to address the challenges they pose.
Some conclusions raised by James O'Toole and Edward E. Lawler III in their 2006 book The New American Workplace are:
1. Insufficient creation of new jobs. As manufacturing jobs disappear, "new, higher-value-added, higher-paying service-sector jobs" should be appearing. The expected volume of such new jobs has not occurred.
2. Increased choice and risk. 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, how to mesh work with other aspects of life, when to change jobs and careers, how to make trade-offs among benefits, and when, or if, to retire.
3. Increased influence of competitive and economic drivers. The decisions employers make about the pay, benefits, and working conditions they offer are increasingly driven by competitive and financial considerations.
4. Increased tension between work and family life. Men and women in all categories of employment—front line, technical, managerial, and professional—cite a desire for greater balance between work and other aspects of life, particularly their family lives.
5. Mismatch between skills and business needs. The primary and secondary educational system in the US is failing to provide the skills millions of workers need to escape minimum-wage and dead-end employment.
6. Increased social stratification based largely on educational attainment. Related to the problems in education are signs of increasing workforce stratification, with clear winners and losers and decreasing economic mobility. In terms of real wages, executives and technically skilled workers have fared spectacularly in recent years, and college graduates, in general, have relatively fared well. Blue-collar workers, though, have significantly lagged behind their educated and white-collar peers.
7. Changing nature of careers. The traditional career path of completing one’s education and then working for a single organization until retirement is all but disappeared. Individuals expect to work for multiple employers, to move back and forth between work and education and between work and family responsibilities, and perhaps, never retire.
8. Reduction in community commitment. New employment contracts and the high rate of employee turnover have reduced the opportunity for workers to satisfy their needs for belonging to supportive workplace communities.
9. Shortcoming of the healthcare system. The major public policy issue related to work in America today is the nation’s long-standing and unaddressed healthcare crisis. While many workers have no healthcare, concerns abouth health insurance coverage limit the mobility of workers and create dysfunctional tension between labor and management.
10. The boomer demographic imperative. Depending on public and private choices that must be made soon, in the near future there may be (a) a shortage of skilled workers, (b) a shortage of for older workers who cannot afford to retire, (c) a rapid decline in the demand for goods and services as boomers retire with insufficient incomes, (d) steady economic growth as boomers continue to make economic contributions well into their 70s and 80s, (e) the end of retirement as we know it, (f) a demand for increased immigration, or (g) all, some, or none the above.
11. Unrealized opportunities to make more effective use of human capital. 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. Yet there exist a number of underutilized workplace “best practices”: flexible working hours, company-sponsored tuition reimbursement, benefit for part-timers, employee participation in decision-making and profit sharing, the redesigning of jobs to make them challenging, and the providing of on-the-job developmental opportunities.
So, in light of your professional experience:
- How do you understand or interprete these findings?
- Which to you agree with? Why?
- What workforce trends do you see? What are the causes of these trends? What are the ramification of these trends?
I'm interested in your insights.
Chuck Piazza
6 comments:
Answering why I work, I synthesize my answer in a more simple way, because I have to. I would like to be retire now, to enjoy life; something that every person I know waits for after years of hard work. But because I can not win the lottery due to my bad luck, I am a person, as many, chasing a good retirement plan in the long run, which to my understanding is based on many hours of work. Since my option is to work to obtain a decent life later on, I am doing my best to attain more skills than the average to gain a higher income, and hopefully to contribute positively to society.
For the second part I agree with all the authors’ conclusions, which are happening on a day to day basis. Unfortunately the population keeps growing and resources are shrinking. We are already too many people and too greedy to change our ways. Every country, organization, or firm pulls the strings in their own favor trying to be richer entities by making the neighbors poorer (Globalization). Since self interest behavior among entities is the common denominator, everybody competes with each other to be more efficient, ending in a convey point, where nations, firms, and organizations pursue total effectiveness. By behaving like that, the worker is forced indiscreetly to be part of the transformation; otherwise he is dispensable due to demographics. Therefore, the future of the workforce has a rough road ahead. I believe that in the future in order for firms to be more competitive, the tendency of worker salary will be even less in real terms than now, and unequal distribution of GDP among social strata will increase further.
For the USA, I see in the future a more concentrated elite of people managing the big economic resources of the country, as well as, a decline of median white collar workforce, since the elite will require white collar services from countries where emerging white collar jobs are cheaper and with the same level of skills. American blue collar jobs are in decline since decades ago, and unless there are drastic changes in policies or innovative new technologies that put masses to work, blue collar labor will keep moving overseas.
Well, these are some interesting conclusions and I agree with many of them. Why I work??? Firstly, I need and want to make a living so that I can live a comfortable life with the pleasantries that I enjoy. Ultimately, I am hoping that my next professional experiences are more aligned with my interests of organizational behavior, team dynamics and systems thinking. I look forward to being able to work with people in this capacity, since it feels less like work than other jobs I've had.
The conclusions that Lawler makes about the changing workplace are mostly spot on. It is clear that the US economy is in a transitional phase and will take time to level out again and take a direction. The global economy is also shifting due to the rise in technology and the shifts the convenience causes for both employee and empoloyer.
I work for economic reasons and my desire to perform meaningful work. I do less so for the relationships as I am a pretty independant person and do not require that.
I do see that their is insufficent creation of new jobs. I am disappointed with our big economic stimulas in that it has not brought the jobs that it would have if we really invested in improvements to our country's
infrastructure.
I also agree with the authors when they say their is an ever growing mismatch between skills and business needs in this country. I see so many kids and young adults who do not invest in their personal skillls. It scares me what will happen to them as the world's needs progress and they are left behind.
Why do I work? Because it is a social obligation taught to all that having a job is part of your life experience and is expected of you. I would rather be able to travel and work when I wanted rather than that I have to.
I agree with the points stated here.
I feel that the information presented is giving us a wake up call on many issues related to the current and future workforce. If organizations are not taking notice of theses issues and not formulating and instituting changes within their organizations I feel many companies large and small will be left in the lurch asking; ‘What happened.’
We are experiencing a dynamic paradigm shift within organizations. A current example if this is the financial crisis we are currently experiencing. All the mitigating factors were available if only we paid attention and acted we may have been able to lessen the blow. Another point that can be taken from this is the need for accountability. Accountability within all aspects of life, even from elected and appointed officials.
All the points are salient. I have experienced first hand many of these points. Because of economic conditions that we currently face as well as future conditions, the business community as well as the workforce needs to take greater responsibility for individual as well as collective actions that are implemented. I feel that capitalism and the free market is still a viable business model, we all just need to be socially responsible to our co-workers and ourselves.
Several trends I see happening or coming into play are more competitive recruiting of talent worldwide, the aging of our workforce that will need to work longer and a more stressful and complex work environment that will demand more productivity than before.
Competitive recruiting of talent worldwide will be needed due to inefficient educational systems that are not graduating competent future employees with the needed skills. The aging of the workforce due to the baby boomers and the current financial crisis will cause more people to remain in the workforce longer due to economic conditions not making it possible to retire when they want. A stressful and complex work environment will be created due to smaller workforces being tasked with more workloads. The complexity will be that the work will be done in-house and out of house creating management challenges.
The ramification of these trends will be the need for an enlightened and experienced management force that is aware of these trends and challenges and has been trained in management styles and techniques on how best to gain benefits from these and other trends in the workplace.
I used to work to support myself, and to figure out who and what I wanted to be. It has morphed into sole provider, and yet I still find myself lost when looking to the future.
I identify with the notion of moving in and out of education and jobs. As I have been progressing in my employment, I see the need for more certificates and degrees.
I also see the importance of a multigenerational workforce. While the boomers may have been with the same companies near a quarter of a century, new minds are important to streamline process and advance a company into the future. At the same time, it can also cause problems with some employees resisting change.
At the same time, tensions will rise due to employees needing to stay employed for benefits. I currently find myself in this situation due to my husband’s injury. This also plays into an aging workforce. The cost of health care rises year after year, and employee contributions are rising, while, currently, salaries are stagnant, frozen, or decreasing. This nasty cycle is playing out and will be for the next few years. I wonder if the additional $7 the stimulus package gave me back, would be enough o cover a public option health plan?
I work because I want and need the money a job provides. From a teenager, I knew I wanted to be in the corporate world and be successful. I went back to school to get a Computer Science degree because I knew that was a growing field and had the potential for big money. The social aspect for me at this time was huge, and many of my friends today were forged during my early working years. The capability of growing and making a real contribution was important to me too.
I was just at a party last night wit several people I worked with. Many were now unemployed, a sign of the times. One told of a daughter with an Ivy league education from Radcliff, Harvard, and a Law degree from USC was just laid off as an attorney in employement law - pretty ironic.
Some who had gone back to work rued the time they had to spend in the office. They got used to having time to do things they wanted to do when not bound by a 10 hour work day. They found that they were much less organized than they had previously been. What will this do to productivity when the unemployed do come back? How long will it take to get these folks back up to speed. I worry about that with me going back to work! We talked about how hard it is to have balance and work full time. We rued the fact that we are having to push back retirement untold years if someone will be willing to let us keep working.
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