Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #956958 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-17
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.17" h x 6.36" w x 9.48" l, 1.43 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 307 pages

From Amazon.com
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.

HR Magazine, May 1999
"Offers a fresh perspective into how the labor market is changing."