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Overview
In The New Deal at Work, Cappelli helps managers to understand the dynamics shaping today's market-driven workforce. According to Cappelli, the new employment contract creates pressing dilemmas for employers: How do you encourage commitment in your workforce when you can no longer promise long-term security? How can specialized skills be developed when training programs are being pared down or eliminated? The New Deal at Work reviews steps that managers can take to develop critical employee skills and maintain employee commitment - even in the context of a market-driven workforce. The New Deal at Work is at once a comprehensive chronicle of the chain of events that have changed the relationship between employers and employees, and a perceptive look at how many companies are already responding to the new trends. Cappelli's insights will help managers as well as those who study the changing nature of organizations to understand what employees are searching for in their careers, and how companies can adjust to meet these new expectations.Synopsis
Today's business world has been completely transformed by the new attitude of the free-minded, "free agent" workforce. That's why, explains Cappelli, a renowned professor of management at Wharton School of Business, previously held ideas of job security, motivation, loyalty, and company-wide value systems no longer exist. He gives you a completely new way to understand employer-employee relationships and to nourish innovative thinking and progress on the job.
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.