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This book estimates and analyzes the changes currently under way in the U.S. workplace. The book's seven chapters are: (1) "The Pressures To Restructure Employment" (effects of labor law and public policy, increased competitiveness, new markets, financial restructuring, investor pressures, new management techniques, faces and effects of restructuring); (2) "Downsizing and Employment Insecurity" (nature, scope and effects of downsizing; corporate policies to ease the burdens of downsizing; employer and employee responses to downsizing); (3) "Work Organization" (high-performance work organizations, work organization and performance, prospects for diffusion); (4) "Job Training Programs and Practices" (theories about company training, ways of measuring training, dimensions of company training, movement toward a new national training policy); (5) "Implications of a 'Skills Gap' for Policy" (jobs and skills in the future, employers' needs, the supply of skills, employer choices); (6) "The Effects of Restructuring on Employees" (trends in unemployment, layoffs and job security, job tenure, temporary jobs, wages, hours of work, workloads, stress, morale and attitudes performance, the social contract at work, revision of the psychological contract); and (7) "Conclusion" (implications of the new work system and options for parties in a new psychological contract). Fifty-eight tables/figures are included. Contains 414 references. (MN)

In 1991 the National Organizations Study (NOS) surveyed a number of U.S. businesses about their structure, context, and personnel practices to produce a database for answering questions about social behavior in work organizations. This book presents the results of that survey. The study aimed to create a national database on organizations--based on a probability sample--that provides information for the organizations research community. The three central themes here describe the NOS and its implications; provide overviews of specific employment practices--hiring, training, promotion, performance measurement, benefit packages, contingent work--and supply comparisons between different businesses and business sectors; and offer differences between male and female employees. The 16 research articles are organized into 4 parts: "The National Organization Study,""Organizational Structures,""Organizations' Human Resource Practices," and "Organizations and the Changing Workforce." The 16 chapters are: chapter 1, "Organizational Properties and Practices" (Arne L. Kalleberg, David Knoke, Peter V. Marsden, and Joe L. Spaeth); chapter 2, "Design of the National Organizations Study" (Joe L. Spaeth and Diane P. O'Rourke); chapter 3, "American Organizations and Their Environments" (Peter V. Marsden, Cynthia R. Cook, and David Knobe); chapter 4, "Bureaucratic Structures for Coordination and Control" (Peter V. Marsden, Cynthia R. Cook, and Arne L. Kalleberg); chapter 5, "Formalizing the Employment Relation" (Arne L. Kalleberg, Peter V. Marsden, David Knobe, and Joe L. Spaeth); chapter 6, "Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance" (Arne L. Kalleberg and James W. Moody); chapter 7, "The Staffing Process" (Peter V. Marsden); chapter 8, "Job Training in U.S. Organizations" (David Knoke and Arne L. Kalleberg); chapter 9, "Training, Unions, and Internal Labor Markets" (David Knoke and Yoshito Ishio); chapter 10, "Organizational Differences in Earnings" (Arne L. Kalleberg and Mark E. Van Buren); chapter 11, "The Structure of Organizational Earniings Inequality" (Arne L. Kalleberg and Mark E. Van Buren); chapter 12, "Cui Bono? Employee Benefit Packages" (David Knoke); chapter 13, "Contingent Employment in Organizations" (Arne L. Kalleberg and Kathryn Schmid); chapter 14, "Organizational Patterns of Gender Segregation" (Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, Arne L. Kalleberg, and Peter V. Marsden); chapter 15, "Gender Differences and Organizational Commitment" (Peter V. Marsden, Arne L. Kalleberg, and Cynthia R. Cook); and chapter 16, "Conclusions and Prospects" (Arne L. Kalleberg, David Knoke, Peter V. Marsden, and Joe L. Spaeth). (Contains approximately 360 references, an author index, a subject index.) (RJM)