Change at Work.

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)