Description: The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a quite dramatic shift in the nature of white collar employment, from lifetime tenure, often in a very hierarchical work structure, to a new model defined by flatter organizations, job insecurity, shorter tenures, declining attachment between employer and employee, and contingent work. Managing employment relations has become an issue of huge strategic importance as businesses struggle to respond to the pace of change in management systems and working practices. Employment Relationships: New Models of White-Collar Work traces developments in employment arrangements drawn from a number of business contexts. These include the rising role of outside hiring and lateral moves in shaping and managing careers, increased career uncertainty, and much greater variety in organizational structures - even within industries and professions - as employers struggle to meet the diverging demands of their product markets.
Brief description: Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Review Quotes: 'Peter Cappelli's Employment Relationships assembles an excellent group of young scholars whose research is showing us how white collar work is actually carried out today, in all its varieties. Anyone wanting to join these authors on the cutting edge of the study of work and employment should start by looking at the rich mix of issues, methods, and theory found here. If this book is an indication of where our field is going, the future is bright, exciting, and in good hands.' Thomas A. Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Co-Director of the MIT Workplace Center and of the Institute for Work and Employment Research