Employment Relationships: New Models of White-Collar Work

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.

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.

'In Employment Relationships, Peter Cappelli and his colleagues examine the changes in employment relations that have accompanied the withering away of the model represented by the 'Organization Man'. The chapters help to identify the variety and commonalities of new models of employment relations and white-collar careers by addressing topics such as separations and promotions in manufacturing and financial organizations, call centers, triadic employment relations, and careers of lawyers and physicians. This book is a valuable addition to our understanding of the emergent employment relations in white-collar occupations.' Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and President of the American Sociological Association, 2007-8 '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