Turbulence in the American Workplace

This study elaborates the many critical issues resulting from the impact of corporate restructuring on the American workforce.

This book deals with critical issues resulting from the impact of corporate restructuring on workers. U.S. industry has undergone a shakeout resulting from increasing competitive pressures and the globalization of production. As a result, some two million workers have been laid-off from their employers. Individual chapters have been drafted by an interdisciplinary group of academics who explore seven key areas: demographic changes of younger and older workers, workforce displacement from lay-offs, human resources planning for downsizing and mergers, technological change, changes in the roles of unions, changes in managerial and professional work, and `contingent'' and flexible employment. The drafts of the chapters have been extensively edited and, in some cases, rewritten so that the book will read more like a series of chapters than a group of papers.The work was commissioned by the National Planning Association who will be a party to the contract.