New Trends in Employment Practices : An International Survey

A terse, well-written, up-to-date, and refreshing account of recent developments in employment practices across a sample of seven industrialized nations, including the Soviet Union, by an established scholar of comparative systems. The trends discussed are industrial democracy at enterprise and establishment level, quality of working life, job tenure and security of employment, personnel policy, and working time arrangements. . . . The book provides a useful and accessible introduction to a number of important themes in the management and maintenance of human resources. . . . Highly recommended. . . . Choice In recent years, fundamental economic forces have profoundly affected the labor markets of the industrialized nations. Among these forces are: the mass entrance of women into the labor market and major changes in work patterns designed to accomodate them; industrial restructuring due to the decline in manufacturing and the concomitant rise in service industries and advanced technologies; the shift in workers' objectives toward job security, improved quality of working life, and more adequate provision for post-retirement years; and, finally, employee demand for industrial democracy or increased participation in making business decisions, which has led to the implementation of economically viable participatory schemes. The policy innovations and experiments effected during the past two decades in response to these labor market developments are the subject of New Trends in Employment Practices. In addition to the United States, the author considers four major industrial nations of the democratic world, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan. Walter Galenson also looks at Sweden, a country long noted for its imaginative labor programs, and the Soviet Union, a nation where recent events have graphically illustrated the strength of the demand for greater democracy at the enterprise and political levels. The book begins with a discussion of the promotion of industr