The New American Workplace

In 1972, the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare formed a task force, chaired by James O’Toole, to evaluate the state of working conditions in the country. The ensuing report, Working in America (1973), stated that the health and social well-being of many Americans were being adversely affected by narrow, repetitive work, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, executives began redesigning some jobs to make them more challenging and fulfilling, automating others, and exporting the remainder. Although these actions improved the quality of working conditions, they also created a new set of challenges, from the growth of globalization to the dramatic decline in job security, for the average American worker.

Drawing on decades of leading research in the field of management, O’Toole and Lawler present The New American Workplace. In it, they record the dramatic changes that have occurred during the past three decades and examine the key factors underlying these developments. They also explore important choices to be faced in the future and offer practical solutions they believe will serve both the well-being of workers and the effectiveness of the organizations that employ them.