Mutual Gains Enterprise Forging a Winning Partnership Among Labor, Management, and Government

The Mutual Gains Enterprise argues that to achieve the crucial twin goals of world-class quality and productivity and good, secure jobs for American workers, the United States must fundamentally transform its current human resource practices. This is an urgent issue because, despite signs of progress, the overall pace of workplace reform remains disturbingly slow and erratic, far behind the optimistic predictions of the 1980s. Kochan and Osterman identify a series of barriers, within firms and the larger economy, that have blocked the diffusion of workplace innovation. These barriers include: the low position of human resource considerations within the internal power structure of firms; a weak theoretical and practical understanding of organizational change; a governance system that discourages long-term investment in human resources; weak and declining unions; and an inadequate skill base and training system for the work force. The authors then propose a mutual gains policy framework that would go beyond New Deal labor politics that regulate conflicts to offer policies that support and encourage benefits for workers, firms, and the national economy.Kochan, Thomas A. is the author of 'Mutual Gains Enterprise Forging a Winning Partnership Among Labor, Management, and Government' with ISBN 9780875843940 and ISBN 0875843948.