Rethinking the Nature of Work: A Look at the Research Evidence

In our traditional concept of work, both employer and employee enjoyed a degree of stability, the worker offering skills and loyalty in exchange for job security and potentially higher income. Human resources systems, including compensation systems, supported this view of work by making sure the company had an adequate stream of qualified workers with firm-specific skills. But times have changed-and human resources professionals now face the challenge of supporting the new work systems that appear to be emerging. The first step, says the author, is to gain a more accurate picture of the nature and extent of the changes. A mass of research data related to workplace trends has emerged from various sectors, private as well as public. A closer look at this data reveals a sharper-albeit still piecemeal-picture of what is happening in work systems, organizational structures, career ladders, job security, commitment, use of contract workers, and the like. The data also sharpen our focus on the challenges and paradoxes the HR professional must face. For example, how can a company justify the training investment needed to create high-performance teams if job security and company loyalty are archaic concepts? Or how can a company retain employees with high-value skills as the economy recovers and it is easier for them to find different jobs? Although there are no easy answers, we can at least begin to foresee and define the problems.