This new book examines the trends that shape the economy and workforce, and combines them into a unique and fresh body of analysis; setting the record straight on the demographic makeup of the workforce in the years 2000 to 2020 and challenging the conventional wisdom on trends affecting American workers and employers.

Unprecedented shifts in the age distribution and diversity of the global labor pool are underway. Within the decade, as the massive boomer generation begins to retire and fewer skilled workers are available to replace them, companies in industrialized markets will face a labor shortage and brain drain of dramatic proportions. Ken Dychtwald, Tamara Erickson, and Robert Morison argue that companies ignore these shifts at great peril. Survival will depend on redefining retirement and transforming management and human resource practices to attract, accommodate, and retain workers of all ages and backgrounds. Based on decades of groundbreaking research and study, the authors present innovative and actionable management techniques for leveraging the knowledge of mature workers, reengaging disillusioned midcareer workers, and attracting and retaining talented younger workers. This timely book will help organizations sustain their competitive edge in tomorrow’s inevitably tighter labor markets.

The New Modern Times assesses historical, contemporary, and projected trends in the American world of work. The contributors represent a range of disciplines — sociology, history, education, economics, women's studies, and planning— yet all share the perspective that an understanding of the workplace is basic to an understanding of where our society has been, where it is now, and where it is going. The book focuses on many of the broad causes and consequences of trends in the institutional, demographic, and technological spheres of American society that are continuing to transform both our working and non-working lives. The authors balance careful empirical accounts with a willingness to look ahead to future transformations of the workplace and to draw out the current policy implications of their analyses. A strong interdisciplinary approach addresses issues such as changing skill levels, the social consequences of new technologies, the emerging economic role of women, and fundamental changes in the terms of employment. In doing so, the book offers new directions for research and new ways to think about some of the most basic processes that continue to transform the American landscape.

The relationship between politics and storytelling is one with a well-established lineage, but public policy analysis has only recently begun to develop its own appreciation of the power of narrative to explain everything from political traditions to cyberspace. This unique collection of original essays helps further that project by surveying stories of and about all kinds of American politics--from welfare, race, and immigration; to workfare, jobs, and education; to gay rights, national security, and the American Dream in an age of economic globalization.

The Three Person Solution resolves problems with human interaction by formalizing three person relationships. Two against one dynamics disappear. Double binds dissolve. A collaborative relational practice becomes possible for many people. Two person relationships benefit indirectly. Our tendency is to view any three person interaction in classic dramatic terms, but the structure of this relational practice, called Threeing, is not a narrative structure. The Three do not interact dramatically following a story line to an ending. Rather, the Three interact recursively, following a circuit that balances relationships. To partake in the process of Threeing, narrative expectations must be abandoned. The practice of Threeing can keep relationships healthy and thriving in family settings, intercultural situations, educational programs, collaborative research, collaborative art making, peace making, governance, management, online groups, worker training and environmental initiatives. This book includes an explanation of the theory of Threeing based on the cybernetics of Gregory Bateson and the philosophy of Charles Peirce, examples of Threeing in education and worker training, and detailed instructions for using the Three Person Solution.

This volume is the proceedings of a symposium entitled "Bottom Line Results from Strategic Human Resource Planning" which was held at Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island on June 11-14, 1991. The meeting was sponsored by the Research Committee of the Human Resource Planning Society (HRPS). In developing the agenda, the Research Committee continued the approach used in previous HRPS research symposia. The focus of these meetings is on the linkage ofthe state-of-practice with the state-of-the-art. Particular attention was placed on research studies which were application oriented so that member organizations can see examples of ways to extend current practices with the knowledge presented by the applications. The meeting had sessions on: (1) The Strategic Role of Human Resources, (2) Globalization, (3) Downsizing, (4) Quality as a Strategic Human Resource Issue, (5) Forecasting Human Resource Needs, and (6) Managing People to Build Competitive Advantage. Twenty six papers were presented with discussion periods at appropriate points in the meeting. This volume contains twenty two ofthese papers along with an introductory paper. A short summary is also provided at the beginning of each major subdivision into which the papers are arranged. Thanks are in order for all who contributed to the success of the meeting.