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Manufacturing employment has been on a downward trend since its all-time peak in 1979 (1) with job losses accelerating during economic recessions. (2) (See chart 1.) In the years following [...]

Communism is the Natural Order of Humanity. Austin Murphy, Oakland University This research shows that communism is the system to which humans are best adjusted. This conclusion is backed not [...]

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has led to employment generation in the non-maquiladora manufacturing sector of Mexico in both white- and blue-collared jobs. Details on the impact of FDI on the employment in export-oriented and capital-intensive markets are discussed.

A study was conducted to show that the growth of service-sector employment can produce a large middle-income occupational class of clerks, sales and personal service workers. It is argued that the growth of this class can offset the decline of middle-income jobs caused by the loss of machine operators and artisans in the manufacturing sector.

Extant research on high-performance work systems (HPWSs) has primarily examined the effects of HPWSs on establishment or firm-level performance from a management perspective in manufacturing settings. The current study extends this literature by differentiating management and employee perspectives of HPWSs and examining how the two perspectives relate to employee individual performance in the service context. Data collected in three phases from multiple sources involving 292 managers, 830 employees, and 1,772 customers of 91 bank branches revealed significant differences between management and employee perspectives of HPWSs. There were also significant differences in employee perspectives of HPWSs among employees of different employment statuses and among employees of the same status. Further, employee perspective of HPWSs was positively related to individual general service performance through the mediation of employee human capital and perceived organizational support and was positively related to individual knowledge-intensive service performance through the mediation of employee human capital and psychological empowerment. At the same time, management perspective of HPWSs was related to employee human capital and both types of service performance. Finally, a branch's overall knowledge-intensive service performance was positively associated with customer overall satisfaction with the branch's service. Keywords: strategic human resource management, high-performance work systems for service quality, human capital and motivation, employee performance, customer satisfaction

The United States has been losing manufacturing jobs at a stunning rate: 16% of the jobs disappeared in just the three years between 2000 and 2003, with a further decline […]

A cross-cultural study used the employee involvement theory and showed that autonomy has positive and negative relationships to job stress in Chinese and British manufacturing firms, respectively. Autonomy has positive effect on productivity when there is lower work demand. Relationships between climate for autonomy, work demands climate, employee stress and organizational productivity were examined.

Worker-level data from the 1984 2000 Displaced Worker Surveys are employed to examine the effects of trade on manufacturing workers' probabilities of job displacement. Observed changes in import and export penetration rates yield increases in displacement probabilities for the North Central, Middle Atlantic and South Central regions yet lower displacement probabilities for the Plains/West and Pacific regions. Changes in import and export price indexes lead to increases in displacement probabilities for the Pacific, Southeast and Northeast regions and decreases for the South Central and Middle Atlantic regions. However, while the influences of imports and exports on job displacement vary considerably across states and regions, the estimated net effect of trade on displacement probabilities is minor, generally speaking, when compared to the combined influence of other factors. Keywords Trade * Job displacement * State and regional variation

A research using a sample of 178 manufacturing companies in Greece found that the simultaneous development of human resource management policies and business strategies positively affects the firms' performance. Details on the consideration of employee development and rewards, innovation and cost resourcing are discussed.

The shifts in both central-city and suburban self-employment is examined using a change-score model that pools data collected overt two time-periods (1980-90 and 1990-2000). It is found that a decline in intra-metropolitan manufacturing employment leads to an increase in intra-metropolitan self-employment.

The impacts of enhanced trade liberalization between Mexico, Canada, and the US on the US manufacturing industry between 1980 and 2000 are investigated. Results reveal positive trade effects. The effects of tariff concessions in the US on employment and wage growth in the US manufacturing sector are evaluated.

It is found that more productive plants had increased share of sales, wages, and ISO 9000 certification compared to less productive plants during the 1994 Mexican peso crisis. This supports the hypothesis that within-industry wage inequality was increased by quality upgrading induced by the exchange-rate shock.

Layoffs and employment changes caused by current economic conditions have significant effects on employee work behavior and emotions as well as organizational outcomes. We examined the relationships between measures of job insecurity, organizational commitment, turnover, absenteeism, and worker performance within a manufacturer in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A positive relationship was found between job insecurity and intentions to turnover, and a small negative correlation was found between measures of job insecurity and organizational commitment. Unobtrusive observations of union and nonunion performance over 4 months showed that nonunion production workers were on-task more frequently, although on-task behavior was high for both. Productivity and quality measures of different factories favored nonunion locations. Although comparisons between sites were constrained by a quasi-experimental design, repeated behavioral and outcome measures within sites showed differential effects when the company announced a plant closing in another state. Job insecurity appeared to be an establishing operation that produced differential effects between union and nonunion sites as well as among individual employees within sites. KEYWORDS. Job insecurity, job performance, unions, behavioral observations

We study the relation between workers' skill dispersion and firm productivity using a unique data set of Italian manufacturing firms with individual records on all their workers. Our measure of skill is the individual worker's effect from a wage equation. We find that a firm's productivity is positively related to skill dispersion within occupational status groups (production and nonproduction workers) and negatively related to skill dispersion between these groups. Consistently, most of the overall skill dispersion is within and not between firms. These findings are consistent with some recent hierarchical models of the firms' organizational structure.

Case studies of manufacturing, services and food and beverage industries were considered to analyze competitive market conditions, performance objectives, competitive position and skills required by workers. The relationship between the SMEs and SETA are also discussed, as well as appropriateness of the new skill development framework to existing market conditions.

The study investigates how job displacements in Korean manufacturing industries are impacted because of import competition by using a regression model for the period of 1993-2003. Results showed that even though the net employment effects of import penetration is negligible, job displace rate is increasing as well as gender, age, job tenure and education level also play an important role.

Unemployment is an economic and social problem plaguing the South Africa despite its considerable integration in international trade. The influence of technological change and trade on the state's labor market, as well as the ability of the manufacturing industry to generate employment, are discussed.

Five service delivery models for global human resources management processes are discussed. The progress of HR from a transactional function to one that drives business results is studied. Determinants include finance, cultural readiness, and HR service requirements.

The benefits derived by Filipino industrialists from the usage of personal networks to verify the abilities of potential employees from a fishing village near the Filipino capital of Manila are described.

The impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI)on racial employment in the manufacturing industries of the US is studied. Findings reveal that inward FDI is related with favorable employment for black workers, particularly in high paying jobs. The need to improve black employment gains is also discussed.

Impact of industrial liberalization on the evolution of the management team, with reference to Turkey's large industries, is examined.

The implications of outsourcing manual workers to Central and Eastern Europe, for German manufacturing sector, are presented.

The positive effects of technological advances on employment opportunities in manufacturing sector are discussed.

A study examining the three dimensions of technology, which are, creation, dispersion and absorption, for explaining cross-country differences in terms of productivity and absorptive capacity, is presented. Two potential sources of inefficiency, research and development and human capital of nine industries in 12 Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) countries over a period from 1973-1993 is presented.

A study suggesting optimal wages and human resources policies for three-sectors i.e., subsistence agriculture sector, commercial agriculture sector and manufacturing sector, is presented. The study also examines the effect of labor surpluses in rural regions on unemployment in urban regions due to migrant laborers.

The impact of free trade and globalization, on employment and wages in manufacturing divisions, is examined.

An analysis of employee rhetoric before and after the introduction of shop floor work teams in a steel mill discloses important changes in expressions of 'us' and 'them' attitudes. The normative rhetoric of teamworking used by managers, insisting that all employees are working towards the same goal, raised an expectation of change in the traditional 'them' to 'us' divide between managers and workers.

A decision-making method using data envelopment analysis for assessing the optimum number of operators and measuring the labor assignment in cellular manufacturing system is presented.

This article applies recent advances in productivity and efficiency measurement to the evaluation of skill-biased technical change. Using the general index approach we are able to establish an explicit and unconstrained time path for nonneutral technical change between production and nonproduction labor in US manufacturing industries over the 1959-1996 period. Our findings confirm the prevailing interpretation in the labor economics literature that substantial reductions in the relative share of production labor are attributable to a sustained period of nonneutral technical change. However, we find that skill-biased technical change effects are most evident prior to 1983. This predates the diffusion of personal computer technologies in the workplace and the dramatic wage structure changes associated with the 1980s. In contrast to prevailing alternatives, the general index approach also permits us to explain observed shifts in relative labor demand as a combination of price-induced substitution, nonhomothetic output effects and skill-biased technical change responses to a range of proposed elements. JEL classification: J23; C33; O33 Keywords: Technical change; Panel data; General index; Productivity

A study using a stochastic frontier model to examine firm-specific attributes as determinants of technical efficiency in foreign-financed manufacturing firms in Southern China is presented. The results indicate a strong association between efficiency and employee motivation, which includes the use of bonus incentives and flexibility in employee policy.