In response to Lyn Murphy's request regarding emerging research on the
contingent workforce, we mention the following caucus which will be held at
the Academy meetings next week in San Diego. We share an interest in
this topic, and hope to discuss many issues surrounding the contingent
workforce, including those mentioned by Lyn. Of particular note to this
discussion group is the needed change in teaching approaches as the
make-up of the modern workforce has so dramatically changed. We will also
be happy to report back on our discussions to those who were not able to
attend the caucus but are interested in the subject. Please contact us
directly if that is your circumstance. (Contact information at bottom of
announcement.)
--Glen Kreiner
The Contingent Workforce
An Academy of Management Caucus
Proposed by Donna Blancero and Glen Kreiner
To be held Tuesday, August 11, 1998
6:30-8:30 p.m. Marriott North, San Diego B, Table 18
*A changing economy*
Recently, both the popular press and academic researchers have clearly
shown that a dramatically changed world economy has reshaped the modern
employment environment. The post-industrial world has experienced
recessions, free trade expansion, hypercompetition, technological
revolutions, and information superhighways. The corporate world has
responded to this changed environment with lay-offs, downsizing,
right-sizing, reductions-in-force, mergers, acquisitions,
internationalization, and modernization.
*A changing contract*
Also discussed in popular and academic publications is the change in the
perceived employment contract between workers and their employers, which
has resulted from these changing economic and business conditions. No
longer can employees expect to receive the long term employment security
that was a standard in the past. The obligations and expectations between
employers and employees have dramatically changed. Careers, skills, and
benefits packages are now spoken of as "portable." Employees no longer
look at their workplace as permanent, and employers no longer look at their
workers as family. Uncertainty abounds on both sides.
*A changing academic agenda*
What has gone less mentioned (and consequently, less understood), is the
impact that this new contract has on the ways organizations and their
employees function. Changes in the typical employee contract could
radically reshape the "old rules" of human resource management and
organizational behavior. Could contingency become an important independent
variable? Human resource strategies in areas such as compensation,
selection, and training/development, and research areas such as extra role
behaviors, job attitudes, and workforce diversity each take on new
dimensions, boundaries, and contingencies when put in the context of the
new employment contract.
*A changing approach to teaching and management*
We see several important implications of this new, contingent workforce for
members of the Academy of Management. In addition to the impact on
research agendas mentioned above, several important questions are raised
for teaching a new generation of business students, and for the new breed
of managers who will face this new employment contract. With old career
management paradigms becoming increasingly outdated, what new career
strategies might we now teach our students? How do we train these students
to prepare for the new conditions of today's workforce? We also wonder
what changes in the managerial process might be uncovered. How do managers
realign their practices in the face of an unstable human resource within
their organizations? How do they manage the balance between dynamic
organizational and employee needs?
These are only a sample of the myriad possible topics for exploration at
our caucus at the 1998 meeting of the Academy of Management. We believe
that these are some of the issues and questions that "matter the most" for
our future research, teaching, and management.
Donna Blancero, Assistant Professor
donna.blancero@asu.edu 602-965-7118
Glen Kreiner, Doctoral candidate
glen.kreiner@asu.edu 602-727-6267
Both at Arizona State University, College of Business, Management Dept,
Box 874006, Tempe, AZ 85287-4006