Organizations should provide a mutually beneficial approach to career and personal growth for a number of reasons: (1) people are the prime assets of any organization; (2) people develop through training and experience; (3) loyalty to one employee is considered by some to be outdated; (4) cost of losing employees is high; and (5) skills give a…

Discusses why it is difficult to sustain employee involvement (EI) processes and examines strategies for renewing EI efforts that appear to be fading. (JOW)

Winshare is a gain-sharing system created to save a company. The program is based on the assumption that line workers know best how to do and improve their jobs. Employees are encouraged to suggest how to improve processes, reduce waste, or make their jobs easier. Employee teams are given the power and budget to implement changes. (JOW)

Explains how business owners can determine when to involve employees and when to make decisions alone. Reviews problem-solving and decision-making methods, obstacles to overcome, and meeting management techniques. (SK)

Discusses empowerment--the idea of pushing decision-making authority down the management hierarchy to the workers. Looks at myths surrounding the concept and suggests steps that bring people closer to full empowerment by gradually introducing them to new tasks. (JOW)

Despite decades of management fads, U.S. businesses have practiced chain-of-command management. Only through changes in leadership can corporate America repair the damage to employee morale that stems as much from the way companies execute layoffs as from the layoffs themselves. (Author/JOW)

Correctly used communication tools such as focus groups and organizational surveys actually inhibit the learning and communication that corporations now demand of managers and employees. They do not encourage individual accountability or allow the revelation of threatening or embarrassing information. (JOW)

Bureau of Labor Statistics data on collective-bargaining agreements show a clear trend in the private sector. Fourteen percent of workers in the sample examined by this study are covered by some sort of partnering agreement. (Author)

A company can undo a generation of organizing and collective bargaining by redesigning the technology of the workplace. Unions must define a different vision of how production can be organized--a vision that is worker centered and skill based--and struggle for it in decision-making arenas of government and private enterprise. (Author)

Domestic violence affects employers of victims in several ways, including lost productivity and potential liability. Proactive company responses include security and safety measures and employee counseling. (SK)

"Free-agent" employees focus on employability based on their expertise, knowledge base, reputation, and networks. Their skills make them value-added contributors and they expect something in return from their employers such as opportunities for growth and the application of learning. (JOW)

Personal development training is being provided to employees by many companies. Motivational speakers and programs to stop smoking, reduce stress, build confidence, and give more effective presentations are offered. However, there is a danger that the all-consuming organization may try to take over all aspects of an employee's life. (JOW)

Suggests that the career self-reliance model that proponents represent as a model shift, has, in reality, been the cornerstone of U.S. economic life for the last two centuries. Discusses the valuable precepts of career self-reliance as a useful counseling model as well as its serious, unexamined flaws. (JOW)

Lau and May's study of 58 "best U.S. companies to work for" and 88 top Standard and Poor's companies suggests that companies with high quality of working life can also enjoy exceptional growth and profitability. Schurman's critique notes that their sample does not reflect conditions in the majority of U.S. employers. (SK)

Examines the important role that managers play in facilitating supportive communication and helping interactions in the workplace. Notes supervisors' personal problems, their help seeking for those problems, and their perceptions of managers' support. Examines managers' attitudes about helping and supporting troubled supervisors, their awareness…