The Downside Of Downsizing


Traditional downsizing doesn’t work anymore because the nature of work has changed. Knowledge work has replaced industrial work, and the two kinds of work are as different from each other as the work in the industrial economy was from work in the agricultural economy it

replaced 100 years ago. What’s valuable now is the information in people’s heads rather than the labor of their hands.

This dramatic change cuts across all levels of an organization and requires a new kind of management thinking, summarized in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1: Differences between Industrial Work and Knowledge Work

Industrial Work

Knowledge Work

Management Style

Command and control

Dialogue and empowerment

Skills and Competencies

Physical

Intellectual

Labor Market Conditions

Ample supply of

Scarce supplies of low-wage labor expensive labor

Employee Investment

Low

High




The Headcount Solution. How to Cut Compensation Costs and Keep Your Best People
The Headcount Solution : How to Cut Compensation Costs and Keep Your Best People
ISBN: 0071402993
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 143

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