Employing Bureaucracy Managers, Unions, and the Transformation of Work in the 20th Century, Revised Edition

The present revised edition is an attempt to understand how industrial labor was transformed and to identify the historical process by which good jobs were created. It is, therefore, an account of the bureaucratization of employment, since many of the features that define good jobs; stability, internal promotion, and rule-bound procedures are characteristic of bureaucratic organizations. The book also examines the upheaval in the labor markets of the 1980's and 1990's, which has caused a reduction in the number of good jobs. Chapter 9 in this revised edition carries the narrative forward from 1945 to the present time, examining both the high-point of the bureaucratic system in the 1950's and 1960's--the golden years--and its erosion since then.

Deftly blending social and business history with economic analysis, Employing Bureaucracy shows how the American workplace shifted from a market-oriented system to a bureaucratic one over the course of the 20th century. Jacoby explains how an unstable, haphazard employment relationship evolved into one that was more enduring, equitable, and career-oriented. This revised edition presents a new analysis of recent efforts to re-establish a market orientation in the workplace. This book is a definitive history of the human resource management profession in the United States, showing its diverse roots in engineering, welfare work, and vocational guidance. It explores the recurring tension between the new professional order and traditional line management. Using a variety of sources, Jacoby analyzes the complex relations between personnel managers, labor unions, and government from the late 19th century to the present.Employing Bureaucracy:*analyzes the origins of the modern employment relationship's distinctive features;*combines a variety of disciplinary perspectives, from business and labor history to economics, sociology, and management;*shows the transformation of the American workplace over the course of the 20th century, from market-oriented to bureaucratic to recent efforts to move back to a market orientation; and*provides the single-best and most sophisticated history of the origins and development of the modern "HR" profession.For historians, social scientists, and practitioners, this book is a readable and rewarding study. With the future of work currently under debate, it is critical that the historical process that produced the modern American workplace is understood.Read the Workforce Management Magazine review about Employing Bureaucracy at www.erlbaum.com.

Contents: J.P. Walsh, A.P. Brief, Series Foreword. Introduction to the Revised Edition. The Way it Was: Factory Labor Before 1915. Systematic Management and Welfare Work. Vocational Guidance. Problems, Problem-Solvers, and a New Profession. Crisis and Change During World War I. A Different Decade: Moderation in the 1920s. The Response to Depression. Another Great Transformation, 1936-1945. From the 1950s to the Present.