Lauren A. Benton - Employee Training and U.s. Competitiveness: Lessons for the 1990s

Employee Training and U.S. Competitiveness: Lessons for the 1990s, Lauren Benton, Thomas R. Bailey, Thierry Noyelle, and Thomas M. Stanback, Jr.

The New Suburbanization: Challenge to the Central City, Thomas M. Stanback, Jr.

Skills, Wages, and Productivity in the Service Sector, edited by Thierry Noyelle

Does Job Training Work? The Clients Speak Out, Eli Ginzberg, Terry Williams, and Anna Dutka

New York's Financial Markets: The Challenges of Globalization, edited by Thierry Noyelle

Immigrant and Native Workers: Contrasts and Competition, Thomas R. Bailey

Beyond Industrial Dualism: Market and Job Segmentation in the New Economy, Thierry Noyelle

Computerization and the Transformation of Employment: Government, Hospitals, and Universities, Thomas M. Stanback, Jr.

Technology and Employment: Concepts and Clarifications, Eli Ginzberg, Thierry Noyelle, and Thomas M. Stanback, Jr.

Lessons for the 1990s

Lauren Benton, Thomas R. Bailey, Thierry Noyelle, and Thomas M. Stanback, Jr.

First published 1991 by Westview Press, Inc.

Published 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright 1991 by The Eisenhower Center for the Conservation of Human Resources, Columbia University

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Employee training and U.S. competitiveness : lessons for the 1990s / by Lauren Benton... [et al.].
p. cm. (The Eisenhower Center for the Conservation of Human Resources studies in the new economy)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8133-8050-2
1. EmployeesTraining ofUnited States. 2. Organizational changeUnited States. 3. Competition, International. 4. Textile industryUnited States. 5. Retail tradeUnited States. 6. Banks and bankingUnited States. 7. Service industriesUnited States. 8. Technological innovationsUnited States. I. Benton, Lauren A. II. Title: Employee training and US competitiveness. III. Series.
HF5549.5.T7E46 1991
331.25'92'0973dc20

90-12537
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-01581-7 (hbk)

The global economy is entering a new phase, and the paradigm of economic growth of the postwar decades no longer holds sway. Major changes, such as the explosive growth of services, the rise of a handful of highly successful newly industrializing countries, and the rapid expansion of international trade, are now seen to fit a comprehensive pattern of economic restructuring that affects every aspect of social and political life.

Although a full discussion of the causes of this process cannot be provided here, and many of the consequences remain to be determined, it is clear that, along with this major restructuring, have come fundamental changes in the nature and organization of work and in the needs and special requirements of worker training.

Observers now agree that one of the casualties of the new era is mass production as a model for industrial and work organization. Explanations for the demise of mass production as a model tend to focus on demand factors. A saturation of markets for standardized goods and services, the argument goes, has led to rapidly accelerating differentiation of demand for consumer products that has been facilitated by, and has contributed to the rapid introduction of new technologies, particularly those based on microcomputer technology. The response of producers to this shift also has prompted increasing diversification of demand for goods and services. The effect of these trends, combined with the increasing internationalization of both

In manufacturing, the crisis of mass production has been denoted by a shift away from the general strategy of employing specialized machinery for fixed stages of manufacturing production and by the resurgence of a pattern involving the use of general-purpose machinery to perform a more varied set of tasks. The goals of this shift is to make it possible for firms to produce a wider range of goods and to respond more quickly to market shifts. New technologies have sometimes facilitated these objectives, but they have not driven the process. Indeed, the changeover to flexible manufacturing has contributed to the development of new technologies as skilled workers have become more engaged in the "tinkering" that produces technological adjustments in manufacturing.

Although much of the literature on the demise of the mass production, or "Fordist," paradigm of production and its effects has focused on the changes taking place in manufacturing, a parallel, though somewhat different, process also has been apparent in the services. As the market for relatively standardized services also has become saturated, there has been a push toward diversification within existing services and an opening of new markets for entirely new types of services. The organizational changes within services accompanying these trends have been less apparent than in manufacturing, but they have been no less important. Firms have adopted numerous strategies to increase their sensitivity to market changes and to enable them to respond more flexibly and more rapidly to such shifts. As in manufacturing, the introduction and spread of microcomputer technologies have facilitated this effort. For example, the ability to transmit computer-stored data to decentralized locations has supported the internationalization of banking services, and computer tracking has made it easier to reduce inventory and improve market sensitivity in retailing.

More important than changes in technology, however, have been changes in organizational and institutional arrangements in which such technological adaptations are embedded. In both manufacturing and services, these changes can range from internal firm reorganization to the restructuring of entire sectors and even to changes in the political and institutional framework regulating the production of goods and services.

Several patterns of restructuring have become increasingly common as a result of adaptations to the competitive pressures and market changes described above. These patterns of restructuring have had a somewhat different character in manufacturing and in the services, particularly in the United States, where growth patterns in the two sectors have been so different.

In manufacturing, one prominent trend involves the decentralization of production through the distribution of various phases of production to smaller units or subcontractors: in short, the dismantling of the vertically integrated firm. The strategies of individual firms to augment flexibility through such decentralization shapes a new structure in each industry. As various case studies have shown, the profile that results depends on, among many other factors, the relationship between subcontractors and client firms: In some cases, the profile that emerges is a flat pyramid, with a small number of firms controlling the finished products and putting out production to a large number of subcontractors; in other cases, the result Is a more complex web of producers, with more autonomy for subcontracting firms that supply a larger clientele, contribute substantially to design, and perhaps also produce their own finished goods. In the former cases, enhanced flexibility results not only from subcontractor specialization but also from lower labor costs and reduced risks for larger firms. In the latter cases, small specialized firms play a more important role, and flexibility results from the enhanced sensitivity to the market at all levels.