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JOB QUALITY AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
IN THE SERVICE SECTOR
As part of its focus on work reform, IEE has conducted an important
three-year research project funded by the William
T. Grant Foundation. The project examined how restructuring by
firms in the service sector is affecting job quality and the advancement
opportunities for young workers.
Americans have witnessed striking changes in their workplaces during
the last three decades. New technology and the globalization of markets
have resulted in transformed jobs, skills, and work schedules. Employers
and employees are both working under new rules that are only now being
established, and this turbulence has had its costs. As we move into
the next century, it is important that we develop an employment policy
that is built around the emerging post-industrial economy. Yet although
most Americans work in the service sector, there is surprisingly little
research which comments on trends in job quality and economic opportunity
in service industries. The research project attempted to answer the
following questions:
- How will the service sector be able to absorb workers without
a college education and provide them with good jobs, ones that allow
for upward mobility into the middle class?
- What types of service companies are taking the "high road,"
combining high productivity with quality employment, and can such
models be adopted by other companies?
- Can training programs and school-to-work partnerships strengthen
the skills and opportunities of young workers, especially those
from the inner city?
The project consisted of detailed case studies of firms in a variety
of service industries. Our goal was to understand the ways in which
these businesses and their employees are responding to an increasingly
competitive market and to rapid technological changes. At several
major national companies, we interviewed human resource personnel,
managers, and front-line employees, and gathering background information
on broader industry-wide changes. Taken as a group, the case studies
allowed us to chronicle a wide range of production and workplace reforms,
and their consequences in terms of productivity, training, skill acquisition,
and wages.
PUBLICATIONS
Available from IEE:
- Bernhardt, A. (1995). Are American Firms Creating a More Segmented
Labor Market? (29pp.) (Document No. W-1).
- Hughes, K. (1999, April). Supermarket Employment: Good Jobs
at Good Wages? (58pp.) (Document No. W-11) $7.00
 Working
Paper 11.PDF
- Hughes, K. and Bernhardt, A. (1999, January). Market Segmentation
and the Restructuring of Banking Jobs. (38pp.) (Document No.
W-9).
Working Paper 9.PDF
Available from other sources:
- Hunter, Larry W., Bernhardt, Annette, Hughes, Katherine L., &
Skuratowicz, Eva. 2001. "It's Not Just the ATMs: Technology,
Firm Strategies, Jobs, and Earnings in Retail Banking." Industrial
and Labor Relations Review, 54
(2A): 402-424.
- Bailey, Thomas and Annette Bernhardt. 1997. In Search of the High
Road in a Low-Wage Service Industry. Politics and Society,
25 (2): 179-201.
(abstract)
- Bailey, T. and Bernhardt, A. (1996). The
Reorganization of the Workplace in Service Industries: Effects on
Job Quality and Organizational Performance. Berkeley, CA:
National
Center for the Workplace, University of California (Working
Paper No. 7).
- Bernhardt, A. and Slater, D. (1998). What Technology Can and
Cannot Do: A Case Study in Banking. Proceedings of the Fiftieth
Annual Meeting of Industrial Relations Research Association,
January 3-5, 1998, Chicago, IL: 118-125.
LINKS
CONTACT PERSONS
Institute on Education and
the Economy
Teachers College, Columbia University
Box 174, 525 West 120th Street
New York, NY 10027
(212) 678-3091
fax: (212) 678-3699
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