Collaborative Research: U.S. Organizations' Human Resource Policies

这项研究考察了美国工作组织中人力资源政策的变化，将这些政策与生产率、技术创新和不断变化的美国劳动力带来的问题联系起来。这项研究利用了两个数据来源：具有代表性的美国工人全国样本和相应的雇用他们的组织样本。这将是第一次收集具有全国代表性的工作机构样本的数据，也是自1977年就业质量调查以来首次收集具有全国代表性的美国工人样本的全面数据。这些数据库对于检验有关美国各地各种管理系统、招聘和留用政策、培训计划和劳资关系做法的普遍性和变异性的重要假设至关重要。到目前为止，这一广泛的人力资源领域的信息主要来自对美国选定地区不同类型组织的案例研究；还没有对美国工作组织的人力资源政策和做法进行全面描述和评估。这项研究的首席调查人员在这一研究领域拥有丰富的经验；他们都参加了由国家科学基金会资助的试点研究，以解决在对工人和工作场所进行如此广泛的全国调查中涉及的一些技术问题。这些试点研究仔细考虑了诸如替代抽样设计的充分性和代表性以及对组织收集的数据的可靠性等基本问题。本研究是在这些先导研究成果的基础上发展起来的。组织有效性、竞争力和生产率问题是科学家和政策制定者都极为关心的问题。这项研究应对创新的人力资源政策、组织和工作人员的特点以及开展工作的条件之间的联系提供重要的新认识。

This study examines variations in human resource policies in work organizations in the United States, relating these policies to issues of productivity, technological innovation, and problems posed by a changing American labor force. The research draws on two data sources: a representative national sample of American workers and a corresponding sample of organizations employing them. This will represent the first instance that data will have been collected on a nationally representative sample of work establishments, and the first time since the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey that comprehensive data will have been collected on a nationally representative sample of American workers. These data bases are essential to test important hypotheses about the prevalence and variation throughout the United States of various management systems, recruitment and retention policies, training programs, and industrial relations practices. Until now information in this broad human resource area has been available primarily from case studies of distinctive types of organizations in selected parts of the country; there has been no comprehensive description and assessment of human resource policies and practices in U. S. work organizations. The Principal Investigators in this study have had extensive experience in this area of research; all were participants in pilot studies funded by the National Science Foundation, to address some of the technical problems involved in such a broad national survey of workers and work establishments. These pilot studies carefully considered such basic problems as the adequacy and representativeness of alternative sampling designs and the reliability of data collected on organizations. The present research grows out of and builds upon the findings of these pilot studies. Issues of organizational effectiveness, competitiveness, and productivity are of vital concern to both scientists and policy makers. This study should shed important new light on the links between innovative human resources policies, the characteristics of organizations and workers, and the conditions under which work is performed.