Internal Labor Markets

Contrary to the popular image of change and turnover, most Americans spend the majority of their working lives employed in a single firm. The original essays in this book discuss the origins and importance of these internal labor markets, providing new insights into their changing power and influence. They also explore the more varied and dynamic employment practices that have evolved in large companies in response to new government regulations, increased competition for managerial talent, the difficult economy of the 1970s, and to the threat of unions.Contents: Introduction: The Nature and Importance of Internal Labor Markets, Paul Osterman; The Development of Internal Labor Markets in American Manufacturing Firms, Sanford M. Jacoby; The Making and Shaping of Job and Pay Structures in the Iron and Steel Industry, Bernard Elbaum; Variations in Managerial Career Structures in High-Technology Firms: The Impact of Organizational Characteristics on Internal Labor Markets, Rosabeth Moss Kanter; The Transformation of the Industrial Relations and Personnel Function, Thomas A. Kochan and Peter Cappelli; White-Collar Internal Labor Markets, Paul Osterman; Job Training, Employment Practices, and the Large Enterprise: The Case of Costly Transferable Skills, Paul Ryan; The Search for a Societal Effect in the Production of Company Hierarchy: A Comparison of France and Germany, Marc Maurice, Francois Sellier, and Jean-Jacques Silvestre; Internal Labor Markets and Paternalism in Rural Areas, Peter B. Doeringer.Paul Osterman is Associate Professor of Economics at Boston University and author of Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market (MIT Press, 1980).