What Works at Work: Overview and Assessment

Ichniowski, Casey; Kochan, Thomas A.; Levine, David I.; Olson, Craig A.; Strauss, George

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511620027.002

Cited by 192 publications

(253 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Data on changes in WO are harder to come by, although there seems to be a consensus that many of the practices we measure are becoming more common (See e.g. Ichniowski et al, 1996, Osterman 1994.…”

Section: How Are It Hk and Wo Changing Over Time?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence

1999

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Technology, wage inequality and the demand for skilled laborOver the past two decades, wage inequality has grown significantly in the UnitedStates. The total effect has been large, as the gap between wages at the 75th percentile of the distribution and the 25th has increased by nearly 50 percentage points. 1 The total effect has also been widespread, shifting relative wages in the top, middle, and bottom of the income distribution. The main cause of the growth in inequality appears to be a shift in the demand for workers of different kinds. Demand is growing for workers with exceptional talent, training, autonomy, and management ability much faster than for workers in low and middle-wage occupations.Parts of this shift in labor demand are explained by such broader economic patterns as globalization, sectoral shifts in employment and changes in labor marketinstitutions. Yet these forces appear too small to explain the breadth and depth of the shift, leaving a large residual shift (Krugman and Lawrence, 1993). Economists have concluded that this residual must reflect a "skill-biased technical change" in the way goods and services are produced in the economy (Griliches, 1969;Berndt, Morrison and Rosenblum, 1992;Berman, Bound and Griliches, 1994). The nature of this technical change are still not well-understood, but its size, breadth, and timing have led many observers to link it to the largest and most widespread technical change of the current era, information technology (see, e.g., Autor, Katz, and Krueger, 1997 and references therein).In this paper, we examine the firm-level evidence for a specific theory of how information technology (IT) could cause skill-biased technical change. In particular, we argue that the effects of IT on labor demand involve far more than simple automation and substitution. Instead, we highlight the central role of IT-enabled organizational change in

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Section: How Are It Hk and Wo Changing Over Time?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The In summary, we view these dynamical results as consistent with the complementarity story. While not all of the complements are changing at the same rate, 23 This is essentially the view that Ichniowski et al (1996) put forth in their summary of the literature on innovations in workplace organization.…”

Section: How Are It Hk and Wo Changing Over Time?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence

1999

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“…The most far-reaching hypothesis in recent analyses of the effect of human resource management on productivity and labor practices is the "complementarities thesis" that advanced labor practices work most effectively when bundled together into a consistent high-performance workplace (Ichniowski et al 1996;Pil and MacDuffie 1996). This hypothesis implies that fi rms should adopt shared capitalist modes of pay and complementary forms of work organization as a package rather than introducing them individually.…”

Section: Conceptual Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does Shared Capitalism Affect Economic Performance in the United Kingdom?

Bryson¹,

Freeman²

2010

Shared Capitalism at Work

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“…Furthermore, Ichniowski et al (1996) point out that establishment and firm surveys such as Workplace Employee Relations Survey in the UK may suffer from serious response bias, because the most successful firms with workplace innovations may be more likely to participate in the surveys. 4 This problem does not prevail in our data.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These workplace innovations aim at more flexibility in the work organization, enhanced labor-management cooperation, greater employee involvement in decision making, and financial participation of the employees (Ichniowski et al, 1996). Most studies find that innovative work practices have positive impacts on firm-level performance (see e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative work practices and sickness absence: what does a nationally representative employee survey tell?

Böckerman¹,

Johansson²,

Kauhanen³

2011

Industrial and Corporate Change

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The paper examines the effect of innovative work practices on the prevalence of sickness absence and accidents at work. We focus on several different aspects of workplace innovations (self-managed teams, information sharing, employer-provided training and incentive pay) along with the "bundles" of those practices. We use nationally representative individual-level data from the Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey from 2008. Using single equation models, we find that innovative work practices increase short-term sickness absence for blue-collar and lower white-collar employees. In twoequation models that treat innovative workplace practices as endogenous variables we do not find relationship between innovative work practices and sickness absence or accidents at work. JEL classification: I12, J28

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What Works at Work: Overview and Assessment

Cited by 192 publications

References 7 publications

Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence

Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence

How Does Shared Capitalism Affect Economic Performance in the United Kingdom?

Innovative work practices and sickness absence: what does a nationally representative employee survey tell?

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