Managing Workforce 2000: Gaining the Diversity Advantage. - book reviews

Monthly Labor Review, June, 1992 by Thomas J. Plewes

Beyond Race and Gender. By R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. New York, American Management Association, 1991. 189 pp. $22.95, cloth.

Managing Workforce 2000: Gaining the Diversity Advantage. By David Jamieson and Julie O'Mara. San Francisco, CA, Jossey Bass Publishers, 1991. 241 pp. $27.95.

The Hudson Institute's 1988 report, Workforce 2000, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 1988 publication, Projections 2000, were well received. The Bureau's projections to the year 2005, which appeared in the November 1991 issue of the Monthly Labor Review, have updated Projections 2000.

These projections present a cogent and challenging view of the future labor force. It is a labor force that is aging, with increasingly large numbers of women and minorities. There is also a growing imbalance between the skill levels required by employers and the skills of the work force. These projections have facilitated public discourse on labor force trends and stimulated other similar studies that amplify and extend the insights.

Both books reviewed here begin by acknowledging the work force scenario in the year 2000, then focus on more practical matters, particularly on how employers view future work trends. Although the two books differ somewhat in style and viewpoint, both tend to sharpen our outlook regarding the changing work force. Both books postulate means of managing a work force that is becoming more diverse in terms of sex, age, race, and educational attainment.

In his book, Beyond Race and Gender, Roosevelt Thomas acknowledges the contribution of the labor force projections, and summarizes those that suggest a more diverse work force. He points out that 85 percent of the growth (or net change) in the labor force will consist of women and minorities.

Thomas states that the more traditional affirmative action approaches are no longer sufficient. He suggests a process leading to a change in corporate culture and the new work force so as to "celebrate" diversity. The essential difference between his prescription and that of affirmative action is that capturing the strengths of a more diverse labor force calls for change on the part of the employer, as well as the employee. He concludes that managing diversity is a complex, multifaceted, time-consuming process.

Why should a company invest time and resources to embrace diversity? Thomas presents case studies suggesting that those companies that plan for the future and make a commitment to change are very successful. For example, Thomas cites the experiences of Compound Products (a fictitious company), Culberson Industries (a fictitious name representing a Fortune 500 company), and Avon Products, Inc. In these examples, culture change in companies is recognized as being long term; in Avon's case, the company's transformation will probably occur over a 5-year period.

One chapter makes an important contribution' by merging management of diversity with the total quality management philosophy.

Managing Workforce 2000, by David Jamieson and Julie 0 'Mara, begins also with a discussion of the changing demographics and the new work force. The authors focus on human resource management issues and procedures for dealing with the changes in corporate culture and practices.

Jamieson and O'Mara coined the term, "flex-management," to describe the framework for management's response to diversity. Their book addresses strategies for matching people with jobs, managing and rewarding work performance, encouraging employee participation, and supporting needs of the more diverse work force. The authors of these two books make it clear that a more diverse work force requires both corporate commitment and behavioral change. Private and public sector employers must decide whether to undertake the corporate cultural adjustments needed to capitalize on the changing work force.

--Thomas J. Piewes Associate Commissioner Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics Bureau of Labor Statistics

Publications received

Agriculture and natural resources

Brown, Martin, "Science, Technology and the Environment," The OECD Observer, February-March 1992, pp. 11-15.

Gardner, Bruce L., "Changing Economic Perspectives on the Farm Problem," Journal of Economic Literature, March 1992, pp. 62-101.

International Labor Office, "Agrichemicals: Handle with care," ILO Information, February 1992, p. 1.

Kuba, Ferdinand, "Restructuring Soviet Agriculture," The OECD Observer, February-March 1992, pp. 23-26.

Lin, Justin Yifu, "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," The American Economic Review, March 1992, pp. 34--51.

Economic and social statistics

Daskin, Alan J., "Two Propositions on the Application of Point Elasticities to

Finite Price Changes," The Journal of Economic Education, Winter 1992, pp. 17-21.

MacKinnon, James G., "Model Specification Tests and Artificial Regressions," Journal of Economic Literature, March 1992, pp. 102--46.

Economic growth and development

Chase, Elmer P. III, "The Wasteland

Economics of High Unemployment,"

Challenge, January-February 1992,