Institute for Work and Employment Research

Selected Ideas and Works from the IR Section and IWER

1940s-50s  Joseph Scanlon develops the Scanlon Plan, a gains sharing program still in wide use today. Fred Lesieur carries on implementation of Scanlon Plans and summarizes it in his 1957 book, The Scanlon Plan.

1960s Douglas McGregor publishes his widely read and used book on motivation and management theory: The Human Side of the Enterprise. Charles Myers, with co-authors Clark Kerr, John Dunlop, and Frederick Harbison publishes Industrialism and Industrial Man, a major contribution to the study of the historical evolution of industrial relations in modern societies.

1970s Paul Pigors and Charles Myers publish multiple editions of their popular textbook, Personnel Administration. Phyllis Wallace’s publishes a study of a landmark effort to enforce the country’s relatively new equal employment opportunity legislation, Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T Case.

1980s Three works of IR Section faculty members open up an era of rethinking our approaches to industrial relations, organizations, and labor market theory and policy:

• Michael Piore and Charles Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide.
• Thomas Kochan, Robert McKersie, and Harry Katz, The Transformation of American Industrial Relations
• Paul Osterman, Employment Futures

1990s IR faculty continue to propose ways to modernize institutions and policies governing organizations, employment, and labor markets with several books:

• Robert Thomas, What Machines Can’t Do
• Thomas Kochan and Paul Osterman, The Mutual Gains Enterprise
• Richard Locke, Remaking the Italian Economy
• Michael Piore, Beyond Individualism
• Richard Walton, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, and Robert McKersie, Strategic Negotiations
• Paul Osterman, Broken Ladders: Managerial Careers in the New Economy
• Paul Osterman, Making America Work
• Frank Levy and Richard Murnane, The New Basic Skills
• Paul Osterman, Securing Prosperity