《《the new employment relationship versus themutual investment approach》.pdfVIP

THE NEW EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP VERSUS THE MUTUAL INVESTMENT APPROACH: IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Anne S. Tsui and Joshua B. Wu With increasing globalization and hypercompetitive markets, most employers have resorted to headcount management to gain flexibility, remain competitive, and ensure survival. A new em- ployment relationship has emerged. The bond between employer and employee no longer is a long-term relationship involving loyalty and commitment, but a contractlike economic ex- change. The authors take a closer look at this new employee relationship in the context of the more traditional employer-employee relationship still found in many organizations. The eco- nomic value of the new employee relationship may be less attractive than previously perceived. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The eve of the twenty-first century witnessed This dramatic corporate downsizing oc- the dawn of a new employment relationship curred in most industries and at all ranks, in corporate America. Employers resorted to breaking the traditional deal of a lifelong headcount management to gain flexibility, re- job with mutual loyalty between the em- main competitive, and ensure survival in a ployer and the employee. Replacing this tra- world of increasing globalization and hyper- dition is the so-called “new employment re- competitive markets. Consider these num- lationship” (Stewart, 1998). Instead of bers: Between 1984 and 1986, nearly loyalty (i.e., job security), the employer of- 600,000 middle- and upper-level executives fers the employee a challenging job, a fixed were laid off in the United States (Bluestone compensa