Regular Workforce Research Articles

Integrating resource and production decisions in a simple multi-stage assembly system

We consider a simple multi-stage assembly system, with stationary stochastic demand for a single final product that is made-to-stock. The assembly tasks are performed by human resources. This workforce consists of two parts: regular workforce with a long-term contract and temporary workforce, that are contracted based on the actual demand. Contracting resources early is always cheaper than contracting later. When we separate resource and production decisions, we can first determine order-up-to levels and production decisions in a standard way and afterwards find the best mix of regular and temporary workforce. Next to this decoupled approach, we present an integrated approach where these decisions influence each other. In a set of examples we show that the integrated approach can be very beneficial.

The Influence of Regular Work Systems on Compensation for Contingent Workers

Using data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. establishments, this article explores how features of regular work influence outcomes for contingent workers. The results show that firms combine regular and contingent work in varied ways: Some managers design contingent work to achieve performance objectives not possible with the regular workforce, whereas managers in other cases create contingent jobs to reinforce the same goals as regular work. In the latter case, contingent workers are more likely to be integrated with regular workers and to receive benefits. Benefit provision for contingent workers is also influenced by traditional internal labor market rules and by spillover effects in which efficiency or regulatory requirements lead benefits to be extended to contingent staff once offered to regular workers.

The End of Lifetime Employment in Japan?: Evidence from National Surveys and Field Research

Using both quantitative data from national surveys and qualitative data from our recent field research, this paper provides evidence on the recent transformation of Japan's celebrated practice of lifetime employment (or implicit long-term employment contracts for the regular workforce). Overall, contrary to the popular rhetoric of the end of lifetime employment, evidence points to the enduring nature of this practice in Japan. Specifically, we find little evidence for any major decline in the job retention rates of Japanese employees from the period prior to the burst of the bubble economy in the late 1980s to the post-bubble period. In general, our field research corroborates the main finding from the job retention rates by describing vividly that large firms in Japan have been trying to accomplish their restructuring and downsizing targets by relying heavily on transfers of their employees to their subsidiaries and related firms and hiring cuts, thus avoiding layoffs. Last, the burden of downsizing appears to fall disproportionately on young workers and middle-age workers with shorter tenure. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2001, 15(4), pp. 489–514. Department of Economics, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York 13346; Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School, New York; and TCER. © 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: J63, J64, J41, O53.

Japanese Employees' Attitudes Toward Changes in Traditional Employment Practices

This study examines Japanese employees' attitudinal opposition to changes in such employment practices as nenko (seniority)‐based wages and promotions, and implicit long‐term employment guarantees for the regular workforce. The study shows that (1) overall, Japanese employees are strongly opposed to placing a cap on senior employees' pay and to mid‐career transfers to subsidiary companies, and (2) the level of opposition is a function of their perceptions of unions' past performance and of employers' human resource policies.

Stochastic Analysis of Mechanizing Transaction Data Bases

In this paper we consider the transfer of records from a manual file system (MFS) to a mechanized data base management system when the conversion takes place through two processes. In the going-forward process a transfer is made by the regular work force when an order is received to change or delete a record in the MFS. In addition, the transfer of records is carried out by a crash force, working at a fixed rate. We investigate the expected number of records remaining in the MFS at future times, and the expected number of records removed from the MFS during the corresponding periods by the going-forward work force and by the crash force. We also derive the expected time taken to go from a prescribed number of records in the MFS to a smaller number. We give simple approximations for all of these quantities. The results have been used elsewhere in the construction of an economic model used to estimate cost/benefits and labor force levels during the mechanization of transaction data bases. The numerical results presented graphically are typical of two Bell System applications.

Job Placement and Follow-Up of Moderately and Severely Handicapped Individuals after Three Years

This paper describes the results of a three-year job placement project for moderately and severely handicapped individuals in Virginia. This project developed a training and advocacy approach to placement that involved client training by staff at the job site. Staff advocacy also took place with co-workers and employers. All clients were paid by employers as part of the regular workforce. Although the project is still ongoing as it seeks to replicate training and placement procedures throughout Virginia, at the three-year point, 63 clients have been placed, with 42 currently working, for a retention rate of 67%. These individuals have collectively earned $265,000 and paid well over $26,000 in state and federal taxes. Moreover, most of these clients had long records of exclusion from non-sheltered and even sheltered work, since they were viewed by professionals and parents as “realistically unemployable.” This report highlights the major characteristics and conclusions drawn from staff efforts to this point.