TrendWatchers

For years, economists have worried about the dreaded "Baumol's disease" - that is, the notion that productivity improvements in service jobs rise more slowly than in manufacturing jobs because it's difficult for machines to help service workers do their work more efficiently. As a result of this "dis...

The prospect of terrorism has changed the way experts look at succession planning. Prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, succession programs focused on filling key positions in case of executive turnover. Today, some companies check their succession programs against disaster plans in order to...

There's good news and bad news about business ethics these days.The good news comes on several fronts: business ethics has become a higher corporate priority, employee perceptions of ethics have become more positive (at least in the U.S.), and ethics programs really do seem to have an impact on...

As business issues go, the dangers posed by global pandemics are barely on the radar screen. A recent Human Resource Institute survey found that "global epidemics/pandemics" was ranked as the 102nd most important issue affecting people management, out of 120 total issues. But just as the issue of...

When it comes to leadership, today's corporations are in a transitional phase. A couple of decades ago, it wasn't that important to have top leaders with a solid grasp of the global business environment. The largest markets were usually domestic ones, and overseas operations could be operated well...

In October, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped from 6.1% to 6.0%, raising hopes for a robust job recovery. Questions remain, however, about how long and strong job growth will be. Some experts argue that the rapid rise of U.S. productivity will continue to hold down the number of jobs created.

Today's corporate leaders are under more pressure than ever. In some cases, they're being forced out and replaced with what some experts consider a "new breed" of leaders. The question is whether even the best of leaders can truly raise the performance of their companies to the degree that...

We could call it the healthcare paradox. Even as rising costs drive a wedge between U.S. businesses and labor, attempts to control those costs require that employers and employees work together ever more closely.Last week, grocery workers and public transit mechanics in California began a strike...

Time flies when you're busy analyzing trends. At HRI, we were a little surprised but proud to realize we'd been conducting our Major Issues Survey of HR professionals since 1988, way back when one of the survey items was actually "A Dukakis Administration." It seems like yesterday, and yet...

For years, critics of executive compensation were voices in the wilderness, warning that executive pay was reaching excessive levels. No one much listened during the 1990s, but then came corporate scandals in which highly paid CEOs such as Ken Lay and Bernard Ebbers ran their organizations into the...