Thursday, December 21, 2006
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The Labor Market: What is Next for business?
Abstract
Our world is shrinking and becoming more competitive globally. As the United States moves forward into the 21st century, firms are required to meet new challenges aggressively to maintain a viable market share. As firms perform more on the global stage, they are faced with opportunities and challenges to retain a skilled, knowledgeable workforce overseas, as well as growing talent at home to compete in a global workforce. In the next 10 to 15 years, a number of factors that will affect labor will shape business. As U.S. firms strategize, they need to understand the process of economic globalization, and the changing demographic trends.
The Labor Market: What is next for business?
We are global. Globalization practically affects every aspect of our lives. Oddly enough, globalization is not a new concept, as civilization has been practicing some form of globalization as far back as antiquity. Merchants opened up trade routes in the Middle Ages by trading spices with European countries, thus connecting the Euro-Asian continent and fueled an exchange of ideas and technology. As the world matured and world power shifted, the concept of globalization continued with the discovery of the Americas and the colonization of Africa and Asia. These changes in the socio-economic landscape brought forth a need for labor. Whether it was through slavery or indentured servitude, nations required talent to perform various tasks for economic sufficiency.
Global workforce growth
Fast forward to 2005 and open the door to a global workforce where the demand for labor has shifted from an unskilled to a skilled workforce. Popular opinion states globalization is a direct result from lifted trade barriers, cheaper and faster transportation and communication, and flexible exchange rates that allow capital to move easier (Karoly et al, 2004). In addition, workforce globalization has been influenced by an extra factor— the legal right to work in the United States. There is debate between economists over the long-term effect globalization will have on American labor. Some economists believe that moving jobs away from the source of capital (i.e. U.S.) to low-cost emerging economies (i.e. India) gives the exporting country the opportunity to focus more on core competencies such as research, development, and new technology which will create new jobs of better quality (Stalker, 2000). On the other hand, others argue that moving jobs away from the source of capital will enable emerging economies to create their own centers to produce capital and eventually neutralize American dominance (Levine, 2005). The latter sounds more realistic since some economists fail to consider that comparative advantage theory is only effectively applied to products/services and not human behavior which is not predictable.
Through the mid to late 1990’s the United States experienced an increase in jobs due to the technology explosion. Despite the increase in new jobs, there was a shortage of skilled labor to perform the specialized tasks in the high-tech sector, thus creating the need for firms to recruit and hire skilled labor from sources outside of the United States. For reasons discussed later in this paper, firms relied heavily on student and worker visas to help fill in the skill gap. However, as recently as 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) imposed limitations on the number of non-citizens eligible to work in the United States. The process to hire foreign talent proved to be time-consuming, cumbersome, and costly. The H-1B visa process, (along with other regulations) proved to be an obstacle to the hiring process because of the legalities involved. Presently, continued restrictions placed on immigration and work visas for security reasons after 9/11 make the process even more challenging in how firms source talent, as this specifically impacts recruitment of specialized labor for research and development and academic collaboration. Consequently, the stringent regulations involved with the H-1B process somewhat encouraged U.S. firms to explore opportunities to outsource or relocate operations to foreign countries such as India and China, where there is a greater number of personnel who possess education in the specialized fields, and wages are lower.
Global competition
The primary duty of a management is to maximize shareholder value, and labor is one of the largest expenses for a firm. So, to outsource and/or build operations in economies where costs, particularly wages are cheaper to increase net income is operating within the tenets of management’s commitment to the shareholders. At the same time, firms are able to reap the benefits of an educated workforce in these developing economies and assist in the economic growth of the region. However, as American business continues to utilize the financial advantages of operating in developing economies such as India and China, they should prepare themselves for the upcoming shift in the economic equalization of these countries, as well as the impending global labor shortage. These upcoming developments over the next five to ten years will make it difficult for U.S. companies to utilize foreign talent (Schramm, 2005). Presently the American workforce is unable to compete with counterparts in Asia because the workforce lacks the number of skilled and educated to perform tasks associated with advanced job roles.
Preparing the 21st century American workforce
Globalization is on the threshold of reaching the maturation stage. Most firms whether small or large are operating to some extent globally, but some are failing to realize the importance of forecasting the changes due to occur in workforce management. Currently most U.S. manufacturing firms are unable to fill skilled labor roles based on the failure to invest in training and lack of competitive pay. This trend was evident in 1997 to 2000, when manufacturing facilities in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana were competing for Engineers and Maintenance Electricians. Firms were actively recruiting staff from their counterparts, and workers went to the facility that offered the best pay. This trend continued through the economic downturn of 2001 to 2003, as it was a challenge to source engineering staff for specialized roles in the transportation, chemical and heavy manufacturing industry. As 2010 approaches, approximately 5.3 million skilled jobs will go unfilled (Vinas, 2005). This number will increase to 14 million by 2015 and it is estimated that the skilled workforce shortage will cost industry about $50 million (Vinas, 2005).
Presently, Firms are reviewing their strengths and weaknesses to determine how their workforce can be differentiated from the competition and focus on areas of success. To build a competitive advantage in human capital, the American workforce has to catch up with the reminder of the world. Although according to competitive strategy concept as explained by Michael Porter in Competitive Strategy, Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, it is not possible for firms to sustain successfully both differentiation and cost leadership to be profitable. Nevertheless, when discussing geographic regions as it relates to economies and human capital, it is feasible that both can coexist. For instance, the Chinese and Indian workforce markets are able to supply U.S. firms with both sources for competitive advantage. Firms are taking a serious look at the labor market and how to grow a knowledgeable and talented workforce despite the tightness of the labor market as a shortage in labor can impact earnings.
Though a university education can provide the foundation for a worker’s skill, firms must take responsibility of skill development and lifelong learning to remain competitive. Besides having the core skills to perform a job (i.e. engineering, accounting), a world-class workforce will also need the following skills/behaviors to maintain a global stance:
Communication – Skills and knowledge need to be developed to assist workers with understanding and interpreting what counterparts who speak English as a second language are saying. Conversely, individuals who speak English as a second language should have resources available to them to master the language.
Cultural diversity – Operating in a global economy means business professionals will need to have an understanding of other cultures, as well as appreciating the differences. This is even more important for U.S. workers, since on average our culture has a reputation for wanting others to assimilate with American/Westernized values. Staff should be able to “think globally, act locally” by respecting the customs and spending time to learn how business is conducted in non-Westernized economies.
Strategic thinking – The global economy is moving at a fast pace and it is important that workers are able to identify key issues and relationships relevant to achieving a long-range goal and setting a course of action.
Technological literacy – 21st century workers need to know how to use the varying modes of technology to complete work assignments. Workers have to have the ability to use technology to access, evaluate, process and synthesize information from a variety of sources.
Ethical behavior – With the surge of scandal surrounding Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco, it is imperative workers practice and understand the concept of ethical behavior and be able to distinguish between what is legal and what is right.
It is easy to say that the U.S. educational institutions should bear the responsibility of preparing the 21st century workforce with the necessary skills to compete in a global economy. Although this is realistic, firms are the best equipped at developing staff for their particular industry. Most knowledge-based workers may enter the workforce with highly developed skills acquired through college programs, except much of the knowledge associated with a career comes from actual work experiences, and the application of the theories learned in school to real world situations. For instance, during the first season of the Apprentice, Kwame Jackson, the first runner up often received feedback from his peers that he had a breadth of textbook knowledge and understood business concepts, but lacked the practical experience his competitors possessed. Practical experience is valued, and acquired only in the work environment.
An alternative firms can use for skill retention and development is to rely on growing talent organically by developing mentoring programs or utilizing retirees to help train less seasoned workers. Seton Healthcare Systems has a voluntary on-call program for retired nurses (Zehr, 2005), while some firms use highly skilled retirees as consultants for special projects. It is evident that training classes will not resolve the matter of developing a highly skilled workforce set to compete globally. Firms will have to prepare workers through continuous, life-long learning since the global business environment is fast paced and dynamic.
Corporate Responsibility to Labor
If a firm operates on a global scale, there needs to be global unions. As firms are taking advantage of the cheaper labor costs that outsourcing provides, they are not obligated to provide comparable benefits to workers or abide by the same labor standards enforced in the United States. Working conditions are often a concern because workers do not have the benefit of the laws and regulations that protect workers in the western world. If labor laws do exist, channels of enforcement are absent. For instance, in China despite laws that allow workers to elect their own union leadership, leadership is often appointed by factory owners in an effort to control workers and maintain order. These unions are referred to as boss unions, and since workers are only allowed by law to set up one union, having a boss union makes it illegal for workers to set up a real one (Pan, 2002). Ultimately, management’s role is to act in the best interest of the Chinese government.
As U.S. firms continue to move jobs overseas to developing economies American labor unions, in particularly the umbrella organization AFL-CIO, can take a leading role globally by attempting to influence governments and firms to establish a code for enforcement of existent labor laws and enacting the current standards developed by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Bank (, 2002). Several years ago, non-enforceable standards were developed because of protests of human rights activists who wanted the ILO and World Bank to consider the impact trade can have on underdeveloped countries, in particularly poor working conditions of labor.
Continued expansion in China and India will require U.S. firms to have a greater awareness of potential issues with working conditions and labor practices of the region. Firms are presently aware of the negative impact that collaborating with foreign firms who practice poor workplace practices. Nike, Mattel and Kathy Lee Gifford came under extreme public scrutiny in the late 1990’s from the media, customers, and investors because of their treatment of workers and use of child labor in subcontracted facilities in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Therefore, it is imperative that firms take responsibility for the labor conditions in their supply chains and subcontracted firms by hiring compliance officers to police work conditions. Firms can also place clauses in business contracts to ensure subcontracted facilities pay fair wages and employees work a reasonable amount of hours.
Additional factors
Employer-sponsored benefits should be addressed from a global perspective, as the means benefits are provided in each country differ within the same organization. Although policies to change benefits when an employee relocates for a short period of time is within the guidelines of the host country, most expatriates feel cheated when they are not offered the same benefits. In Europe, it is customary for workers to get six weeks of vacation, while in the United States our leave policies are based on length of service with the firm. Moreover, firms will be challenged to find ways to equalized employer-sponsored benefits to expatriates and their families.
A major concern is the threat of terrorism for firms with operations in politically unstable countries or the Middle East. Although business ventures in these areas are profitable it is very risky, so firms will need to develop strategies to keep their workforce and operations safe from terrorist attacks (, 2005), as well as provide security detail for employees when they travel to and from work locations. Firms involved with the re-building of Iraq have programs addressing safety and security by requiring workers live in secured compounds and restricting travel into townships. Other firms that enter less stable countries can use the Iraqi safety strategy as a guide in developing standards for protection of personnel.
The future of labor has been discussed for the past five years, but little has been done to prepare firms for the future of work in the United States. Overall, U.S. firms have a reputation of reacting to new trends. This has been apparent since IBM miscalculated the power of Microsoft. The opportunity is now, for firms to develop and create learning environments for workers by being creative and being unconventional in sourcing and retaining talent in the organization. Human resources was not mentioned in this paper for one reason, because the entire leadership of a firm needs to be accountable for the task at hand. To meet staffing and training needs managers and supervisors should actively participate with the human resource function to obtain a highly knowledgeable and skilled workforce. This is an opportunity for firms to maximize their roles by developing creative strategies to educate, source and retain their workforce.
References
(2002). Retrieved July 22, 2005, from AFL-CIO Fast Track 2002 Web site: www.aflcio.org/globaleconomy.
Creating Competitive Advantage through people is vital, says an expert. (2005). Retrieved August 27, 2005, from LexisNexis Academic database.
Karoly, L., & Panis, C. (2004). The 21st century at work, forces shaping the future workforce and workplace in the united states. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.
Levine, F. (2005). Domestic and foreign outsourcing, consequences for U.S. businesses. NSIDE Austin Business, 11(11), 22 - 24.
Maital, S. (2005). Globalization is a two-way street. Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, Retrieved September 05, 2005, from LexisNexis database.
Pan, P. P. (2002). In china labor unions offer little protection. Washington Post, . Retrieved Aug 28, 2005, from http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/labor/1016china.htm
Porter, M. (1998). Competitive strategy, techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: First Free Press.
Richey, M. (2003). India's blessed labor. The Motley Fool, . Retrieved June 22, 2005, from http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2003/commentary030805mr.htm
, S. G. (2005). Global hr: 2005 trends report. SHRM Global Forum, , .
Schramm, J. (2005). Learning to compete in a knowledge economy. Exploring the Future of Work: Workplace Visions, 3, 01-07. Stalker, P. (2000). Workers without frontiers. Geneva, CH: International Labor Organization.
Vinas, T. (2005, November 01). Skilled worker shortage: it's time to fix the kitchen sink. Industry Week, Retrieved Oct 27, 2005, from http://www.industryweek.com/.
Zehr, D. (2005, October 26).Baby boomers set to pack their skills and retire. Austin American Statesman, pp. C1.
Our world is shrinking and becoming more competitive globally. As the United States moves forward into the 21st century, firms are required to meet new challenges aggressively to maintain a viable market share. As firms perform more on the global stage, they are faced with opportunities and challenges to retain a skilled, knowledgeable workforce overseas, as well as growing talent at home to compete in a global workforce. In the next 10 to 15 years, a number of factors that will affect labor will shape business. As U.S. firms strategize, they need to understand the process of economic globalization, and the changing demographic trends.
The Labor Market: What is next for business?
We are global. Globalization practically affects every aspect of our lives. Oddly enough, globalization is not a new concept, as civilization has been practicing some form of globalization as far back as antiquity. Merchants opened up trade routes in the Middle Ages by trading spices with European countries, thus connecting the Euro-Asian continent and fueled an exchange of ideas and technology. As the world matured and world power shifted, the concept of globalization continued with the discovery of the Americas and the colonization of Africa and Asia. These changes in the socio-economic landscape brought forth a need for labor. Whether it was through slavery or indentured servitude, nations required talent to perform various tasks for economic sufficiency.
Global workforce growth
Fast forward to 2005 and open the door to a global workforce where the demand for labor has shifted from an unskilled to a skilled workforce. Popular opinion states globalization is a direct result from lifted trade barriers, cheaper and faster transportation and communication, and flexible exchange rates that allow capital to move easier (Karoly et al, 2004). In addition, workforce globalization has been influenced by an extra factor— the legal right to work in the United States. There is debate between economists over the long-term effect globalization will have on American labor. Some economists believe that moving jobs away from the source of capital (i.e. U.S.) to low-cost emerging economies (i.e. India) gives the exporting country the opportunity to focus more on core competencies such as research, development, and new technology which will create new jobs of better quality (Stalker, 2000). On the other hand, others argue that moving jobs away from the source of capital will enable emerging economies to create their own centers to produce capital and eventually neutralize American dominance (Levine, 2005). The latter sounds more realistic since some economists fail to consider that comparative advantage theory is only effectively applied to products/services and not human behavior which is not predictable.
Through the mid to late 1990’s the United States experienced an increase in jobs due to the technology explosion. Despite the increase in new jobs, there was a shortage of skilled labor to perform the specialized tasks in the high-tech sector, thus creating the need for firms to recruit and hire skilled labor from sources outside of the United States. For reasons discussed later in this paper, firms relied heavily on student and worker visas to help fill in the skill gap. However, as recently as 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) imposed limitations on the number of non-citizens eligible to work in the United States. The process to hire foreign talent proved to be time-consuming, cumbersome, and costly. The H-1B visa process, (along with other regulations) proved to be an obstacle to the hiring process because of the legalities involved. Presently, continued restrictions placed on immigration and work visas for security reasons after 9/11 make the process even more challenging in how firms source talent, as this specifically impacts recruitment of specialized labor for research and development and academic collaboration. Consequently, the stringent regulations involved with the H-1B process somewhat encouraged U.S. firms to explore opportunities to outsource or relocate operations to foreign countries such as India and China, where there is a greater number of personnel who possess education in the specialized fields, and wages are lower.
Global competition
The primary duty of a management is to maximize shareholder value, and labor is one of the largest expenses for a firm. So, to outsource and/or build operations in economies where costs, particularly wages are cheaper to increase net income is operating within the tenets of management’s commitment to the shareholders. At the same time, firms are able to reap the benefits of an educated workforce in these developing economies and assist in the economic growth of the region. However, as American business continues to utilize the financial advantages of operating in developing economies such as India and China, they should prepare themselves for the upcoming shift in the economic equalization of these countries, as well as the impending global labor shortage. These upcoming developments over the next five to ten years will make it difficult for U.S. companies to utilize foreign talent (Schramm, 2005). Presently the American workforce is unable to compete with counterparts in Asia because the workforce lacks the number of skilled and educated to perform tasks associated with advanced job roles.
Preparing the 21st century American workforce
Globalization is on the threshold of reaching the maturation stage. Most firms whether small or large are operating to some extent globally, but some are failing to realize the importance of forecasting the changes due to occur in workforce management. Currently most U.S. manufacturing firms are unable to fill skilled labor roles based on the failure to invest in training and lack of competitive pay. This trend was evident in 1997 to 2000, when manufacturing facilities in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana were competing for Engineers and Maintenance Electricians. Firms were actively recruiting staff from their counterparts, and workers went to the facility that offered the best pay. This trend continued through the economic downturn of 2001 to 2003, as it was a challenge to source engineering staff for specialized roles in the transportation, chemical and heavy manufacturing industry. As 2010 approaches, approximately 5.3 million skilled jobs will go unfilled (Vinas, 2005). This number will increase to 14 million by 2015 and it is estimated that the skilled workforce shortage will cost industry about $50 million (Vinas, 2005).
Presently, Firms are reviewing their strengths and weaknesses to determine how their workforce can be differentiated from the competition and focus on areas of success. To build a competitive advantage in human capital, the American workforce has to catch up with the reminder of the world. Although according to competitive strategy concept as explained by Michael Porter in Competitive Strategy, Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, it is not possible for firms to sustain successfully both differentiation and cost leadership to be profitable. Nevertheless, when discussing geographic regions as it relates to economies and human capital, it is feasible that both can coexist. For instance, the Chinese and Indian workforce markets are able to supply U.S. firms with both sources for competitive advantage. Firms are taking a serious look at the labor market and how to grow a knowledgeable and talented workforce despite the tightness of the labor market as a shortage in labor can impact earnings.
Though a university education can provide the foundation for a worker’s skill, firms must take responsibility of skill development and lifelong learning to remain competitive. Besides having the core skills to perform a job (i.e. engineering, accounting), a world-class workforce will also need the following skills/behaviors to maintain a global stance:
Communication – Skills and knowledge need to be developed to assist workers with understanding and interpreting what counterparts who speak English as a second language are saying. Conversely, individuals who speak English as a second language should have resources available to them to master the language.
Cultural diversity – Operating in a global economy means business professionals will need to have an understanding of other cultures, as well as appreciating the differences. This is even more important for U.S. workers, since on average our culture has a reputation for wanting others to assimilate with American/Westernized values. Staff should be able to “think globally, act locally” by respecting the customs and spending time to learn how business is conducted in non-Westernized economies.
Strategic thinking – The global economy is moving at a fast pace and it is important that workers are able to identify key issues and relationships relevant to achieving a long-range goal and setting a course of action.
Technological literacy – 21st century workers need to know how to use the varying modes of technology to complete work assignments. Workers have to have the ability to use technology to access, evaluate, process and synthesize information from a variety of sources.
Ethical behavior – With the surge of scandal surrounding Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco, it is imperative workers practice and understand the concept of ethical behavior and be able to distinguish between what is legal and what is right.
It is easy to say that the U.S. educational institutions should bear the responsibility of preparing the 21st century workforce with the necessary skills to compete in a global economy. Although this is realistic, firms are the best equipped at developing staff for their particular industry. Most knowledge-based workers may enter the workforce with highly developed skills acquired through college programs, except much of the knowledge associated with a career comes from actual work experiences, and the application of the theories learned in school to real world situations. For instance, during the first season of the Apprentice, Kwame Jackson, the first runner up often received feedback from his peers that he had a breadth of textbook knowledge and understood business concepts, but lacked the practical experience his competitors possessed. Practical experience is valued, and acquired only in the work environment.
An alternative firms can use for skill retention and development is to rely on growing talent organically by developing mentoring programs or utilizing retirees to help train less seasoned workers. Seton Healthcare Systems has a voluntary on-call program for retired nurses (Zehr, 2005), while some firms use highly skilled retirees as consultants for special projects. It is evident that training classes will not resolve the matter of developing a highly skilled workforce set to compete globally. Firms will have to prepare workers through continuous, life-long learning since the global business environment is fast paced and dynamic.
Corporate Responsibility to Labor
If a firm operates on a global scale, there needs to be global unions. As firms are taking advantage of the cheaper labor costs that outsourcing provides, they are not obligated to provide comparable benefits to workers or abide by the same labor standards enforced in the United States. Working conditions are often a concern because workers do not have the benefit of the laws and regulations that protect workers in the western world. If labor laws do exist, channels of enforcement are absent. For instance, in China despite laws that allow workers to elect their own union leadership, leadership is often appointed by factory owners in an effort to control workers and maintain order. These unions are referred to as boss unions, and since workers are only allowed by law to set up one union, having a boss union makes it illegal for workers to set up a real one (Pan, 2002). Ultimately, management’s role is to act in the best interest of the Chinese government.
As U.S. firms continue to move jobs overseas to developing economies American labor unions, in particularly the umbrella organization AFL-CIO, can take a leading role globally by attempting to influence governments and firms to establish a code for enforcement of existent labor laws and enacting the current standards developed by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Bank (, 2002). Several years ago, non-enforceable standards were developed because of protests of human rights activists who wanted the ILO and World Bank to consider the impact trade can have on underdeveloped countries, in particularly poor working conditions of labor.
Continued expansion in China and India will require U.S. firms to have a greater awareness of potential issues with working conditions and labor practices of the region. Firms are presently aware of the negative impact that collaborating with foreign firms who practice poor workplace practices. Nike, Mattel and Kathy Lee Gifford came under extreme public scrutiny in the late 1990’s from the media, customers, and investors because of their treatment of workers and use of child labor in subcontracted facilities in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Therefore, it is imperative that firms take responsibility for the labor conditions in their supply chains and subcontracted firms by hiring compliance officers to police work conditions. Firms can also place clauses in business contracts to ensure subcontracted facilities pay fair wages and employees work a reasonable amount of hours.
Additional factors
Employer-sponsored benefits should be addressed from a global perspective, as the means benefits are provided in each country differ within the same organization. Although policies to change benefits when an employee relocates for a short period of time is within the guidelines of the host country, most expatriates feel cheated when they are not offered the same benefits. In Europe, it is customary for workers to get six weeks of vacation, while in the United States our leave policies are based on length of service with the firm. Moreover, firms will be challenged to find ways to equalized employer-sponsored benefits to expatriates and their families.
A major concern is the threat of terrorism for firms with operations in politically unstable countries or the Middle East. Although business ventures in these areas are profitable it is very risky, so firms will need to develop strategies to keep their workforce and operations safe from terrorist attacks (, 2005), as well as provide security detail for employees when they travel to and from work locations. Firms involved with the re-building of Iraq have programs addressing safety and security by requiring workers live in secured compounds and restricting travel into townships. Other firms that enter less stable countries can use the Iraqi safety strategy as a guide in developing standards for protection of personnel.
The future of labor has been discussed for the past five years, but little has been done to prepare firms for the future of work in the United States. Overall, U.S. firms have a reputation of reacting to new trends. This has been apparent since IBM miscalculated the power of Microsoft. The opportunity is now, for firms to develop and create learning environments for workers by being creative and being unconventional in sourcing and retaining talent in the organization. Human resources was not mentioned in this paper for one reason, because the entire leadership of a firm needs to be accountable for the task at hand. To meet staffing and training needs managers and supervisors should actively participate with the human resource function to obtain a highly knowledgeable and skilled workforce. This is an opportunity for firms to maximize their roles by developing creative strategies to educate, source and retain their workforce.
References
(2002). Retrieved July 22, 2005, from AFL-CIO Fast Track 2002 Web site: www.aflcio.org/globaleconomy.
Creating Competitive Advantage through people is vital, says an expert. (2005). Retrieved August 27, 2005, from LexisNexis Academic database.
Karoly, L., & Panis, C. (2004). The 21st century at work, forces shaping the future workforce and workplace in the united states. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.
Levine, F. (2005). Domestic and foreign outsourcing, consequences for U.S. businesses. NSIDE Austin Business, 11(11), 22 - 24.
Maital, S. (2005). Globalization is a two-way street. Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, Retrieved September 05, 2005, from LexisNexis database.
Pan, P. P. (2002). In china labor unions offer little protection. Washington Post, . Retrieved Aug 28, 2005, from http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/labor/1016china.htm
Porter, M. (1998). Competitive strategy, techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: First Free Press.
Richey, M. (2003). India's blessed labor. The Motley Fool, . Retrieved June 22, 2005, from http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2003/commentary030805mr.htm
, S. G. (2005). Global hr: 2005 trends report. SHRM Global Forum, , .
Schramm, J. (2005). Learning to compete in a knowledge economy. Exploring the Future of Work: Workplace Visions, 3, 01-07. Stalker, P. (2000). Workers without frontiers. Geneva, CH: International Labor Organization.
Vinas, T. (2005, November 01). Skilled worker shortage: it's time to fix the kitchen sink. Industry Week, Retrieved Oct 27, 2005, from http://www.industryweek.com/.
Zehr, D. (2005, October 26).Baby boomers set to pack their skills and retire. Austin American Statesman, pp. C1.
