Competitive advantage through people: unleashing the power of the work force

563 Pages·1996·1.21 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Pfeffer

Competitive Advantage Through People :
title:
Unleashing the Power of the Work Force
author: Pfeffer, Jeffrey.
publisher: Harvard Business School Press
isbn10 | asin: 087584717X
print isbn13: 9780875847177
ebook isbn13: 9780585093123
language: English
Personnel management--United States,
subject Organizational behavior--United States,
Competition--United States.
publication date: 1994
lcc: HF5549.2.U5P5 1994eb
ddc: 658.3/14
Personnel management--United States,
subject: Organizational behavior--United States,
Competition--United States.
Competitive Advantage Through People
Unleashing the Power of the Work Force
Jefferey Pfeffer
Stanford University
Graduate School of Business
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
First published in the United States by the Harvard Business School
Press in hard cover, 1994; in paperback, 1995
Copyright © 1994 by Jeffrey Pfeffer
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
99 98 543 (pbk.)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Pfeffer, Jeffrey.
Competitive advantage through people: unleashing the power
of the work force / Jeffrey Pfeffer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87584-413-8 (hc)
ISBN 0-87584-717-X (pbk)
1. Personnel managementUnited States. 2. Organizational
behaviorUnited States. 3. CompetitionUnited States.
1. Title.
HF5549.2.U5P5 1994
658.3'14dc20 93-26599
CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials Z39.49-1984.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Part I Performance through People
1. Sources of Sustained Success 3
2. What Effective Firms Do with People 27
3. The Evidence for Slow Learning and Unrealized 67
Potential
Part II Barriers to Doing the Right Thing
4. Wrong Heroes, Wrong Theories, Wrong Language 93
5. Overcoming History 117
Page vi
6. Labor Laws, Lawyers, and Litigation: Friends or Foes 137
of Work Place Change?
7. Employee Organizations: Their Effects and Role in 159
Work Place Reform
8. Resistance from Within 183
Part III Prospects for Change
9. The Promise of the Quality Movement 205
10. Making the Change 223
Notes 255
Index 273
Page vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has only one author, but many people have provided
tremendous encouragement and assistance in its development. When
Jim Baron joined the Stanford faculty in 1982, in addition to teaching
our core course in organizational behavior, he wanted to develop an
elective. "Why not do something that incorporates your research in
organizations and labor markets?" I said. The elective he first taught,
which I subsequently taught and which he now teaches again, will
soon be part of our core curriculum. The absence of a good text for
the course prompted me to write this book. Over the years, he and I
have spent numerous hours talking about issues in the management of
a firm's human resources. Not only has he been a great colleague, but
he took a first draft of this manuscript on a trip to Singapore and
provided detailed comments on his return. He, and the students I have
taught in the course, have helped me clarify my thinking enormously.
A number of friends provided useful commentary on early drafts of
the manuscript. Beth Benjamin once again took time away from her
Page viii
doctoral dissertation and Stan Winvick stole time from his busy
schedule at Advanced Micro Devices to provide very important
guidance.
Much of what I know about achieving competitive advantage through
the work force I have learned from some truly remarkable individuals
in interesting firms. Dave Spence and Jay Duhon of Boise Cascade,
Vit Eckersdorf of Bofors, and Peter Thigpen of Levi Strauss were kind
enough to share their wisdom and experience with both me and my
students. Robert Mountain, Bill Izabal, and numerous managers gave
freely of their time to describe the process of changing human
resource practices at ESL. Stan Winvick and his colleagues at AMD
arranged opportunities to learn about what that firm was doing, how,
and why.
Special thanks go to two people. Rick Seaman, a student of mine at
Stanford is now with the Solectron Corporation. He, Wait Wilson,
manager of the Milpitas site, Ko Nishimura, the CEO, and many other
Solectron employees provided important information and perspective.
Rick read a first draft of the manuscript. Working in a Baldrige-
award-winning company, he was used to measures. So he gave me a
chart showing the proportion of each of those chapters he had
highlighted. I hope I did better with this version. And Charles
O'Reilly, who moved from Berkeley to Stanford as the book was
being written, read the manuscript twice, providing examples,
insights, and most of all, encouragement and enthusiasm. As I revised
the manuscript, Rick's and Charles' questions and comments were
foremost in my mind.
This is my sixth book and the second with the Harvard Business
School Press. My friends at the Press, particularly Carol Franco, my
editor, and Natalie Greenberg, an editor who can both devastate your
work and help it at the same time, as well as the people who market
the books, have earned my undying gratitude. They all exemplify the
idea of quality people and a quality organization. I appreciate all their
efforts on my behalf.
The Stanford Graduate School of Business supports me generously. I
particularly appreciate our dean, Mike Spence, and my colleagues in
organizational behavior who almost always understand that my
primary job is research and teaching and give me the time and
freedom to do
Page ix
itand don't complain about my missing meetings, when I do, too
loudly.
This book would never have been finished on time, or perhaps at all,
without the gracious, friendly, and extraordinarily competent help of
my assistant, Joni Podolsky. Joni provided comments, questions, and
editing. Working with her on this project has been a pleasure.
This book is dedicated to the amazing Kathleen, the keeper of my
spirit, my best friend, and a person of beauty, grace, and above all,
courage and determination.
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PERFORMANCE THROUGH PEOPLE