"New opportunities afforded by the decline of the corporate man who spent his working life climbing the ladder at a single company. "In all, the self-directed career model offers the potential for more people to develop satisfying careers than the traditional lifetime-loyalty model did," they write."

Business Week July 31 IDEAS-- BOOKS Workers As Self-Managers , THE NEW AMERICAN WORKPLACE, By James O'Toole and Edward E. Lawler

Three decades ago, then-Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Elliot L. Richardson handed a government task force the ambitious job of examining U.S. working conditions. It was a time of widespread concern about "blue-collar blues" and disaffection over stultifying, routinized jobs. After a year's study, Richardson's panel of experts produced an influential report entitled Work in America. It warned that too many Americans were stuck in narrow, repetitive jobs, especially in manufacturing, that lead to a variety of mental and physical health problems.

Now, 33years later, there's a sequel from the panel's chairman, James O'Toole, a professor at the University of Southern California's Center for Effective Organizations, and his colleague Edward E. Lawler III, the center's founder and director. Their goal in The New American Workplace is to analyze the extensive changes that have swept through U.S. companies in the intervening years.