Page 38 - The Drucker Lectures

3

The Problems of Maintaining

Continuous and Full Employment

1957

here are three major forces in an industrial economy today
Tthat exert pressure toward making employment continuous
and stable:

s 4HE lRST IS SOCIAL PRESSURE ESPECIALLY THROUGH ORGANIZED TRADE
unions. Some suggest that it is natural that the worker should
GIVE STABLE EMPLOYMENT lRST PLACE AMONG HIS CARES AND HOPES
)N THE 5NITED 3TATES THIS IS A CONSIDERABLE OVERSTATEMENT SUCH
THINGS AS WAGE LEVELS WORKING HOURS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR
advancement are likely to rank as high among the “care and
hopes” of many workers in this country as does stable em-
PLOYMENT !ND WHILE hNATURAL v STABLE EMPLOYMENT IS A RECENT
CONCERN OF THE WORKER /NLY YEARS AGO WAGES AND WORKING
CONDITIONS WOULD HAVE UNDOUBTEDLY BEEN GIVEN hlRST PLACE v
AND STABILITY OF EMPLOYMENT MIGHT A GENERATION AGO NOT HAVE
BEEN AMONG THE CONSCIOUS CARES OF THE WORKER AT ALL 7E FACE
IN OTHER WORDS A BASIC CHANGE IN THE GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS OF
the worker in industrial society—and perhaps a change that
offers opportunities as well as challenges of management.
s 4HE NEXT MAJOR PRESSURE TOWARD MAINTAINING CONTINUOUS AND
STABLE EMPLOYMENT IS MODERN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY BOTH

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