ILRHR 6440 - Forging the Future of Work in America

Spring (seven-week session). 2 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: ILRHR 5600. Enrollment limited to: 25 graduate level students. Co-meets with ILRHR 4440.

L. Dyer.

What is the future of work? Is it what we want it to be? If not, why not and what can be done about it? This course addresses these questions, motivated by the concern that those just now entering the workforce are inheriting a mess that, unless reversed, promises to deliver a future in which many, if not most, will experience a lower standard of living than their parents. The course is a local adaptation of a course developed and conducted by Professor Thomas Kochan at MIT’s Sloan School titled “Shaping the Future of Work” (#15.662). Both courses, in turn, are part of a larger initiative aimed first at getting a firm handle on the younger generation’s definition of the “American Dream” and then at mobilizing cross-generational efforts to secure the key components of the dream. The MIT course provides an opportunity to tap into its online portion asynchronously (i.e., week by week at our convenience), and use these resources as well as other related materials and guest speakers from the ILR faculty and elsewhere to guide and enrich in-class discussions. Key topics covered include: current opportunities and challenges facing the workforce, the nature of the old (post WW II) social contract between employers and employees and the conditions that made it possible, how that social contract has been eroded by subsequent developments (globalization, technology 2.0, etc.), and steps that might be taken to achieve a more desirable future state.