Books & Other Writing

The Case for Good Jobs by Zeynep Ton

In this follow-up to The Good Jobs Strategy, Ton examines the “why” and “how” of the good jobs system—to help leaders and managers overcome the disconnect between recognizing a better model, and having the courage to implement it.

 

The Good Jobs Strategy by Zeynep Ton

Almost one-fifth of American workers have bad jobs. They endure low wages, poor benefits, schedules that change with little—if any—notice, and few opportunities for advancement. The conventional wisdom is that many companies have no choice but to offer bad jobs—especially retailers whose business models entail competing on low prices.

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Research

 

HBR: Why “Good Jobs” Are Good for Retailers (2012)

In The Good Jobs Strategy, Zeynep Ton, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, makes the compelling case that even in low-cost settings, leaving employees behind—with bad jobs—is...

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HBR: The Big Idea - Good Jobs Solution (2017)

HBR's "The Big Idea" series explores the "Good Jobs Solution" in a series of several articles that discusses how businesses are taking advantage of the Good Jobs Strategy...

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Articles

Featured Articles

Harvard Business Review

Equality in the U.S. Starts with Better Jobs

Americans are demanding a reckoning. Incidents of police brutality and structural inequities that have caused the pandemic to hit people of color especially hard are sparking calls for racial justice.

Harvard Business Review

The Financial Case for Good Retail Jobs

To make the financial case for increasing the company’s investment in its people and improving their work, retail executives can quantify three types of benefits.

Forbes

Creating Pathways To Quality Jobs: Why Time Is Of The Essence

This is a great time to be having the conversation about pathways to quality jobs for hourly workers.

  1. Give Service Workers Stable Schedules - March 2022
  2. Why Reducing Your Offering Pays Off - January 2021
  3. Equality in the U.S. Starts with Better Jobs - August 2020
  4. Rebuilding the Economy Around Good Jobs - May 2020
  5. How Can't-Close Retailers Are Keeping Workers Safe - March 2020
  6. Why So Many CEOs Don't Realize They've Got a Bad Jobs Problem - November 2019
  7. Service Jobs Should Be - and Can Be - Middle-Class Jobs - August 2019
  8. The Financial Case for Good Retail Jobs - June 2019
  9. Raising Wages Is the Right Thing to Do, and Doesn't Have to Be Bad from Your Bottom Line - April 2019
  10. Higher Wages Aren't Enough to Turn Mediocre Jobs into Good One - October 2018
  11. If Retailers Want to Compete with Amazon, They Should Use Their Tax Savings to Raise Wages - January 2018
  12. The GJS Can Take Lessons from TPS - December 2017
  13. Getting Started on Good Jobs - December 2017
  14. How to Build a Business on Good Jobs - December 2017
  15. Transforming Today's Bad Jobs into Tomorrow's Good Jobs - June 2017
  16. How 4 Retailers Became "Best Places to Work - January 2017
  17. How Low-Paying Retailers Can Adapt to Higher Minimum Wages - August 2016
  18. 4 Reasons Retail Jobs Are About to Get Better - September 2015

 

Latest Articles 

  1. What is The Good Jobs Strategy? - January 2022
  2. How a Washington Casino is Using The Good Jobs Strategy to Invest in Guest Experience - December 2021
  1. Trying to Get a Job in a Labor Shortage is Harder Than You Think - November 2021
  2. You Can't Train Away Bad Jobs - September 2021

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September 2019

 

Others' Work That Inspires Us

High Performance Work Practices

  1. Shaping the Future of Work - Thomas Kochan
  1. In Search of the High Road: Meaning and Evidence - Paul Osterman
  2. Taking the high road: New data show higher wages may increase productivity, among other benefits - Susan Helper and Ryan Noonan
  3. Managing Customer Services: Human Resource Practices, Quit Rates, and Sales Growth - Rosemary Batt
  4. What works at work: Overview and assessment - Casey Ichniowski, Thomas A. Kochan, David Levine, Craig Olson, and George Strauss
  5. Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: Organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry - John Paul MacDuffie

Toyota Production System & Operational Excellence

  1. Out of the Crisis - W. Edwards Deming
  2. Toyota Way - Jeffrey Liker
  3. The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition - Steve Spear
  4. The Idea Driven Organization - Alan Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder
  5. How to Change a Culture: Lessons From NUMMI - John Shook
  6. Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System - Steve Spear and Kent Bowen
  7. Triumph of the Lean Production System - John Krafcik
  8. TSSC: Toyota Production System - Toyota

 

Employee Needs & Motivation

Organizational Change

 
Leading Change

John Kotter

 

Management on the Mend: Transformation in Healthcare Systems

John Toussaint

 

High Commitment High Performance

Mike Beer

 

Center for Higher Ambition Leadership

Mike Beer

 

Why Change Programs Don't Produce Change
  • Russell Eisenstat, Bert Spector, Michael Beer
  •  
8-Step Process for Leading Change

John Kotter

Other Operations & Service Management

Putting the service-profit chain to work
  • James L. Heskett,Thomas O. Jones,Gary W. Loveman,W. Earl Sasser, Jr.,Leonard A. Schlesinger
Match Supply and Demand in Service Industries

W. Earl Sasser

 

Problem Solving

Nelson Repenning, Don Kiefer, Todd Astor

 

 

 

 

 

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