Finding Time or Macroeconomics

Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices

Author: Leslie A Perlow

Why do Americans work so hard? Are the long hours spent at work really necessary to increase organizational productivity? Leslie A. Perlow documents the worklife of employees who assume that for their own success and the success of their organization they must put in extended hours on the job. Perlow doesn't buy it. She challenges the basic assumption that the more employees work, the better the corporation will do. For nine months, Perlow studied the work practices of a product development team of software engineers at a Fortune 500 corporation. She reports her findings in detailed stories about individual employees and in more analytic chapters. Perlow first describes the individual heroics necessary to succeed in the existing work culture. She then explains how the system of rewards perpetuates crises and continuous interruptions, while discouraging cooperation. Finally, she shows how the resulting work practices damage both organizational productivity and the quality of individuals' lives outside of work.

Publishers Weekly

Perlow, an assistant professor at the Univ. of Michigan business school, spent four years under the auspices of the Ford Foundation, studying the work habits of engineers at Ditto, a pseudonymous Fortune 500 company. She starts by examining the structure of Ditto and how its employees work together. Using single men, working mothers and working fathers as examples, Perlow presents employees' chronicles in which they detail everything they do from when they get up to arrival at the office to lunchtime to going to bed. Several employees also discuss how they spend their time, both at the office and at home, as they juggle the responsibilities of work and their personal life. While there are real difficultiesworking mothers, rather than fathers, still have more responsibilities at home and will stay home with a sick childthere are also issues of perception. Driven, successful people are perceived to work long hours, to expand their workdays to include formal and impromptu discussions. So, while some employees requested flexible schedules, flextime seemed to hinder an employee's chances for promotion. Perlow offers some suggestions for improving employee productivityby having employees specify certain hours for "interactive" time and "quiet" time. However, most workers were unable to adhere to these strategies, in part because of the continuing pressure to be seen as accessible. As a portrait of what is an all-too-common situationemployees finding there aren't enough hours in the day to meet their work and family demandsthis is an interesting portrait. However, the suggestions for change fall short. (Jan.)

Table of Contents:

	Foreword
	Preface
	Introduction: The Case against Long Work Hours	1
Pt. I	Life in the Fast Lane	9
1	Organizational Superstar: Max's Story	15
2	Ideal Female Employee: Laura's Story	23
3	Individual Heroics: Criteria for Success	33
4	Home Life: Tradeoffs between Work and Family	45
Pt. II	How Work Really Gets Done	57
5	Help and Helping: Matt's and Sarah's Stories	61
6	Constant Interruptions: Misuses of Time	73
7	Crisis Mentality: Rhythms of Work	87
8	Vicious Work Time Cycle: A Major Impediment to Corporate Productivity	95
Pt. III	The Possibility of Change	99
9	Flexible Work Options Fall Short: Kate's Story	103
10	Potential for Collective Change: Quiet Time	115
11	New Work Practices: Benefits for Corporations, Individuals, and Families	129
	Afterword: Two Years Later	137
	Methodological Appendix: A Research Tale	141
	References	149
	Index	153

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This thoroughly revised edition provides a complete, balanced introduction to economics and to the most important issues facing the world's economies at the turn of the millennium. In addition to fine-tuning and streamlining the prose and the overall presentation, the authors have comprehensively updated the text and the applications to reflect recent economic developments and topics of current interest. Students in particular will find the Study Guide, with its practice questions, exercises, and problems, to be an excellent source of study support and extra review material. It is available in both a one- and a two-volume edition.

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Why are there no taxes in Kathmandu? Why is rent in Manhattan so high? And who really pays taxes? These and many other questions about economics of interest to a lay audience form the basis of this excellent set, which is tailor-made for public and high school libraries. The staff editors do not provide an academic treatise on the complex, technical details of economic theory or principles. Instead, they focus on translating economics into an easily understood language, making this work highly useful for students--especially at the high school level. The six volumes cover money, banking, and finance; the citizen and the economy; business operations; the U.S. economy and the world; economic theory; and economic history. With the exception of Volume 5 (on economic theory), the volumes contain numerous well-organized chapters that adequately cover the topic. Volume 5 is arranged as an A-Z encyclopedia of shorter articles about fundamental concepts in economics and can be used as both a reference to the other volumes and a stand-alone reference. Numerous charts, diagrams, figures, and glossy photos are used to clarify concepts, and the set's glossary, reading list, and index are re-produced in each of the six volumes, making for easier cross-referencing. With the ever-changing nature of finance law and regulations, this well-prepared reference set will need regular updates, but it remains the resource of choice on economics for its targeted audience.--Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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An introduction to issues, methods, and policy problems in economics. Part I discusses comparative economic systems. Part II deals with demand and supply, and applies the tools of price determination and elasticity to case studies. Part III presents foundations of supply and demand and consumer behavior, and includes material on the derivation of demand curves using indifference curves. Features highlighted key concepts, chapter summaries, questions, and applications boxes. This 11th edition focuses on globalization, and addresses transitional economies in Eastern Europe. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)