Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Harold Salzman on Workplace and Industry Studies

Dr. Harold Salzman tells a House subcommittee on innovation and technology that new perspectives on competition and new routes for sharing knowledge freely across borders have prompted firms and universities to globalize. Salzman argues that globalization is not prompted by any deficiencies in the domestic supply of trained workers, and that "techno-nationalist" policies of the past are outdated and ineffective.

Recent policy reports claim the United States is falling behind other nations in science and math education and graduating insufficient numbers of scientists and engineers. Review of the evidence and analysis of actual graduation rates and workforce needs does not find support for these claims. U.S. student performance rankings are comparable to other leading nations and colleges graduate far more scientists and engineers than are hired each year. Instead, the evidence suggests targeted education improvements are needed for the lowest performers and demand-side factors may be insufficient to attract qualified college graduates.

Current shifts of technology development work by multinationals to the emerging economies is now high-end (rather than adaptive) development. Our study of processes and outcomes of globally distributed engineering involves field work at 67 sites in eight countries. Based on our fieldwork we conclude that this new shift in the location of technology work at the top of the value chain is not only distinctive, but also disjunctive, not following past trajectories of offshoring. This is occurring as a matter of incremental value chain creep, rather than guided by "strategy." The consequences are not well conceptualized by managers and policymakers.

Growing the U.S. economy and maintaining its global economic strength depends on developing the “new breed” of technical and non-technical workers who can work across national, organizational, and cultural boundaries. The US economy is not threatened by the increase of scientists and engineers in China and India, nor is there a lack of qualified science and engineering graduates in the U.S. The best competitiveness policy would focus on strengthening basic education, on the performance of those at the bottom, on providing a broad-based education, and on developing a cohort of cosmopolitan scientists and engineers who will give the U.S. “collaborative advantage.”

Capital access programs and funds for women starting and expanding their businesses have grown dramatically over the past decade. These programs cover the spectrum from microenterprise to venture capital funds and serve highly diverse populations. Thirteen "best practice" programs and three "promising practices" (new programs that appear innovative but do not yet have a track record) are profiled in this report and are the basis for our analysis of key success factors, barriers, and constraints faced by women entrepreneurs, and our policy recommendations. We profile and analyze the programs to share best practices and lessons learned so that successful programs can be replicated. Our analysis of these best practice programs identifies six areas that can improve the strength of all capital access programs and expand their reach.

As the U.S. loses its monopoly in high technology, policymakers are calling for increases in the number of science and technology graduates and in R&D investment. We believe these proposals fail to recognize what is distinctive about the emerging global economy. Our studies of engineering in multinational home countries and in emerging economies suggest that the U.S. cannot match the numbers of engineers being trained in India and China, and it is not clear how much benefits to U.S. firms will help the U.S. economy. Instead, the U.S. should seek "collaborative advantage" by developing a new role in the global technology system. We should train "global engineers," support research where there is true comparative advantage, and develop mutual-gain partnerships. [This article appeared in the National Academies of Science journal Issues in Science and Technology Winter 2006. www.issues.org.]

This paper examines offshoring of advanced engineering to emerging economies by multinational enterprises (MNEs) through case studies of U.S. and European MNE engineering development sites in China, India, and Mexico. We assess the offshoring of core technologies, impact on MNE engineering capabilities, and degree of technology transfer to emerging economies. We find significant technology transfer to emerging economies, but MNEs are developing multiple national identities, weakening their strong national ties and technology capabilities of their home countries. Although the global state of technology will benefit, it is less certain what the country-specific impact will be on jobs and economic growth.

Analyses of work-life balance typically do not address the role of organizational structure but generally focus on individual worker attributes and a company's work-life policies. This paper focuses on the interrelationship among structural changes in industries and firms, managerial strategy, and jobs. This chapter appears in Work and Life Integration in Organizations and is based on our broader research on internal labor market changes over the past decade and the implications for the quality of jobs as a consequence of corporate restructuring in four industries. We find that although employer-driven restructuring is the predominant factor shaping job structure, and that changes in flexibility are usually collateral consequences rather than goals of restructuring, worker needs for job flexibility to accommodate work-life balance exert pressure on managers to structure jobs around those needs. The paper details those changes in jobs and career paths that affect the opportunities for work-life balance.

Corporate restructuring of the past decade has changed the fate of lower-skilled workers, but the exact nature of that fate—whether loss of long-term employment or of job ladders—is widely debated. Case studies and analysis of employment and industry data on jobs in the food industry, as part of a four-industry study (retail, finance, electronics manufacturing), find that industry consolidation and the shift of food preparation work out of food service providers (restaurants, and cafeterias in schools and businesses) to suppliers—in particular manufacturers—may create higher-quality jobs and more extensive job ladders. However, these improved jobs have lifted many opportunities beyond the reach of many lower-skilled workers in the industry. The findings suggest an explanation for the puzzle about why the media report individual firms downsizing while aggregate data exhibit no change in average job tenure and related measures: processes that dismantle job ladders in one set of businesses may create new jobs and opportunities elsewhere, averaging out to little change overall.

This study examines whether small minority- and women-owned enterprises (MWEs) use computers less than white-male-owned enterprises and whether higher levels of computer use increase productivity. We use data from a new telephone survey of roughly 1,100 firms and 45 in-depth interviews with business owners. The results suggest that: (1) Small MWEs show no tendency to use computers less than small firms owned by white men; and (2) Using computers for more business functions and/or more intensively for these business functions can raise the productivity and profitability of small MWEs.