This study examines variations in human resource policies in work organizations in the United States, relating these policies to issues of productivity, technological innovation, and problems posed by a changing American labor force. The research draws on two data sources: a representative national sample of American workers and a corresponding sample of organizations employing them. This will represent the first instance that data will have been collected on a nationally representative sample of work establishments, and the first time since the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey that comprehensive data will have been collected on a nationally representative sample of American workers. These data bases are essential to test important hypotheses about the prevalence and variation throughout the United States of various management systems, recruitment and retention policies, training programs, and industrial relations practices. Until now information in this broad human resource area has been available primarily from case studies of distinctive types of organizations in selected parts of the country; there has been no comprehensive description and assessment of human resource policies and practices in U. S. work organizations. The Principal Investigators in this study have had extensive experience in this area of research; all were participants in pilot studies funded by the National Science Foundation, to address some of the technical problems involved in such a broad national survey of workers and work establishments. These pilot studies carefully considered such basic problems as the adequacy and representativeness of alternative sampling designs and the reliability of data collected on organizations. The present research grows out of and builds upon the findings of these pilot studies. Issues of organizational effectiveness, competitiveness, and productivity are of vital concern to both scientists and policy makers. This study should shed important new light on the links between innovative human resources policies, the characteristics of organizations and workers, and the conditions under which work is performed.
