The proposed research investigates contemporary economic and structural pressures facing many American business firms. The objective of this ambitious project is to examine an inducement- contribution approach for managing employee-organizational relationships. The link between macro variables (contract versus mutual investment strategies) and micro variables (individual incentives) is implied in the literature, but has not previously been investigated. The proposal describes an investigation of the relations between two types of organizational inducement strategies, on the one hand, and three forms of employee contributions, on the other. The research is based on a conceptual perspective drawn from the work of managerial theorists, organizational sociologists and psychologists, and institutional economists. Based on an integrative theoretical approach, a set of hypotheses are proposed for empirical analysis. The methodology involves a cross-sectional study of three companies in each of three industries, with an average of ten occupational job groups within each company. The data collected from the research are likely to have long-term significance for both theory and application. Moreover, the project should set the stage for follow-up research in this field in coming years.
