Present patterns of productive activity are neither well recognized, optimal for society, nor in accordance with individual preference. Although a great deal of attention has been given to meeting people's needs for income, medical care, and other services, the quality of their lives must also be defined by what they do for themselves and for others. In discovering present patterns of productive activity throughout the life course and optimizing those patterns, we will raise the quality of American life. To accomplish this task, two great changes are needed: we must recognize the full range of productive activities throughout the life course and give people the opportunity to modify the allocation of paid employment.

In recent years, many companies have become conscious of the dire effects of excessive managerial stress on the performance of the organization, as well as on the health of their executives. Moreover, the so called “boss's disease” was long considered strictly a phenomenon of the affluent, industrialized Western world. The results of this investigation, however, reveal that the spectre of executive stress is not only taking on critical dimensions for companies in developing countries (in terms of mental well being and job satisfaction) but that its incidence is worrying, especially in newly industrialized Japan. The pressures on managers to perform in a climate of rapid sociological, technological, and economic change in emerging countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, Egypt, and Singapore, as well as Japan, are beginning to produce negative effects. Executives in all five countries show a higher incidence of mental stress symptoms and job dissatisfaction than their counterparts from other highly industrialized countries surveyed, e.g., the United States, Sweden, and West Germany.

In systems where rewards for fine performance are Money, Promotions, and Fringe Benefits, internal rewards which people derive from doing what they like (meeting a challenge, maybe) die out. That feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment is quickly replaced as workers become less willing to perform in the absence of the external reward.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are a strong fit with organizations dominated by routine, highly programmed technologies, and tightly regulated operations. However, while these settings are best suited for ERP implementation, they also have the greatest difficulty making use of the knowledge ERP systems generate because of their inherent rigidity, inertia, and resistance to change. This article examines how human resource management practices can help a firm overcome the problems and capitalize on the opportunities that ERP technology presents by facilitating an effective dual-core structure through an emphasis on knowledge management, human capital stewardship, and relationship building.

A majority of human resources professionals appear to believe that employees are likely to overreport the importance of pay in employee surveys. However, research suggests the opposite is actually true. We review evidence showing the discrepancies between what people say and do with respect to pay. We then discuss why pay is likely to be such an important general motivator, as well as a variety of reasons why managers might underestimate its importance. We note that pay is not equally important in all situations or to all individuals, and identify circumstances under which pay is likely to be more (or less) important to employees. We close with recommendations for implementing research findings with respect to pay and suggestions for evaluating pay systems.

While it has long been recognized that the human resource function must take a more customer-oriented perspective on the design and delivery of HR programs, this view has focused primarily on internal customers. However, external customers can provide important input into HR activities (e.g., job analysis information), they can participate in HR activities (e.g., selection decisions), and they can use HR activities (e.g., receive training). By expanding customer orientation in the HR function to focus explicitly on external customers, a more direct relationship between human resource management and competitive organizational performance can be established.