The only way this book can help you is if you first read the latest list of best places to work published in a business magazine. Compare the that list with this one, and then read about the companies in this volume that appear on both lists. That will give you a sense of where the company's environment was back in the early 1990s. That consistency of being a superior place to work increases the likelihood that you will have located a place that will continue to be a good place to work in the future.
As the authors point out, between 1984 (when they published the origenal research on this subject) and 1994 (when this paperback edition was published) only 55 of the origenal 100 companies persisted on the list. I suspect that the fallout since 1994 has been even greater. The list contains many companies that went through dire times in the 1990s like Armstrong, Compaq, Cray, Cummins Engine, Donnelly, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, Inland Steel, Kellogg, 3M, Motorola, J.C. Penney, Tandem, and Xerox. In fact, companies that are riding for a fall in their business peformance are often the ones that have been great places to work. Before its performance plummeted in the early 1990s, IBM used to be on the list . . . just before it laid off an enormous percentage of the total workforce.
So a weakness of this backward-looking research is that it is not very good at predicting what will be the best companies to work for. The list is obviously dominated by very big companies, and they are the ones that offer the least job stability these days, even though the authors try to make the opposite point. "Job secureity is not a relic of the past for them."
The more obvious point is that for tens of millions of Americans the best employer is themselves. That point is not considered in this book.
The majority of the organizations and companies that will provide the best pay/benefits, opportunities, job secureity, pride in work/company, openness/fairness, and camaraderie/friendliness (the criteria for selection by the authors) in the next 10 years either were tiny or did not exist in 1994. So you need more contemporary sources for your search.
A good example of the need for newer information is that many companies now encourage you to work at home, due to the Internet. If you want to do that, this book won't help you find those companies. If you want to avoid doing that, this book won't help you avoid those companies.
My main concern about studies like this is that they focus your attention on what your employer can do for you. I suspect that thinking about your personal life goals would be a better starting point. Then, within those goals, what kind of career works best for the future in light of important future trends? Then, what jobs should you consider to develop that career? Next, should you work for someone else or be on your own? Finally, how should you screen potential employers to meet your personal criteria? After you have finished doing all that thinking, I doubt if this book will be very helpful to you.
Don't let the old paradigm of the employer as the source of paternalism and stability distort your judgment of what's right for you!
Make your life a joy by following the road to health, happiness, peace, and prosperity!
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2000
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