Background
Kochan, Thomas A. was born on September 28, 1947 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States. Son of Leo H. and Loretta M. Kochan.
( Many American families have not prospered in the new "k...)
Many American families have not prospered in the new "knowledge economy." The layoffs, restructurings, and wage and benefit cuts that have followed the short-lived boom of the 1990s threaten our deeply held values of justice, fairness, family, and work. These values -- and not those superficial ones political pollsters ask about -- are the foundation of the American dream of good jobs, fair pay, and opportunities for all. In this call to action for families, business, labor, and government, Thomas Kochan outlines ways in which we can empower working families to earn a good living by doing satisfying work while still having time for family and community life. We cannot make the transition to a knowledge economy, writes Kochan, with a workforce that is stressed, frustrated, and insecure. Businesses need to rebuild relationships with their employees based on trust. And working families need to take control of their own destinies. First, we can take action that goes beyond the workplace buzzwords flexible and family friendly to design systems that support productive work and healthy family life. We can invest in better basic education and life-long learning, and we can work toward strategies for creating and sustaining good jobs with portable benefits. We need organizations that value investors of human capital -- their employees -- as highly as they do investors of financial capital, and we need a renewed labor movement to give workers a stronger voice. Kochan lays out an agenda for working families in the twenty-first century that calls for business, labor, government, and workers to come together to make the changes that will allow us all to benefit from the new economy. The solution to our problems, he points out, is too important to be left to "the market."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262112922/?tag=2022091-20
Kochan, Thomas A. was born on September 28, 1947 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States. Son of Leo H. and Loretta M. Kochan.
Bachelor of Business Administration, University of Wisconsin, 1969
Master of Surgery, Industrial Relations, University of Wisconsin, 1971
Doctor of Philosophy, Industrial Relations, University of Wisconsin, 1973.
He is the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, where he has been a faculty member since 1980. He is author of the books Restoring the American Dream: A Working Families" Agenda for Americaand In 2010, Kochan led the formation of the Employment Policy Research Network (EPRN), an online think tank on the subject of employment, a project of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, supported by the Rockefeller and Russell Sage foundations. The EPRN web site launched in January 2011 with 100 researchers from 35 universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, California-Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Illinois, Michigan State, Pennsylvania State University and University of California, Los Los Angeles He served as Chair of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Faculty from 2009 to 2011.
He came to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 as a Professor of Industrial Relations.
From 1988 to 1991 he served as Head of the Behavioral and Policy Sciences Area in the Sloan School. He has served as a third-party mediator, fact finder, and arbitrator and as a consultant to a variety of government and private sector organizations and labor-management groups.
He was a consultant for one year to the Secretary of Labor in the Department of Labor’ General’ s Office of Policy Evaluation and Research. Kochan focuses on the need to update America’s work and employment policies, institutions, and practices to catch up with a changing workforce and economy.
Through empirical research, he demonstrates that fundamental changes in the quality of work and employment relations are needed to address America’s critical problems in industries ranging from healthcare to airlines to manufacturing.
( Many American families have not prospered in the new "k...)
(Book by Kochan, Thomas A., Katz, Harry C., McKersie, Robe...)
Advisor American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Washington, 1983-1988, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Washington, since 1993. Commission member National commission on the Future of Worker Management Relations, Washington, 1993-1995. Consultant United States Secretary Labor, Washington, 1979-1980.
Member Industrial Relations Research Association (president 1999-2000), Society Professionals Dispute Resolution (task force chair on workplace 1999, Bill Abner award 1974), International Industrial Relations Association (president 1992-1995), National Academy Human Resources.
Married Kathryn A. Otis, August 23, 1969. Chldren: Andrew, Sarah, Samuel, Jacob, Benjamin.