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The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work Hardcover – June 6, 2023
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Named one of the Best Business Books of 2023 by the Financial Times
Thinkers50 2023 Winner: Talent Award
From MIT professor and pre-eminent voice on Good Jobs comes a leadership guide for choosing excellence and providing good jobs that offer a living wage, dignity, and opportunities for growth.
From healthcare facilities to call centers, fulfillment centers to factories, and restaurants to retail stores, companies are struggling to find or keep workers, because the jobs they offer are low-paying, stressful, and provide little chance for growth and success.
Workers want good jobs, and many leaders want to provide them. But they don't think they can offer higher pay and more motivating work without hurting the bottom line. Most business leaders want to win with customers, but their companies are hobbled by a host of service and operational problems largely driven by high employee turnover—turnover that's partly driven by low pay.
It is indeed a vicious cycle, and Zeynep Ton is here to show you the way out: why good jobs combined with strong operations lead to higher productivity and increased competitiveness for the business. And why, more than ever, in a world with tight labor markets, failing to provide good jobs will catch up with you and threaten your business. As the leading scholar on good jobs and president of the Good Jobs Institute, Ton has helped executives at many companies implement a good jobs system. With expertise drawn from spending time on the front lines with workers and their managers, she knows what's keeping most companies mired in mediocrity and how implementing a good jobs system makes them more competitive, more resilient, and more likely to attract and retain loyal customers and dedicated employees.
Practical, prescriptive, and often provocative, The Case for Good Jobs is essential reading for company leaders who want to—who need to—choose excellence.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarvard Business Review Press
- Publication dateJune 6, 2023
- Dimensions6.2 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
- ISBN-101647824176
- ISBN-13978-1647824174
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Named one of the Top 50 Business Books of 2023 by The Next Big Idea Club
Named one of the Top Management and Workplace Culture Books of 2023 by Porchlight Books
Named one of the Best Books of 2023 by the Financial Times
Named one of 5 best business and technology books of 2023 by the Times of London
"In this thoughtful and well researched book, the author presents a convincing argument for improving the lot of employees." — Decision (Ireland's Business Review)
"By making the work better and increasing pay, companies can better attract and keep their talent and enforce high standards, which improve execution and service, uplifting revenue. Few have examined this important topic more closely than Zeynep Ton." — Strategy & Leadership Journal
Named one of the "Best summer books of 2023" by the Financial Times
"Persuasively argued and bolstered by astute case studies, this will be a boon to business leaders." — Publisher's Weekly
Advance Praise for The Case for Good Jobs:
"The Case for Good Jobs is essential business reading for executives and boards. Zeynep Ton doesn't just convince you that good jobs are the key to drive customer loyalty and company success, she gives you the courage to think and operate differently." — Indra Nooyi, former chairman and CEO, PepsiCo
"Zeynep Ton cuts through the ESG noise and uses clear examples and hard data to show why companies that create good jobs can gain a competitive long-term advantage. This book should be required reading for CEOs in labor-intensive industries and their long-term shareholders." — Charlie Penner, activist investor
"No matter what you thought you knew about the inevitability of lousy, low-wage jobs, this book will change your mind. Whether you're a CEO, a policy maker, or a cold-hearted economist like me, The Case for Good Jobs will show you how people are underrated, and how their demoralizing, low-productivity jobs are not only avoidable but downright wasteful—for the workers themselves, for their firms, and for their firms' customers." — David H. Autor, Ford Professor of Economics at MIT and Codirector, MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative
"A magnificent and important book! Zeynep Ton compellingly shows what I experienced at Best Buy: good jobs drive success. I admire how clearly she makes the case for good jobs. Every leader needs to read this." — Hubert Joly, senior lecturer, Harvard Business School; former Chairman and CEO, Best Buy; and bestselling author, The Heart of Business
"If you'd like to pay your employees decently, offer them decent schedules, and treat them with dignity and respect, but you worry that you can't afford it, this is the book for you. Drawing on years of research and in-depth work with dozens of companies, Ton shows you how to make the business case, develop the courage necessary to drive the change, and—most importantly—how to manage the implementation so that you reap the benefits." — Rebecca M. Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard Business School
"Zeynep Ton lays out a strong case for investing in high-quality jobs, focusing not only on the 'why' but the 'how,' and highlights forward-thinking executives who are leading by example, proving that creating good jobs is good business." — Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation
About the Author
Zeynep Ton is a Professor of the Practice in the Operations Management group at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also president of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, where she works with companies to improve their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors alike. Before joining MIT Sloan, Ton spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School. She is the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits.
Connect with Zeynep Ton on Twitter @zeynepton and at Zeynepton.com.
Product details
- Publisher : Harvard Business Review Press (June 6, 2023)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1647824176
- ISBN-13 : 978-1647824174
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #116,108 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #146 in Human Resources & Personnel Management (Books)
- #193 in Strategic Business Planning
- #1,565 in Leadership & Motivation
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Zeynep Ton is a professor of the practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. Ton received numerous awards for teaching excellence at both schools. Her work has been featured widely in the media, including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Bloomberg TV, and MSNBC. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children.
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Customers find the book incredibly helpful and motivating. They say it offers a practical guide for implementing a good jobs system that's specific in its recommendations. Readers also mention the recommendations work to increase corporate productivity and generate long-term results.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book incredibly helpful and motivating. They say it offers a practical guide for implementing a good jobs system. Readers mention the recommendations are specific, useful for every industry, and work to increase corporate productivity.
"...What is particularly compelling about Ton's approach is that it is methodical, data-rich and offers evidence-based arguments that the epidemic of..." Read more
"...build the courage to overcome inertia and make systemic changes incredibly helpful and motivating...." Read more
"...(including better wages and flexibility) that works to increase corporate productivity and generate long-term customer value...." Read more
"Was very impressed with this book. Lot of retail examples but useful for every industry. Well done Dr Zeynep Ton!" Read more
Customers find the book motivating and important for retaining talent.
"...Errorless execution is the – high value, low cost, high morale – way to go!..." Read more
"...to overcome inertia and make systemic changes incredibly helpful and motivating...." Read more
"Important for retaining talent..." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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“(1) Pay the most to (2) hire the best people to (3) skill up to (4) create/deliver great (service) value which (5) wins/retains best customers that (6) yield faster growth in both sales and profits and support (7) internal virtuous cycles”.
Believing and pursuing this paradigm is not common. Financial management beliefs still rule:
1) buy low, sell high; 2) hire cheap, work hard; and 3) sell more products/services to more customers of any stripe.
All of these mantras have negative consequences, but this first-level thinking has worked OK in the US for a long time. The US’s accidentally very-lucky conditions have lifted all boats for centuries.
A few companies have, however, proven that the “Good Jobs Strategy” is a superior paradigm that delivers better well-being and economics to all 4 main stakeholder groups: employees, customers, suppliers and management/shareholders.
Over the past 50 years, we have all heard about these exemplary companies – FedEx, LL Bean, Costco, Southwest Airlines, etc. The first “Good Jobs” story I devoured was FedEx’s “People, Service, Profits” (PSP) kicked off in ’73. This allowed FedEx to deliver (and teach the world to want) perfect, on-time-service guaranteed. Errorless execution is the – high value, low cost, high morale – way to go!
I had a transformational discussion about PSP with Prof. Jim Heskett (c. ’81). Jim went on to publish “The Service Profit Chain” in ’97. (Read my most helpful review of that book). And, I boldly installed the “Good Jobs Strategy” into a distribution-company turnaround I did from ’82 to ’86 with fantastic, on-going, sustainable profit-growth results.
In “The Case for Good Jobs”, Prof. Ton admits that she is preaching/teaching historically “best practices”. But, here are her new, value-adds:
1. She has more and deeper case studies of Good Jobs companies than in her 2014 book.
2. She cares so much about the moral/happiness benefits of “Good Jobs” that she set up a non-profit, Good Jobs Institute (GJI). GJI has subsequently helped companies make the seemingly scary transition from Financial-management to Good Jobs (that delivers better financial results as a byproduct)
3. From the GJI’s successes, Ton has identified and articulated the 4 additional parts of the “Good Jobs System” beyond initially “investing in people”. And, she has also identified the emotional challenges that Financial-thinking firms have going through the stages of: “Awareness, Courage and Implementation”.
If you are tired of pursuing Big with fading profits, fire-fighting and high-stress amongst all stakeholders; and, if you want to turn internal vicious cycles into virtuous ones – buy and consume this book.
Can't afford to raise salaries? Have a look at what high turnover is really costing you. Workers that are "unskilled" should be paid market rates? What kind of performance would you clock in if you were worried about ever-changing schedules and having enough for your children to eat? There's no point training workers because they will just leave for a better role? Why not make attractive roles for them right here in your own organization. And the list goes on.
What is particularly compelling about Ton's approach is that it is methodical, data-rich and offers evidence-based arguments that the epidemic of bad jobs is not working out well for anyone. Workers are immiserated. Customers are frustrated. Executives can't get the results they are looking for. And the solutions are right in front of our noses!
Buy this book. Read it. And if you are in a position to move the world toward offering better jobs for more people, start doing that right now.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in the Netherlands on August 3, 2024