Skill, training, organisational commitment and unemployment: the economics of a labour strategy management

This paper argues that trainging often has a wider role than just the acquisition of technical skills and that company training ought to be analysed as part of a broader labour management strategy for companies. Evidence is adduced for this, drawing on both ecnomic and management literatures, and in particular on analyses of organisational commitment. A micro model of human capital acquisition in the firm is examined, and it is shown that different human resource policies are mutually reinforcing. A macro model of efficiency wages is also developed, but one that is modified by the presence of a labour management strategy. It is shown that the strategy tends to reduce both unemployment and wages, and to have ambiguous effects on welfare. It is suggested that variations in organisational commitments and associated labour management strategies, can account for some basic stylised facts about the distribution of unemployment.