Morison, Robert 1950- (Bob Morison, Robert F. Morison, Jr.)

PERSONAL:

Born August 29, 1950, in RI; son of Robert F., Sr., and Muriel Morison; married Lynne Barrett (a writer and educator); children: James. Education: Dartmouth College, A.B. (cum laude), 1972; Boston University, M.A., 1977.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Miami, FL. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Management researcher and consultant. BSG Concours, executive vice president and director of research. Also worked with CSC Index and General Electric Information Services Company. Commentator on workforce issues for Nightly Business Report, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Military service: U.S. Army, 1973-75.

AWARDS, HONORS:

McKinsey Award, Harvard Business Review, 2004, for best published article.

WRITINGS:

(With Ken Dychtwald and Tamara J. Erickson) Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, Harvard Business School Press (Boston, MA), 2006.

Contributor to the Harvard Business Review. Has written or edited more than 130 research and management reports.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robert Morison is a management researcher and consultant. Born in Rhode Island in 1950, Morison completed his higher education at Dartmouth College and Boston University in the 1970s. Morison worked with a number of companies in creating management solutions before becoming executive vice president and director of research with BSG Concours.

In 2006 Morison wrote his first book, Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, with Ken Dychtwald and Tamara J. Erickson. The account looks at the aging workforce in the United States and projects a nationwide challenge as the baby boomer generation retires and leaves shortages in skilled labor positions. The authors propose that American companies restructure their work and management practices to attract and meet the needs of the three major employee age groups, which are divided in the book into the young group (under thirty-four), the mid-career group (thirty-four to fifty-four), and the mature group (over-fifty-five). In particular the book suggests using flexible work arrangements for the over-fifty-five group to give them more freedom in their retirement years, while allowing the company to benefit from their continued services. The authors also suggest employing a mix of age groups within each job specification to reduce problems related to mass retirement in the years to come.

A contributor to the Midwest Book Review commented that the book "is very strongly recommended reading for" small businesses and large corporations in "anticipating their workforce requirements in the coming years." Leigh Rivenbark, writing on the Age Wave Web site, particularly noted that the "chapter on the manager's agenda for change offers actions, such as learning more about workforce demographics and making work more engaging, that employers can take to get ready for the coming shift in the labor market." Margaret King, also reviewing Workforce Crisis in an Age Wave review, remarked that Morison, Dychtwald, and Erickson "present business with a new management theory needed to engage and reward each cohort with techniques to analyze, anticipate, and strategize to make the most of age-diverse employees, especially the ‘biggest untapped resource,’ older employees. Very far from becoming obsolete, this is the group in fact poised for recognition as most valuable players on the work team. The sooner business can recognize and master the reality of the age wave and its implications, the faster the mutual rewards can be realized." Business Week contributor Diane Brady called the section on how companies should aim to suit the workplace to the varying age groups "the most intriguing part" of the book. Brady concluded that "in the end, Workforce Crisis is less an analysis of an impending labor calamity than a smart argument about the benefits of customizing work to the needs of different groups. With continued immigration and delayed retirement, the talent shortage may never become a nationwide disaster. But companies that make efforts to retain people at every life stage are likely to snatch the top talent in any market."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business Week, April 24, 2006, Diane Brady, review of Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, p. 108.

Computerworld, July 3, 2006, Kathleen Melymuka, author interview.

HR Magazine, July, 2006, Leigh Rivenbark, review of Workforce Crisis, p. 120.

Midwest Book Review, May, 2006, review of Workforce Crisis.

ONLINE

Age Wave,http://www.agewave.com/ (July 1, 2006), Leigh Rivenbark, review of Workforce Crisis; (December 12, 2007), Margaret King, review of Workforce Crisis.

Public Broadcasting Service Web site,http://www.pbs.org/ (December 12, 2007), author profile.