A book that has caught our eye is The New American Workforce, by James O’Toole and Edward E. Lawler III. Its listed on Amazon.com at: http://www.amazon.com/New-American-Workplace-James-OToole/dp/1403969590/

Here is an excerpt from one of the reviews on Amazon:

Their not-so-startling conclusion is that the U.S. is attempting to implement tomorrow’s competitive strategies with yesterday’s managerial ideas and public policy infrastructure. Many U.S. companies trying to find a middle ground to serve the new global economy are shackled with an antiquated corporate mentality that does not keep skilled workers engaged in their careers or meet their aspirations.

I agree with this assessment of the current state of the U.S. workforce.  In fact, in the absence of an effective "middle ground" as mentioned above, we see that workers stay engaged by placing their loyalty with the project, not the company. They seek work that inspires them, and stay with a company based on its ability to roll them onto the next interesting and worthwhile project ("adventure").

Tom Peters put it another way:

Work and career is a succession of discrete “projects” strung together in consecutive stages of advancement and accomplishment.

We call this the "Hollywood Model." Whenever a Hollywood producer wants to make a movie, he or she assembles a team to make that movie: the director, screenwriter, actors, and so forth. When the movie is completed, that team disbands and moves on to other projects. Hollywood people don’t talk about production companies that they work for–instead they talk about the best movies they’ve worked on, and the best people they have worked with.

Perhaps there is a lesson in the "Hollywood Model", the business of show business, for ways in which companies can overcome this "antiquated corporate mentality."