Upstate Companies Not Using New Management Practices, Survey Finds

Upstate New York companies aren't adopting "high performance" work practices and management techniques the nation's most successful and innovative companies employ, according to a poll conducted by Zogby International and Hamilton College. About 65 percent of upstate New York workers are employed in firms with fewer than 500 people. The vast majority of these companies utilize traditional employment policies and practices, said Adam S. Weinberg, a Hamilton College sociology professor. The region's failure to adopt new workplace models will result in the best and brightest workers leaving upstate New York for other places, Weinberg warned. "We're loosing them to companies exactly the same size, with exactly the same type of ownership, but they're in Atlanta or Dallas or other places, where these kinds of things are offered" Weinberg said.