Peter Cappelli Books
Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources.
Known for: In Praise of the Office: Rebuilding the Workplace After the Pandemic, The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face, Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It
Books by Peter Cappelli
In Praise of the Office: Rebuilding the Workplace After the Pandemic
In this book, management scholar Peter Cappelli examines the post-pandemic debate over remote work and the future of the office. Drawing on research in organizational behavior and labor economics, Cap...
The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face
In this book, Wharton professor Peter Cappelli examines how the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the workplace and forced organizations to rethink the traditional office model. Drawing on research and ca...
Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It
In this book, Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School, examines the so-called 'skills gap' and argues that the real problem lies not with job seekers but with employers. He explores how hiri...
Key Insights from Peter Cappelli
Historical context: How the modern office evolved and the pre-pandemic trends toward open offices and flexible work
Before the pandemic, the office had already been changing. The open-plan revolution promised transparency and efficiency, yet gradually revealed flaws—noise, distraction, a sense of surveillance. Flexibility entered the vocabulary of workplace design as businesses sought to attract talent through fr...
From In Praise of the Office: Rebuilding the Workplace After the Pandemic
The pandemic disruption: The rapid shift to remote work and its short-term successes and challenges
No management revolution has ever unfolded as abruptly as the global pivot to remote work in 2020. In days, organizations dismantled centuries of habits, shifting millions of employees from offices to homes. The results startled many executives: productivity held steady, costs fell, and employees ch...
From In Praise of the Office: Rebuilding the Workplace After the Pandemic
Historical Context: How We Got Here
Before we can make sense of the upheavals triggered by COVID-19, it’s essential to understand the historical trajectory that led to the conventional office. For most of the twentieth century, work revolved around place. The office was both a physical and social anchor. It defined hierarchies, routin...
From The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face
The Immediate Impact of the Pandemic: A Forced Experiment
In March 2020, organizations worldwide faced an unprecedented scenario: the immediate shutdown of offices. Faced with the alternative of halting operations altogether, companies had no choice but to adapt to remote work. What unfolded was a global, uncontrolled experiment in workforce transformation...
From The Future of the Office: Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face
The Historical Context of Training and Hiring
To understand today’s hiring crisis, we must look to history. Post-World War II, the American employment model was built around long-term relationships between companies and employees. Firms didn’t expect new hires to be fully 'job-ready.' They invested in on-the-job training, apprenticeships, and i...
From Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It
The Myth of the Skills Gap
The idea that we face a national shortage of skilled workers sounds intuitive, but evidence consistently undermines it. Time and again, employers claim they can’t find 'qualified' candidates, yet wage data and job vacancy patterns tell another story. In a truly tight labor market—when skills are sca...
From Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It
About Peter Cappelli
Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources. He is known for his research on employment relations, talent management, and workforce development.
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Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources.
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