ABSTRACT
Private enterprises offer incentives that should allow them to skim the cream off the supply of workers. Glen Steeves and George Tchkheidze were hardly alone in contradicting the negative stereotype about the quality of the Russian work force. Most enterprise personnel in almost every employment category thought that crime rates would increase with the transition to a market economy, and a large percentage expected personal relations among people to become less close. Privatized-enterprise personnel chose preferences that fairly closely matched those of state workers. In both privatized and private enterprises, directors and owners tended to find little to recommend state employment. In 1993, however, most nonstate enterprises in Russia were still in business. The offices of Magnet Enterprises, located on a small side street fifteen minutes by trolley bus from the Paveletskii train station, are spartan in every detail. In 1991 Magnet Enterprises was a subsidiary of the Nantucket Corporation.
