Showing papers on "Deskilling published in 1989"

New technology and industrial relations

Abstract: Part 1 Theoretical and methodological issues: industrial relations and technical change - the case for an extended perspective, Wolfgang Streeck and Arndt Sorge flexible specialization - miracle or myth?, Richard Hyman comparative research and new technology, Beat Hotz-Hart new technology and social networks at the local and regional level, Reinhard Lund and Jorgen Rasmussen. Part 2 Innovation initiatives: management strategy - towards new forms of regulation?, Serafino Negrelli between Fordism and flexibility?, Stephen Wood new technology in Scotbank, John MacInnes. Part 3 Skills, deskilling and labour market power: labour and monopoly capital, Peter Armstron skills, options and unions, Jon Gulowsen new technology and training, Helen Rainbird. Part 4 Trade union strategies: new technological paradigms, long waves and trade unions, Otto Jacobi technological change and unions, Greg Bamber policy debates over work reorganization in North American unions, Harry Katz the Australian metalworkers' union and industrial change, Stephen Frenkel. Part 5 Technological innovation and workplace relations: information, consultation and the control of new technologies, Robert Price consensual adaptation to new technology - observations on the Finnish case, Pertti Koistinen and Kari Lilja industrial relations and workers' representation at workplace level in France, Sabine Erbes-Seguin bargaining over new technology - a comparison of France and Germany, Michele Tallard.

Critical perspectives in management control

Abstract: Notes on the Contributors - PART 1 CRITIQUE IN CONCEPT - Introduction the editors - The Problems of a Pardigm: A Critique of the Prevailing Orthodoxy in Management Control T.Lowe & T.Puxty - A Strategy for the Development of Theories in Management Control D.T.Otley - Accounting as Social Science: Abstract Versus Concrete Sources of Accounting Change T.Lowe & A.M.Tinker - Authority, Accountability and Accounting A.J.Berry - Power and Management Control D.J.Cooper & K.Robson - Ideology, Rationality and the Management Control Process T.Puxty & W.F.Chua - Accounting and the Pursuit of Social Interests A.G.Hopwood - PART 2 CRITIQUE IN ACTION - Labour and Deskilling: A Critique of Managerial Control in the Glass Industry J.Black & F.Neathey - The Management and Control of Experts and Expertise: The Case of the Nurse W.F.Chua - Accounting in the Production and Reproduction of Culture T.Capps, T.Hopper, J.Mouritsen, D.J.Cooper & T.Lowe - The Accounting Profession, Corporatism and the State D.J.Cooper, T.Puxty & T.Lowe - Authority or Domination: Alternative Possibilities for the Practice of Control J.Roberts - Professional Authority and Resource Allocation: Treasurers and Politics in UK Local Governments D.Rosenberg - PART 3 AUTOCRITIQUES - Autocritique I K.Maunders - Autocritique II H.Willmott - Index

Skill Reconsidered: The Deskilling and Reskilling of Managers.

Abstract: This article contends that supervisors and managers have been conceptually deskilled, and also extends traditional definitions of skill by adding and developing the concept of social skill. Definit...

The Clerk Deskilled: A Study in False Nostalgia

Abstract: For some, the history of clerical work epitomizes the way in which technological change and the division of labor result in the deskilling and degradation of work. This paper argues that this perception of clerical deskilling is mistaken, the result of an inaccurate portrayal of traditional clerking, and of a theoretical tendency to (mis)read declines in the prestige and pay of an occupation as stemming from changes in skill. Focusing on Victorian clerks’ own descriptions of their work, and moving to the present period, the paper offers an alternative reading of clerical history and of the dynamics of occupational decline.

Design work in change: social conditions and results of CAD use in mechanical engineering

Abstract: The findings presented on the use of CAD (computer-aided design) in West Germany's mechanical engineering industry show that CAD is used in various ways by different firms and thus effects working conditions in diverse ways. The various production structures used by the single-piece, half-standardized, and standardized series producers are considered to be the most important factors for explaining this circumstance. In addition, however, the influence of various interest groups in the firms concerning the introduction process also has to be stressed. In view of their research findings, the authors argue against using the over-simplifications and rash generalizations regarding the reduction of personnel, Taylorism, and deskilling that dominated the discussion during the early days of CAD. They regard the changes taking place at the level of the microstructures of designing to be basically the general consequences of the use of CAD. These changes have until the present had little influence on the division of labor and the development of skills. The authors suggest that the latter depend on the various concepts of CAD utilization. The following trends were discovered in this respect: within the field of design, skilled jobs retain their skill level; some already deskilled jobs disappear; and new jobs are being created for CAD experts in the fields of CAD development and support. >

Marx and the Idea of the Labour Process

Abstract: In modern studies of work, concepts such as deskilling, fragmentation and hierarchical control play a prominent part. Disconnected from and unrelated to an economic and historical context, they make little more than a fleeting, descriptive sense. Marx’s writings, particularly in Capital, Volume One, provide such a framework. Marx argued in general terms about the nature of work relationships inside a capitalist mode of production. In addition he combined these theoretical categories with an attempt to chronicle the major changes in the economy and the labour process. To understand the latter, it is necessary to start with the general framework.

Evaluation of Information Systems: A Case Stdy of a Manufacturing Organisation

Abstract: Computer-based information systems are increasingly used to enhance organisational performance without necessarily reducing headcount or operational costs. In consequence they can be extremely difficult to cost-justify. An evaluation of improved corporate performance must take into consideration a range of benefits which are rarely easy to quantify, and in many cases are intangible and uncertain. The costs to the organisation may be equally difficult to assess. Costs such as capital and operational expenses for hardware and software, physical changes to the work environment, and staff training are reasonably clear, but there may also be more insidious long-term effects, e.g. a deskilling of work or decline in job satisfaction. In addition, user resistance to technological and accompanying organisational change is a natural phenomenon which is likely to manifest itself in some form, and at some cost, during implementation. Evaluation of information systems, to be comprehensive, must therefore go beyond the initial selection of hardware and software to include the organisational and technical issues of development, implementation and operation.