Computers, Jobs, and Skills: The Industrial Relations of Technological Change

ISBN-13: 9780306429637 / Angielski / Miękka / 1988 / 192 str.

Christopher Baldry

Opis

"Faith. Hope. and Charity and the greatest of these is Charity. " "Hardware. Software. and Lil'ell'are and the greatest of these is . . . " As information technology ceased to be the prerogative of computer scientists and electronics engineers, those of us from other disciplines had to contend with the jargon which was already in vogue. We learned to live with "hardware" and "software. " We were less enthusiastic about "Iiveware. " Polite and some impolite questioning revealed that "Iiveware" was a euphemism for "people. " We were not amused. As one spirited participant observed, "I refused to go home and tell my children that Almighty God had made liveware in His own image and likeness. " People are too important to be known as anything but people. Moreover, it is the importance of people that is the dominating and recurring theme of this book by Christopher Baldry. He deals with virtually every aspect of the problems concerning men and women and their recourse to the equipment. This could well become the definitive work in the field. In addition to the details of health hazards, industrial relations, new technology agreements and the like, Dr. Baldry grapples with two great underpinning issues.

Spis treści

Prologue.- 1: Introduction.- A Transforming Technology.- Toward a Brave New World?.- Attitudes and Phobias.- Technology as Progress.- Critical Approaches to Technology.- Determined or Determining?.- Characteristics of Information Technology.- Technology as the Midwife of Social Change.- The Problems of Change—A Note about the Rest of the Book.- Discussion Questions.- References.- 2: Employment.- Technology and Employment.- The Example of History.- Impacts and Processes.- Replacement and Displacement.- The Mechanized Information Flow.- Computers and Employment—A Terminal Case?.- Jobs in the Ring: Down but not Out.- Jobless Growth.- Focusing Down.- The Office: A Suitable Case for Treatment.- Women—Left Holding the Baby?.- Sunrise, Sunset.- Discussion Questions.- References.- 3: The Quality of Work and the Working Environment.- Toward a High-Skill Workforce?.- Peering into the Sunrise.- Deskilling.- Case Study: Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machining.- Case Study: Skill and Control in the Office.- Explanations of Deskilling.- Case Study: Computer-Aided Design.- The Working Environment.- Health and Safety.- Health and the Organization.- Shift Working.- Management and Change.- Conclusions.- Discussion Questions.- References.- 4: New Technology Bargaining.- The Industrial Relations Environment.- The Components of Industrial Relations Systems.- Uncertainties and Strategies.- Unions: Challenges and Responses.- Management: Uncertainties and Strategies.- The Contours of Bargaining.- The Principles of Technology Bargaining.- Procedural Objectives.- Job Security.- Payment.- Health and Safety.- New Technology Bargaining So Far.- Conflict.- Demarcation.- The Effects on Union Organization.- Case Study: Newspaper Printing.- Discussion Questions.- References.- 5: Alternative Approaches to Change.- The Search for Alternatives.- West Germany.- Scandinavia.- Japan: The Ultimate Model of Cooperation?.- The Lessons of Cooperation.- Job Redesign.- Case Study: The Utopia Project.- Discussion Questions.- References.- 6: Theories of the Information Society: Who Gets Plugged In?.- Profile of an Information Society.- The Changing Occupational Structure.- Changing Patterns of Work.- Management and the Organization.- Crossing the Home-Work Divide.- The Future for Industrial Relations.- The Meaning of Work and Leisure.- Information, Technology, and Society.- Discussion Questions.- References.