New technology, skill and deskilling in non-manual work

Rolfe, Heather Kathryn (1986) New technology, skill and deskilling in non-manual work. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

This thesis examines the consequences for skill when new technology is introduced to non-manual work. In the first main section the literature on technological change and skill is critically reviewed. Building on this examination, which identifies a lack of clarity in the definition of skill and in the relation between skill and control, a framework is developed for understanding skill at the level of the job. Skill is seen as having two main dimensions, technical complexity and discretion, and a number of possible measures, task complexity, knowledge, task range and variety, decision-making, control over the organisation of work, and supervision. This framework is then used, in the second main section, to examine the effects of technological change on various types of non-manual work. In all, ten case studies were carried out by the author, and these are grouped under four main occupational heading: clerical, professional/technical, `white-collar production' and maintenance. A range of types of non-manual work was chosen because most studies of skill changes have concentrated either on manual workers or on one particular type of non-manual work. The aim was therefore to draw some more general conclusions based on a wider range of empirical evidence. The case studies show how new technology may change particular aspects of a job, for example, by simplifying or eliminating manual or arithmetical tasks and reducing the range of tasks carried out. In some cases, though, new tasks may compensate for those lost. The discretionary content of a job, however, was found to depend more on the role and objectives of management and the hierarchy of decision-making and control in the workplace than on the technology used. Moreover, it was found that skill is influenced by an array of factors, including the position of the workgroup in the hierarchy, worker organisation and organisational changes which often accompany the introduction of new technology. Despite these mainly social influences on skill changes, however, new technology was found at times to change the relationship between the worker, the equipment and the product in ways which may be hard to avoid except through the redesign of the technology. In the final chapter the implications of technological change for class structure are examined in relation to the case study material. Some support is given to the theory of an increasing divide between a `service class' and deskilled white collar workers. Current patterns of gender segregation in employment may also be reinforced. Some support is also given to the theory of deskilling as a progressive tendency of the capitalist mode of production as a consequence of standardisation and the socialisation of production. (D74276/87)

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