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Evidence on the relationship between technical innovation and nonmanual skills and work organization in the UK is drawn from 5 case studies covering a range of production and service environments and workplace size. In each case study, 3 months of intensive research was conducted between April 1983 and November 1986. Return visits were made 2 years after the detailed research to assess changes in the workplace. In none of the cases could the introduction of new technologies simply equate technical innovation with deskilling and enhanced managerial control. There was a tendency for overall skill polarization to occur rather than straightforward deskilling. It was found that technological change has been more favorable for technical than for clerical occupational groups. In telecommunications and metals research, the introduction of new technology led to a concentration of skills for technical workers that were primarily computer-related. The most important change in maintenance technicians' work was in the way that faults were diagnosed and repaired.
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On the basis of a series of case studies, it is suggested that the influence of white-collar local unionism is often considerable. These case studies were carried out in environments where unions might not have been expected to exercise significant influence on the introduction of new technologies. Three interrelated propositions can be advanced arising out of the evidence: 1. There has been a growing emphasis on consultation and information procedures over the past decade alongside existing bargaining and grievance procedures. 2. The uncertainty that many employers feel about what to do with microprocessor-based technology and the awareness that a positive attitude from the workforce is probably crucial if new equipment and new processes are to produce positive results have made consultation almost a necessity to get new systems off the ground successfully. 3. Union-employee influence on work reorganization, through both bargaining and consultative channels, has been limited in its character.
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The article reviews the book, "Change in Industrial Relations: The Organization and Environment," by P.B. Beaumont.
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The article reviews the book, "The Power to Manage? Employers and Industrial Relations in Comparative-Historical Perspective," edited by S. Tolliday and J. Zeitlin.
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Recent developments in the new technology debate suggest that the effects of technological change may be more complex and ambiguous than managerialist and labor process writers have argued. The process of technological change in an employing organization involves a number of distinct stages. A recent study challenged the position that technological change brings about the deskilling of workers. It is demonstrated that the independent influence of technology is a necessary compliment to an examination of the way outcomes of change are chosen and negotiated. The study used a set of survey data based on 435 unionized employing organizations in Atlantic Canada.
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Data collected as part of a comprehensive mail survey of unionized Canadian firms conducted in 1991 provided information on industrial relations developments in nearly 1,000 firms across key sectors of the economy in Canada. The survey had 2 related major purposes - to assess the extent of innovations in Canadian firms and their impact on industrial relations. The most common innovation was labor-management committees, followed by flexible work systems and profit sharing. The least common were pay systems, semi-autonomous work groups, and quality circles. Job enrichment was in between. Findings establish the empirical validity of innovations and indicate that industrial relations are indeed in transition. But the data also suggest that this transition is limited. The pragmatic initiatives at the firm-level point towards a change, though far short of a transformation, in Canadian industrial relations.
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- Journal Article (6)