Analysis of Contemporary Media Reporting on the World of Work
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Topic4LectureNotesPart1.pptxWork in a Global Society
Topic 4 -Technological Change and the Future of Work
Technology
Objectives:
Introduce the concept of technology and technological change
Discuss some of the common assumptions about technology and the contrasting views about the impact of technology on the world of work
Identify which jobs and occupations might be at most risk to automation.
Analyse the relationship between technology, management and employees.
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Key concepts and essay questions:
Concepts:
Technological determinism
Technocracy
Technological imperative
Questions:
How has technology impacted on the changing nature of work?
Is technology a job killer? What jobs are most at risk?
When should workers embrace or resist new technology?
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Readings
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Volti , R., (2012), An Introduction to the Sociology of Work and Occupations, Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp.77-94
Corbett, J (2009) ‘Technology’ in Spicer A and Hancock, P (eds) Understanding Corporate Life, Warwick: Warwick Organisation Theory Network: Sage Publications: London
Healy, J., Nicholson, D., & Parker, J. (2017). Guest editors’ introduction: technological disruption and the future of employment relations. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 27(3): 157-64
Thinking about Technology
A critical exploration of the claims and counterclaims of the relationship between technology and progress and technology’s impact on the world of work.
‘Why do we take so little for granted in the social sciences and so much for granted in the natural sciences?…what happens when you apply the scepticism normally reserved for social relations to technology?’ (Grint and Woolgar, 1997, 37).
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Thinking Point:
Technology does not emerge from an objective exercise in problem solving.
Technology should not be thought of as an “end point”
If we focus on capturing technology as the end of a process, then we miss out on the human interactions, resistance and expertise!!
Please remember this when you become a consultant
Defining Technology
‘Technology’ is a fairly new word—coined by Jacob Bigelow, Harvard professor, in the 1820s.
Roots of the word are much older:
Techne (Greek): art, craft or skill
Teks (Indo-Euro): weave or fabricate
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Defining Technology
Knowledge that is produced or articulated:
‘A system based on the application of knowledge, manifested in physical objects and organisational forms for the attainment of specific goals which maybe for practical reasons, symbolic reasons or for reasons of generating profit’.
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Do we take these definitions for granted?
Or are these definitions underpinned by a analytical tradition?
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Technology and Progress
Our lives are intertwined with technologies from simple tools to large technical systems.
Some common assumptions about technology are:
Technological change is usually one of continuous improvements of existing technologies.
‘We’ can always make things better and faster.
The progressive element of technology makes it a unique human endeavour.
Advances in technology bring positive advances to an organisation and the world of work
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Technology and Progress
An organisation’s level of progress can be measured in its advances in technology.
It determines organisational design and the nature of work
is developed according to a particular ‘logic’, process or universal law.
Does evidence support these claims? Totally? Partially? Not at all?
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Technology Driven Organisations?: Key Concepts
Technological Determinism:
‘The assumption that technology determines—that is leads directly to—a particular form of society or organisation’ Grint and Case (1998)
We are the ‘servants’ of technology rather than its ‘master’ (‘Frankenstein Monster’)
Robert Blauner concludes in his research on work in American industries that:
‘technology more than any other factor determines the nature of the job tasks performed by blue collar employees and has an important effect upon a number of aspects of alienation’ ? (Blauner 1964).
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Technology Driven Organisations?: Key Concepts
Technocracy
That organisations can be governed by engineers and technical experts (scientific managers) who attempt to solve workplace problems’ based on technical/scientific principles.
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Technocrats believe technology can ‘fix’ all problems:
Car accidents seat belts, air-bags
Hyper active kids Retalin (prescription drugs)
Heroine addiction methadone
Graffiti resistant paints
Dangerous jobs robotics
Global warming carbon capture and storage/geosequestration
‘Ugly people’ cosmetics/cosmetic surgery
‘Lazy’ workers surveillance equipment robots
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Technology Driven Organisations?: Key Concepts
Technological Imperative:
The view that the development of new technologies are inevitable, essential and must be embraced for the betterment of workers, organisations and broader society.
It is a dominant (hegemonic view) but should we accept such a view:
“Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences” (Lewis Mumford) (Philosopher of technology 1895-1990)
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While some embrace technology
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……………………..
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others question the technological imperative.
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Technology as Socially Determined
Technologies are not neutral:
They are designed, consciously or unconsciously, to open up certain social options and close others
Not only are some design features of technology political in nature but some technologies in their entirety are political (e.g. development of the internet).
Mackenzie and Wajcman (1999) argue that this promotes a passive attitude to technological change (i.e. that we should adapt to it rather than shape it).
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Technology as socially determined
Technology as socially determined
Technological changes are themselves socially engineered and all human relationships (including organisational relationships) are derived from and ultimately determined by cultural and/or social relationships rather than technological aspects.
Technologies have different meanings to different groups
“..technology is not a pure application of science; it is co-determined by social, cultural, economic and technical factors in the environment that contextualizes it”
(Hatch and Cunliffe, 2006: 155).
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Two Divergent Theoretical Perspectives:
Is the impact of technology determined by characteristics of the technology itself (technological determinism) or by the choices made by the adapting social organisation and its powerful actors (social determinism)?
Is technology a ‘good thing (positive social impact) or a ‘bad’ thing (negative social impact)? (Corbett, 2009)
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Theories of Technology
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Source: Corbett (2009)
Theories of Technology
Corbett (2009) argues technology is written about from four perspectives
Futurism – technology brings positive benefits for all eg freedom from the drudgery of work, better communications etc
Managerialism –behaviour is oriented towards efficiency and economy and the control of employee behaviour by managers
Romanticism – technology undermines ‘natural’ human values and abilities ie ideological choices are made by designers and these constrain choices available to organisational members
Marxism – capitalists employ technology to control and deskill labour ie it is used to exploit and degrade workers
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What is this?
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Freeing workers from boring repetitive jobs (Futurism),
enhancing company efficiency (Managerialist) or
the mass destruction of workers jobs (Marxism)?
Critical Perspectives about Technology’s Impact on the World of Work
Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capitalism (1974)
Key arguments:
Technology is used as a tool by management for ‘technical control’
Through the process of deskilling and work degradation, all employees are finding themselves in a similar disempowered and alienated position.
All work is becoming the same and workers are becoming extensions of machines.
Under the ‘logic’ of capitalism ‘deskilling’ is a universal process and the skilled craft worker is becoming extinct.
Through ‘deskilling’ workers have lost control over the production process and are largely powerless to stop any workplace changes (e.g. technological change, the hiring and firing of workers, managerial decision-making, shift rosters, speedup, etc.)
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Technology and Job Design
Cockburn (1983) and Wajcman (1991) found that gender related to the social construction of technology and skills development
‘men selectively design tools and machinery to match their technical skills. Machinery is designed with men in mind. Industrial technology thus reflects male power as well as capitalist domination’ (Wajcman, 1991: 41)
Managerialist researchers (e.g. Mathews, 1989) argue workers are often ‘upskilled’ when technologies are introduced
But most managerialist researchers (e.g. Hackman and Oldham, 1980) confess that technological design choices may constrain job design choices.
Other researchers (e.g. Wilkinson, 1983; Wood, 1989) found that employees were often able to resist management’s deskilling strategies
.
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Technology and Organisational Culture
Technology and corporate culture only studied from 1990s as eg email and intranets appeared
Managerialists eg Grant et al (2006) suggests a complex picture where technologies bring both benefits eg faster work rate and workflow efficiency gains and costs to organisations eg increased stress
But the managerial narrative about this defines the ‘costs’ as affecting business efficiency and performance rather than in social or psychological terms
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Technology and Organisational Culture
Romanticists eg Zuboff (1988) see problems in the electronic surveillance of workforces by management (electronic panopticon).
Other Romanticists eg Mann and Holdsworth (2003) argue that choices such as teleworking create impersonality and isolation.
Marxists eg Bain et al (2002) suggest that management’s use of surveillance in call centres enables the continuation of Taylorist methods into the 21C
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
Four main propositions:
Workers are being displaced by ever more advanced machines resulting in rising levels of technological unemployment
This is a sign we are on the verge of achieving a largely automated society
This should entail people’s liberation from toil but could turn into a nightmare
Only way to prevent this is to provide a Universal basic Income (UBI) (Benanav, 2019)
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Technology and Future of Jobs
What is different about this time?
We need to understand two concepts:
Labour augmenting technologies – jobs continue to exist but the workers are more productive ie a labour saving innovation
Automation technologies – fully substitute for human labour rather than just increasing productivity ie the jobs cease to exist
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
This argument is put forward by a number of self-described futurists:
Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2014) The Second Machine Age – they argue new technology offers enormous potential. Many jobs from across the spectrum will disappear
Ford (2015) The Rise of the Machines – we are coming to a tipping point where less labour needed
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Frey and Osborne (2017) – 47% of US jobs are susceptible to automation.
But does this represent a change from the past? (e.g. 57% of the jobs workers did in the 1960s do not exist today).
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
Autor (2015) argues that the fears that technology will wipe out large numbers of jobs has been a recurrent theme
He suggests that while it does substitute for labour, it raises demand for labour
But it does alter the type of jobs available and what they pay
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
But Spencer (2017) disagrees and argues that Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2014):
‘fail to uncover the linkages between the politics of production and digital technologies. Rather than being some neutral force … digital technologies are deeply connected to relations of power. These relations … influence the form, direction and outcomes digital technologies including in the work realm’ (p. 142)
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
“digital technologies are themselves products of unequal power – they are not neutral as such, but are created harnessed and reproduced under conditions where power resides with capital, not labour. This means that what kinds of digital technologies get produced, how they are used and what outcomes they yield, are at least partly dependent on the interests of capital and its representatives” (Spencer, 2017: 145).
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
Automation dictated by the price of labour
Indian sewage pipe diver – paid $6.30 a day and a bottle of alcohol
Australia – task performed mechanically – if required to be performed by a person they are skilled and dressed in a protective suit.
It is a question of not only is it possible to automate a job but is it economically worthwhile if there is cheap labour (Fleming, 2019).
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
There have also been debates about the quality of jobs in the future – technology has been responsible for people who have insufficient work (underemployment) and those who are working excessive hours.
Spencer (2018) argues that work needs to be redistributed more evenly and allow people to have fulfilling work but this can only occur if there are new patterns of ownership.
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Technology and the Future of Jobs
“The bias towards the use of technology for profit making … means that workers cannot rely on technology to reduce the burden of work and to enhance the qualitative content of work …. It is not utopian to imagine an automated future where work is diminished and also enhanced in qualitative terms; however, to realise this society must undergo radical change” (Spencer, 2018: 11)
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Conclusion
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Thinking Point:
Technology does not emerge from an objective exercise in problem solving.
Technology should not be thought of as an “end point”
If we focus on capturing technology as the end of a process, then we miss out on the human interpretations, resistant and expertise!!
Please remember this when you become a consultant, because we often fail to think about the intended and unintended consequences of technology for workers.
References
Autor, D (2015) ‘Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3): 3-30.
Benanav, A (2010) ‘Automation and the Future of Work’, New Left Review, 119: 5-38
Blauner, R. (1964). Alienation and freedom: The factory worker and his industry.
Corbett, J (2009) ‘Technology’ in Spicer A and Hancock, P (eds) Understanding Corporate Life, Warwick: Warwick Organisation Theory Network
Dorling, D (2013) ‘Generation Jobless’, New Statesman, 16-22 August, http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2013/08/generation-jobless-worst-youth-unemployment-crisis-european-history-should-be-blam
Fleming, P (2019) ‘Robots and Organization Studies: Why Robots Might Not Want to Steal Your Job’, Organization Studies, 40(1): 23-37.
Furman, J (2016) ‘Is This Time Different? The Opportunities and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence’, https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/page/files/20160707_cea_ai_furman.pdf
Grint, K., & Woolgar, S. (2013). The machine at work: Technology, work and organization. John Wiley & Sons.
Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2012). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press.
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References
MacKenzie, D and Wajcman, J eds (1999) The Social Shaping of Technology, 2nd ed, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Padulla, M. (2016) ‘Could we be underestimating the human condition when we think about the future of work?’ http://staffingamericalatina.com/en/no-estaremos-subestimando-lo-humano-cuando-pensamos-en-el-futuro-del-trabajo/?platform=hootsuite
Penny, L (2015) ‘The Robots are Coming for Your Job. That might not be bad news.’, New Statesman, 9-15 October, http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2015/10/robots-are-coming-your-job-might-not-be-bad-news
Skidelsky, R (2013) ‘The Rise of the Robots’, The Centre for Global Studies, 22 February, http://globalstudies.org.uk/the-rise-of-the-robots/
Smith, A. (2016) ‘Public Predictions for the Future of Workforce Automation’ Pew Research Centre http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/03/10/public-predictions-for-the-future-of-workforce-automation/
Spencer, D (2016) ‘Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age: the politics of production and digital technologies’, Work Employment and Society, 1-11.
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References
Spencer, D (2017) ‘Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age: the politics of production and digital technologies’, Work Employment and Society, 31(1): 142-152.
Spencer, D (2018) ‘Fear and hope in the age of mass automation: debating the future of work’, New Technology, Work and Employment, 33(1): 1-12.
Thompson, C (2016) ‘We have reached the tipping point where technology is destroying more jobs than it creates, researcher warns’, Business Insider Australia, 4 June, http://www.businessinsider.com.au/technology-is-destroying-jobs-and-it-could-spur-a-global-crisis-2015-6?r=US&IR=T
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