Mel Van Elteren

Managerial Control of American Workers

Methods and Technology from the 1880s to Today

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Today, surveillance and regulation of employees are pervasive at all levels (except the highest) in a wide variety of American workplaces. Digital information systems have become important tools of managerial control. The constraints built into these systems by so-called "business process reengineering" are a continuation of scientific management principles developed during the late 19th century. Additional means of control have included employment-based "welfare capitalism," and human relations and corporate culture approaches. This book provides fresh insight into various practices of managerial control from the 1880s to the present and their effects on work organization and quality, and worker skill requirements. The author highlights current developments--including those focused on highly skilled knowledge workers--accounting for enhanced automation, offshoring and related changes in the production and distribution of goods and services.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: McFarland
• Seitenzahl: 346
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Februar 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 562g
• ISBN-13: 9781476664996
• ISBN-10: 1476664994
• Artikelnr.: 45643158

Autorenporträt

Mel van Elteren is an emeritus associate professor of social sciences at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He has published several books and articles in sociology, social psychology and cultural studies, with special interest in American society, politics and labor.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction
1
The Rise of the Factory System and the Origins of Systematic Management
2
Taylorism and Fordism and Their Early Impact on Manufacturing and Service Work
3
Welfare Capitalism and Human Relations as Additional Means of Managerial Control
4
Taylorization During World War II and the Postwar Automation Movement
5
The "New Nonunion Model" and the Great Risk Shift
6
Renewal of "Flexible Mass Production" Through a Japanese Filter
7
Industrial Rationalization of Retail and Service Work Intensified
8
Enhanced Top-Down Management Systems in Manufacturing and Office Work
9
Enterprise Resource Planning: Business Process Reengineering Taken to the Next Level 10
Twists and Turns of High-Tech Jobs and the Reengineering of Skilled White-Collar Work 11
Technology-First Automation and the Double-Edged Sword of Decision-Support Systems 12
The Extensive and Intrusive Reach of Computer Business Systems 13
Robots: Cooperating with or Replacing Human Workers? 14
Digital Information Technologies and the Nikefication of Production and Work Organization Conclusion Chapter Notes Bibliography Index