Managerial Control of American Workers: Methods and Technology from the 1880s to Today

by Mel van Elteren

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476664996
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/13/2017
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

This book brings new insights to the existing literature on automation and managerial control”—Labour/Le Travail

From the Publisher