Professionalism and Personal Skills

1
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Lecture 5
• NT and Employment

2
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Objectives
• By the end of this lecture the student should
• Understand NT in perspective
• Understand the viewpoints of NT and Employment
• Appreciate the main points of the De-Skilling
  Debate
• Appreciate the Industrial Relations implications

3
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Overview
• There are many debates concerning NT and its
  impact on the working environment whether
  positive or negative
• It is the aim of this lecture to examine these
  debates and stimulate responses to them

4
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Introduction
• NT in perspective
• Viewpoints of NT and Employment
• De-Skilling Debate
• Why Introduce NT?
• Industrial Relations Implications
• Trade Union Roles

5
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• New Technology and Employment
  in Perspective

6
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Viewpoints of NT and Employment
• (See Chapter 3 Rowe and Thompson)
• Optimistic Viewpoint
• Pessimistic Viewpoint

7
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Impact of Technology on Work Tasks
• (The De-Skilling Debate)
• De-Skilling of Work tasks Argument
• Re-Skilling Argument

8
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Why Introduce New Technology?
• Changing Patterns of Work
• Time/Space Considerations

9
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Why Introduce New Technology?
• Discussion Point
• What are the main reasons organisations introduce
  NT?

10
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Why Introduce New Technology? (cont)
• Buchanan and Boddy, 3 categorisations
• 1 Strategic
• 2 Operating
• 3 Control Objectives

11
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Why Introduce New Technology? (cont)
• Other Studies have broadly confirmed these
  categorisations
• McCloughlin Clark
• Technological Change at Work suggests control
  is too simplistic a view

12
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Industrial Relations Implications
• Daniel W.W. (1987) argues Technological Change is
  a Technical Matter
• Should involve people
• Executive level decisions on IT

13
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Trade Union Roles
• Highest factor against NT and Change
• Modern TUs are seen to have had a Luddite
  attitude towards NT
• Bargaining position of TUs affects outcome
• Quick to realise implications of NT
• TUC produced a checklist for NT agreements

14
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Trade Union Roles (cont)
• TUC urged TUs to negotiate over introduction of
  NT
• TUC tried to maintain the Status Quo
• Unions drew up their own responses
• Most bargaining used old procedures, not new

15
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Trade Union Roles (cont)
• General Conclusion Not Effective
  (McCloughlin Clark, 1998)
• Why did TU response have so little impact?
• Government Change
• from Labour to Conservative
• TU Membership fell

16
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Trade Union Conclusion
• Managers in non-unionised companies consult less
  than in unionised
• Non-unionised employees seem to just as well as
  unionised
• TUs have little influence of course of
  technological change

17
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Summary
• NT in perspective
• Viewpoints of NT and Employment
• De-Skilling Debate
• Why Introduce NT (Buchanan and Boddy)
• Industrial Relations Implications
• Trade Union Roles

18
I.T and People

• Objectives
• Understand NT in perspective
• Understand the viewpoints of NT and Employment
• Appreciate the main points of the De-Skilling
  Debate
• Appreciate the Industrial Relations implications