The Changing Skills of the Telephone Technician

1
The Changing Skills of the Telephone Technician

• Professor Roger Penn
• University of Bologna
• 2009

2
The Debate about Skilled Work

• Marxist View The Deskilling Thesis
• Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital, Chapter 9
  Machinery.
• Machine maintenance work de-skilled as a result
  of the advent of self-diagnostic routines within
  modern machinery and the use of modular component
  replacements.

3
Neo-Marxism Martin (1988)

• Claimed that telecommunications workers were
  being deskilled
• His example focused upon the development of
  electronic telephone exchanges repair work has
  been radically simplifiedinstead of repairing
  electro-mechanical devices, printed circuit
  boards are simply replaced.
• The problem was that such exchange workers were a
  small part of the overall workforce most were
  engaged in the maintenance of the telephone
  network ratio of 15 1
• A classic example of finding the evidence that
  fits a pre-conceived theory

4
Human Capital Theory I

• Daniel Bell The Coming of Post-Industrial
  Society A Venture in Social Forecasting (1973)
• Other exponents Alan Touraine The
  Post-Industrial Society
• Other terms
• Information Society
• New Economy
• Knowledge Economy

5
Human Capital Theory II

• Post-Industrial Society a society where
  industrial manufacturing declines as a result of
  the rapid growth in the service and information
  sectors.
• The Factory ? the Archetype of Work.
• The Factory Worker ? the Core Worker
• The University . . . becomes the primary
  institution of the new society, D. Bell, The
  Public Interest, 6, 1967, p. 30.

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Human Capital Theory III

• Work is generally becoming more skilled
• The classic semi-skilled worker that formed the
  corner-stone of the industrial era Fordism has
  been replaced by professional and technically
  skilled workers Post-Fordism.
• Workers invest in human capital in the form of
  education and training

7
Stage Model of Economic Development

• Primary Agriculture
• Secondary Manufacturing Industry
• Tertiary Services
• Industrial Society the majority work in
  manufacturing.
• Post-Industrial Society the majority work in
  Services.

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Model of Post-Industrialism
9
Knowledge Economy

• Giddens A Knowledge Economy is one in which
  much of the workforce is involved not in the
  physical production or distribution of material
  goods, but in their design, development,
  technology, marketing, sale and servicing,
  Sociology 4th Edition, 2001, p378.
• An economy in which ideas, information,
  knowledge underpin innovation and economic
  growth ibid.
• Knowledge economy is dominated by the constant
  flow of information, and by the powerful
  potentials of science and technology (ibid).

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Compensatory Theory of SkillOverall
Orientation I

• Industrial capitalist society involves a
  structured conflict between capital and labour.
• This conflict is fundamentally asymmetric because
  of the essential characteristic of industrial
  capitalism the separation of the producer from
  the means of production as a result of capitalist
  ownership rights.
• These conflicts take various forms. The two most
  central involve conflicts over wages (the
  distribution of the surplus) and the organisation
  of the division of labour (the 'managerial
  prerogative').

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Compensatory Theory of SkillOverall
Orientation II

• Such conflicts over wages and the managerial
  prerogative take place within variable
  structures. One key element in these variable
  structures of asymmetric conflict is the nature
  and structure of the spatial organisation of
  employers and employees.
• These conflicts over wages and over authority
  relations are both economic and normative.
  Issues of legitimacy are central to both sets of
  relationships.
• A major factor in the actual relationship between
  employers and employees is the pattern of
  collective organisation of both parties. Such
  collective organisation can vary both spatially
  and historically.

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Compensatory Theory of SkillOverall
Orientation III

• The theory was developed at Lancaster University
  during the 1970s and 1980s
• Key publications included
• Skilled Workers in the Class Structure, Cambridge
  University Press, 1985.
• Class, Power and Technology, Polity Press, 1990.
• Skill and Occupational Change, Oxford University
  Press, 1994.
• Articles listed in Appendix A

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Trends in Skilled Work 3 Models Summarized
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An Aside Status Ambiguities within the Division
of Labour

• Grounded in the Occupational Sociology of the
  Chicago School Symbolic Interactionism.
• E. Hughes Men and their Work (1958) especially
  chapter 3 Work and the Self and chapter 9 The
  Making of a Physician.
• H Becker Boys in White (1961).
• R Gold Janitors vs. Tenants a Status-Income
  Dilemma, American Journal of Sociology, LVII,
  1952.
• G Fine Kitchens (1996)

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Hughes and his Colleagues IN THE Chicago School
Emphasized

• Centrality of work for identity
• This is both external and internal
• dirty work . . . is formed in all occupations
  and leads to feelings of shame and status pain.
• 1970s Hierarchy of Telephone Maintenance Work
• Installation of phones and fault-finding and
  repairs inside homes
• Outside fault-finding and repairs
• Laying down main cables/erection of telephone
  poles and wiring.
• - Hierarchy function of pleasantness and
  cleanliness and possibilities of interaction with
  the public

16
Hughes and his Colleagues in the Chicago School
Emphasized

• Centrality of work for identity
• This is both external and internal
• Dirty work.is formed in all occupations and
  leads to feelings of shame and status pain.

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The Project I

• A comparison of the skills of the telephone
  technician over a period of 20 years.
• Benchmark was personal experience in the
  occupation 20 years before.
• Major source was personal observations and
  memories akin to oral history.
• These were tri-angulated with tape- recorded
  open- ended, semi- structured interviews with
  older, experienced technicians.

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The Project II

• Observations and interviews in the field with
  telephone technicians 20 years on.
• These were supplemented by a literature review
  and the collection of data on the changing
  organizational structure of BT the telephone
  company.

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Telephone Maintenance Workers in the Early 1970s I

• Highly skilled workers who required extensive
  training and continuous retraining.
• Training conceptually complex and technologically
  sophisticated.
• Skills developed as different cabling systems
  introduced.
• Left very much on their own to perform
  maintenance work Responsible Autonomy.

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Telephone Maintenance Workers in the Early 1970s
II

• Mostly unsupervised. Assumed to take care in
  their work, with a considerable degree of
  commitment to performing a good job.
• Very similar to other Skilled Workers see Penn
  Skilled Workers in the Class Structure, 1985 and
  Class, Power and Technology, 1990 especially
  chapter 6 Socialization into Skilled
  Identities.
• Both of these are on my webpage in pdf form.

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Telephone Maintenance Workers in the Early 1970s
Hierarchy of Work

• In the 1970s there had been a clear hierarchy
  within telephone maintenance work
• 1. Installation of phones and fault-finding
  inside homes
• 2. Outside fault-finding and repairs
• 3. Laying down main cables/erection of
  telephone poles and wiring
• The hierarchy was a function of the pleasantness
  and cleanliness possibilities of interaction
  with the public.

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Cleanliness A Central Ambiguity I

• As skilled manual workers, telephone maintenance
  workers were akin to plumbers, electricians,
  pipefitters and carpenters they wear overalls,
  get dirty on occasions and were blue-collar
• As technicians they read diagrams and repaired
  fualts within a complex and esoteric
  technological environment
• As technicians they would come to work in
  light-coloured trousers, ordinary shoes and
  summery shirts.

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Cleanliness A Central Ambiguity II

• Receive details of fault.
• Go to exchange and assess situation.
• Narrow down fault enter the system either via a
  junction point or by digging a hole in the
  ground.
• Only with physical labour of this kind (often
  very dirty) would they don their overalls and
  boots.
• They would never enter a home, business, pub or
  café wearing such clothing but would change back
  into their original clothing.

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Fault-Finding A Complex Set of Skills

• Technical Understand the System and the
  Diagnostic Equipment. Training Courses.
  Different generations of cabling lead to fibre
  optic.
• Experience Knowledge of the underground and
  over ground system of cables.
• Social Ability to network with other telephone
  maintenance workers about the likely factors at
  work with difficult faults.

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Attitudes to Management

• Traditional wariness of skilled manual workers.
• Responsible autonomy a pattern of compromise
  between management and telephone engineers
  involving a degree of indulgence cf A.
  Gouldner Wildcat Strike, 1955 coupled with
  periodic tightening up.
• Telephone engineers expected to be left alone
  but also recognized a commitment to perform a
  certain amount of work.

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Research Questions in 1989 I

• What had been the effects of technical changes
  upon the job skills of telephone maintenance
  engineers since the early 1970s?
• Had there been any changes in the monitoring of
  telephone engineers? These could have included
• two-way radios
• daily norms for fault rectification
• payment-by-results
• What effects had the privatisation of British
  Telecom had on managerial styles, work content
  and traditional patterns of indulgence?

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Research Questions in 1989 II

• What had happened to the ambiguous status of
  telephone engineers with one foot on either side
  of the manual-nonmanual divide?
• How far was the picture of deskilling portrayed
  by Braverman and by Martin an accurate
  description of the trajectory of skilled
  activities within telecommunications?
• Null Hypothesis Nothing much had changed If so,
  could be the result of a variety of factors
  nature of the work per se/effective monopoly
  supplier

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Results

• Bifurcation of maintenance function
• Business Customers (most profitable)
• Domestic Customers
• Creation of new Business Services Division for
  Maintenance.

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Technical Change Local Network Domestic

• Fibre Optic Cabling ? Fewer Joints
• Traditional Joints Rewrapped in Pre-Shrunk
  Sleeves that were highly resistant to damp.
• Test Equipment more accurate
• Easier access to man-holes
• Crimps more robust and more water resistant
• Overall expansion of skills required this was
  mainly the result of different generations of
  cabling and jointing lead plug, epoxy resin and
  fibre optic joints

30
Technical Change Business Systems

• Elite group special clothing, take vehicles
  home at night, not required to sign in at
  exchange
• Highly autonomous workers
• Much of their work had been routinized by advent
  of modular electronic business exchanges

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Technical Change Business Systems
Diagnostic equipment easier to operate

• Fault repair changing fault cards
  micro-circuits
• Diagnostic equipment easier to operate
• Many diagnostic skills only used intermittently
  _at_10 of faults.
• Routinization of job skills disliked.

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Status Ambiguities

• Image Clothing accentuated the differences in
  statuses
• Business Services suits/blazersand a BT car
• Local Network specially designed boots, plus a
  BT jumper still had to to change for dirty work
  such as digging

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Overall Conclusions I

• Considerable training and experience still
  required to undertake the work effectively
• Bifurcation paradoxically, the more glamorous
  work in Business Systems had become more
  routinized than in the Local Network
• Distinct asymmetry in trajectories of change in
  Business Systems, skilled activities more
  intermittent whilst in Local Network traditional
  skills had expanded somewhat and were in more
  continuous use

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Overall Conclusions II

• Nonetheless, as far as workforce were concerned,
  Business Systems was the more desirable section
  of telephone maintenance work.
• The opportunity to avoid manual work outweighed
  the likely intermittent use of specialized
  technical skills.
• Little evidence to support either Bravermans or
  Martins claims that maintenance work was
  becoming less skilled. Indeed, their approach
  ignores the subjective significance of work and
  thereby almost entirely misconceives the
  situation described above.

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Appendix A Key Articles in the Development of
the Compensatory Theory of Skill I

• Skilled Manual Workers in the Labour Process,
  1856-1964, in S. Wood (ed), The Degradation of
  Work? Skill, Deskilling and the Labour Process
  (London, 1982), pp.90-108.
• The Contested Terrain a critique of R.C.
  Edwards theory of working-class fractions and
  politics, in D. Dunkerley and G. Salaman (eds),
  The International Yearbook of Organisation
  Studies 1981 (London, 1982), pp.183-94
• Trade Union Organisation and Skill in the Cotton
  and Engineering Industries in Britain, 1850-1960
  Social History, January 1983, pp.37-55.
• Theories of Skill and Class Structure,
  Sociological Review, February 1983, 31, 1,
  p.22-38.
• The Course of Wage Differentials between Skilled
  and Nonskilled Manual Workers in Britain between
  1856 and 1964, British Journal of Industrial
  Relations, March 1983, pp69-90.
• Skilled Workers and Automation in Contemporary
  Britain, Automation, February 1985, 8-9. .

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Key Articles in the Development of the
Compensatory Theory of Skill II

• Deskilling or Enskilling? An Empirical
  Investigation of Recent Theories of the Labour
  Process(with vol. XXXVI, no.4, December 1985,
  pp.611-30
• Socialisation into Skilled Identities an
  Analysis of a Neglected Phenomenon, Journal of
  Interdisciplinary Economics, vol 1, 1986,
  pp163-73.
• The Development of Skilled Work in the British
  Coal Mining Industry
• 1870-1985 (with R. Simpson), Industrial
  Relations Journal , vol.17, 4, Winter 1986,
  pp.339-49.
• Where Have All the Craftsmen Gone? Trends in
  Skilled Labor in the United States of America
  since 1940, British Journal of Sociology,
  vol.XXXVII, 4, December 1986, pp.569-80.
• The Attitudes and Responses of Trades Unions to
  Technical Change A Case Study of Maintenance
  Workers in the North West of England (with B.
  Wigzell), Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics,
  vol.2, 1987, pp.3-22.

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Key Articles in the Development of the
Compensatory Theory of Skill III

• Continuity and Change in Skilled Work (with H.
  Scattergood), British Journal of Sociology,
  vol.XXXVII, 4, 1988, pp.69-85.
• Changes in the Differentials of Engineering
  Workers since 1979 an Analysis of Earnings Data
  from Rochdale (with R.B. Davies and A. Martin),
  Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, vol.2,
  no.3, 1988, pp.199-213.
• Cambiamento tecnologico e organizzazione del
  lavoro nellInghilterra contemporanea
  Technology and Work Organization in Contemporary
  Britain, Sociologia del Lavoro, vol.35-36, 1989,
  pp.51-93.
• Skilled Maintenance Work at British Telecom, New
  Technology, Work and Employment, Autumn, 1990,
  135-44.
• Technical Change and the Division of Labour in
  Rochdale and Aberdeen Evidence from the Social
  Change and Economic Life Initiative (with A.
  Gasteen, H. Scattergood and J. Sewel), British
  Journal of Sociology, 43, 4, December 1992,
  pp.657-680.

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Key Articles in the Development of the
Compensatory Theory of Skill III

• The SCELI Skill Findings in R. Penn, M.J. Rose
  and J. Rubery (eds), Skill and Occupational
  Change, Oxford Oxford University Press, 1994,
  pp.1-37.
• Technical Change and Skilled Manual Work in
  Contemporary Rochdale, in R. Penn et al (eds),
  Skill and Occupational Change, Oxford Oxford
  University Press, 1994, pp.107-129.
• Towards a Phenomenology of Skill (with B.
  Francis) in R. Penn et al (eds), Skill and
  Occupational Change, Oxford Oxford University
  Press, 1994, pp.223-243.
• Changing Patterns of Work in the British Textile
  Industry, Journal of the Textile Institute,
  86,1,1995,pp167-172.
• Flexibility, Skill and Technical Change in UK
  Retailing The Service Industries Journal, 15,3,
  July, 1995, pp.229-242. Reprinted in Retail
  Employment G. Akehurst and N. Alexander (eds)
  London Frank Cass, (1996), pp.171-184.

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Key Articles in the Development of the
Compensatory Theory of Skill IV

• Skilled Work in Contemporary Europe A Journey
  into the Dark (with D. Sleightholme) in
  Dittrich, E., Schmidt, G. and Whitley, R. (eds),
  Industrial Transformation in Europe, London
  Sage, 1995.
• Social Exclusion and Modern Apprenticeship A
  Comparison of Britain and the USA, Journal of
  Vocational Education and Training, Vol.50, No.2,
  1998, 259-275, ISSN 1363-6820.
• The Dynamics of Decision-Making in the Sphere of
  Skills Formation, Sociology, 33, 3, August
  1999, pp.619-638.
• Lavoratori della conoscenza ed abilità
  professionali paradossi allinterno della
  divisione contemporanea del lavoro Sociologia
  del Lavoro, 70-71, 1999, pp 127-140, ISBN
  8846413601.
• Una rassegna dei più importanti temi di ricerca
  nella sociologia del lavoro in Gran Bretagna
  Sociologia del Lavoro, 76, 2000, pp100-108, ISBN
  884641926X.

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Key Articles in the Development of the
Compensatory Theory of Skill V

• Skills Issues in Other Business Services
  Professional Services, Skills Task Force
  Research Paper 16, Department for Education and
  Employment, London, 2000, SKT21 RR155.
• Il Paradosso del Lavoro Moderno nellInghilterra
  di Oggi Sociologia del Lavoro, 100, 2006, ISBN
  88-164-7268-3.