Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
article
Free access

Computers and employment

Published: 01 July 1972 Publication History
  • Get Citation Alerts
  • Abstract

    The relationship of computers and automation to employment is part of the more general relation of technological change to employment. The most obvious effect is that increases in productivity due to technology can eliminate jobs. Technology affects the individual worker, in the nature and amount of his work, and in his attitudes toward that work. Technological change affects the occupational structure of the entire labor force. Because of the central importance of these effects, the impact of technology has been the subject of extensive study by economists, sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists. Even within a single discipline, studies are often contradictory, and conclusions are colored by political overtones. We wish to delineate some of the issues, and present arguments given to support different viewpoints.

    References

    [1]
    Armer, Paul. The individual: His privacy, self-image and obsolescence. Proc. eleventh meeting of the Panel on Science and Technology, "Science and Astronautics," U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Gov. Print. Off., Jan. 27-29, 1970, p. 129.
    [2]
    Barkin, S. (Ed.) Impact of office automation in a government service (USA). in Technical Changes and Manpower Planning, OECD, Paris, 1967, pp. 257-268.
    [3]
    Blauner, R. Alienation and Freedom. U. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1964,
    [4]
    Bright, J.R. The impact of automation in the work force. In Automation and Management, Grad. School of Bus. Admin., Harvard U., Cambridge, Mass., 1958, Chap. 12, pp. 170-188.
    [5]
    Computers in Offices. Manpower Studies No. 4, Ministry of Labour, Great Britain, WMSO, London, 1965.
    [6]
    Crossman, E.R.F.W., and Laner, S. The impact of technological change on manpower and skill demand: Case-study and policy implications. Dep. of lnd. Eng. and Oper. Res., U. of California, Berkeley, Calif., 1969.
    [7]
    Dalton, Gene, and Thompson, Paul. Accelerating obsolescence of of older engineers. Harvard Bus. Rev. (Nov. 1970).
    [8]
    Diebold, John. The nature of computers and automation. In The New Technology and Human Values, Burke, J. (Ed.), Wadsworth Pub. Co., Belmont, Calif., 1966, pp. 109-118.
    [9]
    Elizur, D. Adapting to Innovation. Jerusalem Academic Press, Jerusalem, Israel, 1970.
    [10]
    Faunce, W.A. Automation and the division of labor. Social Problems 13 (Fall 1965), 149-160.
    [11]
    Gilpatrick, Eleanor. On the classification of unemployment: A view of the structural-inadequate demand debate. Ind. and Labor Relations Rev. 19 (1965-66).
    [12]
    Gruenfeld, L.W., and Folman, F.F. Relationship among supervisors' integration, satisfaction, and acceptance of a technological change. J. Appl. Psychology 51, 1 (1967), 74-77.
    [13]
    Helfgott, Roy. EDP and the office work force, btd. and Labor Relations Rev. 19 (July 1966).
    [14]
    Hoos, Ida. When the computer takes over the office. Harvard Bus. Rev. (1960).
    [15]
    Impact of office automation in the insurance industry. U.S. Gov. Print. Off. Bull. 1468, Washington, D.C.
    [16]
    Jaffe, A.G., and Fromkin, G. Technology and Jobs: Autor, tation in Perspective. Praeger, New York, 1968.
    [17]
    Kruse, J. Comparative manning practices in data processing installations. In Manpower Aspects of Automation and Technological Change (European conf., 1966, Suppl. to Final Rep.), OECD Pubs., Paris, 1966.
    [18]
    Labour and Automation, Bulletins 1-7. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1964-68.
    [19]
    Manpower Report of the President. U.S. Dep. of Labor, Washington, D.C., Apr. 1971 and Mar. 1972.
    [20]
    Mansfield, E. The Economics of Technical Change. Norton, New York, 1968.
    [21]
    Shepard, Jon M. Automation and Alienation, A Study of Office and Factory Workers. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1971.
    [22]
    Silberman, Charles. The Myths of Automation. Harper & Row, New York, 1966.
    [23]
    Simon, H.A. The Shape of Automation. Harper & Row, New York, 1965.
    [24]
    Stoikov, Vladimir. Increasing structural unemployment reexamined, hd. and Labor Relations Rev. 19, (1965-66).
    [25]
    Technology and the American economy. Rep. of Nat. Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress, Vol. 1. U.S. Gov. Print. Off., Washington, D.C., Feb. 1966.
    [26]
    Urvoy, J. A tentative interpretation of a number of case-studies of firms and industries using office computers. In Manpower Aspects of Automation and Technological Change (European conf., 1966, Suppl. to Final Rep.), OECD Pubs., Paris, 1966.
    [27]
    Wiener, N. The Human Use of Human Beings. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 1950.

    Cited By

    View all

    Index Terms

    1. Computers and employment
      Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

      Recommendations

      Comments

      Information & Contributors

      Information

      Published In

      cover image Communications of the ACM
      Communications of the ACM  Volume 15, Issue 7
      July 1972
      209 pages
      ISSN:0001-0782
      EISSN:1557-7317
      DOI:10.1145/361454
      Issue’s Table of Contents
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 01 July 1972
      Published in CACM Volume 15, Issue 7

      Permissions

      Request permissions for this article.

      Check for updates

      Author Tags

      1. attitudes
      2. displacement
      3. employment
      4. obsolescence
      5. skills
      6. social implications
      7. technology
      8. unemployment
      9. unions

      Qualifiers

      • Article

      Contributors

      Other Metrics

      Bibliometrics & Citations

      Bibliometrics

      Article Metrics

      • Downloads (Last 12 months)290
      • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)29
      Reflects downloads up to 10 Aug 2024

      Other Metrics

      Citations

      Cited By

      View all
      • (2017)Employee assessment of their technological redundancyLabour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work10.1080/10301763.2017.136971827:3(213-231)Online publication date: 23-Aug-2017
      • (2016)Technology and Urban ManagementAdministration & Society10.1177/0095399777009003039:3(305-340)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2016
      • (1978)Computers and ethical judgment in organizationsProceedings of the 1978 annual conference - Volume 210.1145/800178.810110(675-683)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1978
      • (1978)Management utilization of computers in American local governmentsCommunications of the ACM10.1145/359361.35936421:3(206-218)Online publication date: 1-Mar-1978
      • (1977)MIS Problems and failuresMIS Quarterly10.2307/2487101:3(17-32)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1977
      • (1973)Towards a person-centered computer technologyProceedings of the ACM annual conference10.1145/800192.805740(387-391)Online publication date: 27-Aug-1973

      View Options

      View options

      PDF

      View or Download as a PDF file.

      PDF

      eReader

      View online with eReader.

      eReader

      Get Access

      Login options

      Full Access

      Media

      Figures

      Other

      Tables

      Share

      Share

      Share this Publication link

      Share on social media