BOOK REVIEWS
| Date | 01 November 1990 |
| Published date | 01 November 1990 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1990.tb01004.x |
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
28:3
November
1990 0007-1080
$3.00
BOOK
REVIEWS
New Technology in Context: The Selection, Introduction and Use
of
Computer
Numerically Controlled Machine Tools,
by Bernard Burnes. Avebury Press,
Aldershot, Hants,
1989.
183pp.
f25.
Managerial Strategy for New Technology,
by Wendy Currie. Avebury Press,
Aldershot, Hants,
1989. E32.50.
New Technologies and Work: Capitalist and Socialist Perspectives,
by Arthur
Francis and Peter Grootings. Routledge, London,
1989.336
pp.
f35.
In the
1980s
industrial relations research has broadened out, beyond its traditional
concern with collective bargaining, to examine employment relations more gen-
erally. New technology has been a major influence on employment relations in the
1980s,
as managers have sought to introduce microelectronics both on the shop-
floor
and
in
the office. This trend has been international. The three books under
review examine this trend, focusing particularly
on
management, work organiza-
tion and, to a lesser extent, employment relations. Several authors in the
Francis-Grootings collection discuss employment relations specifically, while
Burnes discusses the failure
of
British trade unions to influence the introduction
of
new technology; Currie is concerned primarily with management strategy, and does
not mention trade unions at all.
These three books share subject matter, orientation, methodology and con-
clusions (although such is academic parochialism that they share only minimal
bibliographical references). All three are concerned with the introduction
of
microelectronic technology in the early
1980s
-
especially computer numerically
controlled machine tools (Burnes; Francis and Grootings) and computer-aided
draughting (Currie). All three share an anti-determinist stance, even the authors
writing from a ‘socialist’ perspective in the Francis-Grootings collection. All three
have followed a case-study methodology, although none
of
the cases has been
examined in sufficient detail to satisfy case-study purists. All three reach the same
broad conclusion: that research should focus on the social forces which shape the
development and application
of
technology, at least as much as on the social impact
of technology.
There are, however, significant differences between the three books in coverage,
analytical sophistication, interest and literacy. In general, the Francis-Grootings
collection has the most general interest, having the widest coverage, both
geographically and intellectually, the most explicit discussion
of
industrial relations,
and being generally the best written. Burnes’s
New Technology in Context
is
well
written, but the general argument is well known, and the case-study material is
repetitive. The central thrust of Currie’s study
-
the rhetorical character
of
much
financial documentation
-
is well taken, but the presentation is poor and the case-
study evidence reads like field notes.
412
British
Journal
of
Industrial Relations
New Technologies and Work: Capitalist and Socialist Perspectives,
includes
case
studies
of
the introduction
of
CNC machine tools in ten European countries:
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Soviet Union, Poland, Belgium, West
Germany, Britain, Finland and the Netherlands. Additionally, the volume begins
with a general discussion
of
international comparative research methodology, which
distinguishes between cross-national research (in which as near identical
as
possible
traits are examined in more than one country) and international comparative
research (in which the linkages between individual traits and the systems
of
which
they are
a
part are recognized). The style
of
research reflects the pattern
characteristic
of
the Vienna Centre, which sponsored the study. Although the papers
vary in quality
-
and in quality of English
-
all contain material
of
interest. The
papers by Katalin Nagy, ‘New Technology and Work in Hungary: Technological
Innovation without Organisational Adaptation’, and Jolanta Kulpinska and
Slawomir Skalmierski, ‘The Taming
of
New Technology: A Polish Case Study
of
the
Introduction
of
New Technology’, are especially interesting.
The theme
of
Nagy’s paper is indicated by the sub-title, the ineffectiveness
of
investment in new technology in Hungary because
of
the uncongenial organizational
environment. Following Kornai, she shows how
soft
budget constraints lead to
arbitrary decisions on new investment: ‘not a firm’s income
or
efficiency but power
relations, personal connections and traditions decide on who can invest and who
cannot’ (p.
93).
At the level
of
work organization, Taylorism may exist in theory, but
it is ‘severely modified by the production process. The daily problems of supply
of
materials and tools make a painstaking prescription
of
workers’ tasks obsolete;
create in reality a factual need for multi-variance (not always recognized in the
classification); cannot fix the worker to his working place; cause continuous changes
in the work rhythm; modify the role
of
the hierarchy and leave considerable
autonomy to the worker in the execution of his work’ (pp.
97-8).
Soft budget
constraints, resource shortages and the power
of
established work-groups condi-
tioned the way in which new technology could be used. It
is
not
surprising that CNC
machine tools did not bring the results that the engineers had predicted, leading to
worse economic performance than conventional machines (because
of
the expense
of
repair and maintenance, as well as the cost
of
the original investment).
Kulpinska and Skalmierski researched the introduction
of
an East German
Flexible Manufacturing System into the gearbox plant
of
a major Polish engineering
enterprise in
1982-3.
The paper examines
in
detail the technical, organizational,
industrial relations and employment problems that arose with the introduction
of
the
new system. The discussion
of
relations between the machine operators and the
programmers, and the way in which power and responsibility were split up, with
disastrous effects on the efficiency
of
the operation, is notably sophisticated. The
twist to the usual analysis
of
operator-programmer relations is that in the Polish
engineering plant the operator preferred the programming to be done by the process
engineer, because the operator was aware that the engineer was dependent upon him
for
knowledge
of
timings, and that timings encoded in the programme by the
engineer were unlikely to be suspected by higher authority; the operator had power,
based upon detailed knowledge
of
the system, without responsibility. Operators had
no wish to spread their knowledge: “‘we do not want to heave up productivity, all we
want is less strain and less running”’ (p.
160).
As in Hungary, the relation between
formal Taylorism and shop-floor work organization was limited.
Francis and Grootings provide detailed evidence on the ways in which CNC
machine tools have been introduced in ten countries. The cases covered share a
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