New Technology and Craftsmen's Skills in Great Britain and West Germany
| Date | 01 May 1982 |
| Pages | 21-23 |
| Published date | 01 May 1982 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055001 |
| Author | Arndt Sorge,Gert Hartmann,Malcolm Warner,Ian Nicholas |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
New Technology and Craftsmen's
Skills
in
Great Britain and
West Germany*
by Arndt Sorge, Gert Hartmann, International Institute of Management, Berlin,
Malcolm Warner and Ian Nicholas, Henley, the Management College
Conjectures
Those who believe that the effects of micro-electronics are
due to the working of technical imperatives, or to the
mechanisms of the capitalist system, are prone to neglect
national differences. Our suggestion is that micro-
electronics, and specifically CNC, may have different con-
sequences and be used to different ends, according to the
prevailing traditions within society. We expressly include,
under such traditions, technical, organisational, and
labour variables. We then conjecture that the stability of
work traditions will not be changed by the incidence of
micro-electronics; it will only be expressed in new ways.
We thus see the development and application of supposed-
ly "high technology" as constrained by an unchanging
socio-technical
tradition.
National differences must not be overlooked
when examining the effects of micro-
electronics
Our reasoning does not only refer to "cultural values"
as bringing about national differences. Instead, it can be
shown that the working of economic incentives, the social
structuring of economic opportunities and constraints, and
societal paths of economic advance are different. It is
already clear, from previous studies in the field, that strik-
ing differences between Britain and Germany exist;
although Britain is demonstrably the earliest industrialised
country, it has come to be less of an industrial, and more
of a services society. Fores[1] has shown that England was
a "post-industrial" society (according to the definition
that the majority of the labour-force work in services) even
by the end of the first half of the last century, at a time
when the "first industrial revolution" was supposed to
have been over.
For some time, Britain has consistently had less employ-
ment in manufacturing. She has lost her strong position in
mechanical engineering, and is now in the sixth place on
the list of machine-tool manufacturing countries. Her out-
put of NC machines as part of total machine-tool produc-
tion is noticeably below that of Germany. Our suspicion
was that micro-electronics and CNC will be introduced and
perceived in such a way that services related, white-collar
sections of manufacturing organisations will be the
primary beneficiaries. On the other hand, we hypothesise
that, in Germany, CNC development and application will
be cast more in an "industrial" setting; that is, it will sup-
port craft workers. The latter has already been tentatively
confirmed by Lay and Rempp[2].
The integration of CNC into enterprises, we suggest,
follows different socio-technical logics in the two coun-
tries;
the concept and practice of technical work and train-
ing, organisation, and industrial relations follow different
paths.
British companies train and use noticeably less skill-
ed workers than their German counterparts and the
dif-
ference is particularly visible in production, as opposed to
maintenance jobs. Apprenticeships are more aimed at a
"status elite" of workers in Britain whereas they are a
more pervasive phenomenon in Germany. Examination
and certification of worker skills is much weaker in Bri-
tain, particularly on the practical side. The line hierarchy,
from foreman up through the management structure, is
thus more technical in Germany; that is, it is more in-
tegrated with production engineering functions. Similarly
in Britain, there is more of a departmental and career split
between technical experts and line management than is
observed in Germany[3].
There are many variations between
Britain and West Germany
The British type of organisation features a greater
amount of lateral segmentation between departments and
careers, and a numerically stronger technical staff
superstructure on top of works personnel. The German
organisation, by comparison, is distinctive for small
techni- cal staff superstructures more linked with supervi-
sion and management tasks, on top of a workforce into
which a greater amount of deliberate technical training has
been invested. Organisational and career cleavage intensity
concurs with fragmentation of industrial relations[4]. By
and large, the whole German education and training
system appears more geared to practical requirements in
jobs,
particularly in technical training and education.
*This paper is part of a research study financed by the Anglo-German
Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society. A fuller version of
its
fin-
dings is contained in
Microelectronics
and
Manpower
in
Manufacturing:
Applications
of Computer
Numerical Control (CNC)
in
Great Britain and
West Germany, Gower Press, 1983.
Employee Relations 4,5 1982 | 21
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