technology and the value of work

Although new communication technologies have had important positive changes on organizing and work (such as online classes), there are negative impacts as well. In Chapter 6 Eisenberg et al. discuss the technological panopticon, or the level of surveillance of organizational members now possible (note that the highest levels of surveillance are reserved for the lowest levels of the organization hierarchy; those at the top are rarely surveilled, yet can do the most damage to the organization). If you're interested in my research on organizational surveillance, I discuss it in my BUS/COMM 244 blog.

Technology in organizations has another dark side in addition to increased surveillance. TIME recently reviewed Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. The author, Matthew B. Crawford, argues that "Globalization and technology are doing to white collar jobs of the 21st century what the assembly line did to the trades in the 20th--turning them into repetitive, menial, dissatisfying tasks." I haven't yet gotten the book, but it's on my summer reading list.

If you're interested in Crawford's ideas, an earlier and briefer version of his work was published in 2006 in The New Atlantic. Toward the end of that article, Crawford states, "White collar professions, too, are subject to routinization and degradation, proceeding by the same process as befell manual fabrication a hundred years ago: the cognitive elements of the job are appropriated from professionals, instantiated in a system or process, and then handed back to a new class of workers—clerks—who replace the professionals." That's precisely the fear of professors who teach online--we'll develop the course and then the university will hire part-time contract employees to teach the class. That hasn't happened yet, at least not at SJSU, but the possibility is there.

~ Professor Cyborg