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Summary
Summary
A Harvard social scientist documents the pitfalls and promise of computerized technology in business life, warning that advanced information technologies present us with a fateful choice: to continue automation at the risk of robbing workers of gratification and self image, or to informate and empower ordinary working people to make critical and collaborative judgments.
Author Notes
Shoshana Zuboff is chaired professor at the Harvard Business School. She lives in Maine with her husband and two children.
Reviews 4
Publisher's Weekly Review
While recognizing that computer-based information systems threaten to subvert the traditional manager's role, Zuboff, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, asserts that the computer is paving the way for a redistribution of authority in the workplace. As she sees it, computers allow clerical staff to take on more decision-making, help top managers rationalize overall efficiency and give blue-collar workers a deeper understanding of the science that undergirds industrial operations. But this optimistic picture of computerization is far from inevitable, she writes. Her five-year study of eight organizationsa pharmaceutical giant, Global Bank Brazil, a Bell System operating company, pulp and paper mills, a dental-claims outfit among themreveals that human resistance to computers can undermine the new technology at every level. Geared to managers and information-systems experts, her findings, though ponderously written, will be a value to those who want to get the most knowledge and power from computerization. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
The human dilemmas created by computerizing the workplace are examined here with intelligence and compassion. After sketching a brief history of the Industrial Revolution, Zuboff explores the ways in which new computer technology is once again radically redefining human work. In a sober but optimistic assessment, she identifies both the liberating potential and the dehumanizing risks of computerized innovation. During her extensive interviews with managers and workers, Zuboff heard many different, often contradictory opinions, as companies and individuals struggle to rewrite the policies for authority, collaboration, and advancement in the electronic workplace. Workers welcome the gains in efficiency, yet fear the loss of jobs and human contact. And since the same terminals can be used to foster innovation or enforce conformity, many key policy decisions remain matters of value and choice, not expertise. Company officials responsible for making these choices, as well as the millions of employees affected by them, are the target audience for this book. Notes; to be indexed. BJC. 338'.06 Automation-Economic aspects / Automation-Social aspects / Machinery in industry / Organizational effectiveness [OCLC] 87-47777
Choice Review
As librarians are increasingly aware, working in an "informated workplace" may seem like a blessing, a curse, or both. Using the tools of historical analysis, interview-based case studies, and interdisciplinary synthesis, Zuboff (Harvard Business School) examines the problem of how to use advanced information technologies in different types of work settings without destroying the quality of work life for both workers and managers (a distinction that is increasingly fuzzy). Although providing much less insight about the future than its subtitle would suggest, this volume is nevertheless an unusually deep and penetrating examination of one of the most important shapers of contemporary life. Well written and documented, with endnotes and an index. Highly recommended for academic and professional audiences. -O. W. Markley, University of Houston--Clear Lake
Library Journal Review
Drawing on in-depth interviews with workers and managers in various industries, these two authors illustrate the impact automation will have on those using computers in the work place. Each expresses deep concern about how the ability to monitor employees electronically may be abused. The similarity ends here. Garson (a playwright) shows concern about the dehumanizing effect of computer instruction. She cites examples of how computer monitoring is being abused, and finds little that will change the direction computer use is taking in creating an electronic sweatshop. Zuboff (Harvard) sees this development as a turning point in history. We can either use computers to dehumanize the work place and take from people the gratification they get from work (Garson's feeling), or we can ``informate'' workers (Zuboff's term), i.e. give them the knowledge to make human judgments that can enhance productivity. Zuboff believes computers can be used humanely to create better jobs, but she also recognizes the risks. The Electronic Sweatshop is a popularly written view of the negative aspects of computers in the work place. In the Age of the Smart Machine is a scholarly look at the impact, positive and negative, of computers in organizations. Both deal with a growing concern of management and labor. If only one can be purchased, Zuboff's is the better choice. Michael D. Kathman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Collegeville, Minn. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. xi |
| Acknowledgments | p. xvii |
| Introduction: Dilemmas of Transformation in the Age of the Smart Machine | p. 3 |
| Part 1 Knowledge and Computer-Mediated Work | p. 17 |
| Chapter 1 The Laboring Body: Suffering and Skill in Production Work | p. 19 |
| Chapter 2 The Abstraction of Industrial Work | p. 58 |
| Chapter 3 The White-Collar Body in History | p. 97 |
| Chapter 4 Office Technology as Exile and Integration | p. 124 |
| Chapter 5 Mastering the Electronic Text | p. 174 |
| Part 2 Authority: The Spiritual Dimension of Power | p. 219 |
| Chapter 6 What Was Managerial Authority? | p. 224 |
| Chapter 7 The Dominion of the Smart Machine | p. 245 |
| Chapter 8 The Limits of Hierarchy in an Informated Organization | p. 285 |
| Part 3 Technique: The Material Dimension of Power | p. 311 |
| Chapter 9 The Information Panopticon | p. 315 |
| Chapter 10 Panoptic Power and the Social Text | p. 362 |
| Conclusion: Managing the Informated Organization | p. 387 |
| Appendix A The Scope of Information Technology in the Modern Workplace | p. 415 |
| Appendix B Notes on Field-Research Methodology | p. 423 |
| Notes | p. 430 |
| Index | p. 459 |
