In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power

Zuboff, Shoshana

ISBN 10: 0465032125 / ISBN 13: 9780465032129

Published by Basic Books, New York, 1988

About this Item

24 cm, 468, appendices, notes, index, underlining on several pages, rear board weak, ink name on fr endppr, bkplate on rear endppr DJ somewhat soiled and worn. She is the author of the books In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power and The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and the Next Episode of Capitalism, co-authored with James Maxmin. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, integrates her lifelong themes: the digital revolution, the evolution of capitalism, the historical emergence of psychological individuality, and the conditions for human development. Zuboff's work is the source of many concepts including 'surveillance capitalism', 'instrumentarian power', 'the division of learning in society', 'economies of action', 'the means of behavior modification', 'information civilization', 'computer-mediated work', 'automate/informate' dialectic, 'abstraction of work' & 'individualization of consumption'. Derived from a Kirkus review: The traditional corporate organization chart may go the way of the dodo as factories and offices switch to all-out computerized automation. Zuboff bases this and other findings on her ten-year study of eight companies: three pulp and/or paper manufacturers; the rest primarily service or financial institutions. Zuboff finds that computers change the relationship between first-line managers and workers, rendering the former almost redundant while providing the latter with the means to handle many decisions formerly relegated to supervisory personnel. Experienced operators can not only correct mistakes, but can also use the electronic brain to solve problems and even improve routine operations. Conflicts between supervisory and operating personnel, says Zuboff, prevent full use of automated systems. Especially eye-opening: numerous revealing quotes that lay bare the dilemmas and dislocations of automation.

Seller Inventory # 23737

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power
• Publisher: Basic Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465032125
• ISBN 13: 9780465032129
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing.
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Industrialization
  • Telecommunications

About this title

Synopsis

A noted Harvard social scientist documents the pitfalls and promises of computerized technology in business life.

Reviews

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.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.