The Western edge : work and management in the information age
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The Western edge : work and management in the information age
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987
- :pbk
Available at 17 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In this part we have discussed the impact of information technol ogy on the quantity and quality of work, on organizational struc ture, and on products. We have examined if, and to what extent, this impact differs from that of technological innovation in the past. Our findings strongly suggest that there is a difference. With regard to the quantity of work, the introduction of informa tion technology seems to accelerate the historical trend of capital intensification which is accompanied by reductions in the average numbers of hours worked per year. The other changes associated of with information technology signal a trendshift. Degradation work is transformed - though hesitantly - into upgrading; dif ferentiation and increasing scale into reintegration and decreasing scale; and mass production into custom tailored production. The rise of the information sector has reinforced this trendshift. On the micro level, firms that implement information technology accordingly are likely to gain an edge over their competitors.
Table of Contents
I: Diagnosis.- 1. The challenge.- II: The end of the industrial age?.- 2. The industrial versus the information sector.- 3. The industrial firm in historical perspective.- III: Information technology: a trendshift.- 4. Accelerating technological innovation.- 5. Reduced working hours.- 6. Higher quality work.- 7. The decline of the large-scale factory.- 8. Individualized goods and services.- 9. New firms in the information sector.- 10. Summary.- IV: Individualization: the megatrend.- 11. Informatization and individualization.- 12. The changing work orientation: not more but better.- 13. The end of Taylorism.- 14. The individualistic consumer.- 15. The informal economy as an escape.- 16. Summary.- V: The Western Edge.- 17. Misguided lessons from Japan.- 18. Japanese on Japan.- 19. Western innovation.- 20. Leading-edge pioneers.- Notes.
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