Transformation of Work

Lecture 5: New forms of work the Nature of Skill Dr. Andrew Smith

www.bradford.ac.uk/management

Learning Outcomes
Assess the complexities of defining skills Critically examine the concepts of skills in (i) the person, (ii) the job and (iii) the social setting Understand the social construction of skills that contribute to gender inequality

Assess the deskilling/ upskilling debate

Introduction
Critically examine the importance of skills Related to the fundamental status of occupations and is often linked to pay Complexities of definitions, where do skills reside?
In the person In the job In the social setting: social closure

Gender and the social construction of skills The deskilling debate Low skills / low quality equilibrium

Why the interest in skills?

From the employers perspective: Productivity Innovativeness Ability to adjust to a changing environment From the employees perspective: Often linked to pay Quality of the working experience Bargaining power Fundamental to the status of occupations (identity) Recognised skills strengthen labour market mobility From the state/societys perspective: Contribution to national wealth Social equality (e.g. in terms of income differences, gender)

Where do skills reside?

In the person: skills are individual attributes and qualities achieved through education, training and experience In the job: skills are embedded in the tasks that people perform. It concerns the complexity of the tasks required and the amount of discretion over the work In the social setting: skills are not an objective feature of a person or job, but the development of skills over time is constructed by interest groups (Cockburn,1983)

Skill in the person

Education, training, abilities, experience, expertise Creates knowledge, dexterity, judgement Human capital theory (Becker, 1964): personal incomes vary according to the amount of investment in human capital: the education and training undertaken by individuals or groups of workers

Skill in the person problems with Human Capital Theory

Noon and Blyton (2007) what about inequality of opportunity?

Are the variables of education, training and experience valid measures of skills (this criticism probably concerns all skill in the person approaches)?
The importance of knowledge and abilities depends on market value (again, this concerns all skill in the person approaches) Broader definitions of skill in the person (e.g. soft skills) but: Lafer (2004): these new qualities should only be considered skills if they are qualities that secure individuals a living

An attempt by employers to move responsibility to workers

It might be politically motivated as it enables politicians to claim success

Skill in the job

Some people are more skilled than their job requires, while others are insufficiently skilled. By focusing on the job, this potential mismatch is taken out of the analysis. Two factors are common to define the skill in the job: Complexity: the more complex the tasks, the more skilled the job can be said to be. However, no objective measure of complexity because of: The difficulty of observing The difficulty of asking (tacit skills)

Discretion: the ability/ freedom to choose alternative courses of action. But is discretion visible and can it be objectively defined?

Skill in the social setting

Social closure: people with a shared interest protect themselves by forming a demarcated group to create a position that is partially autonomous of labour market competition. It includes three sub-processes: An ideological process: individuals recognise a shared set of values and beliefs and reinforce these symbolically A political process: group members act collectively in pursuit of common goals A material process: group members appropriate the tools and technology of the work process and influence the work organisation As you cannot socially construct skills out of nothing, it helps if there is some skill-basis for the social construction of skills. The possibility to achieve social regulation that falls short of social closure.

Gender and the social construction of skills

Ideological process: dominant ideology which labels certain attitudes and forms as masculine and others as feminine gender stereotypes and subordination (Pollert, 1981; Westwood, 1984) Political process: in many settings men have been proactive in seeking to protect and differentiate their skills from those of women (e.g. through trade unions) Material process: Cockburn (1983) > men appropriate the tools and technology through arguments of:
Physical effectivity: physical differences between men and women are exaggerated to the benefit of men Technical effectivity: mens control over the design of technology and work processes perpetuates existing patterns of dominance

What is happening to jobs?

Rise in number of skills required and used BUT: Un- and low-skilled jobs still outnumber skilled jobs Significant decline in discretion (Felstead et al., 2002) The Deskilling Debate: Has the process of deskilling work continued and been extended to other occupations and types of worker? Or, on the contrary, has work become more complicated, have employees been better trained and educated, and are the jobs that they do more skilled? (Noon and Blyton, 2007: ch. 6).

The Deskilling Thesis

(Braverman: Labor and Monopoly Capital, 1974)
In order to increase managerial control, managers pursue a strategy of deskilling:
Organisational deskilling: separation of the conception from execution Technological deskilling: automation used to transfer autonomy from the shop floor to the office

The deskilling thesis has drawn various points of criticism:

Ignores alternative management strategies (Friedman, 1977) Underestimates skill changes caused by technology Overstates managements objective of controlling labour Presents workers as passive Underestimates workers willingness to perform these jobs (Burawoy, 1979) Yet deskilling in one area may involve upskilling in another

The Upskilling antithesis

In the post-industrial society, knowledge becomes the basis for competitive strength. Increasing skills required with growing service sector employment. Representatives: The human capital theory (Becker, 1964): investments in firmspecific skills will increase productivity The resource-based view (Barney 1991): rare and valuable resources capabilities are a source of competitive advantage

The upskilling thesis - critiques

The upskilling thesis has also drawn various points of criticism: It falsely assumes that the growth of the service sector will create skilled jobs (Korczynski, 2002) It overstates the extent to which IT/ advanced technology requires higher skills It overstates the extent of change still mass production/ consumption It overstates the skill-enhancing impact of new working methods rise in team working but little worker discretion and influence (Gallie et al., 2004) It needs to be put in a global perspective outsourcing of work (Taylor and Bain, 2005; Smith, 2012)

Observations concerning the deskilling thesis

It cannot be denied that firms have been able to extend their control of employees through various innovations like IT On the other hand, the possibilities for deskilling depend on the circumstances:
In technologically stable and mature product markets, firms can achieve maximum efficiency by well controlled and predictable organizational structures However, in the case of technological discontinuities and quickly changing product markets, firms need the skilled employees to initiate and react to change

Possible outcomes:
The polarization of skills The compensatory theory of skills: between nations and between and within occupations The dual impact of technology

Low skills / low quality equilibrium

(Finegold and Soskice, 1988)
In the late 1980s the conventional diagnosis of the UKs deficiencies in terms of skills focused on problems on the supply side, including: Failure of the full-time education system to deliver the right sort of education to a large enough group of youngsters Insufficient work-based training (vocational education and training) The notion of the low skill / low quality problem suggested that the demand side might be important and that, for whatever reason, large numbers of UK employers did not want or need skilled workers. There was a problem of systems failure where employers were reacting rationally to the incentives provided by the existing institutions and attitudes like the established work organisation and job design. It appears that the UK has handled market failures that result in social under-investment in training less well than some other nations The complexity of systems failure makes solutions very difficult.

Conclusions
Examined the social importance of skills and work Assessed the concepts of skills in (i) the person, (ii) the job and (iii) the social setting (Cockburn, 1983) Critically assessed the social construction of skills, and how this can be a process of exclusion Examined the deskilling (Braverman, 1974) versus upskilling debate (Becker, 1984) Complexities and contradictions around skill, discretion and influence at work issues that we will also discuss in future lectures