Arulampalam, Gengadharan Thambyiah

Coates, Vary T.

English

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O0*0*0 COMMUNICATIONS00 FORUMHE7601.S46M F& CTHE AMERICAN WORKPLACE IN THE INFORMATION AGEVary Coates,Office of Technology AssessmentFebruary 27, 1986Genga Arulampalam, RapporteurMASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYBMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCommunications ForumTHE AMERICAN WORKPLACE IN THE INFORMATION AGEVary Coates,Office of Technology AssessmentFebruary 27, 1986Genga Arulampalam, RapporteurThe American Workplace in the Information AgeDr.Vary T. Coates - Office of Technology Assessment (OTA),US CongressCoates began by asserting that office automation (OA)is not just a marginal or incremental improvement in equipment,but rather a fundamental transformation in the technology whichsupports basic economic activity. Among other things OA isexpected to change:- the organization of the flow and pace of work.- the skills required for office work (thus the training andeducation that is needed)- the way in which office jobs and occupation are defined andtasks and responsibilities distributed among them (i.e. jobclassification and compensation)- the internal structure of the office- the distribution of jobs among occupational categories andlevels- the level of employmentShe said that OA is a deceptively simple term for, first,technologies that range from main frame computers and national ortransnational communication networks, to personal computers anooff-the-shelf software packages, and secondly, the reorganizationof work to make use of these technologies. It is a technologicalchange of the order of that Drought about by the telephone andtelegraph or the internal combustion engine, in terms of thebreadth and scale of long range effects on work and workers.She said that while there are strong supporters of botrnthe negative and positive aspects of OA, most organizations finuthat it greatly increases productivity although the transition isoften long and very troublesome. In addition most office workerswho use automated equipment have enthusiasm mixed with some feiLand doubt about the related problems. She believed that most )-these problems can be solved by cooperation oetween workers anomanagers.Coates then went on to discuss the last two categoriesof change listed above - the level of office employment over tnh,next 15 years and the distribution of jobs among office-relatecoccupations. She stated that OTA's recent study concluded tnatthe growth in office employment (which had oeen strong for manydecades) will slow down in the next decade, and may even begindecline during the 1990s. She then discussed in broad terms tn-reasoning behind this conclusion.She stateo tnat tne importance of the effects of OA wifrelated to the large proportion of American office workers - 4ý%of American workers work in offices (8% in management, 16% asprofessionals and 20% clerical). Also office work cuts acrossall industries and is a growing component of all of them. Theoffice worker details are - 30% of employees of manufacturingfirms, more than 50% of service industries, 80% of Federalemployees and more than 90% of banking and real estateindustries. Farms, mines, hospitals, nightclubs and footballteams all have offices. Further, she added that office work isvery much alike in all industry sectors - ordering, invoicing,making payments, inventory control, bookkeeping, letter writing,etc. In the '60s and early '70s OA was an option primarily forlarge offices, however, in today's context with PCs and relatedsoftware, even small businesses are moving towards it.All industry sectors she said are in the increasinglycompetitive global economy, striving for greater productivity.As the information nandling component of these operations growmore attention is being paid to productivity, although in whitecollar work this has always been difficult to define and measure.As a result the temptation often is to define productivity interms of labor cost reduction. Particularly as companies becomemore conscious of secondary costs of labor such as pensions,health insurance, etc. She stated that automation can be adoptedfor many reasons (e.g. to make possible new information -intensive services or products) but it is inherently labor-saving. Coates explainea in detail that a large part of clericalwork today involves such actions as "keyboarding". This sne saidis most likely to disappear in the next decade as computerstakeover these repetitive functions. Data is increasingly beingcaptured at the point of origin by computers, transferreddirectly by computers, read by computers (optical scan) and inaddition possibilities of great break throughs in speechrecognition by computers will move to make redunoant a sizableportion of clerical work. With improved telecommunicationreliability and lower costs the reduction in clerical work willalso be enhanced by some companies which use lower paid off-shoreworkers for data entry type of functions.Coates mentioned that there has been a good deal ofdiscussion as to whether automation de-skills or enhances officejobs. Infact, the technology can be and is being used ooth ways.Tasks can be made simple, routine, repetitive and tightlysequenced; and the work can be paced, monitored, and checked oythe computer. This she said minimises the training required andmakes workers easy to replace. On the other hand however, manytasks can be reintegrated into one job thus providing morevariety, feedback and presumably challenge for the worker. Ineither of these modes however, there can be significant time andlabor saving if the organization adopts its structures andprocedures to use the technology effectively. She said that withthe emphasis on labor cost reduction there appeared to oe anemerging trend toward maintaining a minimum workforce and relyingon part-time and temporary workers to nandle peaks in workload.For the employer this is an efficient way of handling afluctuating workload and minimising costs related to employeebenefit packages. She mentioned that this conversion ofemployees to part-time/temporary status could become a majorpublic policy problem, mainly because of the related employeebenefits that would otherwise have to be provided by the taxpayer.Another characteristic of computers andtelecommunications is that they obviate the constraints of timeand distance. While it makes possible a significant increase inoff-shore data entry, it also makes home-based work feasible andattractive to employers and employees. However there are somemonetary, social, and psychological costs which are oftenunexamined. Coates asserted that for conventional officeworkers, a significant increase in home-based work would meancompetition for jobs (home-baseo workers cost the employer less)and also lessened political pressure for cnildren's day care.From a public policy point of view she said that home-based workpresents an additional problem of how these workers can beguaranteed worker protection provided by existing laws.In addition to the effects on clerical work, Coatesclaimed that managers and professionals were not immune to theeffects of OA. She spoke of the tendency of OA to blur theboundaries between these categories, as managers and professionalsuse word processors to draft their own doccuments, andsecretaries call up data and prepare reports. At the lower levelof management reduced clerical staff would automatically reducethe amount of supervision, and the number of lower level managersrequired will decrease as a result of the computer aiding agreater span of control. The computer's ability to collateinformation together with the ability of clerks to handle anumber of functions thus far performed by a middle manager willresult in the overall reduction of middle management too. Whilethe effect of OA on professionals is likely to be lessthreatening than on managers, there is still a possibility tnatthey could be replaced by paraprofessionals. A few professionalshave even been displaced by expert systems.Finally OA brings changes in the office as a physicaland social environment. Coates said tnat both physical andmental stress is likely to increase when OA is used to speed upthe work and make it more demanding. Especially if control overthe pace and sequencing shifts from the individual to thecomputer. She stated that the problems and issues related to OAare serious and deserve the careful consideration of botn privateorganizations and government. However she claimed that theseproblems should not obscure the promise that OA holds forstrengthening our economy and improving the work life orAmerica's office workers.Speaker's Comments and Responses to QuestionsTne first question asked by a member of the audiencewas related to the impact of OA on nome-based soleIproprietorships, to which Coates responded saying that she had nostatistics but that it had opened up a lot of opportunity forentrepreneurs and clerks. A member of the audience commentedthat she was a part-time professional and a home-oased soleproprietor, as a result of which she had to finance her ownhealth insurance.Another question was raised about the estimated loss ofemployment to which Coates said that the OTA did not have thisinformation. In fact they didn't want to do a quantitative laborforecast as they felt that they did not have the capaoility to doso. On being asked whether she anticipated employment to reactnegatively to OA, she said that the OTA anticipates a resultantdecline in the 1990s. However they were not sure whetheremployment would grow and tnen decline or whether it would justdecline without showing any further growth. To this a commentwas added from the audience that while banking and insurance hadshown a large increase in transaction volume, there was not muchof an increase in employment. Coates stated that the labor forcein tnis industry seems to be declining already with the advent ofOA.With reference to white collar work the question wasasked as to whom it included - did it include doctors, cashiers,etc.? Sne said that some areas of white collar work like thosementioned did not appear to experience the negative effects ofOA.Referring to Coates' earlier mention of off-shoreemployment, there was an inquiry as to whether the governmentcouldn't restrict tnis in any way. She responded saying that thegovernment in actual fact was encouraging tnis primarily as aservice to third world countries.On the question of the opportunities available toclerical workers as a result of OA, she stated that there wassignificant scope for clerical staff to become paraprofessionals.The unfortunate result that has been observed she said, is thatclerical skills get upgraded and jobs take on more challenge outthere is no real increase in tneir wages. In this context shequoted such occurances oeing reported in New York city. Shestated that there is also a school of thought that anticipatesthe creation of a new breed of CEOs with completely differentskills - skills in OA.Regarding tne economics of OA and the justification erproductivity by economics, Coates said that there are a lot orexamples but they cannot actually compare them. Quantifyingproductivity benefits is difficult and the OTA hasn't seen anycost oenefit stuoies so far. She claimed that tnere were manyreasons for OA and a numner of companies do not use OA primarilyto reduce the laoor force. The primary reasons often quotec rjrOA are the ability to reach markets, compete effectively, reduv,,error, improve the quality of work, etc.Finally, there was some discussion on one of thenegative aspects of OA which is the possibility of piece workcontrol and the maintaining of employee records related tosickness patterns etc. Coates claimed that a number of this typeof record storing and communication issues have to be resolved.

The American workplace in the information age

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The American workplace in the information age

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