This article examines the impact of computer technology on the workforce and workplace. It summarizes research and examines in practice the implementation and adoption of new technology in companies. Two cases are presented: a metal fabrication factory and a professional publishing company. Results of a pre‐implementation survey given to personnel in the factory highlight how a top‐down change strategy and worker's sense of mistrust and inequity, led to problems with the introduction of computerized machinery and control systems. Surveys taken one and three years after the introduction of word processing and data‐based management tools in the publishing company, by comparison, show how a more participatory change strategy coupled with extensive user training and support, contribute to success with technological change and alter perceptions of the company culture.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | xix is dedicated to them. They have taught us more lessons than we can enumerate about life, about love, about growing up as Jewish children in America. They were both the subjects of this work and our best native informants and critics. Today the air is frigid; the evergreens are outlined in white; and the city sounds are muffled by snow. But the sensations of summer camp float through our memories-the warmth of sunshine and friendship; the sounds of laughter, singing, and prayer; the smell of pine trees and sun lotion; and the taste of bug juice. Camp is a magical place and, in our role as social scientists, we have tried to deconstruct and explain this magic. To the extent we have succeeded, we hope that our research will benefit summer camps that strive to become pre-eminent educational and socializing institutions. Our message, we hope, will interest both those specifically concerned with the future of the Jewish community and those who are more generally concerned with how we socialize children in America. To the extent we have failed to capture some part of the magic, we hope that others will join us in trying to understand and nurture what summer camps have to offer. Camp deserves such attention because it appears to have nearly unlimited potential to produce joyous and memorable learning. It certainly produced such learning for us.

This article compares the views of men and women employed in hourly production jobs regarding the effects of an innovation on their working conditions, their organization, and the rewards they receive. Gender differences are found on an array of expectations likely to influence the innovation process, including knowledge of and general attitude toward new technology, job security, safety, learning opportunities, training and technical assistance, and rewards. Gender differences persist when education, age, seniority, and relevant characteristics of an employee's current job are controlled.

No abstract

No abstract