Symbolic boundaries and the new division of labor: Engineers, workers and the restructuring of factory life

Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing

“…Computerized medical imaging technologies such as ultrasound and computed tomography enable radiologists to see and diagnose pathology that could not be visualized using standard X-rays (Barley 1990). Technologies that combine and transform data have even created new opportunities in manufacturing settings (Vallas, 2001;Zuboff, 1988).…”

The New Division of Labor as Lean Production

“…As a result, the remaining employees are segmented into three groups: professional or specialized employees who are privileged and work in teams, blue-collar permanent workers working under standardized procedures in more traditional roles, and temporary workers working as buffers to the regular workforce, providing a disciplining factor by showing that they could easily be replaced. Flexible accumulation uses supply-chain management or just-in-time (JIT) inventory systems, computer assisted design (CAD/CAM), and other more flexible processes (Vallas 1999(Vallas , 2001. In this way, it is more specific than post-Fordism.…”

The Hunt for Red Flags: Human Resource Perspectives on Internet-based Job Candidate Screening

“…The skill-biased technological change thesis posits that organizational adoption of ICTs brings greater economic returns to highly skilled workers than to their less-skilled counterparts (e.g., Bauer and Bender 2004;Fernandez 2001). Other approaches see the outcomes of technological change as contingent on jurisdictional negotiation between different worker groups (e.g., Vallas 2001;Zetka 2001). These approaches are united by an emphasis on intra-organizational processes in which firms adopt new technology and on the consequences of these dynamics for the redistribution of economic rewards.…”

“…Barley (1986) revealed how technological change impacted the institutionalized interaction scripts that define organizational actors' roles and relative statuses in various workday encounters. Vallas' (2001) research on paper mills showed how technological change shifted perceptions about the types of knowledge that were most valuable to everyday plant operations, leading to a complex series of interactions that ultimately increased inequalities between engineers and manual workers. Other research has shown how decisions to adopt and/or reject new technology result from everyday working relations and larger power struggles between different and unequal occupational groups (Novek 2002) and also transform these relations and struggles, sometimes with significant longterm consequences for the occupations involved (Zetka 2001).…”