Chapter 3

Describe Braverman’s deskilling thesis

Braverman’s deskilling thesis is based upon the central point of in pre-industrial society, craft workers
were the ones producing complex commodities and they were masters of their skills, however, in the
midst of the industrial societies, craft workers with master level skills became non-existent. Craft
workers were central to the production process in the 19th century but did not constitute a large
proportion of the modern labour force. This was the case due to dehumanisation, or alienation, of the
labour force brought about by industrial capitalism and the adoption of scientific management, or
Taylorism, which deskilled the human workforce. According to Braverman, capitalists turned to
developments in management and machinery in order to enhance their control over their workforce
as well as to derive higher levels of efficiency. Braverman states that the decrease of work skills and
increased managerial control stems from the combination of Taylorism removing authority from
workers and mechanisation making workers redundant.

Capitalist adoption of Fordist style of production is what caused massive waves of alienation among
workers where there are fragmented and simplified work tasks, linear production and with
standardised parts. It was at this point that Taylorism began to dominate managerial ideas as it was
thought to be the most effective way to control an alienated workforce. This was the case as the
primary responsibility of managers under scientific management was to gather all the accumulated
knowledge of the workers, classifying it and then reducing this knowledge to a set of rules. The
separation of conception from execution was implicit which meant simultaneously transferring all the
mental labour to managers while simplifying the workers job.

Braverman therefore believed that the combination of alienation and machination deskilled the
workforce as the jobs of workers became extremely simplified and they had lost all control over the
process. He also argued that even with the growth of educational certification deskilling still took place
as job content was not becoming more complex nor was there any need for higher levels of skills.

What are the criticisms for Braverman’s deskilling thesis

There are four main criticisms for Braverman’s deskilling thesis and they are:

-Braverman conceptualised skill from a craft perspective

-Braverman’s picture of powerful managers and powerless workers

-Braverman’s gender blindness

-Braverman underestimated the extent of upskilling

First, Braverman notes that the concept of skill is bound up with craft mastery and therefore for
Braverman, the decline of skill meant the decline of craft work. This is mainly criticised as Braverman
is romanticising and idealising the past.

Second, it is seen that Braverman overestimated the extent to which capitalists were willing to
implement Taylorism which is seen by way of three primary reasons. The first being that the supposed
value of Taylorism would only be seen in the long term and managers were more concerned with their
short-term profits. Next, we have the fear that Taylorism may provoke conflicts in the form of strikes
in the short run and put worker cooperation at risk in the long run. Finally, managers felt that if they
embraced Taylorism then their positions would be under threat from efficiency engineers who cared
more for productivity than profit.

Third, Braverman’s assumption that skill was gender neutral failed to acknowledge the patriarchal
contamination of the definition of skill. Braverman failed to recognise the tendency for employers to
devalue women workers by paying them less wages than male workers. There is also a tendency for
female skills such as emotional, caring and social skills being undervalued even though these are
important skills in regards to raising children.

Finally, Braverman underestimated the extent of upskilling as he considered it to be a myth

propagated by academic sociology and popular journalism and believed that workers could at best
only hope for a delay in the historical process of devaluation. Braverman failed to acknowledge the
growing amount of new professions that arise from the development of new technology, such as
software and hardware engineers after the rise of computer technology.

What was the support that Braverman received for his deskilling thesis

When it comes to support for Braverman’s thesis there are three main advocates; Burawoy, Gartman
and Garson. Burawoy emphasis on the fact that capitalistic control over workers was achieved not
only by Taylorism but by active complicity on the workers end meaning that consent becomes
‘manufactured’. Gartman emphasises on the point that even though owners will publicly state that
they are emphasising on non-repressive motives in which efficiency is increased, they are actually
exercising repressive forms of control as the main motivation was to repress the resistance of workers
to changes in production in order to derive the highest possible levels of efficiency, even if it meant
that they were being exploited and degraded. Finally, we have Garson who states that computers had
the same deskilling effect on the service industry that machines had in the industrial sector. Jobs like
trip advisors, financial consultants or lawyers were being replaced by computer programmes which
sought to replicate the professional knowledge, experience and judgement of the professionals in
whichever job they were designed for.

The support for Braverman’s thesis boils down to the fact that in every industry, the goal is to transfer
knowledge for the purpose of simplifying tasks and to derive the highest possible efficiency. This
results in less skill, less autonomy, and more standardised mass-produced services.

Chapter 4

Describe Bell’s upskilling thesis

Bell’s upskilling thesis revolves around the central point of countries like the USA evolving from a
capitalistic industrial society to a post-industrial or information society (PIS). This societal evolution,
according to Bell, has caused massive upskilling in terms of the requirements for jobs as well as the
creation of new professions all together. In Bell’s PIS, the ownership of capital is no longer what is
required to be a successful industrialist, but the possession of knowledge is now what is required in
order to build a successful empire.

Bell elaborates on how the evolution from industrial to post-industrial has caused a shift in the
economic sector from it being based upon what goods a country can trade in to what services they
can trade in. This therefore means the evolution and new importance of the service sector in which
occupational slope leans towards professionals and technical experts that spend more time learning
in university rather than on the job itself as their access to success is based upon skill which is derived
from education. Bell’s thesis focuses on the primary point that the required knowledge needed to
enter the job market has grown immensely, therefore, there has been a massive upskilling taking
place.

What are the criticisms for Bell’s upskilling thesis

The main criticisms for Bell’s upskilling thesis are as follows:

-He idealised service work

-Understated the growth of routine white-collar work

-Misjudged the evolution and expansion of professional work

-Neglected the dimensional aspect of gender in regards to work

Bell idealised service work in that his focus for his thesis was mainly on the most attractive and
prestigious part of the service sector, namely professions such as doctors and lawyers. However, there
is a large portion of service work which is comprised of routine work that is taken up by women,
minorities and those without university education such as in call centres, which Bell did not take into
account when stating in his thesis that there is massive upskilling taking place.

The second criticism is an extension of the first as it focuses more on the fact that Bell misjudged the
size of the portion of the service industry which is comprised of menial and routine tasks involved in
the service sector, especially in clerical jobs.

Bell also misjudged the nomenclature of supposedly new professions, but what was actually taking
place was that old jobs such as garbage workers were being renamed as sanitary engineers to sound
more professional and to be more in tune with the evolution to a service-based economy. A part of
this criticism is also that many people have educational qualifications that far exceed their job
requirements which is counter intuitive to the point of Bell’s thesis in which he states that there is
upskilling in a post-industrial society as professionals are spending longer amounts of time in higher
education before entering the job marker.

Finally, Bell notes in his thesis that the new service-based economy is more female-centred in that the
skills required to be successful in the service sector are more attuned to skills possessed by women
which would be communication skills, and an ability to seem warm and caring towards customers and
clients. However, he failed to examine the fact that even though jobs now required feminine skills,
there was still a higher turnover for women than men and women still viewed their jobs as secondary
income and rarely worked on a permanent basis.

What was the support that Bell received for his upskilling thesis

Research studies in both the UK and US found that there is a consistent level of upskilling that has
been taking place from the 1980s onwards due to the development of new technology such as
computers. The UK studies focused on survey data and found that there were consistent and extensive
patterns of upskilling taking place that were strongly linked to the continued growth of computers in
the workplace. The US studies focused on labour force data and they found that in advanced industrial
economies there was also trends of upskilling that was similar to what was found in the UK.
The mixture of both criticism and support for Bell’s post-industrial society upskilling thesis has led
Webster to suggest that it is ‘academically rich, boldly constructed, imaginative yet it is deeply flawed
empirically, theoretically and methodologically’.

Describe polarisation of skill

Polarisation of skill is the neutral stance in the skill debate of work which states that there is a
simultaneous upskilling and deskilling of work. This theory states that there is now a minority of
extremely skilled and educated professionals that are highly paid while having the majority of workers
being poorly educated and poorly paid.

The capitalist view on the change in skill and occupational class structure is that there is exploitation
of the labour force which leads to falling skills levels and then proletarianization takes place. Whereas
the technicist view is that the implementation of automation causes skill levels to rise and then
professionalization takes place. However, these two views can be seen taking place at the same time
but in different parts of the world. In the developed world in can be seen that major upskilling is taking
place as the developed nations are evolving into post-industrial or information societies whereas in
the developing nations there is massive deskilling and alienating taking place in regards to the
workforce as there is massive exploitation of labourers in countries like China, Taiwan and Bangladesh
where sweatshops are rampant.

CA2 Questions

Part A

Ray Kroc: Was the American businessman that partnered with the McDonald brothers and took their
restaurant chain nationwide.

Habituation of workers: This process is what allows capitalist to deny workers of their control over
their labour power as well as to accustom workers to dehumanising work conditions through
manipulation of training programmes and coercion in the form of lacking alternative jobs. Habituation
of workers is also essentially ‘buying the complicit consent of workers’ through higher wages as higher
wages granted the ability to buy things which is a form of human liberation.

QCC: Quality Control Circle is a small group of workers who do the same or similar work who meet
regularly to identify, analyse and solve work-related problems.

Kamata’s diary: is a book written by a Japanese investigative journalist that accounts his experiences
working on a Toyota assembly line.

Kaizen: is also known as continuous improvement which is a long-term approach to work that
systematically seeks to achieve small incremental changes in processes in order to improve efficiency
and quality.

Part B

Examine the advantages and disadvantages of Japanese Lean Production

Japanese Lean Production (JLP) is the production process established and popularised by Toyota, thus
it is also commonly referred to as Toyotism. This process involves continuous improvement over the
production system as well as only using the building space, equipment, tools, supplies and manpower
that is necessary to meet near-term inventory demand from buyers. The key characteristics of JLP are
that there is a re-unification of mental and physical labour, job rotation and multi-skilling, then there
is a flexible assembly line operated by teams of empowered workers and there are non-standardised
parts with a great variety of high quality products.

The advantages of JLP include:

-Limited waste: As JLP uses only the necessary equipment, space etc there is a saving on material
waste as well as a saving on waste of capital

-Strong customer relationships: JLP involves satisfying the orders of loyal customers on a scheduled
and predictable basis and it also allows for more customisable products which improves relations with
the customers.

-Just in Time: Just in Time refers to producing enough products in time for your order rather than mass
producing and over-stocking. This provides a way to circumvent the accumulation of dead stock.

-Competitive advantage: All of the aforementioned advantages lead to a manufacturer gaining a

competitive advantage over their rivals which do not employ JLP.

The disadvantages of JLP include:

-Worker frustration: The stress derived from the constant need for continuous improvement can
frustrate workers and cause dissatisfaction among workers.

-Equipment or labour failure: In case of equipment failure or labour failure in the form of strikes, there
is great difficulty in replacing it or covering for the lack of production as equipment and labour is only
used on a need basis and there is no over-accumulation or surplus.

-Missed deliveries: The previous disadvantage leads to this in that when there is any kind of equipment
or labour failure or even a slight delay in production, it can lead to missed deliveries which later on
leads to customer dissatisfaction.

What are the defining characteristics of Fordism and how does it differ from pre-Fordism

Fordism is the ultimate implementation of scientific management in order to derive the highest level
of efficiency, productivity and profit. It was pioneered by Henry Ford in the early 20th century in the
automobile industry where Ford was able to mass produce automobiles at a low cost, making them
available for almost all social classes to afford. Fordism is characterised by three main features:
Fragmented and simplified work tasks, linear production and the moving assembly line and then
finally, standardised parts and a high volume of low-quality products.

This is differentiated from pre-Fordism as in the pre-Fordist era there was a focus on craft skills, non-
linear and stationary assembly and non-standardised parts with a low volume of high-quality products.
It is clear that Fordism can be seen as the height of the industrial capitalistic era and pre-Fordism is
akin to the era before the industrial revolution.

The key difference between the two could be the concept of skill and surplus. In the pre-Fordist era,
products were only produced on a by need basis and goods such as automobiles where luxury items
so therefore required a high level of skill to produce them. Whereas in the Fordist era, economies of
scale take place in which the incredible amount of mass-production drives the cost down so much that
luxury products became every day products, and the process in which allows for mass-production calls
for extreme division of labour to the point where essentially no skill levels are required beyond basic
dexterity.
Examine the neo-Fordist character of a globalised call centre

Neo-Fordism is characterised by small-batch production, economies of scope where efficiency is

derived from variety rather than volume, specialised products and jobs, new information
technologies, emphasis on types of consumers rather than social classes, rise of the white-collar
worker and the feminisation of the workforce in terms of the skills required in the more prominent
service industry.

In terms of a globalised call centre, there is a strong emphasis on the importance of information and
the quality of service that the workers provide the consumers. However, there is still a strong sense
of classical Fordism present in call centres in which there are intensive controls placed upon the call
centre workers by management to the extent in which they are given a script with which they must
follow. There is also intensive surveillance of the workers to ensure they follow company procedures
along with massive work intensification with targets set for workers which leads to the degradation,
standardisation and regimentation of the call centre workforce. Even taking this factor into account,
globalised call centres are still considered to follow neo-Fordist principles as the primary aim is to
provide diverse and high-quality services to a great range of different kinds of consumers.

Explain Hochschild’s emotional labour thesis

Hochschild defined emotional labour as the management of feeling to create a publicly observable
facial and bodily display. In her analysis of flight attendants, it was found that while performing manual
tasks such as pushing a meal trolley and thinking of how best to distribute refreshments, they also
expected to be friendly and reassuring to the passengers. Hochschild’s thesis covered interactive
service work in which workers would directly interact with customers that involves an aesthetic
dimension in which visual and aural appearances are highly important.

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a post-Fordist service system

Post-Fordism is defined as the shift from large scale mass production processes to smaller scale but
more flexible production processes. This shift occurred because of increasing cost of large scale
manufacturing domestically with the cost of large scale manufacturing in developing countries
decreasing rapidly. This effect of globalisation caused local firms to become hyper specialised both in
terms of the manufacturing and service sector, having to offer a greater diversity in terms of products
as well as product customisation. Important characteristics of post-Fordism are teamwork and multi-
skilled workers in the workplace, especially in information-based companies. The way this relates to
the service sector is that post-Fordism would dictate that there is higher quality, a greater diversity as
well as customised services that firms offer.

The advantages of this are that there is economic growth in society, workers gained autonomy and
have become empowered, employers are more productive and gain higher profits and consumers
receive product diversity and customisation. However, the disadvantages are that this can lead to
financial and economic crises due to the exploitation in network societies, job insecurity and economic
exclusion for workers that do not posses a wide enough skillset, increased competition between
employers with higher market volatility and social exclusion among the consumers who do not have
access to the new and more expensive services that are offered by firms.