Deskilling or Enskilling?: An Empirical Investigation of Recent Theories of the Labour Process

This article involves an investigation of the effects of technological changes since 1970 upon the division of labour in three British paper mills. The data was collected in the Spring and Summer of 1984 and is used to develop a model of technical change and the division of labour that moves well beyond conventional positions in the field. In particular, Braverman's theory of deskilling is challenged empirically and theoretically. A new theory the compensatory theory of skill is set out in the early stages of the article and a modified version of this approach is accepted in the conclusions. The most important finding involves the rapid increase in maintenance skills in the three plants examined. Other significant findings centre on the need for production workers to interpret computer controlled dials or meters and then to respond using their traditional detailed understandings of the processes of paper manufacture. This paper is concerned with the impact of technical change upon unskilled work in the paper and board industry. It is part of a wider project examining the impact of automation in the British manufacturing industry upon the division of labour and particularly upon the jobs of skilled manual workers. l The British paper and board industry has been subject to intense competition since the early 1970s, particularly from Sweden, Finland and the E.E.C. Employment in the industry fell from 63,000 in 1970 to 37,000 in 1982 whilst imports rose from 2,505,600 tonnes to 3,954,600 tonnes over the same period. Traditionally, Britain has lagged behind foreign competitors in terms of the generation of new plants. In 1982 54 per cent of British capacity in the paper and board industry had been installed before 1950 and only 6 per cent since 1971, compared with equivalent figures in Sweden of 20 per cent (pre-1950) and 31 per cent (since 1971) and in Finland of 23 per cent (pre-1950) and 24 per cent (since 1971).2 The British Journal of Sociology Volume X,S Vl Number 4 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Thu, 01 Sep 2016 05:00:20 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 612 Roger Penn and Ililda Scattergood Nevertheless, our research shows that in the firms which we have examined there has been a considerable amount of automation since 1971 and that technical change has accelerated since 1979 and the onset of the present economic depression. The three firms examined are all located in the north-west region of England an area which has been a traditional centre for paper making in the twentieth century. We will use these case studies to probe the various models of skilled work and technical change within the current sociological literature. I MODELS OF SKII,LED WORK AND TECHNICAL CHANGE Four models of skilled work and technical change can be identified in the sociological literature. We present them chronologically since the later models can be seen as improvements upon earlier conceptualizations as a result of empirical work in the area of changes in the division of labour. The first model is what has been called the 'skilling' thesis. Its central argument is that advanced industrial societies require increasingly skilled workforces. Great importance is attached by writers like Bell (1973) and Touraine (1969) to the emergence of electronics as a new force in production. Perhaps the strongest argument concerning the importance of electronics for future developments in the division of labour was put forward by Fuchs (1968) in his seminal work, The Service Economy. Fuchs argued that the evolution of new advanced technologies (particularly computers) requires an increasingly educated labour force for their cuccessful development. Fuchs's work was part of a general current of ideas in the US during the 1960s which emphasized the need for increased investment in manpower training or the production of 'human' capital. Indeed, it is the belief amongst human capital theorists that investment will increasingly take such a form that provides the basis for their view that sophisticated technology will engender a secular 'skilling' of the workforce in advanced industrial . .