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This article examines three issues. The first is the pervasiveness of technology use and the impact of technology use on performance in the Canadian manufacturing sector. The use of advanced technologies, particularly labour-enhancing ones, is found to be widespread. A strong connection between technology adoption and superior performance is also found. The second section examines the relationship between technology adoption and training in manufacturing firms. Firms using either labour-saving or labour-enhancing technologies are found to be more likely to train. The third section expands this analysis to examine how innovation-related strategies and activities are related to training. Innovation is found to be a key driver behind training in all sectors. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This paper develops a 'contingency theory' of technological work reorganization that addresses organizational, managerial, and job characteristic contingencies in the reorganization of the work process. Substantively, the focus is on the rationales of top decision-makers in a sample of firms for adopting and designing telecommuting jobs. Following the theoretical model developed in the paper, the authors find that telecommuting innovation is primarily contingent on organizational constraints (such as bureaucratic inertia). The actual character of that innovation, on the other hand, is contingent upon managerial goals (such as control of the labor process) in interaction with the relative power and status of the target employee group.

A study explored the effect of technological innovations on the retirement decisions of older workers, skills acquisition of younger employees and the wage structure across industry. Data suggest that unexpected increases in the rate of technology change induce early retirement and that workers in sectors with higher average rates of technology change are paid higher and retire later than those in sectors with lower technology change rates. Technology change is also likely to impact the relationship between education and training., Economists have long been interested in the effect of technological change on the labor market. Our recent research has focused on how technological change influences the retirement decisions of older [...]