Technological choice and the organization of work in capitalist firms

PAUL L. ROBERTSON and LEE J. ALSTON. Technological choice and the organization of work in capitalist firms. This article develops a framework to explore the relationship between the choice o technology and the organization of work. The framework illustrates how labour and management might react to new technologies. Whether management adopts a new technology depends on total costs, including transaction costs of implementing the new technology. Transaction costs of implementation depend on the range of labour tasks for which a new technology could substitute and the power of labour to block a new technology. Whether new technology lessens or enhances the skills of labour is result of technological choice rather than a motivation for technological choice.