Worker Deskilling Process

A Worker Deskilling Process is an economic process that introduces labor-saving technology that is operated by semi-skilled workers (into deskilled jobs).

• Example(s):
  • The proletarization of clerical work. (Glen & Fendberg, 1977).
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Worker Upskilling Process, such as (Bresnahan et al., 1999).
• See: Human Capital, Skill (Labor), Employment, Job Polarization.

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References

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/deskilling Retrieved:2015-5-29.
  • Deskilling is the process by which skilled labor within an industry or economy is eliminated by the introduction of technologies operated by semiskilled or unskilled workers. This results in cost savings due to lower investment in human capital, and reduces barriers to entry, weakening the bargaining power of the human capital.

    It is criticized for decreasing quality, demeaning labor (rendering work mechanical, rather than thoughtful and making workers automatons rather than artisans), and undermining community.

2013

• (Beaudry et al., 2013) ⇒ Paul Beaudry, David A. Green, and Benjamin M. Sand. (2013). “The Great Reversal in the Demand for Skill and Cognitive Tasks." National Bureau of Economic Research, No. w18901.
  • ABSTRACT: What explains the current low rate of employment in the US? While there has been substantial debate over this question in recent years, we believe that considerable added insight can be derived by focusing on changes in the labor market at the turn of the century. In particular, we argue that in about the year 2000, the demand for skill (or, more specifically, for cognitive tasks often associated with high educational skill) underwent a reversal. Many researchers have documented a strong, ongoing increase in the demand for skills in the decades leading up to 2000. In this paper, we document a decline in that demand in the years since 2000, even as the supply of high education workers continues to grow. We go on to show that, in response to this demand reversal, high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing low-skilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together. In order to understand these patterns, we offer a simple extension to the standard skill biased technical change model that views cognitive tasks as a stock rather than a flow. We show how such a model can explain the trends in the data that we present, and offers a novel interpretation of the current employment situation in the US.

1977

• (Glen & Fendberg, 1977) ⇒ Evelyn Nakano Glen, and Roslyn L. Feldberg. (1977). “Degraded and Deskilled: The Proletarianization of Clerical Work.” In: Social Problems, 25(1).
  • ABSTRACT: The changing conditions of clerical work in several types of large and small organizations are examined. The analysis is based on observations in organizations, discussions with managers and intensive interviews with thirty clerical workers. Proletarianization is said to occur as clerical work loses the features that have traditionally placed it among middle-class, white collar occupations; as narrow, largely manual skills displace complex skills and mental activity; as close external control narrows the range of worker discretion; and as impersonal relationships replace social give and take. The extent of proletarianization varies among organizations. The larger organizations are leading the changes by developing technologies and organizational techniques for proletarianized clerical work. In the conclusion it is argued that structural changes promoting proletarianization may seriously impair the very efficiency that the changes are claimed to promote.

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