Information Technologies, the Service Sector and the Restructuring of Consumption

Phil Blackburn, Rod Coombs and Kenneth Green

Chapter 7 in Technology, Economic Growth and the Labour Process, 1985, pp 146-192 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract As we first outlined in Chapter 2, information technologies are applicable not only to such manufacturing sectors as small-batch engineering but also to other sectors which have traditionally proved very difficult to organise on Fordist lines. In particular, this includes those sectors which have not been based on the use of much sophisticated machinery, either in terms of transformation, transfer or control. We refer to the application of information technologies in the supply and production of so-called ‘services’ to which this chapter is devoted. The chapter examines this sector to see whether neo-Fordist developments can be identified. After looking at what the service sector actually comprises, we examine various organisational changes that have taken place in one part of the sector that has been most affected by developments in computer technology since the 1950s — clerical work. We wish to develop the idea that information technologies being introduced into such work in the 1980s are best seen as associated with neo-Fordist organisational changes.

Keywords: Information Technology; Service Sector; Service Industry; Office Work; Service Product (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1985
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-07517-1_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-07517-1_7

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