A noted Harvard social scientist documents the pitfalls and promises of computerized technology in business life.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Zuboff asserts that the computer is paving the way for a redistribution of authority in the workplace. "Geared to managers and information-systems experts, her findings, though ponderously written, will be of value to those who want to get the most knowledge and power from computerization," said PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An historically informed interdisciplinary account of work.,
By A Customer
This review is from: In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power (Paperback)
I use this text in a course called "Work and Community" because it shows how various disciplines--history, philosophy, sociology, cognitive psychology --can inform discussions about how work is organized, and the kinds of power or authority relationships that workplaces, especially those where computers have changed the nature of work, abound. What's particularly interesting for me is the way Zuboff hits on the sort of literacy encouraged by computerized workplaces, and how information sharing requires real re-thinking of traditional roles of managers. In addition, the historical treatment of management as a developing professional competence would be critically enlightening for those who tend to study "business" as if it were merely a skill to acquire, rather than something with a history to be understood.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lead with the subtitle "The Future of Work and Power....",
By A Customer
This review is from: In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power (Paperback)
Zuboff's book should have been titled "The Future of Work and Power in the Age of the Smart Machine," because while the book does speak to the increasing computerization of the workplace, it does so in an historical context regarding how power has been and might be distributed between worker and manager. Automation is the effort to remove human skill from work, making humans the servants of the "smart machine." Informating is the way in which the computer can potentially change the workplace by distributing "management information" and power to the workers, making them co-equal partners in the enterprise. Zuboff suggests we still have a choice about which way to go, despite our self-protective impulses
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
14 years and still looking good,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power (Paperback)
I re-read this book again this year (2002) after a decade of its first publication in 1988, it still looks amazingly current, especially consider internet's wide adoption since 1995.It was as though the smart machines and their relationships with human workplace has not changed since 1988. Even in silicon valley where I work, with so many tech companies with managers trained in technology background, their orgazniations keeps failing by repeating the single-minded strategy - replace human with technology. As long as corporate America keep ignoring the main advice of t this book - that to fully utilize technology you have to understand the non-technical aspects of it (historical, psychological, social) - real productivity gain might be limited, until maybe we move everything to Bangalore, India.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
The bleach plant is one of the most complex and treacherous areas of a pulp mill. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
intellective skill development, dental claims operation, informating power, informating technology, intellective demands, informating strategy, intellective effort, informating process, informated environment, informated organization, informating capacity, intellective competence, transfer assistants, operating work force, anticipatory conformity, information panopticon, intellective skills, pulp mill operators, conferencing medium, textualization process, panoptic power, abstract cues, behavioral text, involuntary display, universal transparency Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cedar Bluff, Piney Wood, Global Bank Brazil, Overview System, Tiger Creek, Metro Tel, Consolidated Underwriters Insurance, Universal Technology, Expense Tracking System, American Paper Company, Middle Ages, United States, Chester Barnard, Computer Coffee Break, Quality of Work Life, Frederick Taylor, Mary Parker Follett New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The bleach plant is one of the most complex and treacherous areas of a pulp mill. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
intellective skill development, dental claims operation, informating power, informating technology, intellective demands, informating strategy, intellective effort, informating process, informated environment, informated organization, informating capacity, intellective competence, transfer assistants, operating work force, anticipatory conformity, information panopticon, intellective skills, pulp mill operators, conferencing medium, textualization process, panoptic power, abstract cues, behavioral text, involuntary display, universal transparency Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cedar Bluff, Piney Wood, Global Bank Brazil, Overview System, Tiger Creek, Metro Tel, Consolidated Underwriters Insurance, Universal Technology, Expense Tracking System, American Paper Company, Middle Ages, United States, Chester Barnard, Computer Coffee Break, Quality of Work Life, Frederick Taylor, Mary Parker Follett New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- The Genesis of Modern Management: Study of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain (Modern Revivals in Economic & Social History) by Sidney Pollard on 5 pages
- The Functions of the Executive: 30th Anniversary Edition by Chester I. Barnard on 4 pages
- Orality and Literacy (New Accents) by Walter J. Ong on page 176, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Structure of Behavior by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- A Calculating People: The Spread of Numeracy in Early America by Patricia Cline Cohen in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
- Times of the Technoculture: From the Information Society to the Virtual Life (Comedia) by Kevin Robins in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections, and Imaginations in a Postmodern World by Michael Burawoy on page 134, and Back Matter
- The Internet, Organizational Change and Labor: The Challenge of Virtualization by David Jacobs on page 78, and page 126
- Repetitive Strain Injury: A Computer User's Guide by Emil Pascarelli M.D. on page 6, and page 201
- Customer Capitalism by Sandra Vandermerwe on page 227, and Back Matter
See all 100 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
![To Be Of Use: Chap. 5 Prudence [Reclaiming the Soul of Business] Resou](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wIB4te5QL._AA60_.jpg)
