The Influence of Technologists on Corporate Decision‐Making in the United Kingdom
One reason for the poor performance of UK industry in the management of technology is the rift between corporate decision‐making and technology as a discipline, creating a barrier to the influence of technologists on policy making. This paper presents evidence from recent secondary sources, which indicates the weak position of technologists by comparison with other specialists in organisational hierarchies. Reasons for this relative lack of organisational power can be found both in the aspirations and attitudes of technologists and in culturally‐induced organisational structures, which act to severely limit the participation of technologists in decision‐making at the highest levels. Some cross‐national comparisons are referred to. Suggestions are made for ways in which a more even balance between disciplines within UK companies might be achieved.
New Competition and Technical change in the Computer Industry
While there are similarities in the patterns of expansion between the television, semiconductor and computer industries, there are likely to be important differences. These will derive from the fact that ten years' experience of overseas marketing and manufacture of the former two industries can now be put to good use in the strategy for international expansion of computers.
Capitalising on Subjectivity: The ‘New Model Worker’ and the Importance of Being Useful
The ever-new buzz words for the ideal worker, such as ‘intrapreneur’ or ‘self-manager’, can be seen as management rhetoric and fashions without major consequences for the labour process. But it can also be maintained that these notions and images shed light on the processes of social construction of the ‘model worker’, that is, the historically variable ideal of workers’ subjectivity and behaviour. It is, for example, quite surprising that few demands are evident for the traditional virtues of work, such as reliability, performance of one’s duties or obedience, in current managerial discourses, although these have been the cornerstones of the work ethic in capitalist societies. Instead, ‘responsible decision makers’, ‘intrapreneurs’, ‘self-managers’ and ‘self-developers’ have entered the scene. In contrast to conventional wisdom, such labels are not reserved for managers or workers in financial services and the like. The discourse embraces virtually every industry and occupation, blurring the differences, in socio-psychological terms, between the board of directors and the shop floor.