Deskilling is the process by which division of labor and technological development has led to the reduction of the scope of an individual's work to one specialized task. In deskilling, work is fragmented, and individuals lose the integrated skills and comprehensive knowledge of the craftspersons. Classes converge due to the deskilling of white-collar work and the upskilling of blue-collar work. Capitalism leads to degrading and deskilling of work, creating in the process an unskilled proletariat. Deskilling is the decline in working positions through the machinery introduced to separate workers from the production process. Radical deskilling of machinists has been taking place. There is a lack of attention to the social dimensions of skill in the investigation of deskilling. Deskilling reduces barriers to entry, weakening the bargaining power of the human capital.
Harry Braverman argued in Labor and Monopoly Capital that the implementation of scientific management or Taylorism resulted in the deskilling and routinization of tasks performed by blue-collar workers in factories as well as those completed by lower-level white-collar workers employed in offices.
Deskilling and task routinization occurred, according to Braverman, in order to decrease production costs and to boost employee productivity. Upon the deskilling of labor, Best Replica Watches employees are easier to control, and replace, because workers do not have to utilize intellectual skills but only have to follow managers’ instructions in carrying out their work tasks. Moreover, deskilled employees can be paid less. The deskilling process leads to the performance of work which is viewed as being less intellectually and emotionally rewarding.
The Deskilling Debate, New Technology and Work Organization - Stephen Wood, London School of Economics and Harvard Center for European Studies. This paper discusses some of the developing ideas within what the author charactenzes as its third wave. In particular it focuses on the question of alternatives to Taylorism and the concept of skill.
The Deskilling
Controversy
The thesis that capitalism continues to degrade and deskill work in the twentieth century,
creating an ever more unskilled proletariat, has been forcefully argued by Harry Braverman and his colleagues. This article presents a series
of theoretical, empirical, and methodological criticisms of
the deskilling position, drawing upon a diverse literature, and upon original research. Particular attention is given to
the application of the deskilling thesis to contemporary trends in the computerization of
clerical work, as a way of highlighting methodological weaknesses in the deskilling
approach. - PAUL ATTEWELL, State University of New York.
The deskilling of social work: Turning the tide - Patrick Ayre, University of Luton. Leaning particularly on examples drawn from developments in recent years within the field of child protection, this paper seeks to engage practitioners, managers and educators in identifying the processes which have come to bear within their own fields of work. It will encourage the development of alternative responses to these processes which build the capabilities and confidence of social workers rather than undermining and deskilling them.
Deskilling: myth and reality - Emerald Group Publishing Limited,
Management Development Review, Volume 10, Number 4, 1997.
Abstract: The idea that companies should provide their employees with less training, not
more, is about as fashionable as the beehive hairstyle. Explores the link between training
and a quality culture.
Deskilling and reskilling within the labour process: The case of computer
integrated manufacturing - Andrew Agnewa, Paul Forresterb, John
Hassardc and Stephen Procterd.
Abstract: The deskilling and reskilling controversy within the labour process debate is
considered within the context of the implementation of Computer Integrated Manufacturing
(CIM). Deskilling and reskilling issue is worthy of analysis within the CIM context and
aspects of the labour process debate are examined.
Numerical Control Machining and the Issue of Deskilling - An Empirical View
- Gilbert Zicklin, Work and Occupations, Vol. 14, No.3.
Empirical research and analytic thinking about the effects of numerical control (NC)
machining on the skills of machinists present a mixed view of the issue. Some researchers
and analysts report that the operation of NC equipment requires more overall skill than
that of conventional machines, while others suggest that only the types of skills may be
different. Interviews with a small group of machinists experienced in both conventional and NC
matching suggest that seven major factors affect whether the introduction of NC machining
leads to a change in overall skill level or in the skill mix. The interview data do not
support the deskilling hypothesis.
Patterns of Skill Change: Upskilling, Deskilling or the Polarization of
Skills?
Duncan Gallie, Nuffield College OXFORD.
The debate about the long-term direction of skill trends has occupied a central place in economic sociology, but there has been a virtual absence
of relevant representative data. Using a number of different indicators of skill, it
examines whether changes in the occupational structure do reflect an expansion of higher
skilled jobs. It then considers the extent to which people have experienced upskilling or
deskilling within occupational classes. It concludes that, while there is little
evidence of extensive deskilling, there has been a marked tendency towards the
polarization of skills in the 1980s.
Social Class and the Changing Nature of Work:
Testing Hypotheses of Deskilling and Convergence among Swedish Employees
Jan O. Jonsson, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University
Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 12, No. 4, 603-633 (1998).
The changing nature of work is often supposed to be of consequence for interest formation
and political alliances between social classes. Three hypotheses are tested: classes
converge due to the deskilling of white-collar work or the upskilling of blue-collar work;
lower white-collar workers essentially share the conditions of manual workers; the gender
dimension cross-cuts the class dimension. There are signs of class
convergence in wages and authority, but sharp differences remain.
DESKILLING, DECOLLECTIVIZATION, AND DIESELS
Toward a New Focus in the Study of Changing Skills - GERARD J. GRZYB
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 19, No. 2, (1990).
Insufficient attention has been paid to the social dimensions of skill in the ongoing
investigation of deskilling. This article seeks to stimulate critical analysis of the
impact of skill changes on work-based social relationships among workers.
Gifted Education and the Deskilling of Classroom Teachers
Mara Sapon-Shevin, University of North Dakota, Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 41, No.
1, 39-48 (1990).
Teachers' satisfaction with the selection process, their
interaction with parents about
the gifted program, and the ways in which the gifted program affected their conceptions of
giftedness and of their own classrooms were examined. The article explores the extent to
which the labeling process required teachers to accept,
interpret, and justify a largely externally made decision that affected teachers'
classrooms. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which discrete gifted
programs and teacher education programs that prepare gifted teachers may contribute to the
deskilling of regular classroom teachers.
NVQs: Training for Competence or a Process of Deskilling? -
Marshall, K. S.
Source: International Journal of Lifelong Education, v13 n1 p 43-49 Jan-Feb 1994
Abstract: Compares the National Council for Vocational Qualifications model for assessing
skilled performance with traditional British approaches. Concludes that the model is rigid
and inflexible and can lead to deskilling.