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diff --git a/books/sociology/age-of-the-smart-machine.md b/books/sociology/age-of-the-smart-machine.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eae8e19 --- /dev/null +++ b/books/sociology/age-of-the-smart-machine.md @@ -0,0 +1,1073 @@ +[[!meta title="In the Age of the Smart Machine"]] + +## Index + +* Deskilling, diplacement of "the human body and its know-how" and reskilling, 57. +* Rebellion against the automated door, 21-23. +* Humanization (Marx) as "tempering animality with rationality" in the progress of civilization, 30. +* Uncivilized, savage worker's "spontaneous, instinctually gratifying behavior" + in the past, signaling the problem of "how to get the human body to remain in one place, + pay attention, and perform consistently over a fixed period of time", 31-34. +* Paradox of the body; body's dual role in production: effort and skill (No Pain no Gain), 36. +* "Singer Sewing Machine Company was not able to produce perfectly interchangeable parts. + As a result, they relied on skilled fitters to assemble each product.", 39. +* Continous Process as a possible way to break the effort-skill body paradox and the U-curve + of social integration, 50-56 +* Transition from oral communication to written communication (pages 77, 100); + it's followed by a transition where calculations were transferred from mental + operations to calculating machines. +* Characteristics of action-centered skills, 106. +* Typewriters, 115. +* Feminization of clerical work, 116-117. +* Secretaries: _dedicated_ (acting as buffers, sorters and organizers) versus _pool_ modes (treated as input-output devices), 122-123. + +## Impressions + +* Intro mentions a control room like the Star Trek bridge. It makes me relate + to the skilled worker at one of its limits - those of the austronaut. Highly + skilled and disciplined, could be an interesting comparison. + +* The pathway from motor knowledge to abstract knowledge recalls Piaget's discussion + about intelligence. + +* Also some bridges can be built with Nicolelis' discussion of technology + transforming itself in extensions of the brain. + +* I to, sometimes, can feel my systems. How they're running, which are + the bottlenecks, what should I look for. Load average from a server is + something you can "feel" just by delays in your terminal. + +* Transitional generations might feel a strange feeling. + +## Excerpts + +### Choices on knowledge, authority and collaboration + + The choices that we face concern the conception and distribution of + knowledge in the workplace. Imagine the following scenario: Intelli- + gence is lodged in the smart machine at the expense of the human + capacity for critical judgment. Organizational members become ever + more dependent, docile, and secretly cynical. As more tasks must be + accomplished through the medium of information technology (I call + this "computer-mediated work"), the sentient body loses its salience + as a source of knowledge, resulting in profound disorientation and loss + of meaning. People intensify their search for avenues of escape through + drugs, apathy, or adversarial conflict, as the majority of jobs in our + offices and factories become increasingly isolated, remote, routine, and + perfunctory. Al ternativel y, imagine this scenario: Organizational lead- + ers recognize the new forms of skill and knowledge needed to truly + exploit the potential of an intelligent technology. They direct their + resources toward creating a work force that can exercise critical judg- + ment as it manages the surrounding machine systems. Work becomes + more abstract as it depends upon understanding and manipulating infor- + mation. This marks the beginning of new forms of mastery and provides + an opportunity to imbue jobs with more comprehensive meaning. A + new array of work tasks offer unprecedented opportunities for a wide + range of employees to add value to products and services. + + [...] + + The choices that we make will shape relations of authority in the + workplace. Once more, imagine: Managers struggle to retain their tra- + ditional sources of authority, which have depended in an important + way upon their exclusive control of the organization's knowledge base. + They use the new technology to structure organizational experience + in ways that help reproduce the legitimacy of their traditional roles. + Managers insist on the prerogatives of command and seek methods that + protect the hierarchical distance that distinguishes them from their + subordinates. Employees barred from the new forms of mastery relin- + quish their sense of responsibility for the organization's work and use + obedience to authority as a means of expressing their resentment. + Imagine an alternative: This technological transformation engenders a + new approach to organizational behavior, one in which relationships + are more intricate, collaborative, and bound by the mutual responsibili- + ties of colleagues. As the new technology integrates information across + time and space, managers and workers each overcome their narrow + functional perspectives and create new roles that are better suited to + enhancing value-adding activities in a data-rich environment. As the + quality of skills at each organizational level becomes similar, hierarchi- + cal distinctions begin to blur. Authority comes to depend more upon + an appropriate fit between knowledge and responsibility than upon the + ranking rules of the traditional organizational pyramid. + + [...] + + Imagine this scenario: The new technology becomes the source of surveillance + techniques that are used to ensnare organizational members or to subtly bully + them into confor- mity. Managers employ the technology to circumvent the + demanding work of face-to-face engagement, substituting instead techniques of + remote management and automated administration. The new techno- logical + infrastructure becomes a battlefield of techniques, with manag- ers inventing + novel ways to enhance certainty and control while em- ployees discover new + methods of self-protection and even sabotage. Imagine the alternative: The new + technological milieu becomes a re- source from which are fashioned innovative + methods of information sharing and social exchange. These methods in turn + produce a deep- ened sense of collective responsibility and joint ownership, as + access to ever-broader domains of information lend new objectivity to data and + preempt the dictates of hierarchical authority. + + -- 5-7 + +### A paradox + + From the unmanned factory to the automated cockpit, visions of the future hail + information technology as the final answer to "the labor question," the + ultimate opportunity to rid our- selves of the thorny problems associated with + training and managing a competent and committed work force. These very same + technologies have been applauded as the hallmark of a second industrial + revolution, in which the classic conflicts of knowledge and power associated + with an earlier age will be synthesized in an array of organizational inno- + vations and new procedures for the production of goods and services, all + characterized by an unprecedented degree of labor harmony and widespread + participation in management process. I Why the paradox? + + -- 7-8 + +### Informate and automate: the duality of Information Technology + + Thus, information technology, even when it is applied to automati- + cally reproduce a finite activity, is not mute. It not only imposes infor- + mation (in the form of programmed instructions) but also produces + information. It both accomplishes tasks and translates them into infor- + mation. The action of a machine is entirely invested in its object, the + product. Information technology, on the other hand, introduces an ad- + ditional dimension of reflexivity: it makes its contribution to the prod- + uct, but it also reflects back on its activities and on the system of activi- + ties to which it is related. Information technology not only produces + action but also produces a voice that symbolically renders events, ob- + jects, and processes so that they become visible, knowable, and share- + able in a new way. + + -- 9 + + [...] + + An emphasis on the informating capacity of intelligent technology can provide a + point of origin for new conceptions of work and power. A more re- stricted + emphasis on its automating capacity can provide the occasion for that second + kind of revolution-a return to the familiar grounds of industrial society with + divergent interests battling for control, aug- mented by an array of new + material resources with which to attack and defend. + + -- 11-12 + +### The natural attitude + + The most treacherous enemy of such research is what philosophers + call "the natural attitude," our capacity to live daily life in a way that + takes for granted the objects and activities that surround us. Even when + we encounter new objects in our environment, our tendency is to expe- + rience them in terms of categories and qualities with which we are + already familiar. The natural attitude allows us to assume and predict a + great many things about each other's behavior without first establishing + premises at the outset of every interaction. The natural attitude can + also stand in the way of awareness, for ordinary experience has to be + made extraordinary in order to become accessible to reflection. This + occurs when we encounter a problem: when our actions do not yield + the expected results, we are caught by surprise and so are motivated + to reflect upon our initial assumptions. 2 Awareness requires a rupture + with the world we take for granted; then old categories of experience + are called into question and revised. For example, in the early days of + photography, the discrepancies between the camera's eye and the hu- + man eye were avidly discussed, but, "once they began to think photo- + graphically, people stopped talking about photographic distortion, as it + was called.,,3 + + -- 13 + +### The Control Room + +Whoa, the description of the Control Room from the Piney Wood Mill recalled me +the Cybersyn Control Room built -- and then destroyed -- less than a decade +before: + + Workers sit on orthopedically designed swivel chairs covered with a royal blue + fabric, facing video display ter- minals. The terminals, which display process + information for the purposes of monitoring and control, are built into polished + oak cabi- nets. Their screens glow with numbers, letters, and graphics in vivid + red, green, and blue. The floor here is covered with slate-gray carpet- ing; + the angled countertops on which the terminals sit are rust brown and edged in + black. The walls are covered with a wheat-colored fabric and the molding + repeats the polished oak of the cabinetry. The dropped ceiling is of a bronzed + metal, and from it is suspended a three dimen- sional structure into which + lights have been recessed and angled to provide the right amount of + illumination without creating glare on the screens. The color scheme is + repeated on the ceiling-soft tones of beige, rust, brown, and gray in a + geometric design. + + -- 20-21 + +### Technology, work and the body + + Technology represents intelligence systematically applied to the + problem of the body. It functions to amplify and surpass the organic + limits of the body; it compensates for the body's fragility and vulnera- + bility. Industrial technology has substituted for the human body in + many of the processes associated with production and so has redefined + the limits of production formerly imposed by the body. As a result, + society's capacity to produce things has been extended in a way that is + unprecedented in human history. This achievement has not been with- + out its costs, however. In diminishing the role of the worker's body in + the labor process, industrial technology has also tended to diminish the + importance of the worker. In creating jobs that require less human + effort, industrial technology has also been used to create jobs that re- + quire less human talent. In creating jobs that demand less of the body, + industrial production has also tended to create jobs that give less to the + body, in terms of opportunities to accrue knowledge in the production + process. These two-sided consequences have been fundamental for the + growth and development of the industrial bureaucracy, which has de- + pended upon the rationalization and centralization of knowledge as the + basis of control. + + [...] + + Throughout most of human history, work has ines- capably meant the exertion and + often the depletion of the worker's body. Yet only in the context of such + exertion was it possible to learn a trade and to master skills. Since the + industrial revolution, the acceler- ated progress of automation has generally + meant a reduction in the amount of effort required of the human body in the + labor process. It has also tended to reduce the quality of skills that a worker + must bring to the activity of making something. Industrial technology has been + developed in a manner that increases its capacity to spare the human body, + while at the same time it has usurped opportunities for the devel- opment and + performance of skills that only the body can learn and remember. + + -- 22-23 + + The progress of automation has been associated with both a general + decline in the degree of know-how required of the worker and a de- + cline in the degree of physical punishment to which he or she must be + subjected. Information technology, however, does have the potential + to redirect the historical trajectory of automation. The intrinsic power + of its informating capacity can change the basis upon which knowledge + is developed and applied in the industrial production process by lifting + knowledge entirely out of the body's domain. The new technology sig- + nals the transposition of work activities to the abstract domain of infor- + mation. Toil no longer implies physical depletion. "Work" becomes + the manipulation of symbols, and when this occurs, the nature of skill + is redefined. The application of technology that preserves the body may + no longer imply the destruction of knowledge; instead, it may imply + the reconstruction of knowledge of a different sort. + + -- 23 + + There is reason enough to want to avoid exhausting work, but the + constancy of repugnance was not confined to forms of labor that were + extremely punishing. As noted earlier, in the membership practices of + some guilds, even the craftsworker was liable to be an object of con- + tempt because of the manual nature of that work. Such repugnance is + in itself an act of distancing. It is both a rejection of the animal body + and an affirmation of one's ability to translate the impulses of that body + into the infinitely more subtle behavioral codes that mediate power in + complex organizations. Once this translation occurs, the body is no + longer the vehicle for involuntary affective or physical displays. Instead, + it becomes the instrument of carefully crafted gestures and behaviors + designed to achieve a calculated effect in an environment where inter- + personal influence and even a kind of rudimentary psychological insight + are critical to success. In the interpersonal world of court society, the + body's knowledge involved the ability to be attuned to the psycho- + logical needs and demands of others, particularly of superiors, and + to produce subtly detailed nonverbal behavior that reflected this + awareness. + + -- 28-29 + + The differences between the work performed by the skilled + workers and the laborers was not of an "intellectual" versus manual + activity. The difference lay in the content of a similarly heavy manual + work: a content of rationality of participation for skilled workers versus + one of total indifference for laborers. 5 5 + + The work of the skilled craftsperson may not have been "intellec- + tual," but it was knowledgeable. These nineteenth-century workers + participated in a form of knowledge that had always defined the activity + of making things. It was knowledge that accrues to the sentient body + in the course of its activity; knowledge inscribed in the laboring body- + in hands, fingertips, wrists, feet, nose, eyes, ears, skin, muscles, shoul- + ders, arms, and legs-as surely as it was inscribed in the brain. It was + knowledge filled with intimate detail of materials and ambience-the + color and consistency of metal as it was thrust into a blazing fire, the + smooth finish of the clay as it gave up its moisture, the supple feel of + the leather as it was beaten and stretched, the strength and delicacy of + glass as it was filled with human breath. These details were known, + though in the practical action of production work, they were rarely + made explicit. Few of those who had such knowledge would have been + able to explain, rationalize, or articulate it. Such skills were learned + through observation, imitation, and action more than they were taught, + reflected upon, or verbalized. For example, James J. Davis, later to + become Warren Harding's Secretary of Labor, learned the skill of pud- + dling iron by working as his father's helper in a Pennsylvania foundry: + "None of us ever went to school and learned the chemistry of it from + books. . . . We learned the trick by doing it, standing with our faces in + the scorching heat while our hands puddled the metal in its glaring + bath. ,,56 + + -- 40 + +### The Scientific management + +Taylor, when "worker's know-how was expropriated to the ranks of management", +using information technology -- that _automates_ and _informates_ -- before +computer adoption, 41-44. + + Scientific management frequently meant not only that individual effort was + simplified (either because of labor-saving equipment or new organizational + methods that fragmented tasks into their simplest components), but also that + the pace of effort was intensified, thus raising the level of fatigue and + stress. Effort was purified-stripped of waste-but not yet eased, and resis- + tance to scientific management harkened back to the age-old issue of the + intensity and degree of physical exertion to which the body should be subject. + As long as effort was organized by the traditional practices of a craft, it + could be experienced as within one's own control and, being inextricably linked + to skill, as a source of considerable pride, satisfaction, and independence. + Stripped of this context and mean- ing, demands for greater effort only + intensified the desire for self- . 69 protectIon. + + Taylor had believed that the transcendent logic of science, together + with easier work and better, more fairly determined wages, could inte- + grate the worker into the organization and inspire a zest for production. + Instead, the forms of work organization that emerged with scientific + management tended to amplify the divergence of interests between + management and workers. Scientific management revised many of the + assumptions that had guided the traditional employer-employee rela- + tionship in that it allowed a minimal connection between the organiza- + tion and the individual in terms of skill, training, and the centrality of + the worker's contribution. It also permitted a new flexibility in work + force management, promoting the maximum interchangeability of per- + sonnel and the minimum dependence on their ability, availability, or + motivation. 70 + + [...] + + A machinist gained prominence when he debated Taylor in 1 914 and + remarked, "we don't want to work as fast as we are able to. We want + to work as fast as we think it's comfortable for us to work. We haven't + come into existence for the purpose of seeing how great a task we can + perform through a lifetime. We are trying to regulate our work so as + to make it auxiliary to our lives. ,,73 + + -- 45-46 + +Fordism: + + "The instruction cards on which Taylor set so much value, Ford was able to + discard. The conveyor belt, the traveling platform, the overhead rails and + material conveyors take their place. . . . Motion analysis has become largely + unnecessary, for the task of the assembly line worker is reduced to a few + manipulations. Taylor's stop-watch nevertheless remains measuring the time of + operations to the fraction of a second. ,,74 + + The fragmentation of tasks characteristic of the new Ford assembly + line achieved dramatic increases in productivity due to the detailed + time study of thousands of operations and the invention of the conveyor + belt and other equipment that maximized the continuity of assembly. + + [...] + + Effort is simplified (though its pace is frequently intensified) while skill + demands are reduced by new methods of task organization and new forms of + machinery. + + The continuity of assembly depended upon the production of interchangeable + parts for uniform products. + + -- 47 + +Effects: + + For the majority of industrial workers in the generations that followed, there + would be fewer opportunities to develop or maintain craft skills. Mass + production depended upon interchangeability for the standardization of + production; this principle required manufacturing operations to free themselves + from the particularistic know-how of the craftsworker. + + [...] + + Thus, applications of industrial technology have simplified, and gen- + erally reduced, physical effort, but because of the bond between effort + and skill, they have also tended to reduce or eliminate know-how. 78 + + [...] + + Self-preservation would induce the worker to accept automation. + + [...] + + the machine assumes responsibility + + [...] + + In Braverman's influential critique of what he called the "degradation + of work" in this century, he used Bright's study to make a very different + point. Where Bright saw the glass half full because the physical demands + of work were curtailed, Braverman saw the glass being drained, as work- + ers' skills were absorbed by technology. For Braverman, the transfer of + skill into machinery represented a triumph of "dead labor over living + labor," a necessity of capitalist logic. As machinery is enlarged and per- + fected, the worker is made puny and insignificant. By substituting capital + (in the form of machinery) for labor, Braverman believed that employers + merely seized the opportunity to exert greater control over the labor + process. As the work force encountered fewer opportunities for skill + development, it would become progressively less capable and, thus, less + bl ... 85 + + -- 48-49 + +### The Transfer + +The transition from manual to automated, the process of transferring knowledged +from the body to the machine is a sistematization of the transference of +knowledge from art (work whose reproduction is challenging) to technics +(pragmatized art, the art of practical, efficient life): + + However, the term transfer must be doubly laden if it is to adequately describe + this process. Knowledge was first transferred from one quality of knowing to + another-from knowing that was sentient, embedded, and experience-based to know- + ing that was explicit and thus subject to rational analysis and perpetual + reformulation. The mechanisms used to accomplish this transfer were themselves + labor intensive (that is, they depended upon first-hand ob- servation of + time-study experts) and were designed solely in the con- text of, and with the + express purpose of, enabling a second transfer- one that entailed the migration + of knowledge from labor to manage- ment with its pointed implications for the + distribution of authority and the division of labor in the industrial + organization. + + -- 56-57 + + The worker's capacity "to know" has been lodged in sentience and + displayed in action. The physical presence of the process equipment + has been the setting that corresponded to this knowledge, which could, + in turn, be displayed only in that context. As long as the action context + remained intact, it was possible for knowledge to remain implicit. In + this sense, the worker knew a great deal, but very little of that knowl- + edge was ever articulated, written down, or made explicit in any fash- + ion. Instead, operators went about their business, displaying their + know-how and rarely attempting to translate that knowledge into terms + that were publicly accessible. This is what managers mean when they + speak of the "art" involved in operating these plants. + + -- 59 + +### From action-centered to intellective skill + + This does not imply that action-centered skills exist independent + of cognitive activity. Rather, it means that the processes of learning, + remembering, and displaying action-centered skills do not necessarily + require that the knowledge they contain be made explicit. Physical + cues do not require inference; learning in an action-centered context is + more likely to be analogical than analytical. In contrast, the abstract + cues available through the data interface do require explicit inferential + reasoning, particularly in the early phases of the learning process. It is + necessary to reason out the meaning of those cues-what is their rela- + tion to each other and to the world "out there"? + + -- 73 + + As information technology restructures the work situation, it ab- + stracts thought from action. Absorption, immediacy, and organic re- + sponsiveness are superseded by distance, coolness, and remoteness. + Such distance brings an opportunity for reflection. + + [...] + + The thinking this operator refers to is of a different quality from the + thinking that attended the display of action-centered skills. It combines + abstraction, explicit inference, and procedural reasoning. Taken to- + gether, these elements make possible a new set of competencies that I + call intellective skills. As long as the new technology signals only deskil- + ling-the diminished importance of action-centered skills-there will + be little probability of developing critical judgment at the data inter- + face. To rekindle such judgment, though on a new, more abstract foot- + ing, a reskilling process is required. Mastery in a computer-mediated + environment depends upon developing intellective skills. + + -- 75-76 + + [...] + + The second dimension of this crisis involves the ambiguity of action. + It is conveyed in the question, what have I done? The computer system + now interpolates between the worker and the action context, and as it + does so, it represents to the worker his or her effects on the world. + However, reading symbols does not provoke the same feeling of having + done something as one gets from more direct, organic involvement in + execution. There is a continual questioning of action-Have I done + anything? How can I be sure? + + -- 81 + +It seems clear to me that, despite de physical alleviation introduced by +intellectual work, it still does not free workers from fatigue. It just put it +in a different framework: mental exhaustion and +[burn-out](/books/sociedade/burnout-society). Only dead, abstracted "work" +won't lead tiredness. But then it won't be work anymore. + +### Evolution of white-collar work + + The evolution of white-collar work has followed a historical path + that is in many ways the precise opposite of that taken by blue-collar + work. Manufacturing has its roots in the work of skilled craft. In most + cases, that work was successively gutted of the elements that made it + skillful-leaving behind jobs that were simplified and routinized. An + examination of work at the various levels of the management hierarchy + reveals a different process. Elements of managerial work most easily + subjected to rationalization were "carved out" of the manager's activit- + ies. The foundational example of this process is the rationalization of + executive work, which was accomplished by ejecting those elements + that could be explicated and systematized, preserving intact the skills + that comprise executive craft. It was the carving out of such elements + that created the array of functions we now associate with middle man- + agement. A similar process accounts for the origins of clerical work. In + each case, the most easily rationalized features of the activities at one + level were carved out, pushed downward, and used to create wholly + new lower-level jobs. In this process, higher-level positions were not + eliminated; on the contrary, they came to be seen more than ever as + the depository of the organization's skills. + + [...] + + White-collar employees used their bodies, too, but + in the service of actino-with, for interpersonal communication and coor- + dination. It was not until the intensive introduction of office machinery, + and with it scientific management, that this distinct orientation was + challenged. During this period, an effort was made to invent a new kind + of clerical work-work that more closely resembled the laboring body + continually actino-on the inanimate objects, paper and equipment, that + were coming to define modern office work. Automation in the factory + had diverse effects, frequently limiting human effort and physical + suffering, though sometimes exacerbating it. But the discontinuity in + the nature of clerical work introduced with office machinery, together + with the application of Tayloristic forms of work organization, did + much to increase the physical suffering of the clerk. While it remained + possible to keep a white collar clean, the clerk's position was severed + from its earlier responsibilities of social coordination and was con- + verted instead to an emphasis on regularity of physical effort and mental + concentration. + + -- 98 + + Many successful merchants and entre- + preneurs were well known for the speed of their mental calculations, + and Eaton's how-to book provides a chapter on tricks and shortcuts to + aid in rapid mental arithmetic. 6 Owner-managers frequently sur- + rounded themselves with sons, nephews, and cousins-a move that fa- + cilitated oral communication through shared meaning and context and + eased the pressure for written documentation. 7 + + [...] + + Detailed empirical studies of modern executives' work, several of + which have been published over the last thirty years, are greeted with + the curiosity and fascination usually reserved for anthropological ac- + counts of obscure primitive societies. It is as if these researchers had + brought back accounts from an organizational region that is concealed + from observation and protected from rational analysis. Perhaps this + sense of mystery surrounds top management activities because they + derive from a set of skills that are embedded in individual action, in + much the same way as those of the craftsperson. In both cases, skilled + performance is characterized by sentient participation, contextuality, + action-dependence, and personalism. + + What is different is that the craftsperson used action-centered skills + in the service of actino-on materials and equipment, while the top man- + ager's action-centered skills are applied in the service of actino-with. + Like the seventeenth-century courtier, the top manager uses his or her + bodily presence as an instrument of interpersonal power, influence, + learning, and communication. The know-how that is developed in the + course of managerial experience in actino-with remains largely implicit: + managers themselves have difficulty describing what they do. Only the + cleverest research can translate such embedded practice into expli- + cated material suitable for analysis and discussion. + + [...] + + "The process is the sensing of the organization as a whole and the total + situation relevant to it. It transcends the capacity of merely intellectual + methods, and the techniques of discriminating the factors of the situa- + tion. The terms pertinent to it are 'feeling,' 'judgment,' 'sense,' 'pro- + portion,' 'balance,' 'appropriateness.' It is a matter of art rather than + science, and is aesthetic rather than logical. For this reason it is recog- + nized rather than described and is known by its effects rather than by + analysis. ,,8 + + -- 100-101 + + Kotter stresses the implicit quality of the general managers' knowledge, + noting that their agendas tended to be informal, nonquantitative, mental road + maps highly related to "people" issues, rather than systematic, formal planning + documents. + + -- 102 + + Daniel Isenberg's research on "how senior managers think" has pen- + etrated another layer of this, usually inarticulate, domain of executive + management. 12 Isenberg found that top managers think in ways that are + highly "intuitive" and integrated with action. 13 He concluded that the + intuitive nature of executive behavior results from the inseparability of + their thinking from their actions: "Since managers often 'know' what + is right before they can analyze and explain it, they frequently act first + and think later. Thinking is inextricably tied to action. . . . Managers + develop thought about their companies and organizations not by ana- + lyzing a problematic situation and then acting, but by thinking and + acting in close concert.,,14 One manager described his own immersion + in the action cycle: "It's as if your arms, your feet, and your body just + move instinctively. You have a preoccupation with working capital, a + preoccupation with capital expenditure, a preoccupation with people + . . . and all this goes so fast that you don't even know whether it's + completely rational, or it's part rational, part intuitive. 15 + + [...] + + Kanter con- + cluded that the manager's ability to "win acceptance" and to communi- + cate was often more important than any substantive knowledge of the + business. The feelings of comfort, efficiency, and trust that come with + such shared meaning are triggered in a variety of ways by the manager's + comportment. The nuances of nonverbal behavior and the signals em- + bedded in physical appearance are an important aspect of such group + participation. Because the tasks at the highest levels of the corporation + are the most ambiguous, senior executives come to rely most heavily + on the communicative ease that results from this shared intuitive world. + + -- 103 + + Top managers' days and nights are filled to the breaking point with a myriad of + activities, contacts, events, discussions, and meetings, which tend to be + brief, rapid, and fragmented. Many students of managerial activity have + proposed ways + + -- 105 + + "Today the manager is the real data bank. . . . Unfortunately he is a + walking and a talking data bank, but not a writing one. When he is busy, + information ceases to flow. When he departs, so does the data bank.,,28 Lodged + in the body and dependent upon presence and active display, the implicit heart + of the executive's special genius appears to evade rationalization. + + -- 106-107 + +That's brilliant: + + In the case of executive activity, those elements most accessible + to explication, and therefore rationalization, were carved out of the + executive's immediate domain of concern. These more analytical or + routine activities were projected into the functions of middle manage- + ment, just as those functions were also absorbing new responsibilities + for planning and coordination that had resulted from systematic analy- + sis of the production process. Thus, the activities that made the execu- + tive most special, based on action-centered skill, were left intact, while + the more explicit and even routine aspects of executive responsibilities + were pushed downward and materialized in a variety of middle- + management functions. This contrasts with the case of craft workers, + in which the action-centered skills that had made them so special were + resealched, systematized, and expropriated upward. To put it bluntly, + workers lost what was best in their jobs, the body as skill in the service + of actin8-on, while executives lost what was worst in their jobs, retaining + full enjoyment of the skilled body as an instrument of actin8-with. + + -- 107-108 + +In other words, automation and the robotization of the body that follows flows +downward in that particular kink of enterprise -- capitalist business and other +hierachical type of organizations with information-based management. From +_action with_ to _acting on_ (page 119). + +Intelligence is extracted from the worked, deskilled, automated and robotized. +From oral to written communication, from her memory to a memory bank of some +sort. From her artisan skills of interpersonal relationships to standardized +procedures. In a movement downward the hierarchy. + +How that phenomemon predates or is contemporanean to cybernetic-inspired +corporate management? + +Also, today we see a discourse on replacing even top management with A/I +working according to "smartcontracts", which might be an assymptotic +ideological consequence of automating things downward, but that might be proved +wrong if we consider that there's no way these organizations could work without +any craftsmanship at it's top. + +Sounds like if there's no way to fully automated a capitalist bussiness or +government body, even replacing it's management but at the same time there's +an urge to do just that. The net effect is an overconcentration of power +to an ever-diminishing managerial elite. + +If more value is given to non-automated work, then this overconcentration +is directly related to wealth concentration. + +I guess this whole mainstream discourse on automation is entirelly flawed. +It separates mind and body, hates the body, want it automated, a slave of the mind +enslaved in a dellusion to free itself even more as the mind is considered a slave +of the brain, it's material support. + +The next step after the creation of middle-management was it's removal from +the organization by downsizing/delayering/outsourcing which happened after +this book was published. + + In 1925, the same year that Mary Parker Follett made her speech + exhorting managers to become more scientific, William Henry + Leffingwell published his well-known text, Office Mana8ement: Principles + and Practice, which he dedicated to the Taylor Society in appreciation + of its "inspirational and educational influence." Leffingwell presented + a copy of his book to Carl Barth, one of Taylor's best-known disciples. + That copy bore the following inscription: "It is with deep appreciation + of the honor of knowing one of management's greatest minds that I sit + at your feet and sign my name." Leffingwell was obsessed with the + notion of bringing rational discipline to the office in much the same + way that Taylor and his men were attempting to transform the shop + floor. Though his was not the only treatise on the subject, it quickly + became one of the most influential. 56 In an earlier work, published in + 1 91 7, Leffingwell had discussed "mechanical applications of the princi- + ples of scientific management to the office." His new text was written + to address the need for "original thought" concerning the fundamental + principles of his discipline and their relationship to office management. + Leffingwell summed up the message of his book with one sentence: + "In a word, the aim of this new conception of office management is + simplification. " + + [...] + + The overwhelming purpose of Leffingwell's approach to simplifica- + tion was to fill the clerical workday with activities that were linked + to a concrete task and to eliminate time spent on coordination and + communication. This concern runs through almost every chapter of his + 850-page text; it is revealed most prominently in his minutely detailed + discussions of the physical arrangement of the office and in his views + on the organization, flow, planning, measurement, and control of office + work. + + Leffingwell advocated what he called "the straight-line flow of + work" as the chief method by which to eliminate any requirement for + communication or coordination. The ideal condition, he said, was that + desks should be so arranged that work could be passed from one to the + other "without the necessity of the clerk even rising from his seat. . . + + [...] + + . . . Routine. . . tends to reduce communication. ,,58 Layout, + standardization of methods, a well-organized messenger service, desk + correspondence distributors, reliance on written instructions, delivery + bags, pneumatic tubes, elevators, automatic conveyors, belt conveyors, + cables, telautographs, telephones, phonographs, buzzers, bells, and + horns-these were just some of the means Leffingwell advocated in + order to insulate the clerk from extensive communicative demands. + + -- 117-119 + +Mind how such changes of reducing interpersonal communication, despite +raising production efficiency, also reduces worker self-organizing capacity +and class awareness. + + The requirements of actino-on associated with these new clerical jobs + demanded more from the body as a source of effort than from skilled + action or intellective competence. It is only at this stage, and in the + context of this discontinuity, that the fate of the clerical job can be + fruitfully compared to that of skilled work in industry. + + [...] + + Frequently, the jobs that were created had the + effect of driving office workers into the role of laboring bodies, en- + gulfing them in the private sentience of physical effort. Complaints + about these jobs became complaints about bodies in pain. In 1 960 the + International Labour Organization published a lengthy study of mecha- + nization and automation in the office. + + [...] + + Clerks complained of being "treated like trained animals" because of the + "uniformity and excessive simplification of the work of many machine + operators." + + -- 119-120 + +Another form of [labor camp](/books/historia/ibm-holocaust), it's mirror image: + + "Tabulat- ing machine operators, for instance, even when the controls are set + for them and an automatic device stops the machine when something goes wrong, + cannot let their attention flag. . . . The strain of this kind of close + attentiveness to a repetitive operation has resulted in a rIsIng number of + cases of mental and nervous disorders among clerical work- ers . . . physical + and intellectual debility; disturbances of an emotional nature such as + irritability, nervousness, hypersensitivity; insomnia; vari- ous functional + disturbances-headaches, digestive and heart troubles; state of depression, etc. + ,,61 + + -- 120-121 + + The Office, featured an article in 1 969 by the director + of a New Jersey industrial engineering firm who said: "We know from + our company's studies that manpower utilization in most offices-even + those that are subject to work measurement controls-rarely exceeds + 60%. In some operations the percentage of utilization may fall below + 40%. At least 17% of the time, employees are literally doing nothing + except walking around or talking. . . . While many companies have + squeezed out much of the excess labor costs in their production opera- + tions, only a few have given serious attention to the so called indirect + labor or service operations. ,,62 + + [...] + + "Clerical jobs are mea- sured just like factory jobs. + + Clerical costs can be controlled on + any routine, Le., repetitive or semi-repetitive work. Non-repetitive + tasks, such as research and development, cannot be economically mea- + sured. Similarly, jobs such as receptionists, confidential secretaries, + etc., do not lend themselves to control. ,,65 + + -- 121-122 + +### Office technology as exile and integration + +The whole chapter is worth reading. Some excerpts: + + One afternoon, after several weeks of participant observation and + discussions with clerks and supervisors, I was returning to the office + from a lunch with a group of employees when two of them beckoned + me over to their desks, indicating that they had something to show me. + They seated themselves at their workstations on either side of a tall + gray partition. Then they pointed out a small rupture in the orderly, + high-tech appearance of their work space: the metal seam in the parti- + tion that separated their desks had been pried open. + + With the look of mischievous co-conspirators, they confided that + they had inflicted this surgery upon the wall between them. Why? The + small opening now made it possible to peek through and see if the + other worker was at her seat, without having to stand up and peer over + or around the wall. Through that aperture questions could be asked, + advice could be given, and dinner menus could be planned. At the time + I took this to be the effort of two women to humanize their surround- + ings. While I still believe that is true, the weeks, months, and years that + followed led me to a fuller appreciation of the significance of their + action. + + Installing those partitions was the final step that completed the + clerks' relegation to the realm of the machine. Exiled from the inter- + personal world of office routines, each clerk became isolated and soli- + tary. That interpersonal world involves the work of managing; it is the + domain in which coordination and communication occur. These clerks + not only had been denied benign forms of social intercourse but also + had been expelled from the managerial world of actino-with that had + formerly required them to accept, in some small degree, responsibility + for the coordination of their office. Installing the partitions was one + concrete technique, among others, designed to create the discontinuity + needed to achieve Leffingwell's goal: to convert the clerk from an inter- + personal operator to a laboring body, substituting communicative and + coordinative responsibilities with the physical demands of continuous + production. + + -- 125 + + In many cases, organizational functions, events, and processes have been so + extensively informated-converted into and displayed as information-that the + technology can be said to have "textualized" the organizational environment. + + -- 126 + + Why was it felt to be important and natural to check the ledgers? + Many of the clerks experienced a loss of certainty similar to that of the + pulp mill operators when they were deprived of concrete referents. In + the office the referent function operated at a higher level of abstraction + than in the mills. For these clerks, written words on pieces of paper + had become a concrete and credible medium-for several reasons. + First, paper is a three-dimensional object that carries sensory weight- + it can be touched; carried; folded; in short, dominated. Secondly, writ- + ing is a physical activity. The pen gives voice to the hand. Each written + word is connected to the writer both through the intellectual relation- + ship of authorship and through the immediate physical relationship of + fingers and pen. In the act of writing there is a part of the self that is + invested in and so identified with the thing written. It comes to be + experienced as an extension of the self rather than an "otherness." + This identification occurs so subtly, that it is rarely noticed until it has + been taken away. Electronic text confronts the clerk with a stark sense + of otherness. Text is impersonal; letters and numbers seem to appear + without having been derived from an embodied process of authorship. + They stand autonomously over and against the clerk who engages with + them. A benefits analyst described the sensation: + + You can't justify anything now; you can't be sure of it or prove it + because you have nothing down in writing. Without writing, you can't + remember things, you can't keep track of things, there's no reasoning + without writing. What we have now-you don't know where it comes + from. It just comes at you. + + -- 130-131 + +Concentrating on concentrating: nano-genealogy of clerical work +--------------------------------------------------------------- + +Sounds like there's a paradox between the simplification of work -- the diminishing +knowledge required to do the task -- and the increased need for concentration in +the task accomplished -- not only because it was dificult to rollback transactions, +but also because of an increased pressure to do more. + + We really did not have a need for such intensive concentration be- + fore. There are times when you are looking at the screen but you + are not seeing what is there. That is a disaster. Even when you get + comfortable with the system, you still have to concentrate; it's iust + that you are not concentrating on concentrating. You learn how to + do it, but the need doesn't go away. + + -- 131 + +Here I get a curious feeling. Which makes me get back to the origin of the term +"clerk" and "clerical work". This is what Norbert Elias tells us from his second +volume of "Civilizing Process": + + They entered this appararus by two main routes: 103 first through their growing + share of secular posts, that is, positions previously filled by nobles; and secondly + through their share of ecclesiastical poset, that is as clerks. The term _clerc_ began + slowly to change its meaning from about the end of the twelfth century onwards; + its ecclesiastical connotation receded and it referred more and more to a man who + had studied, who could read and write Latin , though it may be that the first + stages of an ecclesiastical career were for a time a prerequisite for this. Then, in + conjunction with the extension of the administrative apparatus, both the them + _clerc_ and certain kinds of university study were increasingly secularized. People + no longer learned Latin exclusively to become members of the clergy, theu also + learned it to become officials. To be sure, there were still bourgeois who entered + the king's council simply on account of their commercial or organizational + competence. But the majority of bourgeois attained the higher regions of + government through study, through knowledge of canon and Roman law. Study + became a normal means of social advancement for the sons of leading urban + strata. Bourgeois elements slowly pushed back the noble and ecclesiastical + elements in the government. The class of royal servants, of ''officials", became -- + in contrast to the situarion in Germany -- an exclusively bourgeois formation. + + [103] https://www.worldcat.org/title/philippe-le-long-roi-de-france-1316-1322-le-mecanisme-du-gouvernement/oclc/489867779 + + -- 332 + +The same excerpt but from the portuguese translation: + + Eles ingressaram na máquina do governo através de dois caminhos principais:103 + inicialmente, graças a sua crescente participação em cargos seculares, isto é, + em posições antes ocupadas por nobres e, depois, devido a sua participação em + postos antes eclesiásticos, isto é, como amanuenses. O termo _clerc_ começou a + mudar lentamente de significado a partir de fins do século XII, recuando para + um plano inferior sua conotação eclesiástica e aplicando-se mais e mais a + indivíduos que haviam estudado, que podiam ler e escrever latim, embora possa + ser verdade que os primeiros estágios de uma carreira eclesiástica fossem, por + algum tempo, precondição para isso. Em seguida, em paralelo com a ampliação da + máquina administrativa, o termo _clerc_ e certos tipos de estudos universitários + foram cada vez mais secularizados. As pessoas não aprendiam latim + exclusivamente para se tornarem membros do clero, mas também para ingressar na + carreira de servidores públicos. Para sermos exatos, também havia burgueses que + passavam a integrar o conselho do rei simplesmente devido a sua competência + comercial ou organizacional. A maioria dos burgueses, porém, chegava aos altos + escalões do governo através do estudo, do conhecimento dos cânones e do Direito + Romano. O estudo tornou-se um meio normal de progresso social para os filhos + dos principais estratos urbanos. Lentamente, elementos burgueses suplantaram os + elementos nobres e eclesiásticos no governo. A classe de servidores reais, ou + “funcionários”, tornou-se —, em contraste com a situação vigente nos + territórios germânicos — uma formação social exclusivamente burguesa. + + -- Da seção 22 da parte "Distribuição das Taxas de Poder no Interior da Unidade + de Governo: Sua Importância para a Autoridade Central: A Formação do “Mecanismo + Régio”" + +The development both of the term _clerc_ and the change this activity took deserves +some attention. + +In a sense, the clergy lives in a form of isolation, of exile. + +Or, in another sentence, a clerc was someone who renounced the sensorial and the +material word to live a monastic life. What I just said? + + monastery (n.) + + c. 1400, from Old French monastere "monastery" (14c.) and directly from Late + Latin monasterium, from Ecclesiastical Greek monasterion "a monastery," from + monazein "to live alone," from monos "alone" (from PIE root *men- (4) "small, + isolated"). With suffix -terion "place for (doing something)." Originally + applied to houses of any religious order, male or female. + + -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/monastery + + men- (4) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "small, isolated." + + It forms all or part of: malmsey; manometer; monad; monarchy; monastery; + monism; monist; monk; mono; mono-; monoceros; monochrome; monocle; monocular; + monogamy; monogram; monolith; monologue; monomania; Monophysite; monopoly; + monosyllable; monotony. + + It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: + Greek monos "single, alone," manos "rare, sparse;" Armenian manr "thin, + slender, small." + + -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*men-?ref=etymonline_crossreference + + Noun + + monastērium n (genitive monastēriī); second declension + + (Medieval Latin) monastery quotations ▼ + (Medieval Latin) cell; area used by a monk. + + -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monasterium + + From Old French monastere, from Latin monastērium, from Ancient Greek + μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “hermit's cell”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”). + Doublet of minster. + + -- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monastery + +Clerical work can be considered those isolated, repetitive, monotonous tasks +separated from the daily, communal life. + +Curiously enough, the `*men-` root also means: + + men- (1) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to think," with derivatives referring to + qualities and states of mind or thought. + + It forms all or part of: admonish; Ahura Mazda; ament; amentia; amnesia; + amnesty; anamnesis; anamnestic; automatic; automaton; balletomane; comment; + compos mentis; dement; demonstrate; Eumenides; idiomatic; maenad; -mancy; + mandarin; mania; maniac; manic; mantic; mantis; mantra; memento; mens rea; + mental; mention; mentor; mind; Minerva; minnesinger; mnemonic; Mnemosyne; + money; monition; monitor; monster; monument; mosaic; Muse; museum; music; + muster; premonition; reminiscence; reminiscent; summon. + + It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: + Sanskrit manas- "mind, spirit," matih "thought," munih "sage, seer;" Avestan + manah- "mind, spirit;" Greek memona "I yearn," mania "madness," mantis "one who + divines, prophet, seer;" Latin mens "mind, understanding, reason," memini "I + remember," mentio "remembrance;" Lithuanian mintis "thought, idea," Old Church + Slavonic mineti "to believe, think," Russian pamjat "memory;" Gothic gamunds, + Old English gemynd "memory, remembrance; conscious mind, intellect." + + [...] + + men- (2) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to project." + + men- (3) + + Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to remain." It forms all or part of: + maisonette; manor; manse; mansion; menage; menial; immanent; permanent; remain; + remainder. + + -- https://www.etymonline.com/word/*men-?ref=etymonline_crossreference + +To think in isolation, projecting, calculating. "Automaton" shares the same root. + +We can also say tha clerical work can refer to a dedication to spiritualism or +philosophycal inquiry, freed from mundane affairs, desires an necessities. + +To be continued: + +* The monastic way is a mode of existence. But is different if someone chooses this path or is forced to it. +* Monotasking during large periods of time was enabled by civilization. Multitasking was the way if you had to pay attention all the time + for dangers to your life. See [The burn-out society](/books/sociedade/burnout-society) for discussion. It's related to the + differentiation, specialization and automation of tasks. One needs someone's else, a third-party protection to be able to abstain from + the environment and even from oneself and focus on abstract and to be able to deep reflection and medidation. +* How some contemporaneous clerical work tends more to multitasking and attention deficit. +* Any equivalent term in portuguese to "clerical work"? +* Class differentiation among both the catholic clergy and the modern monastic automated office, with high ranks of technomonks + doing the thinking (and acting-with) and the lower clerks acting like automatons (acting-on). + +[[!tag sociology technology history]] |