Argues that the decline in the competitiveness of American industries arises from a failure to innovate in quality management rather than from a decline in product quality. Discusses the superiority of the U.S. in generating technological innovations and its lag in the commercialization of the fruits of that technology. (HB)

Examines the use of home computers and how they allow the worker to work at home rather than commuting. Discusses the growing trend of telecommuting, cost of operation, how it will affect company structure, and productivity. (CT)

Customer service centers, call centers, engineering, and research and development divisions of a British telecommunications firm were examined to determine the effect of technological change on the development of competencies. Technology had different impacts on employment, career paths, skills, and competence development in different areas.…

Annual productivity increases averaged 2.4 percent during 1963-79, slowing since 1972 to 1.5 percent; computer-assisted design and product standardization aided growth in output per employee-hour. (Author)

A review of the state of information industries in the United States is presented which discusses the industries themselves, the structure of information industries markets, the problems of privacy and access to information, and public control over media content. The article also reviews briefly some of the other key questions in the field of…

The development of new courses and instructional modes help to meet the informational needs of a restructuring corporate sector. A university committed to facilitating technology transfer, exploring innovative ways of disseminating research, and promoting information exchange, gives new meaning to the mission of instruction, research, and public…

In the 1980s, men's average earnings declined and percentage with low earnings increased, largely because of technological change. Shifts in industrial employment patterns affected African Americans' earnings more than whites' or Hispanics', although educational upgrading helped hold down the growth of low earnings. (SK)

The application of technology to production has had the effect of continuously removing man to greater distances from the actual material, or work, being transformed in the environment. We are about to enter a new phase of history, sometimes called the second industrial revolution, in which work occupies a different role in life. This revolution…

This document contains five case studies of plants within large enterprises in the automobile industry (Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Renault, and Volvo), plus reports of each company's views on human resource development, new technology, and changes in work organization and skill formation. The document is composed of five narrative sections,…

An information society is one in which the expression "to earn one's daily bread by the sweat of one's brow" appears decidedly anachronistic. People have been seduced by the rhetoric of novelty and confused by the surface significance of terms which have become accepted parts of everyday speech. What do rubrics such as information society,…

A staff paper to the President's Task Force on Communications Policy examines the feasibility of a domestic communications satellite system. Although, with expected technological advancement, satellites may play a significant role in domestic transmission and are economically feasible right now, a number of remaining questions make the…

This paper, in "Part I--Trends in Industrial Development"--notes that industrial development is continuing in developing countries, but with such discontinuity, diversity, and selectivity that generalizations are difficult. In the first development decade (the 1960's), industrialization did not fulfill expectations, and gaps in economic status…

Methods for encouraging positive worker attitude and behavior toward change were examined to provide a basis for re-evaluation of current policies and programs relating to introduction of technological changes. The literature reviewed is presented in sections of: (1) "The Worker and the Occupational System," by Claude Durand, (2)…