Introductory

Abstract

The first three parts of this volume, as well as the section which follows this one, are concerned largely with the problems which automation and advanced technology create for the great mass of workers and particularly for disadvantaged groups: the unskilled, the uneducated, minority groups, older workers, etc. In this section we take a hard look at the people responsible for creating these problems — management, and find that by making decisions to introduce ‘information technology’ they are also creating problems for themselves. As Professor T. L. Whisler puts it: ‘It comes as a distinct shock to find that at last a technology has appeared which affects not the worker, but the manager’. The first two papers in this section are concerned with the ways in which information technology affects top-level management, while the other two consider the effects of advanced technology on middle-management and supervisory employees.