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A noted Harvard social scientist documents the pitfalls and promises of computerized technology in business life..
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is a very good book that gives to the reader the opportunity to understand how the working environment changes after the implementation of IT. It provides a critical thought about the informative age and is rich in neologisms (i.e. electronicese, panopticon, informate) and paradigms from existing industries. This book has influenced the business thought of 1990's and throught my experience I can admitt that it is still modern. Even though, sometimes it is difficult to understand what the author expresses and you are led to read the same sentences many times. I would recommend this book to people that are new in the field of IT and seek to acquire a sociological background of this area. However, this book doesn't touch specific technologies and presents employees as "victims" in the modern, information driven organisations.
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4 reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
An historically informed interdisciplinary account of work.
3 Feb 1998
Format:Paperback
I use this text in a course called "Work and Community" because it shows how various disciplines--history, philosophy, sociology, cognitive psychology --can inform discussions about how work is organized, and the kinds of power or authority relationships that workplaces, especially those where computers have changed the nature of work, abound. What's particularly interesting for me is the way Zuboff hits on the sort of literacy encouraged by computerized workplaces, and how information sharing requires real re-thinking of traditional roles of managers. In addition, the historical treatment of management as a developing professional competence would be critically enlightening for those who tend to study "business" as if it were merely a skill to acquire, rather than something with a history to be understood.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Lead with the subtitle "The Future of Work and Power...."
1 July 1997
Format:Paperback
Zuboff's book should have been titled "The Future of Work and Power in the Age of the Smart Machine," because while the book does speak to the increasing computerization of the workplace, it does so in an historical context regarding how power has been and might be distributed between worker and manager. Automation is the effort to remove human skill from work, making humans the servants of the "smart machine." Informating is the way in which the computer can potentially change the workplace by distributing "management information" and power to the workers, making them co-equal partners in the enterprise. Zuboff suggests we still have a choice about which way to go, despite our self-protective impulses
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
14 years and still looking good
19 Aug 2002
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I re-read this book again this year (2002) after a decade of its first publication in 1988, it still looks amazingly current, especially consider internet's wide adoption since 1995.
It was as though the smart machines and their relationships with human workplace has not changed since 1988. Even in silicon valley where I work, with so many tech companies with managers trained in technology background, their orgazniations keeps failing by repeating the single-minded strategy - replace human with technology.
As long as corporate America keep ignoring the main advice of t this book - that to fully utilize technology you have to understand the non-technical aspects of it (historical, psychological, social) - real productivity gain might be limited, until maybe we move everything to Bangalore, India.
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