Degradation of Work (CW.D)

TAOP Resource Center -- Aisle C (Contemporary Topics) -- Rack CW (Meaningful Work)

Rack CW (Meaning of Work): Degradation of Work (CW.D) | Remote and Hybrid Work Models | Occupations, Professions, and Work

Jump to: Importance | History & Origins | Debates & Critiques | Research Areas | TAOP Resources | References

The study of the degradation of work examines how labor processes within organizations systematically lose quality, dignity, and meaning over time. Researchers in this field examine historical, economic, and managerial forces that transform fulfilling, skilled work into experiences that are increasingly controlled, fragmented, or alienating for workers. Their goal is to identify such forces and offer ways and means for managers to influence such forces and restore or increase the meaningfulness of the work performed. By doing so, managers would optimize both employee performance and commitment to their work.

Importance of Studying the Degradation and Deskilling of Work

This is an important contemporary topic as technological advances and increasing global competition have put significant pressures on managers to deliver goods and services at the lowest possible cost. The abilities to control the work environment may be seen as essential to achieving the necessary efficiencies, but paradoxically may contribute to the organization falling apart. For example, we covered Gideon Kunda’s work in normative control in Episode 49 whereby workers were forced to adopt corporate values and practices that precluded them from any expectation of work-life balance. While this benefitted the company in the short-term through rapid innovations and growth, it quickly turned the workplace into a nightmare with workers succumbing to severe depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behaviors.

Central to this discourse is the recognition that both individual and contextual elements influence performance outcomes. The work environment, leadership styles, work-family conflict, and employee motivation are often highlighted as contributing to work degradation and performance. Although operating differently between the industrial contexts of the late 19th century forward to information age contexts today, the effects of these elements have persisted. Any promises of newer technologies fundamentally changing or revolutionizing the workplace favorably for both management and workers have been unfulfilled.

Some important areas of research in this subfield are summarized below.

Deskilling. Deskilling occurs when complex craft work is broken down into simplified, standardized tasks requiring minimal training. The presence and effects of deskilling across history have been studied (see Episode 74 on Chandler’s study on the creation of middle management). For example, in the pre-industrial era single artisans might design and craft an entire piece of furniture in a personal workshop and sell it to neighbors. But as the needs for mass manufacturing grew, assembly lines formed where each worker repeatedly performed one small task, like attaching a particular hinge, to produce a quantity of furniture items, all of which would be functionally and aesthetically identical.

Although workplace efficiency clearly increased, the following are taken away from the worker: (1) the comprehensive knowledge of the entire production process, (2) the satisfaction of creating a complete product, and (3) the opportunity to apply personal judgment and creativity. What is also lost is the development and cultivation of expertise that the craftsmen required which has been mechanized into the design of the assembly line (see Episode 94 on Jean Lave’s construct of situated learning)

Scientific Management and Control. Frederick Taylor’s scientific management principles, also known as Taylorism, was an early attempt at systematizing work so that assembly lines (and other constructs) could be designed and implemented more efficiently and to incentivize workers to be more productive. The principles included breaking work into small, measurable units, determining the “one best way” to perform each task, selecting and training workers to follow prescribed methods, and exercising supervision and control systems.

For example, rather than allowing cashiers to develop their own efficient checkout methods, management might mandate specific scripts, movements, and timing requirements, monitored through electronic systems that track transactions per hour and other data. This information would allow managers to determine which cashiers were most efficient at the task and those whose performance was poor (e.g., very slow, prone to errors) could be retrained or let go. However, these electronic systems may be easier for some workers to use than others due to the system’s design rather than any fault of the worker. Also, the costs of such systems and their breakages and down time might offset any perceived gains in efficiency by their use.

Separation of Mental and Manual Labor. From the above, it is therefore natural that divisions have formed between those who plan the work and those who execute it. Engineers, managers, and analysts design processes that workers then follow. This leads to workers having little to no understanding of the overall system or purpose — they are merely expected to “stay in their lane”. This creates what organization theorist Rosabeth Moss Kanter called structural powerlessness, where workers have responsibility without authority or understanding. We covered her work on tokenism in Episode 17.


History and Origins of the Subfield

The concept is rooted in Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism, but gained prominence with Harry Braverman’s landmark 1974 book Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, which we cover in Episode 126. Braverman documented how management systematically separated the conception of work (planning) from its execution (doing), a process he called the “deskilling” of labor. This was based on the recognition of fundamental shifts within the labor market, particularly in relation to technological advancements, economic structures, and managerial practices. Hence as industries evolved, particularly under capitalist frameworks, there is a tendency for the nature of work to shift towards roles that require less specialized skill. He also showed that the emergence of both management and management studies contributed to this deskilling, even authors we have covered in this program whose aim was ostensibly to highlight the plights of workers under Taylorism. According to him, Elton Mayo (Episode 9), Joan Woodward (Episode 60), and others were guilty of aligning too closely to managerial interests. The following is a summary of its foundational influences, theoretical developments, and evolution of ideas through different historical periods.

The Industrial Revolution Context. The degradation of work as a concept was born from the massive social and economic transformations of the Industrial Revolution (~1760-1840). Before this period, production was primarily organized around skilled craft labor, where artisans controlled their entire production process. They were able to integrate conception and execution, develop their skills through lengthy apprenticeships, and exercise significant autonomy over pace and method.

The mechanization of production fundamentally altered this arrangement. As Adam Smith observed in “The Wealth of Nations” (1776), the division of labor dramatically increased productivity but had concerning effects on workers. Smith wrote that the worker subjected to extreme specialization “generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.”

The Foundation: Alienation and the Labor Process. Karl Marx provided the first systematic theoretical treatment of work degradation in the mid-19th century. In his “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844” and later in “Capital” (1867), Marx developed several concepts that became foundational to understanding work degradation. First, he identified four forms of alienation experienced by industrial workers: (1) alienation from the product of labor (workers create objects they don’t own), (2) alienation from the act of production (work becomes an external, forced activity), (3) alienation from one’s “species-being” (loss of creative human potential), and (4) alienation from other humans (social relations become market relations).

He then analyzed how capitalism transforms the labor process itself, with capitalists seeking control over every aspect of production. He wrote: “It is not the workman that employs the instruments of labor, but the instruments of labor that employ the workman.” He thus observed that the factory system subjected workers to machine rhythms and strict supervision, creating what he called the “real subordination of labor.” This represented a profound shift from earlier forms of work organization and laid the groundwork for later analyses of deskilling.

The Scientific Management Era through the 20th and Early 21st Centuries. In the early 20th century, Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “Principles of Scientific Management” (1911) (see Episode 1) ushered in a new way of using incentives to improve worker efficiency. His system aimed to transfer workers’ knowledge to management through finding the “one best way” to accomplish tasks, separation of planning from execution, rigorous selection and training of workers to perform specific tasks, and close supervision. These naturally aligned with the above-mentioned trends of deskilling. Moreover, he pursued elimination or removal of those workers deliberately working below their capacity and removed worker discretion. His famous pig iron loading experiments at Bethlehem Steel, where he claimed to transform “Schmidt” from a skilled laborer into a human machine carrying loads according to precise instructions, exemplified his approach. Scientific management spread rapidly through American and then global manufacturing, providing managers with a powerful toolkit for breaking down craft knowledge and controlling labor processes.

Despite the various attempts to re-humanize the workplace, scientific management principles remained commonplace, if not dominant, in many work contexts ever since. In more recent times, the implications of globalization on deskilling have also been substantial, as industries seek to maximize profit margins through cost-cutting strategies that often involve mechanization and the reduction of job complexity. For example, Bina (2019)discusses how the forces of globalization perpetuate conditions that favor deskilling, profoundly impacting labor across various global contexts. Similarly, Garni (2017) explored how agricultural sectors in the U.S. have employed deskilling tactics, wherein mechanization leads to a workforce that is increasingly dependent on technology, thereby decreasing traditional skills associated with farming.

The contemporary labor landscape has witnessed the disproportionate impact of deskilling on marginalized groups, such as migrant women, whose qualifications are often overlooked, resulting in downward mobility within labor markets (Saurombe & Zinatsa, 2023). This aspect raises critical questions regarding equity and recognition of skills in the globalization era, demonstrating how the dynamics of deskilling are not solely economic but also deeply social and cultural in nature.

Is there an antidote? This was Braverman’s goal — to start the conversation to help find one. His stated goal (and those of researchers who have followed) was to push managers toward conducive work environments where such deskilling was discouraged. Research indicates that such environments positively influence job satisfaction and, consequently, overall productivity. For instance, research continues to show that comfortable workplaces enhances employee motivation, which correlates with improved job quality and organizational performance (Sugma, 2022). Other scholars have found that well-structured work environments enhances employee performance, indicating that supportive settings can mitigate the effects of work-related stress (Purnadi et al., 2022). Also, the physical and psychological aspects of the work environment are crucial for creating conditions that employees perceive as safe and motivating, leading to increased job satisfaction (Sugiharjo et al., 2022). But competitive and other pressures stemming from the institutionalization of long-standing norms built on scientific management have been very difficult to overcome.


Important Theoretical Debates and Critiques in Work Degradation Studies

The study of work degradation has evolved from relatively straightforward debates about whether deskilling is occurring to much more nuanced analyses of how, where, when, and for whom work is being degraded or enhanced. Contemporary scholars increasingly recognize that work degradation processes are uneven and contradictory rather than uniform and predictable, worker responses to degradation attempts is often focused on shaping outcomes rather than outright rebellion against it, the very meaning of “skill” is itself contested, and degradation of work often connects with broader social patterns outside the workplace. Below are some of the debates in more detail.

Determinism vs. Contingency-Based Perspectives. Braverman’s original thesis presented a somewhat deterministic view of deskilling, suggesting that the logic of capitalism inevitably drives employers to fragment and control labor processes. Since then, contingent approaches have gained some momentum as critics argue that Braverman’s view underestimates the variety of management strategies and outcomes possible within capitalist economies. For example, Thompson (2024) continues to develop a nuanced labor process theory that acknowledges tendencies toward degradation while recognizing variations in how these manifest. Also, Newsome and Taylor (2017) studied warehousing and logistics and documented how algorithmic management intensifies control but also creates new tensions and resistance points that make outcomes contingent rather than determined.

Questions about the Meaning and Nature of Skill. What constitutes “skill”? Early deskilling theories used traditional craft work as an implicit benchmark, but this approach has been criticized for romanticizing certain forms of pre-industrial labor and neglecting other categories of skills. One such flashpoint regards gendered definitions of skill, such as Glucksmann’s (1995) “total social organization of labor” that examines how skill classifications reflect gendered power relations. For example, Phillips & Taylor (1980) pioneered feminist critiques of skill definitions, showing how women’s work was systematically defined as “unskilled” regardless of its complexity, while Messing (2000) details a long list of studies she conducted on the ergonomics of women’s so-called “unskilled work,” revealing the complex knowledge and physical techniques required in supposedly simple jobs like cleaning and food service.

Skill development and deskilling have also been found to be complex phenomena, rather than linear. For example, Green (2013) has developed sophisticated quantitative approaches to measuring skill changes, arguing against simple deskilling narratives by showing increases in some skill dimensions alongside decreases in others. Meanwhile, Vallas (1990) examines how skill definitions are socially constructed through organizational politics and professional closure strategies, showing how what counts as “skilled” is itself a contested outcome rather than an objective measure.

Technology’s Role. The debate in this area is straightforward — is technology inherently deskilling, or does it depend on how technologies are designed and implemented? Early labor process theorists often presented technology as a tool of management control, while others argue for technological neutrality or even upskilling effects.

On the control side, Noble (2017) is a historical work that established that technological choices in manufacturing often prioritized labor control over technical efficiency. Weil (2014) examining how digital technologies enable new forms of labor control through outsourcing and franchising. Zuboff (1989) introduced the concept of “surveillance capitalism,” showing how digital technologies create unprecedented opportunities for monitoring and controlling workers through data extraction and algorithmic management. We covered this work in Episode 96.

Emotional Labor and Aesthetic Labor. How should we understand the commercialization of feelings and appearance as forms of labor? Does the concept of emotional labor describe a new form of skill? Hochschild’s (1979) groundbreaking work on flight attendants introduced the concept of emotional labor becomes part and parcel of one’s job, and the social and psychological implications this has on one’s role as a producer of products or provider of services. In short, the appearance and behaviors that flight attendants, for example, exhibit toward others is an indelible part of the service of air transportation. This has been extended by Amy Wharton, who examines variations in how emotional labor is experienced across different occupational contexts.

A similar concept is aesthetic labor to analyze how workers’ appearances become commodified, such as the importance of one’s looks, dress, hygiene, and other factors relate to one’s job position and requirements. With it is the potential compulsion for body modification such as plastic surgery (Warhurst & Nickson, 2020). Related studies involve luxury service work, showing how emotional labor involves complex status negotiations and “consent to be governed” by wealthy clients, revealing new dimensions of skill and degradation (Sherman, 2007).

Professional Work and Knowledge Labor. The skills and competencies associated with professional and knowledge work is qualitatively different from industrial skills and those of other common vocations. The question is to what extent do professional and knowledge work occupations experience degradation similar to what happened in manual labor, or do their knowledge bases and occupational organizations provide greater resistance?

Magali Sarfatti Larson’s (1977) classic work on professionalization established how occupations create “social closure” to protect their knowledge and autonomy, which was furthered by Andrew Abbott’s (1989) system of professions that we covered in Episodes 67 and 109. This body of work shows how deskilling leads to deprofessionalization, which thus leaves professions prone to “attacks” from other professions or laicization, which is the growth of abilities for nonprofessionals to perform what was previously considered professional work.

These are being studied as a potential outcomes of deskilling efforts that attempt to routinize work that should require profession judgment and expert knowledge. Williams (1992) examines how gender shapes professional degradation, with her concept of the “glass escalator” revealing how the same processes affect men and women differently in feminized professions. Vallas (1990) has developed the concept of “knowledge in boxes” to describe how professional expertise is increasingly embedded in algorithms and expert systems that reduce physician and legal autonomy.

The richness of these debates demonstrates that while Braverman’s original insights remain powerful, the field has developed far more sophisticated theoretical and methodological tools for understanding the complex, ongoing transformations of work under contemporary capitalism. Rather than a single deskilling thesis, we now have a multidimensional framework for analyzing how control, autonomy, knowledge, dignity, and security in work are contested across diverse occupational and geographical contexts.


Contemporary Areas of Research

The contemporary study of work degradation and deskilling encompasses various areas of research addressing the complex dynamics that influence labor markets, job satisfaction, and productivity. Researchers are exploring the causes and consequences of work degradation, as well as developing strategies to mitigate its effects. This academic discourse is informed by changing organizational practices, the impact of technology, and the emerging socioeconomic contexts of labor. The following is but a sample list of research areas — feedback is welcome!

Technological Impact on Work Degradation. The potential impact of technological advancements on job roles and as enablers of deskilling is a very hot topic. As automation and artificial intelligence (AI) become increasingly prevalent in the workplace, scholars are concerned with how these changes can lead to or accelerate deskilling. For instance, one study examines how the implementation of AI can inadvertently deskill workers, with individuals potentially losing traditional skills as machines take over more complex tasks (Rafner et al., 2021). How can managers counteract these effects? Could other approaches such as combining human and machine capabilities in a synergistic manner help preserve and enhance worker skills rather than overshadowing them?

Strategies for Mitigation and Upskilling. What strategies that organizations can adopt may help to mitigate work degradation while also providing the desired efficiencies that the competitive commercial environments demand? Some scholars are inquiring into the design of systems with graceful degradation in mind, suggesting that organizations should develop structural frameworks that enable a gradual reduction in performance during disruptions, thus minimizing the negative impacts on employee engagement and morale (Edwards & Lee, 2018).

Is upskilling possible or feasible? Could organizations develop novel ways to invest in employee development and enhance their capabilities and adaptability in an ever-changing labor landscape? Ellingrud, Gardner, & Ruby (2025) made claims that organizations must upskill their labor force, but there might not be sufficient empirical evidence to convince managers of the importance of complying. What would a good upskilling environment look like in today’s environment?

Psychological Factors and Worker Well-being. The psychological effects of work degradation are another opportunity to further research. Cognitive fatigue is being linked to decreased job performance in military contexts (Morris et al., 2024). What technologies and models may help employees maximize their performance despite fatigue, promoting a work environment that values mental well-being?

Social Dynamics and Equity Considerations. Do the effects of deskilling work affect people differently, and may this contribute to new forms of inequity? Researchers are inquiries into how deskilling may disproportionately affect marginalized groups and therefore to what extent should actions be taken to preserve the skills of a diverse workforce (Saurombe & Zinatsa, 2023)? What interventions could be development to prevent unhelpful labor market stratification?

Policy Advocacy and Future Directions. Of course, the bottom line is what do governments and the private sector do about deskilling and degradation of work? What policy interventions and collaborative efforts between stakeholders, including government entities, educational institutions, and industries, can best safeguard and promote worker skills amid an evolving labor landscape? Sustainable practices should be implemented to ensure that technological and other advancements do not come at the expense of worker dignity and skill security (Lal, 2012).


Related Episodes from the Talking About Organizations Podcast

130: History and Philosophy of Science – Thomas Kuhn

A culmination of Kuhn’s earlier works on the philosophy and history of science, Scientific Revolutions challenges the notion that science progresses along a predictable or linear path where discoveries are made at readily identified and verifiable times and the academic community embraces these advancements largely as they come …

129: Socialization and Training – The Private SNAFU Video Series

For this year’s movie episode, we elected to take on a video series used during World War II to help socialize US Army rules and procedures among forces either deployed or getting ready to deploy. Private SNAFU was a series of black-and-white animated shorts of three to five minutes in length recounting various misadventures of the title character as he goes to war …

128: Meaningfulness of Work – Andrew Carton

We discuss Drew Carton’s 2018 article “’I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon’: How NASA leaders enhanced the meaningfulness of work by changing the meaning of work” from Administrative Science Quarterly that delves into the reality behind the myth of the highly motivated NASA janitor during the 1960s …

126: Labor and Monopoly Capital — Harry Braverman

In this month’s episode, we discuss Harry Braverman’s book Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century. Along with his criticism of how work had been systematically deskilled over time, he was also highly critical of many of the seminal authors and schools of thought that he felt enabled this shift. Among his targets were scientific management under Frederic Taylor, but also the human relations school, the Hawthorne Studies, Joan Woodward, and other seminal authors we have covered in this program. Hmm, what gives? Listen and find out …

119: Management & the Worker — Roethlisberger & Dickson

We return for another look at the Hawthorne Studies through Fritz Roethlisberger and William Dickson’s 1939 book Management and the Worker. The work chronicles five years of experiments that initially sought the optimal conditions for increased worker performance but evolved into an examination of the social controls that worker exercise over themselves for self-preservation against managerial decisions. It also includes an introspective look into the researchers themselves as they had to design new experiments to make sense of the surprising and contradictory findings. The book is incredibly detailed and laid the foundation for the development of the Human Relations tradition …

112: Hierarchies & Promotion – The “Peter Principle”

The diligent administrative assistant moves up to supervisor but fails. The assembly line worker is promoted to foreman but cannot do the job. A teacher earns a deputy principal position in a school but falls flat on their face. Why is that? Why does this seem to happen across organizations? In The Peter Principle, Lawrence J. Peter and Raymond Hull not only provides answers to these questions, they delve into all the possible implications. The Principle goes like this, “In a hierarchy, everyone rises to their level of incompetence.” How they derived this principle the subject of our conversation that …

111: Visible & Invisible Work – Susan Leigh Star

In this episode, we focus on the emerging discourse from the 1990s on how automated systems would potentially change the very meaning of work. The discussion is on a seminal work of Susan Leigh Star and co-author Anselm Strauss, “Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology of Visible and Invisible Work,” published in CSCW’s flagship journal, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, in 1999. The article focuses on the challenges and risks of automating work processes without due consideration of all the invisible work done in an organization that systems designers might overlook …

103: Bringing Work Back In — Barley & Kunda

In their 2001 Organization Science article “Bringing Work Back In,” Steven Barley and Gideon Kunda lamented how the study of work, its organization, and its performance shifted after the 1950s. Work was the center of attention among the classic era of organization studies beginning with Frederic Taylor, but afterward, the focus shifted to post-bureaucratic concepts such as boundaryless organizations and networks. Barley and Kunda argues that these new ideas are not grounded in rigorous studies of how people perform work in such new organizations …

101: The Motivation to Work — Frederick Herzberg

Frederick Herzberg’s “The Motivation to Work” presents the results of over 200 interviews with engineers and accountants working in the Pittsburgh area regarding what satisfied and dissatisfied them on the job. They would find that factors leading to satisfaction, such as achievement and performance, were very different than those leading to dissatisfaction, such as company policies or relationships with co-workers and managers. The result became known as Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Job Satisfaction, also known as the motivator-hygiene theory …

93: Approaches to the Study of Work — Classics AoM PDW LIVE

This year’s professional development workshop (PDW) on Classics of Organization and Management Theory explored key approaches to the study of work and was held at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Seattle, Washington in the U.S. It represents the fourth edition of a standing series showcasing the enduring relevance of early organizational research. Steve Barley, Gina Dokko, Ingrid Erickson, and Davide Nicolini presented central insights on research traditions related to the study of work and related topics such as careers and technological change. They also addressed various ways that these insights can shed light on the …

68: Globalization and Culture Clashes — “American Factory” (Documentary)

For this episode, we cover a documentary that presents a compelling picture about culture clashes in the workplace. American Factory is an important and powerful documentary, telling the story of cultural clashes and labor-management relations as a Chinese firm re-opened and re-purposed a close automotive plant in Ohio …

62: Consumerism & Meaning at Work — WALL-E

This is another episode where we look at organizations through the medium of film. WALL-E, a 2008 animated film from Pixar, is the story of a robot who at one time was part of a massive clean-up effort on Earth while all the humans left to live on cruise ships in space. In this episode, we talk about the setting and the story for clues about organizational behavior and management …

49: Engineered Culture and Normative Control – Gideon Kunda

Originally published in 1992, Gideon Kunda’s ethnographic study of a high-tech corporation altered the discourse on organizational culture. “Tech,” the firm being studied, was a firm on the rise and saw itself as a leader and ground breaker in the rapidly growing high-tech industries of the 1980s. But as the firm grew, it began indoctrinating its tried-and-true hard-work formula in aggressive and unhelpful ways …

36: The Human Capital Hoax – Employment in the Gig Economy

We step back from the classics and examine a contemporary work covering a timely topic – the negative effects of ‘Uberization’ and the gig economy on the economic and social fabric. The article is Peter Fleming’s “The human capital hoax: Work, debt, and insecurity in the era of uberization,” published in 2017 in the journal Organization Studies. In it, Fleming takes a classic approach towards economics and traces its ‘dark’ influence on contemporary dynamics …

35: The Managed Heart – Arlie Hochschild

The Managed Heart, originally published in 1983 by Dr. Arlie Hochschild, introduced the concept of emotional labour as a counterpart to the physical and mental labour performed in the scope of one’s duties. The importance of emotional labour is made clear in Dr. Hochschild’s descrption of flight attendants, who regardless of the dispositions of airline passengers, turbulence in the flight, or personal stress is required to act and behave in ways that minimize passenger anxiety and encourage them to fly with that airline again. Thus, the book explores the challenges of stress, protecting one’s personal identity and private life, differentiated …

20: High Reliability in Practice – USN Rear Admiral Tom Mercer

Based around a classic work by Weick and Roberts (1993) on Collective Mind in Organizations – where the authors observed and analyzed the way people on the deck of an aircraft carrier function in a collective manner – this episode brings you a discussion of how concepts of High Reliability (see also Episode 11) flesh out in real life! …

18: Gig Economy, Labor Relations and Algorithmic Management

We discuss an article by Sarah O’Connor exploring the impact of gig economy and algorithmic management on the employees – what their experience is like, how their work is structured, and whether being a gig economy employee is everything it panned out to be. Gig economy, as well as its benefits and limitations, has been subject to much debate in social policy and labour relations …

11: Culture and High Reliability – Bierly and Spender

We discuss Culture and High Reliability Organizing (HRO). While not universally known within management and organization studies, High Reliability is concerned with formal structure and process, as well as informal commitment, motivation and trust. HRO describes a subset of hazardous organizations that enjoy a high level of safety over long periods of time. What distinguishes types of high-risk systems is the source of risk, whether it is the technical or social factors that the system must control or whether the environment, itself, constantly changes …

9: Hawthorne Studies – Elton Mayo

The Hawthorne studies take their name from the Hawthorne works, a factory near Chicago which belonged to Western Electric. Even though these studies are traditionally solely associated with Mayo’s name, most of the experimental work was carried out by Fritz Roethlisberger (his graduate assistant) and William Dickson (head of the department of employee relations at Western Electric). The experiments took place between 1924 and 1932 and were commissioned because the company wanted to understand which was the optimal level of lighting to increase workers’ productivity. Mayo’s work “The Social problems of an Industrial Civilization” (1945) is the text we are reading for …

3: Theory of Human Motivation – Abraham Maslow

We discuss “A Theory of Human Motivation” by Abraham H. Maslow, one of the most famous psychology articles ever written. Originally published in 1943, it was in this landmark paper that Maslow presented his first detailed representation of Self-Actualization – the desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming – at the pinnacle of a hierarchy of human needs. What Maslow is most famous for, however, is the pyramid of human needs …

Related Resource Pages

Rack CA – Organizational Agility & Adaptability

Curated list of resources regarding matters of organizational agility and adaptability such as proactively addressing changes in the marketplace or in customer / client behaviors …

Rack CD – Digital Transformation and Future of Work

Curated list of resources regarding matters of digital transformation and technological change in the workplace such as AI, automation, gig economy, and innovation …

Rack CE – Employee Well-Being & Mental Health

Curated list of resources regarding matters of employee well-being and mental health, their definitions and meanings, various enablers and stressors to well-being, and the application and efficacies of interventions …

Rack CI – Inequality and Justice

Curated list of resources regarding the study of the presence and efforts to remove discrimination and systemic biases that deny basic human dignity and respect to individuals and foster more productive work climates …

Rack CL – Leadership in the 21st Century

Curated list of resources regarding the contemporary issues of leaders and leadership in the private and public sectors. Includes crisis leadership, ethical leadership, authenticity, and other concerns …

Rack CR — Resource Management

Curated list of resources regarding the effective and efficient use of resources in organizations — raw materials, people, finance, technologies, and information. Each type of resource is a research area on its own, but together they represent a broad range of challenging management decisions …

Rack CS – Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Curated list of resources regarding sustainability and corporate social responsibility such as sustainable business practices, responses to climate change, sociomateriality, and ethical considerations …

Rack CW – Meaningful Work

Curated list of resources regarding present-day attitudes toward work and work-life balance. Includes discussing traditional vs. contemporary work models, employee well-being, and member commitment to the organization …

References

Abbott, A. (1989). The system of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. University of Chicago Press.

Anthropic. (2025). What is the study of the degradation of work about in organization studies; Please explain in more detail the origins of study in the degradation of work and deskilling of labor; Please explain the theoretical debates and critiques in more detail, and which contemporary scholars are making significant contributions to each debate. Claude (February 2025 version) [Large Language Model].

Bina, C. (2019). Specter of globalization: Marx, Gramsci and disjointed time. World Review of Political Economy, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.10.4.0484

Casilli, A. A. (2024). ‘End-to-end’ethical AI. Taking into account the social and natural environments of automation. Artificial intelligence, labour and society, 83-92.

Edwards, T. E., & Lee, P. U. (2018). Designing graceful degradation into complex systems: The interaction between causes of degradation and the association with degradation prevention and recovery. In 2018 Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference (p. 3510).

Ellingrud, K., Gardner, N. & Ruby, R. (2025, May 13). The upskilling imperative: Required at scale for the future of work. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/the-upskilling-imperative-required-at-scale-for-the-future-of-work

Garni, A. (2017). Crafting mass dairy production: Immigration and community in rural America. Rural Sociology, 83(2), 244-269. https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12169

Glucksmann, Miriam A. 1995. Why “work?” Gender and the “total social organization of labour.” Gender, Work & Organization, 2(2): 63–75.

Hochschild, A. R. (2012/1979). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, University of California Press.

Lal, R. (2012). Climate change and soil degradation mitigation by sustainable management of soils and other natural resources. Agricultural Research, 1(3), 199-212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-012-0031-9

Larson, M. S. (1977). The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. University of California Press.

Lee, M. K., Nigam, I., Zhang, A., Afriyie, J., Qin, Z., & Gao, S. (2021, July). Participatory algorithmic management: Elicitation methods for worker well-being models. In Proceedings of the 2021 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (pp. 715-726).

Messing, K. (2000). Ergonomic studies provide information about occupational exposure differences between women and men. Journal-American Medical Womens Association, 55(2), 72-75.

MacKenzie, D., & Wajcman, J. (1999). The social shaping of technology. Open University.

Morris, M., Swan, G., & Veksler, B. (2024). Individual differences in fatigued performance. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 68(1), 1125-1130. https://doi.org/10.1177/10711813241260337

Newsome, K., Taylor, P., Bair, J., & Rainnie, A. (Eds.). (2017). Putting labour in its place: Labour process analysis and global value chains. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Noble, D. (2017). Forces of production: A social history of industrial automation. Routledge.

Phillips, A., & Taylor, B. (1980). Sex and skill: notes towards a feminist economics. Feminist review6(1), 79-88.

Posada, J. (2023). Platform Authority and Data Quality: Who Decides What Counts in Data Production for Artificial Intelligence. Technical Report. Berggruen Institute and Global Affairs Canada.

Purnadi, P., Anggita, H., Aryoko, Y., & Putri, N. (2022). Work discipline, competency, and work environment: its effect on employee’s performance. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Business, Accounting, and Economics, ICBAE 2022, 10-11 August 2022, Purwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.10-8-2022.2320821

Rafner, J., Dellermann, D., Hjorth, A., Verasztó, D., Kampf, C., Mackay, W., … & Sherson, J. (2021). Deskilling, upskilling, and reskilling: a case for hybrid intelligence. Morals & Machines, 1(2), 24-39. https://doi.org/10.5771/2747-5174-2021-2-24

Saurombe, M. and Zinatsa, F. (2023). Governing policies and factors affecting the labor market integration of female accompanying spouses. Frontiers in Sociology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2022.1084390

Scite. (2024). What is the study of the degradation of work about in organization studies; Please explain in more detail the origins of study in the degradation of work and deskilling of labor; WWhat are contemporary areas of research into the degradation of work and approaches to mitigate or prevent it. Scite (April 2024 version) [Large Language Model].Sherman, R. (2007). Class acts: Service and inequality in luxury hotels. Univ of California Press.

Smith, A. (1937). The wealth of nations [1776] (Vol. 11937). na.

Sugiharjo, R., Nugraha, R., Purbasari, R., Parashakti, R., Paijan, P., & Oktaviar, C. (2022). The Effect of Leadership Style and Work Environment on the Performance of Stationary Pump Operators in the Water Resources Office of West Jakarta City Administration. International Journal of Advances in Social and Economics2(3).

Sugma, S. (2022). The effect of work behavior and work environment on employee performance. At-Tadbir Jurnal Ilmiah Manajemen, 6(2), 169. https://doi.org/10.31602/atd.v6i2.7150

Thompson, P. (2024) Doing labour process theory after Braverman, Work in the Global Economy, 4(2): 139–144, DOI: 10.1332/27324176Y2024D000000028

Vallas, S. P. (1990). The concept of skill: A critical review. Work and Occupations17(4), 379-398.

Wajcman, J. (2008). Life in the fast lane? Towards a sociology of technology and time. The British journal of sociology59(1), 59-77.

Warhurst, C. & Nickson, D. (2020). Aesthetic labor. Sage.

Weil, D. (2014). The fissured workplace: Why work became so bad for so many and what can be done to improve it. In The fissured workplace. Harvard University Press.

Wharton, A. S. (1999). The psychosocial consequences of emotional labor. The annals of the american academy of political and social science561(1), 158-176.

Williams, C. L. (1992). The glass escalator: Hidden advantages for men in the “female” professions. Social problems39(3), 253-267.

The inclusion of external links is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute endorsement by TAOP or any of its members.


Jump to: Importance | Foundational Works | Research Areas | Curated List of Articles | TAOP Resources | References

Rack CW (Meaning of Work): Degradation of Work (CW.D) | Remote and Hybrid Work Models | Occupations, Professions, and Work

Aisle C (Topics and Issues): Agility and Adaptability (CA) | Digital Technologies (CD) | Employee Well-Being (CE) | Inequality & Justice (CI) | 21st Century Leadership (CL) | Resource Management (CR) | Sustainability (CS) | Meaningful Work (CW)