Shoshana Zuboff suggests that the introduction of “smart machines” into businesses is blurring the distinctions between managers and workers. Managers are no longer the “thinkers” while the workers are consigned to the “doing.” Rather, out of necessity the workers now become managers of information, and as a result, they considerably augment their power.
Predictor: Gergen, Kenneth J.
Prediction, in context:The 1997 book “Computers, Ethics, and Society,” edited by M. David Ermann, Mary B. Williams and Michele S. Shauf, carries an excerpt of “The Saturated Self,” a 1991 book by Kenneth J. Gergen. Gergen quotes Shoshana Suboff of the Havard Business School, writing: ”Many organizations are now installing electonic-mail systems, which enable employees to carry out their business with each other by computer terminals rather than by traditional, face-to-face means. Researchers find that employee relations have subtly changed as a result. Status differences begin to crumble as lower-ranking employees feel freer to express their feelings and question their superiors electronically than in person. Harvard Business School’s Shoshana Zuboff suggests that the introduction of ‘smart machines’ into businesses is blurring the distinctions between managers and workers. Managers are no longer the ‘thinkers’ while the workers are consigned to the ‘doing.’ Rather, out of necessity the workers now become managers of information, and as a result, they considerably augment their power.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Relationships
Name of publication: Computers, Ethics, and Society (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Social Relations and Personal Identity in a Computerized Society
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 141
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne