ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the changing role of the clerk in industry and the nature of the mechanisation that is affecting his job. It provides some background material against which survey material. The chapter contains a short historical account of social changes in the role and status of the clerk that are likely to account for some of his day attitudes. It provides a brief description of office mechanisation and what it involves, and it describes some of the processes and problems of social change that are likely to occur once extensive mechanisation is introduced. The male clerk appears more and more to be found in managerial posts and in clerical jobs requiring a relatively high degree of skill and initiative. A likely accelerating factor is the increasing number of clerks coming from manual backgrounds, with fathers who already are in trade unions themselves.
