ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how work is designed and explains the traditional theories and assumptions on which these designs are based. Human resource management is thus a key asset in competitive strategy for the 1990s, and a number of companies have translated the concern into effective action. Contemporary interest in work organization rests not on operational and moral concerns but on technological and strategic problems. Management attention is focused on how to achieve speed and flexibility of response to changing markets, how to ensure effective use of sophisticated and expensive technologies, how to meet rising customer expectations of quality, reliability, and delivery. The evidence exposes issues in the management of large scale, long-term technical and organizational change not raised by conventional socio-technical systems theory, but consistent with, for example, Andrew Pettigrew’s approach which emphasizes the importance of the context and timing of change as well as the content.
