Читать книгу Changing Contours of Work - Stephen Sweet - Страница 29

The fact that the new economy is characterized by a new mix of industries has led some to conclude that it requires a new set of skills from the workforce. According to this argument, the traditional low-skill work characteristic of the industrial economy is being automated out of existence, while the new economy demands a workforce with “soft skills” needed for successful social interaction in service sector jobs. It also demands a more highly educated workforce, as the emergent “knowledge economy” relies heavily on highly trained workers with substantial quantities of technical and intellectual skills. Some argue that, as these new skills have supplanted manual skills, the trend toward work simplification also has been altered—even reversed. This is because the predictable, carefully designed, strictly managed, routine jobs typical of mass production might be difficult to transfer to activities that require face-to-face interaction or sophisticated knowledge and problem-solving skills. Thus, the new workforce will have to be more highly educated and able to work independently, outside the strict controls imposed on routine manufacturing work. Let us examine some of these “new” skills to determine whether the claims being made about them can be supported.