Skill quotes
From Motley Bytes Wiki
Contents
- 1 American_Mottos
- 2 Herbert_George_Andrewartha
- 3 Robert_Boyle
- 4 Burke and Bailey
- 5 Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
- 6 Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra
- 7 Thomas_Gold
- 8 Robert_Heinlein
- 9 Daniel_Kahneman
- 10 David_E_Nye
- 11 Parkinson_and_Margulieux
- 12 Alfred_Russel_Wallace
- 13 Gerald_Weinberg
- 14 Shoshana_Zuboff
- 14.1 Skill and Effort
- 14.2 Frederick Taylor
- 14.3 Know-How
- 14.4 Deskilling
- 14.5 Education
- 14.6 Information and Automating
- 14.7 Automation and Labor
- 14.8 Manager Panic
- 14.9 Computer Dependency
- 14.10 Technology Management
- 14.11 Management Circles Around Data
- 14.12 Breed of American Worker
- 14.13 Pay and Promotion
- 15 See Also
American_Mottos
Willing Hearts Skillful Hands
“With willing hearts and skillful hands, the difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a bit longer.”
- Source: Inscription on the memorial to the Seabees (U.S. Naval Construction Battalions), between Memorial Bridge and Arlington Cemetery, dedicated 1974. Also motto of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, according to The Home Book of American Quotations, ed. Bruce Bohle, p. 35 (1967), which says that other branches of the service also used this slogan. Newsweek, March 8, 1943, p. 34, attributes this “cocky slogan” to the Army Air Forces. A higher comparative, “The impossible we do at once; the miraculous takes a little longer,” was said to be the motto of the Army Service Forces (The New York Times, November 4, 1945, pp. 2E, 6E.) This echoes a remark attributed to Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, Louis XVI’s minister of finance. Marie Antoinette asked him something in a tone that brooked no refusal, adding that perhaps it would be difficult. He replied, “If it is only difficult, it is done; if it is impossible, we shall see.” (J. F. Michaud, Biographie Universelle, vol. 6, p. 427.)
- See Also:
- Keywords: Willing_quotes Heart_quotes Skill_quotes Hand_quotes Difficulty_quotes Impossibility_quotes Long_quotes
Herbert_George_Andrewartha
Model Making
“Model-making, the imaginative and logical steps which precede the experiment, may be judged the most valuable part of the scientific method because skill and insight in these matters are rare. Without them, we do not know what experiment to do. But it is the experiment which provides the raw material for scientific theory. Scientific theory cannot be built directly from the conclusions of conceptual models.”
- Source: Herbert George Andrewartha, Introduction to the Study of Animal Population (1961), 181.
- Keywords: Model_quotes Experiment_quotes Creativity_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Theory_quotes Make_quotes Imagination_quotes Logic_quotes Valuable_quotes Skill_quotes Insight_quotes Rare_quotes Knowledge_quotes Provide_quotes Raw_quotes Material_quotes Science_quotes Direct_quotes Conclusion_quotes Conceptual_quotes
Robert_Boyle
Good Hypothesis
“The Requisites of a good Hypothesis are: : That It be Intelligible. : That It neither Assume nor Suppose anything Impossible, unintelligible, or demonstrably False. : That It be consistent with Itself. : That It be lit and sufficient to Explicate the Phaenomena, especially the chief. : That It be, at least, consistent, with the rest of the Phaenomena It particularly relates to, and do not contradict any other known Phaenomena of nature, or manifest Physical Truth. The Qualities and Conditions of an Excellent Hypothesis are: : That It be not Precarious, but have sufficient Grounds In the nature of the Thing Itself or at least be well recommended by some Auxiliary Proofs. : That It be the Simplest of all the good ones we are able to frame, at least containing nothing that is superfluous or Impertinent. : That It be the only Hypothesis that can Explicate the Phaenomena; or at least, that do's Explicate them so well. : That it enable a skillful naturalist to foretell future Phaenomena by the Congruity or Incongruity to it; and especially the event of such experiments as are aptly devised to examine It, as Things that ought, or ought not, to be consequent to It.”
- Source: Robert Boyle, Boyle Papers, 37. Quoted In Barbara Kaplan (ed.), Divulging of Useful Truths in Physick: The Medical Agenda of Robert Boyle (1993), 50.
- Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Communication_quotes Obfuscation_quotes Impossibility_quotes Falsification_quotes Consistency_quotes Explanation_quotes Nature_quotes Truth_quotes Contradiction_quotes Proof_quotes Simplicity_quotes Alternative_quotes Congruity_quotes Incongruity_quotes Experiment_quotes Prediction_quotes Induction_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Good_quotes Requisite_quotes Intelligent_quotes Assumption_quotes Suppose_quotes Unintelligent_quotes Demonstrate_quotes False_quotes Self_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Chief_quotes Physical_quotes Quality_quotes Condition_quotes Excellent_quotes Precarious_quotes Sufficient_quotes Ground_quotes Auxiliary_quotes Frame_quotes Superfluous_quotes Impertinent_quotes Enable_quotes Skill_quotes Foretell_quotes Future_quotes Event_quotes Devise_quotes Examine_quotes Consequence_quotes
Burke and Bailey
Recruiting Soft Skills
“Managers actually spend the vast majority of their recruitment time assessing a candidate’s soft skills.”
- Source: An academic paper. Entitled Becoming an Adaptive Expert. Written by Quinn Burke; Cinamon Sunrise Bailey. Date published 2020. Published in: Communications of the ACM. Language: en. DOI: 10.1145/3366171.
- Keywords: Manager_quotes Management_quotes Recruiting_quotes Skill_quotes
Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
Daydreaming
“One of the simplest ways to use the mind is daydreaming: playing out some sequence of events as mental images. But even this apparently easy way to order thought is beyond the range of many people... Daydreaming not only helps create emotional order by compensating in imagination for unpleasant reality — as when a person can reduce frustration and aggression against someone who has caused injury by visualizing a situation in which the aggressor is punished — but it also allows children and adults to rehearse imaginary situations so that the best strategy for confronting them may be adopted, alternative options considered, unanticipated consequences discovered — all results that help increase the complexity of consciousness. And, of course, when used with skill, daydreaming can be very enjoyable.”
- Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “The Flow of Thought”, page 120. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
- Keywords: Simple_quotes Way_quotes Mind_quotes Daydreaming_quotes Play_quotes Event_quotes Mental_quotes Image_quotes Order_quotes Thought_quotes Beyond_quotes Range_quotes People_quotes Help_quotes Emotion_quotes Compensate_quotes Imagination_quotes Unpleasant_quotes Reality_quotes Reduce_quotes Person_quotes Frustration_quotes Aggression_quotes Cause_quotes Injury_quotes Visualize_quotes Situation_quotes Punish_quotes Allow_quotes Reherse_quotes Best_quotes Strategy_quotes Optimization_quotes Confront_quotes Adopt_quotes Alternative_quotes Unanticipated_quotes Consequence_quotes Discover_quotes Result_quotes Increase_quotes Complexity_quotes Consciousness_quotes Use_quotes Skill_quotes Enjoyable_quotes
Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra
Effective Reasoning
“The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that don't master them, the software crisis will remain with us and will be considered an incurable disease. And you know what incurable diseases do: they invite the quacks and charlatans in, who in this case take the form of Software Engineering gurus.”
- Source: Dijkstra (2000). Answers to questions from students of Software Engineering (EWD 1305). Retrieved 2022 from http://www.cs.utexas.edu
/users /EWD /transcriptions /EWD13xx /EWD1305.html.
Thomas_Gold
Knowledge Rules
“In no subject is there a rule, compliance with which will lead to new knowledge or better understanding. Skilful observations, ingenious ideas, cunning tricks, daring suggestions, laborious calculations, all these may be required to advance a subject. Occasionally the conventional approach in a subject has to be studiously followed; on other occasions it has to be ruthlessly disregarded. Which of these methods, or in what order they should be employed is generally unpredictable. Analogies drawn from the history of science are frequently claimed to be a guide; but, as with forecasting the next game of roulette, the existence of the best analogy to the present is no guide whatever to the future. The most valuable lesson to be learnt from the history of scientific progress is how misleading and strangling such analogies have been, and how success has come to those who ignored them.”
- Source: Thomas Gold, 'Cosmology', in Arthur Beer (ed.), Vistas in Astronomy (1956), Vol. 2, 1722.
- Keywords: Rule_quotes Subject_quotes Compliance_quotes Knowledge_quotes Understanding_quotes Skill_quotes Observation_quotes Idea_quotes Trick_quotes Courage_quotes Labor_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Creativity_quotes Prediction_quotes Analogy_quotes History_quotes Science_quotes Game_quotes Success_quotes Ingenious_quotes Cunning_quotes Daring_quotes Suggest_quotes Calculation_quotes Conventional_quotes Approach_quotes Order_quotes Follow_quotes Ruthless_quotes Disregard_quotes Method_quotes Unpredictable_quotes Guide_quotes Forecast_quotes Roulette_quotes Existence_quotes Present_quotes Future_quotes Value_quotes Learn_quotes Progress_quotes Mislead_quotes Strangle_quotes Ignore_quotes
Robert_Heinlein
Reason
“Reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men. The little man has no way to judge and the shoddy lies are packaged more attractively. There is no way to offer color to a colorblind man, nor is there any way for us to give the man of imperfect brain the canny skill to distinguish a lie from a truth.”
- Source: Written by Robert A. Heinlein in the magazine series “Gulf” published in 1949-11 and 1949-12 issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Page 62. Character: Dr. Baldwin. Online at https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AST.htm retrieved 2024-05-05.
- Keywords: Reason_quotes Poor_quotes Propaganda_quotes Oppose_quotes Yammer_quotes Unceasing_quotes Lie_quotes Shrewd_quotes Evil_quotes Self-serving_quotes Little_quotes Man_quotes Way_quotes Judge_quotes Shoddy_quotes Package_quotes Attractive_quotes Offer_quotes Color_quotes Colorblind_quotes Give_quotes Imperfect_quotes Brain_quotes Canny_quotes Skill_quotes Distinguish_quotes Truth_quotes
Daniel_Kahneman
Who Can We Trust
“We often interact with professionals who exercise their judgment with evident confidence, sometimes priding themselves on the power of their intuition. In a world rife with illusions of validity and skill, can we trust them? How do we distinguish the justified confidence of experts from the sincere overconfidence of professionals who do not know they are out of their depth? We can believe an expert who admits uncertainty but cannot take expressions of high confidence at face value. As I first learned on the obstacle field, people come up with coherent stories and confident predictions even when they know little or nothing. Overconfidence arises because people are often blind to their own blindness.”
- Source: "Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence". New York Times. October 19, 2011.
- Keywords: Interaction_quotes Professional_quotes Exercise_quotes Judgment_quotes Confidence_quotes Pride_quotes Power_quotes Intuition_quotes World_quotes Illusion_quotes Validity_quotes Skill_quotes Trust_quotes Distinguish_quotes Justification_quotes Expert_quotes Sincerity_quotes Depth_quotes Belief_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Expression_quotes Face_quotes Value_quotes Obstacle_quotes Coherence_quotes Story_quotes Prediction_quotes Knowledge_quotes Overconfidence_quotes Blind_quotes Bias_quotes
David_E_Nye
Worker Control Obsolete
“Highly computerized corporations simply do not attempt to separate information from skill, nor do they find it profitable to control workers in the same ways as before. Such practices and the kind of alienation they involved, belong to a previous epoch.”
- Source: A book. Written by David E. Nye. Entitled 'Narratives and Spaces'. Published in 1997 by Univerity of Exeter Press, Exeter, UK. Hardback ISBN 0-85989-555-6. Paperback ISBN 0-85989-556-4. Chapter 10, page 171.
Parkinson_and_Margulieux
Spatial Skills
“Higher spatial reasoning skills universally correlate with better STEM [Science Technology Engineering Mathematics] performance and achievement... This correlation is particularly interesting because spatial skills can be trained, and spatial skills training globally improves STEM performance and achievement.”
- Source: From the journal article entitled “Improving CS Performance by Developing Spatial Skills”, in Communications of the ACM, volume 68, number 1, 2025-01. DOI:10.1145/3680409.
Alfred_Russel_Wallace
Truth Proof
“There is no more convincing proof of the truth of a comprehensive theory than its power of absorbing and finding a place for new facts, and its capability of interpreting phenomena which had been previously looked upon as unaccountable anomalies. It is thus that the law of universal gravitation and the undulatory theory of light have become established and universally accepted by men of science. Fact after fact has been brought forward as being apparently inconsistent with them, and one after another these very facts have been shown to be the consequences of the laws they were at first supposed to disprove. A false theory will never stand this test. Advancing knowledge brings to light whole groups of facts which it cannot deal with, and its advocates steadily decrease in numbers, notwithstanding the ability and scientific skill with which it may have been supported.”
- Source: Alfred Russel Wallace, From a review of four books on the subject 'Mimicry, and Other Protective Resemblances Among Animals', in The Westminster Review (Jul 1867), 88, 1. Wallace is identified as the author within the article as reprinted in William Beebe, The Book of Naturalists: An Anthology of the Best Natural History (1988), 108.
- Keywords: Convince_quotes Proof_quotes Truth_quotes Comprehension_quotes Theory_quotes Power_quotes Absorb_quotes Find_quotes Place_quotes Fact_quotes Capability_quotes Interpretation_quotes Phenomena_quotes Unaccount_quotes Anomalies_quotes Law_quotes Universal_quotes Gravity_quotes Undulate_quotes Light_quotes Establish_quotes Acceptance_quotes Man_quotes Science_quotes Inconsistent_quotes Consequence_quotes Disproof_quotes False_quotes Stand_quotes Testing_quotes Advance_quotes Knowledge_quotes Group_quotes Deal_quotes Advocate_quotes Decrease_quotes Number_quotes Ability_quotes Skill_quotes Support_quotes Apparent_quotes Suppose_quotes
Gerald_Weinberg
Technical Leaders
“Leadership, in the sense that social scientists use it, means the ability to influence people. Programmers, being people who tend to value creative work and professional competence, tend to put their stock in people whom they perceive to be good at the things they do. Thus, it is easier to exert leadership over — to influence — programmers by being a soft-spoken programming wizard than by being the world's fastest-talking salesman. When nonprogramming leaders are brought in to be in charge of programming teams, trouble usually brews unless the appointed leader explicitly and implicitly recognizes his incapacity on technical matters. The very worst he can do — and this goes also for a former programmer who has lost touch with the field — is to try to match programming wits with the other members of the team. Although a team might come to respect a leader who openly admitted his programming inexperience, they could only come to ridicule one whose pretense at knowledge was revealed to be a sham.”
- Source: Chapter 5. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
- Keywords: Technology_quotes Leadership_quotes Society_quotes Science_quotes Sociology_quotes Ability_quotes Influence_quotes People_quotes Creativity_quotes Professional_quotes Competence_quotes Trust_quotes Good_quotes Skill_quotes Wizard_quotes Programming_quotes Fast_quotes Talking_quotes Salesman_quotes Humility_quotes Respect_quotes Team_quotes Experience_quotes Ridicule_quotes Pretense_quotes Knowledge_quotes Revealing_quotes Sham_quotes Programmer_quotes Stock_quotes Perceive_quotes Soft_quotes Spoken_quotes World_quotes Nonprogramming_quotes Brought_quotes Charge_quotes Trouble_quotes Brew_quotes Appoint_quotes Explicitly_quotes Implicitly_quotes Recognize_quotes Incapacity_quotes Worse_quotes Former_quotes Lost_quotes Touch_quotes Field_quotes Try_quotes Match_quotes Wit_quotes Member_quotes Admit_quotes Inexperience_quotes
Management Deskilling
“Even though the nth-level manager may have originally been a programmer, which is rare enough, he has almost certainly lost any programming ability by the time he reaches these heights. Given the rapid change of programming techniques and hardware, the higher-level manager becomes obsolete even if he retains the skills he originally had and keeps them sharply honed, for those languages and those machines are no longer in use. In a small survey of working programmers, only 15 percent of the first-line managers were thought to be as skillful as the programmers themselves, and none of the higher-level managers.”
- Source: Chapter 6. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
- Keywords: Manager_quotes Level_quotes Programmer_quotes Deskill_quotes Skill_quotes Ability_quotes Technology_quotes Hardware_quotes Language_quotes Machine_quotes Survey_quotes Originally_quotes Rare_quotes Certainly_quotes Time_quotes Lost_quotes Reach_quotes Height_quotes Rapid_quotes Change_quotes Programming_quotes Technique_quotes Higher_quotes Obsolete_quotes Retain_quotes Keep_quotes Hone_quotes Longer_quotes Use_quotes Small_quotes Working_quotes Line_quotes First_quotes Thought_quotes
Shoshana_Zuboff
Skill and Effort
“These twin functions of the body -- as a source of skill and as a source of efforts -- complicated the way in which employers confronted the problems of labor discipline and the speed with which they invested in labor-saving technology, just as they complicated workers' responses to that technology.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 36. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Body_quotes Skill_quotes Effort_quotes Employment_quotes Labor_quotes Technology_quotes Worker_quotes Work_quotes Automation_quotes Twin_quotes Function_quotes Source_quotes Complicated_quotes Way_quotes Problem_quotes Confront_quotes Discipline_quotes Speed_quotes Invest_quotes Response_quotes
Frederick Taylor
“The man who emerged as the chief symbol of the rational approach to management was Frederick Taylor. Though much has been written on Taylor and the philosophy and methods of scientific management, it is worth highlighting a few central themes for three reasons. First, Taylorism explicitly treats the worker's body in its two dimensions -- as a source of effort and as a source of skill. Second, workers' responses to Taylorism reveal the ambivalence that this dual role of the body can create, as it did among the bleach plant operators or the nineteenth-century glassmakers. Third, the logic that motivated the early purveyors and adapters of scientific management has continued to dominate the course of automation in the twentieth-century workplace. As will be argued later, it is a logic that must undergo a fundamental reevaluation as information technology is widely adapted to productive activity.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 41. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Scientific_Management_quotes Effort_quotes Skill_quotes Ambivalence_quotes Automation_quotes Information_Technology_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Workplace_quotes Taylor(topic)_quotes Man_quotes Emerge_quotes Chief_quotes Symbol_quotes Rational_quotes Approach_quotes Management_quotes Philosophy_quotes Method_quotes Central_quotes Theme_quotes Reason_quotes Treat_quotes Worker_quotes Body_quotes Dimension_quotes Source_quotes Response_quotes Reveal_quotes Dual_quotes Role_quotes Create_quotes Bleach_quotes Plant_quotes Operator_quotes Glassmaker_quotes Logic_quotes Motivation_quotes Purveyor_quotes Adapter_quotes Dominate_quotes Course_quotes Fundamental_quotes Reevaluation_quotes Productive_quotes Activity_quotes
Know-How
“The agenda for scientific management was to increase productivity by streamlining and rationalizing factory operation from cost accounting and supervision to the dullest job on the shop floor. Efficiency was the mania, and to achieve efficiency, it would be necessary to penetrate the labor process and force it to yield up its secrets. In order that effort be rationalized, the worker's skills had to be made explicit. In many cases, workers' perceptions of their own interests prevented them from articulating their know-how, but there was yet another involuntary barrier. These skills did not easily yield themselves to explication; they were embedded in the ways of the body, in the knacks and know-how of the craftworker.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 42. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Knowledge_quotes Requirements_quotes Agenda_quotes Scientific_Management_quotes Productivity_quotes Reason_quotes Efficiency_quotes Drudgery_quotes Mania_quotes Achievement_quotes Labor_quotes Process_quotes Secret_quotes Rational_quotes Worker_quotes Skill_quotes Explicit_quotes Perception_quotes Interest_quotes Articulation_quotes Involuntary_quotes Barrier_quotes Embedded_quotes Body_quotes Subconscious_quotes Mind_quotes Craft_quotes Taylorism_quotes Science_quotes Management_quotes Increase_quotes Streamline_quotes Factory_quotes Operation_quotes Cost_quotes Accounting_quotes Supervision_quotes Dull_quotes Job_quotes Shop_quotes Floor_quotes Penetrate_quotes Force_quotes Yield_quotes Case_quotes Prevent_quotes Know-how_quotes Explication_quotes Knack_quotes Craftworker_quotes
Deskilling
“While it is true that computer-based automation continues to displace the human body and its know-how (a process that has come to be known as deskilling), the informating power of the technology simultaneously creates pressure for a profound reskilling.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 57. ISBN:0465032125.
Education
“The cognitive demands of intellective skill suggest that computerization should be accompanied by a serious educational effort, if the information capacity of the technology is to be exploited.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 217. ISBN:0465032125.
Information and Automating
“To the extent that technology is used only to intensify the automaticity of work, it can reduce skill levels and dampen the urge toward more participatory and decentralized forms of management... However, this approach cannot exploit the unique power of an informating technology. In contrast, an approach to technology deployment that emphasizes its informating capacity uses technology to do far more than routinize, fragment, or eliminate jobs. It uses the new technology to increase the intellectual content of work at virtually every organizational level, as the ability to decipher explicit information and make decisions informed by that understanding becomes broadly distributed among organizational members.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 243. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Informating_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Automation_quotes Skill_quotes Deskilling_quotes Participation_quotes Decentralization_quotes Management_quotes Work_quotes Intensity_quotes Exploitation_quotes Elimination_quotes Employment_quotes Deployment_quotes Job_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Organization_quotes Decision_quotes Explicit_quotes Understanding_quotes Comprehension_quotes Distributed_quotes Empowerment_quotes Extent_quotes Intensify_quotes Reduce_quotes Dampen_quotes Urge_quotes Form_quotes Approach_quotes Exploit_quotes Unique_quotes Power_quotes Informate_quotes Emphasizes_quotes Capacity_quotes Far_quotes Routine_quotes Fragment_quotes Eliminate_quotes Increase_quotes Level_quotes Ability_quotes Decipher_quotes Broad_quotes Member_quotes
Automation and Labor
“Perhaps the most compelling reality that drives managers to a narrowly conceived emphasis on automation is the web of economic logic in which they must operate. Frequently, new expenditures for technology can be justified only as a capital substitution for labor. It is often assumed that whatever was provided by the human contributor can be transferred to the automatic functioning of the machine system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 248. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Management_quotes Automation_quotes Labor_quotes Economics_quotes Logic_quotes Technology_quotes Expenditure_quotes Cost_quotes Justification_quotes Capital_quotes Skill_quotes Knowledge_quotes Compelling_quotes Reality_quotes Drive_quotes Narrow_quotes Conceive_quotes Emphasis_quotes Web_quotes Operate_quotes Frequent_quotes Substitution_quotes Human_quotes Contributor_quotes Transfer_quotes Function_quotes Machine_quotes System_quotes
Manager Panic
“People at every organizational level -- managers, engineers, and operators -- each spent a good deal of time speculating on the sources of this dynamic and its ultimate consequences. One top manager maintained that the core of the problem was the lack of an alternative to the traditional managerial function. ‘The problem is that managers don't have skills and knowledge or a vision of their new role. They are asking, What is going to happen to me? And so they are in a panic.'”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 251. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: People_quotes Organization_quotes Hierarchy_quotes Consequence_quotes Tradition_quotes Skill_quotes Knowledge_quotes Vision_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Panic_quotes Level_quotes Manager_quotes Engineer_quotes Operator_quotes Time_quotes Speculate_quotes Source_quotes Dynamic_quotes Ultimate_quotes Top_quotes Maintain_quotes Core_quotes Problem_quotes Lack_quotes Alternative_quotes Function_quotes Role_quotes Happen_quotes
Computer Dependency
“As managers use computerization to escape their dependency on workers' unique skills, both managers and workers alike become more dependent upon the computer system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 269. ISBN:0465032125.
Technology Management
“Even where control or deskilling has been the intent of managerial choices with respect to new information technology, managers themselves are also captive to a wide range of impulses and pressures. Only rarely is there a grand design concocted by an elite group ruthlessly grinding its way toward the fulfillment of some special and secret plan. Instead, there is a concentration of forces and consequences, which in turn develop their own momentum. Sometimes these lines of force run in predictably straight paths. At other times, they twist and spiral, turn corners, and flow to their opposite. Activities that seem to represent choices are often inert reproductions of accepted practice.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 389. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Control_quotes Deskilling_quotes Skill_quotes Management_quotes Choice_quotes Information_quotes Technology_quotes Impulse_quotes Pressure_quotes Design_quotes Elite_quotes Ruthlessness_quotes Secret_quotes Plan_quotes Concentration_quotes Force_quotes Consequence_quotes Momentum_quotes Prediction_quotes Activity_quotes Reproduction_quotes Practice_quotes Inert_quotes Intent_quotes Concoct_quotes Group_quotes Grind_quotes Special_quotes Straight_quotes Path_quotes Twist_quotes Spiral_quotes Corner_quotes Turn_quotes Flow_quotes Opposite_quotes Represent_quotes Accept_quotes
Management Circles Around Data
“As the intellective skill base becomes the organization's most precious resource, managerial roles must function to enhance its quality. Members can be thought of as being arrayed in concentric circles around a central core, which is the electronic data base.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 396. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: Intellectualism_quotes Skill_quotes Circle_quotes Organization_quotes Resource_quotes Management_quotes Quality_quotes Database_quotes Data_quotes Base_quotes Precious_quotes Role_quotes Function_quotes Enhance_quotes Member_quotes Concentric_quotes Central_quotes Core_quotes Electronic_quotes
Breed of American Worker
“There is a breed of American worker who cherishes the autonomy and sense of self-control afforded by his or her skills and protected by the union contract. When these workers contemplate the prospect of the socially integrated high-technology workplace, they feel despair. They anticipate a loss of their unique identities, of freedom and autonomy, and of well-defined rights and responsibilities. They fear that without the traditional sources of protection provided by their job descriptions and their contract, they will become prey to every capricious whim of their superiors. They understand that the managers' world requires the body as a political instrument for self-presentation and influence, but they know that these are talents they have not developed and toward which they feel more than a little distaste.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 404. ISBN:0465032125.
- Keywords: America_quotes Worker_quotes Autonomy_quotes Self_quotes Control_quotes Skill_quotes Protection_quotes Union_quotes Society_quotes Integration_quotes Technology_quotes Workplace_quotes Despair_quotes Anticipation_quotes Loss_quotes Uniqueness_quotes Identity_quotes Freedom_quotes Rights_quotes Responsibility_quotes Fear_quotes Tradition_quotes Job_quotes Description_quotes Contract_quotes Prey_quotes Supervision_quotes Management_quotes World_quotes Requirements_quotes Body_quotes Political_quotes Instrument_quotes Preservation_quotes Influence_quotes Talent_quotes Development_quotes Disgust_quotes Breed_quotes Capricious_quotes Whim_quotes Superior_quotes Distaste_quotes
Pay and Promotion
“As operators' skills improved, so did their dissatisfaction with the pay and promotion system.”
- Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 412. ISBN:0465032125.