Accumulation and Technology

Steindl, Josef

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Document type:: Works

Collection:: Josef Steindl Collection

Title:: Accumulation and Technology: Exemplar 2

Author:: Steindl, Josef

Scope:: Typoskript, 25 Blätter, mit zahlreichen handschriftlichen Anstreichungen

Year of publication:: 1984

Source material date:: [vermutlich um/vor 1984]

Note:: Exemplar 2 (Exemplar 1 mit anderen handschriftlichen Anmerkungen siehe AL00656752).

Shelfmark:: S/M.5.2

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.48671/nls.js.AC14446022

12 There are, first, signs of a technological development which runs counter to the tendencies we have become accustomed to associate with industrial progress: Large units based on large scale economies, mass production based on standardisation, and replacement of skilled by unskilled labour. Some new techniques are wizzards which don't make you very big but make you very small. Miniaturisation certainly is the opposite of the tendency which brought us monster tankers and furnaces. And the chip apparently facilitates more flexible tools, more easily adaptable machinery which favours smaller units. Again we find that agammst all received ideas smaller power stations are becoming economically feasible, due to joint production of energy and heat. Second, there are tendencies which, broadly speaking, come from the numan side. The superiority of the big concerns is not any more unquestioned. The big organisation shows signs of degeneration in the private just as in the public field. This is reinforced by the changing image of hierarchical organisations in the minds of people. In the technological industries- admittedly still a small part of total industry - highly skilled manpower has gained a decisive importance as an element of success in R&D and therefore in competition. These engineers have shown a preference for working in small or mediumfirms which offer a more congenial surrounding to research. The R&D in large concerns is hindered by inflexibility and complicated decision work in committees which causé delay and slowness in carrying out new development. The smaller firms moreover offer more in the way of profit sharing and even participation. The large concerns try to adapt

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