Deskilling and Upgrading

Deskilling

Deskilling is the downgrading, reduction, or simplification of work skills required of a job, following the introduction of technological change in the workplace. Deskilling is associated with the notion that as production becomes increasingly mechanized and automated, tasks previously performed by humans are eliminated or otherwise necessitate less reliance on direct human input for task completion. The remaining work tasks become more simplified and repetitive, demand less mental creative input from workers, and require minimal training to perform.

A related, second dimension of the deskilling argument is that as work becomes more routinized, technological change may limit personal discretion about the way that work is done, subject workers to greater control, and ultimately reduce their workplace autonomy. As such, the deskilling thesis views technology as an instrument of control used by management in the struggle for power over the labor process. It has a polarizing effect on social relations of production, whereby managers possess or otherwise are gatekeepers of mental and technical knowledge, are the decision makers, and apply technology in ways that control workers.

Harry Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital (1974) offers a critical, Marxist interpretation of skilling in the context of technological changes in the workplace over time. His underlying thesis is that capitalism leads to a continuous lowering of skill level and mental effort, and technology is a mechanism employed by management to rationalize and fragment work in its quest to dominate workers. Considering labor processes within occupations and structural shifts across occupations, there is a tendency for the deskilling of workers and subsequent alienation, as opposed to increased avenues for creative work, self-regulation, and empowerment. The deskilling thesis offers a provocative interpretation of technology that links it both to a simplification of skills required of a job and strategic control of workers by management. Though historically, the contexts for considering the downgrading impacts of technology were commonly craft or manufacturing production industries that relied heavily on manual skilled labor, the argument has also spawned numerous industry-specific studies of technology to explain changes in the nature of work and work relations in clerical, service, and professional occupations.

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