Microelectronics, Automation and Employment in the Automobile Industry

This volume of case studies reviews and assesses experience of microelectronics and automation in the automobile industry in eight countries (including the United States of America, Japan and Germany). It identifies and fills gaps in our knowledge about the precise nature of the impact, both positive and negative, that new technologies are likely to have on employment. The main conclusion of the volume is that the belief in the "enormously labour saving effects" of microelectronics is a myth, and that the effect of new technology has been largely confused with those of considerably intensified international competition and general rationalisation programmes. The analysis of the interrelationship between work organisation on the one hand and technology choice and its employment effects on the other, make the book both of interest and of use to practitioners and researchers in industrial economics, policy making, industrial relations and management.