Book Description

Based on 17 case studies in European Community countries and a literature review, this research project derives several findings--some of them contradictory--about the evolution of qualifications related to office technology. The population studied was office technology users below the executive level. The project found that the impact of the new information technologies (NITs) is dependent on the following factors: technical characteristics and possible applications, the economic context that produces the objectives or expected results, the organizational set-up, and finally, an important factor, the methods of human resource management and the behavior of the individual and professional groups concerned. The research is organized in three chapters. The first chapter shows how technology, applications, the context, and the occupational categories have evolved since the 1960s, and how the daily experience of NITs has brought about new concepts of information and changes in patterns of behavior and roles. The second chapter shows how occupational activity has had to redefine its content and cope with a rearrangement of jobs, especially jobs in the banking, insurance, and secretarial sectors. The options offered by the present are highlighted in the last chapter. A 177-item bibliography arranged by country is included. (KC)