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3 - What Has Changed and What Has Not?

from Part I - Introduction to the Changing Nature of Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2020

By
Kevin R. Murphy  and
Warren Tierney
Edited by
Brian J. Hoffman ,
Mindy K. Shoss  and
Lauren A. Wegman
Brian J. Hoffman
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Mindy K. Shoss
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida
Lauren A. Wegman
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

For nearly 30 years, the business and scientific press has featured a constant stream of stories about the changing nature of work. While some organizations and occupations have changed substantially in recent years, the belief that such changes are relatively recent or relatively widespread is not well founded. First, the nature and organization of work has evolved continuously over time and the current changes are especially large. Second, there are very large sectors of the economy in which the changes in technology and the organization of work have been minimal. The belief that the nature of work is changing is in large part rooted in the tendency to mistake the brief period of economic stability and highly valued employment in the United Stats that followed the Second World War as the normal state rather than an anomaly. The nature of work is changing and will continue to change, but these changes are part of a long-term set of evolutionary changes, not a sudden or recent innovation.

Keywords

innovationtechnologygig economyautomationpostwar expansion
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Changing Nature of Work , pp. 42 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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