Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/2257 
Year of Publication: 
1999
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 39
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The paper analyzes the contemporary organizational restructuring of production and work within firms. We emphasize the shift from a "Tayloristic" organization of work (characterized by significant specialization by tasks) to a "holistic" organization (featuring job rotation, integration of tasks and learning across tasks). We examine four driving forces behind this restructuring process: advances in production technologies promoting technological task complementarities, advances in information technologies promoting informational task complementarities, changes in worker preferences in favor of versatile work, and advances in human capital that make workers more versatile. Our analysis can also help explain the recent widening of wage differentials and disparities in job opportunities, not only between groups with similar characteristics, but also within these groups.
Subjects: 
Restructuring
Work organization
Technological change
Information flows
Multitasking
Job rotation
Learning
JEL: 
J23
O33
J24
L23
M12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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