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The trade union movement as a whole has given a cautious welcome to the new technology provided that it is introduced in a controlled fashion and safeguards are provided against exploitation of the workforce. An examination of the literature produced by the TUC indicates that there is a tendency for many officials to concentrate on traditional areas of union concern, to the detriment of other areas such as job design and ergonomic, health and safety factors. The standard of new technology agreements have varied but both unions and management now have a clearer idea of what terms to bargain for; there has been a corresponding recognition of the need to develop a spirit of co‐operation in management/union problem solving. The way forward rests on union officials' readiness to monitor the operation of equipment and the need for all those in the workforce being affected by new technology to be trained in both equipment operation and the health and safety factors involved.

How have managers handled the industrial relations ramifications of information technology? There is a diversity of approaches within an overall framework of employee acceptance of the need for technological change. However, the introduction of new technology is rarely handled strategically in the industrial relations area, and there is much to be learnt from approaches adopted by a small minority of mostly foreign‐owned organisations. The authors conclude by asking whether or not patterns will change in the 1990s.

The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.

WAS Britain right to resist so strongly the EEC move last month towards the introduction of a much shorter working week?

The manager must take into account various human factors when introducing computers into the library. A survey of literature reveals the key fears of employees involved in library automation — to be concerned with job security, job satisfaction and health and safety. These findings are compared with data collected from a questionnaire administered to staff in four libraries, all in the process of automating various tasks. The effects of computerisation of the library service on users is also examined, with an analysis of literature and a questionnaire sent to 30 students in the College for the Distributive Trades. The author discusses ways in which the manager can interest and motivate staff by eliminating causes of dissatisfaction and by taking positive steps in appealing to employees' self‐interest in the possibilities of career advancement and the challenge of mastering something new. Staff selection procedures need to be amended to acquire the necessary skills, and training should be ongoing. The response of users to library automation is often enthusiastic but real benefits can be difficult to measure. The onus is ultimately on librarians to demonstrate that they still have a key role to play in the provision of information.

Possibly the most important influence for work patterns in the 1990s is what has become known as information technology. This technology has developed through the electronics revolution that has taken place over the last 15 years, and which is based around the miniaturisation of electronic components. The “microchip”, which is at the centre of this revolution, is itself the logical end result of the electronic industry's headlong drive to miniaturise.

There are two common misconceptions concerning policy for science and technology: firstly, that it is only government that is involved; and secondly, that any such policy consists of a coherent, consistent set of measures aimed at specific goals. Inevitably, things are rather more complicated. While government policy is of crucial importance it is nevertheless possible to identify other levels at which policy is made— whether it be implicit or explicit—and which influence the rate and direction of technological change. In the present context it may be useful to consider the point of application of technology by looking at the policy of the firm, and also at the attempts by those most directly affected by technological change to exert some influence. What follows considers three areas in which policy concerning microelectronics is evolving: at the level of the firm, within government, and among trade unions. Although attention is focused solely on developments in Britain, many of the lessons will be relevant to those countries in which debates concerning microelectronics are currently taking place.

The research was commissioned by a major manufacturing union concerned about the level of involvement of its members in workplace introductions of new technology and is intended to provide an independent assessment of the impact of technological change in recent years as well as a set of guidelines with regard to future policy making within the union.

Following extensive research at a company in the printing industry, management is concluded to have operated in an unimaginative way towards the introduction of new technology. Conversely, recent publications on the subject have emphasised its flexibility, and the extent to which there is some degree of choice inherent in the redesign of work in such circumstances. Moreover, workers may also resist managerial changes — especially those which attempt to deskill their jobs — at the point of production.

Technical change and industrial relations are becoming inextricably linked together. There is a need for a clearsighted understanding of all the effects of technical change at the workplace. This would entail a conceptual framework in which the interaction between social and technical factors could be properly identified. At establishment level the innovation process typically involves a balancing of the social, economic and technological vectors of change. Three short case studies into the innovation process at one of the key manufacturing plants of a major British vehicle producer are presented, examining a Machine Monitoring System, Team Working and Maintenance Function. It is clear that the linked issues of work practices and labour productivity which are to the forefront of workplace industrial relations exert a significant impact on the economic consequences of technical change. Where technological innovation involves significant change in work practices, such change will be facilitated when the forms of co‐operation it demands and the costs and benefits it creates are congruent with the respective power and policies of management and unions.