Technological Progress, Organizational Change and the Size of the Human Resources Department
IRES Discussion Paper No. 2007-047
UCL Economics Discussion Paper No. 2007-47
Catholic University of Louvain Paper No. 2008-01
38 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2008
Date Written: June 2008
Abstract
Innovative workplace practices based on multi-tasking and ICT that have been diffusing in most OECD countries since the 1990s have strong consequences on working conditions. Available data show together with the emergence of new organizational forms like multi-tasking, the increase in the proportion of workers employed in managerial occupation and the increase in skill requirements. This paper proposes a theoretical model to analyze the optimal number of tasks per worker when switching to multi-tasking raises coordination costs between workers and between tasks. Firms can reduce coordination costs by assigning more workers to human resources management. Human capital is endogenously accumulated by workers. The model reproduces pretty well the regularities observed in the data. In particular, exogenous technological accelerations tend to increase both the number of tasks performed and the skill requirements, and to raise the fraction of workers devoted to management
Keywords: Information Technology, Organizational Change, Human Capital,
JEL Classification: J2, L2, O3, C6
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors
By Lawrence F. Katz and Kevin M. Murphy
-
By Eli Berman, John Bound, ...
-
Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?
By David H. Autor, Lawrence F. Katz, ...
-
Information Technology, Workplace Organization and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence
By Timothy Bresnahan, Erik Brynjolfsson, ...
-
Deunionization, Technical Change and Inequality
By Daron Acemoglu, Philippe Aghion, ...
-
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
By David H. Autor, Frank S. Levy, ...
-
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
By David H. Autor, Frank S. Levy, ...
-
How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984-1989
-
Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence
By Eli Berman, John Bound, ...