Technological Development and the Meaning of Work: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

This paper reports the perceptions of the extent of technological change and its subjective impact among workers in five industrialized nations. We find that perceived technological change varies significantly among the surveyed publics, probably due to both the actual pace of technological change and sociocultural differences. Perceived change also varied between males and females and between blue and white-collar workers-both these variations being traceable to the structural differentiation of the labor market. The reported impacts of technological change are generally positive, with the important exception of Japanese workers, who report more job-related alienation. Here again, differences related to sex and type of job (blue vs. white collar) tend to reflect structural attributes of the occupational structure. The implications of these findings are discussed.