IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v22y2011i3p238-246.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal time switching from tayloristic to holistic workplace organization

Author

Listed:
  • Vallée, Thomas
  • Moreno-Galbis, Eva

Abstract

The introduction of information and communication technologies in firms over recent decades has engendered a process of internal workplace reorganization in order to maximize performance. Using a two-stage optimal control technique, this paper provides analytical solutions for the conditions under which a firm adopts a new organizational regime characterized by multitasking and an horizontal hierarchical structure (holistic organization). We consider two flexibility options: (a) the possibility that only a part of the labor force is switched to the new organization and, (b) the possibility that any loss of productivity is not permanent. In all cases we conclude that the new organization is adopted if, and only if, the productivity gains in the capital-goods sector compensate both the loss of expertise suffered by workers and the drop in consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Vallée, Thomas & Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2011. "Optimal time switching from tayloristic to holistic workplace organization," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 238-246, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:22:y:2011:i:3:p:238-246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X11000361
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boucekkine, Raouf & Saglam, Cagri & Valléee, Thomas, 2004. "Technology Adoption Under Embodiment: A Two-Stage Optimal Control Approach," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 250-271, April.
    2. Parente Stephen L., 1994. "Technology Adoption, Learning-by-Doing, and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 346-369, August.
    3. Raouf Boucekkine & Fernando Del Río & Omar Licandro, 2003. "Embodied Technological Change, Learning‐by‐doing and the Productivity Slowdown," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(1), pages 87-98, March.
    4. Lindbeck, Assar & Snower, Dennis J, 1996. "Reorganization of Firms and Labor-Market Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 315-321, May.
    5. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    6. Philippe Askenazy & Eva Moreno Galbis, 2007. "The Impact of Technological and Organizational Changes on Labor Flows. Evidence on French Establishments," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 21(2), pages 265-301, June.
    7. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2002. "Information Technology, Workplace Organization, and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 339-376.
    8. Oded Galor & Omer Moav, 2000. "Ability-Biased Technological Transition, Wage Inequality, and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 469-497.
    9. Jeremy Greenwood & Boyan Jovanovic, 2001. "Accounting for Growth," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 179-224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bauer, Thomas K. & Bender, Stefan, 2004. "Technological change, organizational change, and job turnover," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 265-291, June.
    11. Milgrom, Paul R & Qian, Yingyi & Roberts, John, 1991. "Complementarities, Momentum, and the Evolution of Modern Manufacturing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 84-88, May.
    12. Tomiyama, Ken & Rossana, Robert J., 1989. "Two-stage optimal control problems with an explicit switch point dependence : Optimality criteria and an example of delivery lags and investment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 319-337, July.
    13. Thomas Lemieux, 2006. "Increasing Residual Wage Inequality: Composition Effects, Noisy Data, or Rising Demand for Skill?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 461-498, June.
    14. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1993. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U.S. Manufacturing Industries: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 4255, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Boucekkine, Raouf & Crifo, Patricia, 2008. "Human Capital Accumulation And The Transition From Specialization To Multitasking," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 320-344, June.
    16. Lindbeck, Assar & Snower, Dennis J, 2000. "Multitask Learning and the Reorganization of Work: From Tayloristic to Holistic Organization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 353-376, July.
    17. Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2006. "Technical Change, Job Tasks, and Rising Educational Demands: Looking outside the Wage Structure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(2), pages 235-270, April.
    18. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 367-397.
    19. Krusell, Per, 1998. "Investment-Specific R&D and the Decline in the Relative Price of Capital," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 131-141, June.
    20. Greenwood, Jeremy & Hercowitz, Zvi & Krusell, Per, 1997. "Long-Run Implications of Investment-Specific Technological Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 342-362, June.
    21. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 1998. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from Seven OECD Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1215-1244.
    22. Philippe Askénazy & Christian Gianella, 2000. "Le paradoxe de productivité : les changements organisationnels, facteur complémentaire à l'informatisation," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 339(1), pages 219-241.
    23. Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, 1998. "Information Technology and Change in Danish Organizations," DRUID Working Papers 98-8, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    24. Tomiyama, Ken, 1985. "Two-stage optimal control problems and optimality conditions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 317-337, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raouf Boucekkine & Carmen Camacho & Benteng Zou, 2020. "Optimal switching from competition to cooperation: a preliminary exploration," PSE Working Papers halshs-02434786, HAL.
    2. Stefan Wrzaczek & Michael Kuhn & Ivan Frankovic, 2020. "Using Age Structure for a Multi-stage Optimal Control Model with Random Switching Time," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 1065-1082, March.
    3. Elke Moser & Andrea Seidl & Gustav Feichtinger, 2014. "History-dependence in production-pollution-trade-off models: a multi-stage approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 222(1), pages 457-481, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2012. "The impact of TFP growth on the unemployment rate: Does on-the-job training matter?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1692-1713.
    2. Boucekkine, Raouf & Saglam, Cagri & Valléee, Thomas, 2004. "Technology Adoption Under Embodiment: A Two-Stage Optimal Control Approach," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 250-271, April.
    3. R. Boucekkine & H.C. Saglam & T. Vallee, 2002. "Optimal switching time of technologies," Computing in Economics and Finance 2002 64, Society for Computational Economics.
    4. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    5. Van Reenen, John, 2011. "Wage inequality, technology and trade: 21st century evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 730-741.
    6. Dogan, Erol & Le Van, Cuong & Saglam, Cagri, 2011. "Optimal timing of regime switching in optimal growth models: A Sobolev space approach," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 97-103, March.
    7. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    8. David B. Audretsch & Mark Sanders, 2007. "Globalization and the Rise of the Entrepreneurial Economy," Jena Economics Research Papers 2007-003, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    9. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Changes in Wage Inequality," CEP Reports 18, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Maarten Goos & Melanie Arntz & Ulrich Zierahn & Terry Gregory & Stephanie Carretero Gomez & Ignacio Gonzalez Vazquez & Koen Jonkers, 2019. "The Impact of Technological Innovation on the Future of Work," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2019-03, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Egger, Hartmut & Grossmann, Volker, 2004. "Noncognitive Abilities and Within-Group Wage Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 1024, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Pierre-Jean Messe & Eva Moreno-Galbis & François-Charles Wolf, 2014. "Retirement intentions in the presence of technological change: Theory and evidence from France," TEPP Working Paper 2014-04, TEPP.
    13. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard Murnane, 2000. "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computer-Skill Complementarity and Computer-Labor Substitution on Two Floors of a Large Bank," NBER Working Papers 7890, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Crifo, Patricia, 2003. "La modélisation du changement organisationnel : déterminants et conséquences sur le marché du travail," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 79(3), pages 349-365, Septembre.
    15. David Hémous & Morten Olsen, 2022. "The Rise of the Machines: Automation, Horizontal Innovation, and Income Inequality," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 179-223, January.
    16. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2002. "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(3), pages 432-447, April.
    17. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    18. Bruno Funchal & Jandir Soares Junior, 2013. "Understanding demand for skylls after technological trade liberalization," Fucape Working Papers 40, Fucape Business School.
    19. Boucekkine, Raouf & Crifo, Patricia, 2008. "Human Capital Accumulation And The Transition From Specialization To Multitasking," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 320-344, June.
    20. Borghans, Lex & Weel, Bas ter, 2001. "What happens when agent T gets a computer?," Research Memorandum 017, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:22:y:2011:i:3:p:238-246. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.