Between Craft and Science: Technical Work in the United States

271 Pages·1997·21.061 MB·English

by  Stephen R. Barley, Julian E. Orr

BETWEEN
CRAFT
AND
SCIENCE
A VOLUME IN THE
COLLECTION ON
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. .
"~'Ii"' . .
~:: and
U·
ua·. WORK
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edited by STEPHEN R. BARLEY
BETWEEN
CRAFT
AND
SCIENCE
Technical Work in U.S. Settings
EDITED BY
Stephen R. Barley
and Julian E. Orr
IL R Press I an imprint of
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 1997 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in
writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University
Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850
First published 1997 by Cornell University Press.
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1997.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Between craft and science: technical work in U.S. settings I edited
by Stephen R. Barley and Julian E. Orr.
p. em.~ (Collection on technology and work)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8014-3296-0 (cloth: alk. paper).~ ISBN 0-8014-8366-2
(pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Industrial technicians~United States. I. Barley. Stephen R.
II. Orr, Julian E. (Julian Edgerton), 1945- III. Series.
TAI58.B47 1997
609.2'273~DC20 96-32077
This book is printed on Lyons Falls Turin Book,
a paper that is totally chlorine-free and acid-free.
Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
CONTENTS
Preface vii
List of Contributors ix
Introduction: The Neglected Workforce 1
Stephen R. Barley and Julian E. Orr
Part I Technical Work's Challenge to the Established Order
Technical Work in the Division of Labor: Stalking the Wily
Anomaly 23
Peter Whalley and Stephen R. Barley
2 Technical Dissonance: Conflicting Portraits of Technicians 53
Jeffrey Keefe and Denise Potosky
3 Whose Side Are They On? Technical Workers and Management
Ideology 82
Sean Creighton and Randy Hodson
Part II Studies ofTechnical Practice, Knowledge, and Culture
4 Cutting Up Skills: Estimating Difficulty as an Element of Surgical
and Other Abilities 101
Trevor Pinch, H. M. Collins, and Larry Carbone
VI CONTENTS
5 Bleeding Edge Epistemology: Practical Problem Solving in
Software Support Hot Lines 113
Brian T. Pentland
6 Computers, Clients, and Expertise: Negotiating Technical Identities
in a Nontechnical World 129
Stacia E. Zabusky
7 Work as a Moral Act: How Emergency Medical Technicians
Understand Their Work 154
Bonalyn J. Nelsen
Part Ill Implications ofTechnical Practice for Training, Credential ling,
and Careers
8 The Infamous "Lab Error": Education, Skill, and Quality in
Medical Technicians' Work 187
Mario Scarselletta
9 Engineering Education and Engineering Practice: Improving the
Fit 210
Louis L. Bucciarelli and Sarah Kuhn
I 0 The Senseless Submergence of Difference: Engineers, Their Work,
and Their Careers 230
Leslie Perlow and Lotte Bailyn
References 245
Index 257
PREFACE
Aside from the work of doctors, lawyers, and a handful of other visible pro
fessionals, relatively little is known about the content or the social organization
of technical work. To be sure, science and engineering have attracted consider
able attention over the years, but only recently have researchers begun to exam
ine what scientists and engineers actually do and how their work is organized.
Information on the work of technicians is even scarcer, although technicians now
represent 3.6 percent of the American labor force and have been the fastest grow
ing occupational category for several decades. The chapters in this book take a
step toward remedying this situation.
Books are usually accretions of personal agendas, and this one is no exception.
After studying technicians' work in several settings, we became convinced that
the implications of the so-called shift to a postindustrial or service economy could
not be fully understood without an appreciation of the expanding role that tech
nical workers play in modem organizations. We thought progress toward such an
understanding would be enhanced if researchers interested in technical work had
an opportunity to pool their knowledge and lay the foundations of a research
community. Although a small but growing number of scholars had become in
terested in technical work by the late 1980s, our perception was that many were
unaware of each other's research because they spanned disciplines as diverse as
sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, engineering, and labor rela
tions. We decided to remedy this situation. In 1991, under the auspices of the Pro
gram on Technology and Work at Cornell University's School of Industrial and
Labor Relations, we embarked on the events that produced this volume.
In November 1992, with funding from the Department of Labor and Cornell's
Institute for Labor Market Policy, we hosted a workshop at Cornell University
on the technical labor force. The workshop brought together sixteen scholars
vm PREFACE
from a variety of disciplines who had conducted field studies of technical work,
but who were mostly unfamiliar with each other's findings. In addition to most
of the authors whose chapters appear in this volume, Charles Goodwin, an an
thropologist from the University of South Carolina, and Patricia Sachs, an an
thropologist employed by NYNEX, also attended. The workshop's goals were to
facilitate the sharing of information and ideas, to arrive at a working definition
of technical work, to identify issues that all participants considered critical for
future development, to facilitate collaboration, and, finally, to lay the foundation
for this book and a second, somewhat larger, conference. During the workshop,
the participants converged on a series of topics that they agreed deserved further
elaboration. They then divided responsibility for developing papers on these
topics. The commissioned papers clustered around four broad themes: (1) tech
nical work's challenge to the established order, (2) detailed studies of technical
work, knowledge, and practice, (3) detailed studies of technical workers' identi
ties, values, and beliefs, and (4) training, credentialling, and careers in technical
occupations. The goal was to develop papers that ranged coherently from the the
oretical to the descriptive to the policy-oriented. This volume retains the organi
zational scheme developed at the workshop.
Between December 1992 and March 1994 the authors conducted additional
research and produced initial drafts. These drafts were delivered at Cornell in
March 1994 during a conference sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The conference brought the authors together for three days with an audience
composed of other researchers who have studied technical work as well as lead
ers from industry, labor, and government who are especially knowledgeable
about issues pertaining to technical work and the technical labor force. After the
conference, authors revised their papers in light of the dialogue that occurred.
This volume would not have been possible without the financial and intel
lectual support of Hirsch Cohen at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Stephanie
Swirsky of the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration,
and Ronald Ehrenberg, Director of the Institute for Labor Market Policy. The re
searchers and organizers associated with Cornell's Program on Technology and
Work are also deeply indebted to the U.S. Department of Education which, from
the beginning, has funded our work on technicians through grants from the Na
tional Center for the Educational Quality of the Workforce.
Thanks are also due to Stacia Zabusky and Margaret Gleason, who organized
the first workshop, to Renee Edelman, who orchestrated the conference, and to
Paula Wright and Roger Kovalchick, who helped transform the papers into a sin
gle, integrated document.
STEPHEN R. BARLEY
JULIAN E. ORR
Palo Alto, California
October 11, 1995
CONTRIBUTORS
Lotte Bailyn H. M. Collins
Sloan School of Management Centre for the Study of Knowledge,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Expertise and Science
50 Memorial Drive · Dept. of Sociology and Social Policy
Cambridge, Mass. 02139 University of Southampton
Southampton S017 lBS
U.K.
Stephen R. Barley
Industrial Engineering and Engineering
Sean Creighton
Management
Department of Sociology
340 Terman Hall
Ballantine Hall, Room 751
Stanford University
Indiana University
Stanford, Calif. 94305
Bloomington, Ind. 47401
Randy Hodson
Louis L. Bucciarelli
Department of Sociology
School of Engineering
Ballantine Hall, Room 751
3-282
Indiana University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bloomington, Ind. 47401
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Mass. 02139
Jeffrey Keefe
School of Management and Labor
Larry Carbone Relations
School of Veterinary Medicine Rutgers University
Cornell University P.O. Box 231 Ryders Lane
Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 New Brunswick, N.J. 08903
x CONTRIBUTORS
Sarah Kuhn Trevor Pinch
Policy and Planning Department Science and Technology Studies
College of Management 622 Clark Hall
University of Massachusetts-Lowell Cornell University
One University Avenue Ithaca, N.Y. 14853
Lowell, Mass. 01853
Denise Potosky
Graduate Program in Management
Bonalyn J, Nelsen The Pennsylvania State University
Johnson Graduate School of Management Great Valley Campus
Cornell University 30 E. Swedesford Road
Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 Malvern, Penn. 19355
Mario Scarselletta
Julian E. Orr Corning Inc.
Xerox PARC Science Products Division
3333 Coyote Hill Road Corning, N.Y. 14831
Palo Alto, Calif. 94304
Peter Whalley
Department of Sociology and
Brian T. Pentland Anthropology
School of Labor and Industrial Relations Loyola University Chicago
412 South Kedsie Hall Lake Shore Campus
Michigan State University 6525 North Sheridan Road
East Lansing, Mich. 48824-1032 Chicago, Ill. 60626
Stacia E. Zabusky
Leslie Perlow Associate in Research
University of Michigan Business School Institute of European Studies
701 Tappan Street Cornell University
Ann Arbor, Mich. 48109-1234 Ithaca, N.Y. 14853