Author Description

This study examines the management of automation in the UK and USA since 1950 and is divided into three parts. The first creates a framework for studying technology transfer by exploring the most important international and national political and economic conditions that affect the pace of this process. The second takes four case studies: automatic transfer technology and computer-controlled machine tools in engineering; accurate and refined instrumentation and control technologies in continuous flow industries like oil refining, chemicals and steel making; computerisation of routine clerical work and management decision-taking; and bank automation as an example of over-enthusiastic learning about the potential of computerisation. The third part deploys the same methodology to understand the impact of Japanisation in both the UK and the USA in the 1980s and 1990s. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of knowledge about technological opportunities and the management of skilled labour throughout parts two and three.--BOOK JACKET.