The Politics of the New Courseware:Resisting the Real Subsumption of Asynchronous Educational Technology

Tony TinkerProfessor

Department of Accountancy

and

Barbara FeknousInstructional Design and Support Specialist

Office of the Chief LibrarianNewman Library

Baruch CollegeCity University of New York

17 Lexington AvenueNew York, NY 10010

Publication draft. Comments welcome. Please do not quote without the permission ofthe author. We are grateful to Paul Arpaia, David Blanchard, and George Otte for theirhelpful comments.

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May 1, 2001

The Politics of the New Courseware:Resisting the Real Subsumption of Asynchronous Educational Technology

Abstract

Distance learning is revolutionizing large sways of higher education. The promise ofenormous cost savings in educational delivery systems is leading to a “real subsumption”of educational labor. The displacement of traditional craft activity with new (capitalintensive) technology requires that market-centered goals (of capital accumulation)supplant earlier student-centered priorities. Educators are no longer the ‘peakcoordinators’ in this ‘Brave New Educational Workplace’. Increasingly, they areminders of software and hardware delivery systems that are developed and delivered byother specialists. This loss of control and autonomy frequently results in an educatorfeeling powerless when confronted with changes that seem beyond their control. Incontrast to this ‘politics of resignation’, this paper explores a range of tactics for engagingand re-appropriating the new courseware for student-centered purposes. An action-research study was used to elucidate a range of political strategies deployed during theintroduction of distance learning technology in a large U.S. urban university. In thisstudy, the distance learning workplace is conceived as a “contested terrain”, whereprotagonists struggle over what is produced, and how it is produced. The analysis offerseducators a route beyond passive acquiescence and technological inevitability. With aproper appreciation of the specific historical, cultural, technical, and political context,educators may temper, divert, and even re-appropriate the new courseware to ends otherthan those of the market.

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Introduction

Online courses1 constitute just $350 million of the $240 billion higher-educationindustry today, according to Merrill Lynch, but will grow to $2 billion by 2003 (McGinn,April 24, 2000) The stock market has been so enamored of online education (or "e-learning") that venture capitalists are pouring in millions of dollars (ibid).

Investments in on-line initiatives may be roughly divided into “high-end” and“low-end” products. High-end products include glamour projects from UNext.com,University Access, and Pensare. UNext, for instance, amassed $100 million before itopened for business. This is a consortia of five ‘elite’ schools, Columbia, Chicago,Carnegie Mellon, the London School of Economics, and Stanford, three Nobel laureateon faculty; and investors like Michael Milken and Oracle's Larry Ellison. UNext'sinvested about $1 million per distance learning course. It’s degrees cost up to $80,000each – allowing the sponsoring institutions to use their brand names to cream a relativelysmall, but lucrative market. These celebrity products earn UNext high-profile mediacoverage and a role in reproducing privileged social elites; however, they are small-scalecompared with the mass-market penetration potential of distance learning in the low-endmarket.

Low-end products consist of two types: new on-line (virtual) degrees anduniversities (designed to have mass appeal) and courseware (or Course AuthoringTechnologies) often developed internally by universities for an existing student body.2The virtual degree camp includes the recently regionally accredited Jones InternationalUniversity, Colorado State ($12,000), Heriot-Watt ($8,400), Ohio University ($29,000for an on-line MBA), the University of Notre Dame ($23,690), the University of Phoenix($21,675), Syracuse University ($28,566) and Warwick University ($20,800). In contrast,courseware producers such as CourseInfo (Blackboard), CourseLinks, FirstClass,Learning Space, MentorWare, Real Education (eCollege), and WebCT, license theinstallation of their software for as little as $3000 per server-site.

While the low-end sector lacks the name recognition of Mike Milken and BillGates, it operates on a much larger scale, proceeding along a number of product-paths.Textbook manufacturers have formed alliances with courseware producers to insureagainst declining returns from the hardcopy textbook market. For instance,Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and South-Western Publishing Company have made course 1 The terms asynchronous distance learning and online courses are usedinterchangeably for most of this paper.2 Courseware (Course Authoring Technologies) allow individual faculty, departments,schools, and universities to author their own server-side (shell) delivery of interactivecourses. These server "shells" were often developed, initially in-house, by universitiesbefore they became full-featured commercial web authoring packages. For example,WebCT originated at the University of British Columbia, the Blackboard systememanated from Cornell University. These packages can be based on either the author’sor the providers server. For example, WebCT can be installed on school-based servers,but not on servers run by WebCT. In contrast, Embanet or CyberClass offers externalweb servers, such that neither authors nor their institutions have to maintain courseslocally. Blackboard has both internal and external web server options (Jensen, 1999)

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materials available for selected textbooks if instructors adopt the books. Students obtainpasswords at a discount to access particular online text materials. Some publishers assistinternal-system webmasters in installing the software. These include McGraw-HillLearning Architecture (MHLA) and Macmillan Publishing that have arrangements withTopClass, and WebCT who offer discounted installations on campus servers (Jensen,1999).

An even greater boost to the low-end market is likely is likely to come from therelatively untapped new student market; especially among poorer communities who arebarred from access to higher education, because family obligations -- such as childrearing-- makes physical presence difficult. Cost is a significant barrier to access. Between1980 and 1997, the average cost of college tuition plus room and board rose by more than300 percent. Fewer than five percent of U.S. families can afford the full cost of a privatecollege education. Courseware technology makes it possible to deliver education remotelyto some 40 percent of American households via PCs and modems. With high fixed costs,and minimal variable costs, the price of distance learning products may plummet as themarket expands, thereby further expanding this access (Christensen, 2000).

Formal and Real Subsumption of Educational LaborOff-set against the positive aspects of access are political problems at the ‘point of

production’ (Elson, 1979). Relative to labor-intensive, craft-based education, coursewaretechnology reduces the control of the front-line educator. An educator may have onlyrestricted access to ‘her own’ server-based course materials, and the ownership andphysical control of these material may be ‘portable’. These negative (and positive)workplace developments under capitalism are conceived (in labor process literature) asthe formal and the real subsumption of labor.

Labor process literature posits a two-step process in the transformation ofworkplaces: the “formal’, and the “real” subsumption of labor (Braverman, 1998;Clawson, 1980; Knights and Willmott, 1990). The formal subsumption is the first (“inprinciple”) step in subordinating independent craft labor to the imperatives of marketprocesses. Formal subsumption proceeds by re-ordering work processes, andfragmenting them into task specialties. Frederick Taylor’s struggle to wrestle control ofproduction from craft workers exemplifies this first phase (Taylor, 1967, Braverman.1998). In the formal subsumption phase, relatively little new capital investment isinvolved; the primary saving accrues from specialization and repetition.3

3 Education, management, and accounting work have languished for decades in theformal subsumption phase. Education exemplifies this by the persistence of a divisionof labor composed of traditional intellectual disciplines. In accounting, it is manifest inthe divisions into tax, statement preparation, auditing, and management accounting etc.In management, it is expressed by the ‘functions of management’: of production,marketing, finance, personnel, etc. Indeed, there is a “self-recognition” of the formalsubsumption phase found in the “guru” management literature, where Hammand andChampy prosaically forecast the end of the formal subsumption era with “thedestruction of the functional silos” (Hammond and Champy, 1993). In education andaccounting, workers have enjoyed a residual autonomy and independent control thathas been perpetuated by guild-like institutions from the craft era.

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Capitalism’s real revolution in education occurs with the real subsumption oflabor. This process is now underway – courtesy of the new courseware and virtual sites.Real subsumption entails a massive infusion of new capital and technology, leading to acomplete restructuring of work processes, obliterating old craft practices and replacingthem with new skills and techniques (Braverman, 1998; Marx, 1977). Most important,this inserts into educational processes the market-stimulated quest for capitalaccumulation, profits, new markets, cost reduction and economy, as a primary driver forchange.

While the enormity of market-driven changes cannot be underestimated, theirconquest of workplaces can never be absolute or total. “Capital” – as a social relation – isfounded on the life activities of people whose needs and experiences are not reducible to,and often inimical to, the imperative of capital accumulation.4 This dissonance, inherentin all commodity forms (including those developing in education) provides the politicalvent for advancing student-centered priorities in the face of seemingly inexorable marketforces.

Resistance to cost economizing accumulation pressures are prevalent in a widearray of social endeavor: opposition to environmental degradation, geneticallymanufactured foods, violence in movies, videos and TV programs, abusive employmentpractices, currency speculation that destabilizes capital markets, etc. The point is not topresent a rosy picture of resistance, and certainly not to suggest that, in the long run, itwill ultimately lead to the end of capitalism as we know it. Such speculations are“academic” and irrelevant to the here and now. For real students, real mothers, realworkers, and real children, resistance may lead to local successes -- however temporary.5

The issues are crystallized in two recent contributions to our understanding of thetransformation underway in educational labor processes: Stanley Aronowitz’s book, THEKNOWLEDGE FACTORY and recent writings by Accounting’s Bob Jenson. Aronowitzprovides a vehement critique of “all the changes in higher education that have been

4 The first chapter of Marx’s Volume I of CAPITAL expresses this dissonance in hisformulation of commodity form. The dialectic between “value” and “use value” embodiesthis antithetical (dialectical) relation: between market-inspired accumulation of capital(value) and the “real” social and human needs and activities on which capitalism isfounded (Cleaver, 1979; Smith, 1990; Gunn, 1989).5 Overestimating capitalism’s awesome ability to obliterate resistance and subordinateall areas of life to its regimen (resigning ourselves to the inexorable march of TheEconomic) is not a thesis supported by Marx. In the 18th BRUMAIRE he notes, “Menmake their own history, but they ddo not make it just as they please; they do not make itunder circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directlyencountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the deadgenerations weights like nightmares on the minds of the living. And just when they seemengaged in revolutionizing themselves and things, in creating something that has neveryet existed, precisely in such periods of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up thespirits of the past to their service and borrow from them names, battle-cries andcostumes in order to present the new scene of world history in this time-honoureddisguise and this borrowed language.” (Marx, 1990, p.15).

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wrought in the name of efficiency’’ (Aronowitz, 2000)6. Working from a differentdisciplinary base, Bob Jensen warns his Trinity University not to embark on a wholesaleadoption of distance learning technology (Jensen, 1999). Jensen, who is in the forefrontof technological initiatives in accounting, warns that, “McLearn universities may haveonline debates and chess competitions, but these will never take the place of the roar ofthe fans, slapping your buddy on the butt with a wet towel, getting chewed out by atempered coach, having your boyfriend or girlfriend in the audience even if you only havea bit part in a performance, etc. McLearn online university will probably never find away of making a bottom-line profit on building and running a chapel, having faculty thatstudents consider friends as well as teachers, and having students learn about what reallife is all about with loves gained and lost, living in rumor mills, enduring insults, helpingsomeone who has lost the way, and learning to deal with greater diversities in life styles,and cultures”. (Jensen, 1999).

Aronowitz and Jensen’s analyses exhibit both commonalities and difference.Notwithstanding their very different theoretical bases, these authors fail in surprisinglysimilar ways: they both retreat to voluntaristic appeals for a restoration of a past GoldenAge (Aronowitz’s Great Books program, and Jensen’s world of ‘slapping your buddy onthe butt’). Neither author details a concrete political program of engagement by whichtheir ideals might be realized. Yet each viewpoint has strengths that would enhance thecontent of the other. Aronowitz’s strength lies in a rich social and historical account ofeducational development that allows him to identify “Who the sides are”, and “Whichside are we on”. Jensen’s forte is an unsurpassed appreciation of the new workplacetechnology that permits him to pinpoint opportunities for re-appropriating the newcourseware. By fusing the kind of positive qualities found in these perspectives, theaction-research study reported here explored tactics for engaging the new courseware. Inthis sense, resistance to “capitalist hegemony” is not conceived here as a titanic globalstruggle for control of society, but a diversity of local oppositional movements that areproductive in their own right. No claim is made – nor needs to be made – as to whetherthese local challenges culminate in a final overthrow of the hegemonic form. They aresufficient in their own right.

University-wide strategies for assimilating the new CoursewareAction-research is a form of inquiry in which the investigation itself is embedded

in the object of inquiry. Much like participant observation and ethnographic analysis, theresearcher in action research is a constituent element in the target situation (Van Maanen,1979; Kerlinger, 1973; Rosen, 1985, 1990,; Lupton, 1963; Roy, 1954; Smith et. al, 1988).A heightened sense of self-reflexivity is essential for action-research. Investigators

6 After a full-pelt description of the wholesale degradation of the university, Aronowitzswitches into a voluntarist-cum-utopian wish list that we return to a detailed liberal arts(Great Books) curriculum. Missing in this analysis are any details of the (dialectical)political mechanisms by which this reconstitution of the commodity form might beaccomplished. How are job-hungry, grade-obsessed students to be recruited to thisnew (“unproductive”) curriculum? How is the business-schooled modern university to beenticed to adopt a Great Books curriculum?

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therefore need to be cognizant of their effect on the research situation, as well as its affecton them (Jackson and Willmott, 1987; Rosen, 1991).

From the mid-1990’s, new courseware began to appear at campuses in the largeurban university that is the subject of this research.7 The particular campus in which thisstudy was concentrated has developed in-house courseware and hardware with thetypical array of features (smart-classrooms with computer display and web-access, adownloadable student roster, syllabus builder, web-based course material with links,threaded discussion, virtual chat, etc.). However, faced with state-instigated budget cuts,maintaining the in-house system became increasingly difficult. Thus the campus joinedthe university-wide search for a third-party courseware provider.

The politics of engaging the new courseware technology began with university-wide strategy for securing courseware ‘on its own terms’. This included a review of over70 different products, evaluated in terms of cost, variety of features, and the degree ofcontrol retained by faculty and the university. Site licensing of university servers gavegreater control to the university (and less dependence on the provider). In addition, onlysome courseware providers subscribed to a common code interchangeability of theNational Learning Infrastructure Initiative, allowing university users to migrate to newproviders with a minimum of difficulty.

Once it committed to a particular courseware, the university embarked on acampaign to seed the technology in its various campuses.8 Using substantial foundationsupport, a combination of faculty induction programs, financial incentives, and showcaseprograms were developed. In addition to “pure” online courses, “hybrid” courses( blending on-line and traditional teaching methods) were encouraged, therebyestablishing the broadest possible presence for the new technology. In these differentways, from the very outset, precautions were taken to secure the new courseware on termsmost favorable to student-centered learning.

Accounting strategies for assimilating the new Courseware Ever since the controversies instigated by Ivan Illich’s DESCHOOLING

SOCIETY, student-centered learning, and resistance to an authoritarian “hiddencurriculum” that cultivates compliance and passivity, have been vital political questionsfor educators (Illich, 1971; Frere, 1972; Bowles and Gintus, 1976; Dale et. al., 1976).However, in recent years, student-centered learning has suffered setbacks due to theunderfunding of public education. The new courseware offers the opportunity to reversethese setbacks (Ward et. al., 2000). Technology (including new courseware, computer,and communications technology) has no intrinsic allegiance to either authoritarian or any

7 The campus that was the primary site for this study is one of 21 campuses in a largerurban university system that has some 230,000 registered students, and 150,000 adultand continuing education students. Students come from some 145 countries, speaking115 native languages. The student body is composed of 32% black, 31% white, 18%Latino, 12% Asian, and 7% other. With some 17,000 registered students, the campusthat was the primary site for the research contains one of the largest accreditedaccounting programs in the US.

8 The authors participated in both the university-wide and campus-based initiatives.

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other educational regimen.9 Indeed, the new courseware opens up opportunities forstudent-centered teaching that are unavailable to underfunded forms of traditionaleducation. Instructors can break out of the iron cage of sacred textbooks, use threadeddiscussions and virtual chat to decenter the traditional classroom hierarchy, and therebyfoster the kind of collaborative learning that is usually absent from many traditionalcourses; especially in accounting.10

In the campus-specific study, the adoption of these student-centered methods wasaided by happenstance. A new privately-funded Communications Institute wasestablished within the college to advance the communication skills of students. Thisorganization was formed, in part, in response to employer-concerns about the social skillsof graduating students, as expressed in the many policy advisories on education from Big5 accounting firms, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and theAmerican Accounting Association.11

Accordingly, an Accounting Information Systems course was designed within theCommunication Institutes’ guidelines of “communication-intensive courses” that soughtto improve a student's historical, social, political, and international understanding ofaccounting.12 This includes exposure to the latest information technology--withoutcompromising the transmission of more traditional "practical" accounting skills. Theresult attempted to combine student-centered priorities of high-wage employability,cultural and social breadth, and general self-sufficiency, with employer needs for a well-rounded competence and versatility.13

9 This contention is a variant of the labor process thesis posited earlier, that educationaltechnology – as an instance of commodification – is not reducible to the imperatives ofcapital accumulation alone. It is an eristic phenomenon that embodies “the other”.10 The rearguard action mounted by publishers, to lobby Congress to copyrighteverything that ‘isn’t nailed down’, testifies to how serious they view the threat posed by“free” web material. From a historical perspective, their drive to encircle content withproperty rights, access restrictions, and user fees, is akin to a modern-day enclosuremovement (Tinker, March, 2000).11 There have been numerous calls for a broadening of accounting education, awayfrom mere rote learning and memorization of technical rules and procedures (Elliot,1995; Kessler, 1997; Nelson, 1998; Albrech and Sack, 2000). These culminated in the150 Hour (Master's degree) Requirement for candidates for the CPA exam.12 An important deviation from the traditional AIS course format was the substitution ofthe usual technical manual textbook with a social history of technology book.Braverman’s LABOR AND MONOPOLY CAPITAL (1998) addresses many issues thatare important for students, that traditional AIS texts neglect. For example, understandingthe social factors underlying technology is essential for student’s in charting a career.Without this, they are rendered passive participants in the labor market (Tinker, July,1999).13 The Accounting Education Change Commission notes, "To become successfulprofessionals, accounting graduates must possess communication skills, intellectualskills, and interpersonal skills… Interpersonal skills include the ability to work effectivelyin groups and to provide leadership when appropriate." (Accounting Education ChangeCommission, 1990-91).

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The Action-Research SiteAction-research is not a controlled experiment. At best, the research can

profile and document its subjects and context in a systematic manner such that a readertransport the experience to related circumstances. Below, the students, college, andcourse are described, to allow the reader to position the study relative to their ownexperience.

Students and CollegeThere were some 55 students in each of the two Accounting Information Systems

(AIS) classes. Approximately 80% are accounting majors, some 60% are women, and ahigh proportion are new immigrants: 18% were African-American, 22% Latino, 28%Asian, and 32% White/Caucasian.14 Reflecting the university-wide population, moststudents were the first generation to attend university, and were seeking opportunities tomove beyond the occupational horizons of their parents and enter better-payingprofessional and other occupational opportunities.

The college context was one of "lean" no-nonsense education, fitting therequirements of a student body that was frequently stretched between the demands ofcollege, parenthood, family responsibilities, and often more than one job. The typicalstudent was someone who was "always going somewhere" and had little time for partiesand the beer busts more commonly found on up-market campuses. While theasynchronous advantages of the course lessened the stresses of conflicting demands towhich urban students are subjected, the increased enthusiasm generated by greatertechnological mastery (with more hopeful career prospects) seems to be a factor leadingto a greater (not lesser) workload, and thus ultimately, a greater level of stress (Picciano,1998, p. 12).

Course ContentEducational reformers in accounting and proponents of student-centered learning

concur on one important point: technical material is necessary, but not sufficient, fortoday’s students. The AECC notes that from the perspective of increasing theproductivity and efficiency as employees, “…knowledge of historical and contemporaryevents affecting the profession is essential to effective teaching” (AECC, 1991-91).15

From the perspective of enfranchising students – on their own terms (and not merely asproductive workers) -- proponents of student-centered learning support similar contentchanges (Bowles and Gintus, 1976).

To this end, in this AIS course design, conventional technical material wasbolstered with literature on the social and institutional history of professional labourprocesses, giving students the tools for investigating contemporary accounting issues, aswell as the evolution of new accounting skills and products. The main course text is not

14 This data was obtained by perusing the class rosters.15 The AECC repeatedly stresses the importance of a historical and sociologicalunderstanding: “…. an understanding of the flow of ideas and events In history….history of the accounting profession and accounting thought….will lead to animproved understanding of the worldwide economics, political, and social forcesaffecting society and the profession. ” (AECC, 1990-91).

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an AIS manual, but a classic on the history of the white-collar work: Harry Braverman’sLABOR AND MONOPOLY CAPITAL. In addition, students complete a series ofcontemporary cases on contemporary accounting and corporate controversies, and learn toutilize a data-based accounting package. Apart from Braverman’s book, most materialwas made available from the school's network.16 As a further step towards enhancing thestudents’ marketplace potential, a data-based accounting package was chosen inpreference to one mirroring the traditional accounting system because it provided a bridgeto the design of E-Commerce designs and other management information systems.17

For student-centered activity, the new courseware provides exceptionalopportunities to increase student writing and for collaborative project work.18 Threadeddiscussion (supplemented by virtual chat and email) is used by each student to completefour structured group projects, each spanning three weeks. Each project requires astudent to provide an initial written case analysis, written reviews and critiques of othergroup member submissions, and written collaboration in a final group submission. Eachstep takes approximately one week. Table I shows that 102 students from two classeswere divided into 10 project groups. Each group undertook the same 4 electronic essayassignments.19

Insert Table I about here

Group essay assignments were designed to test the students grasp of historical,professional, and technical material, as well as their ability to develop, articulate anddebate their position relative to material presented to the class. In essence, each groupengaged in a structured debate that eventually culminated in a final group submission.20

16 One feature of this student-centered design (that may be a little unfashionable tomention) is that the cost of the text is $18 per copy; a not insignificant consideration forinner-city students least able to afford the inflated prices of textbooks.17 Using the data-based package, students re-run a problem-set that had beenpreviously completed in a labour-intensive mode. By keeping log of the time the spenton each stage of work completed under the two modes, students discover the "laborsaving" impact of the new technology, the forces that are reconstituting accounting'sproduct portfolio, skills-set, and thus career paths.18 An asynchronous learning regime offers the possibility of greater active participationof students in the learning process, especially if the instructor facilitates the transition byencouraging students to engage in debate and discussion. The medium permits a morecontemplative response and obviates the pressure for immediate replies of face-to-faceinterchanges. For similar reasons, shy students may also participate more fully underan asynchronous format than under traditional learning regimes. Such developmentscan lead to the creation of what Lippman (1996) and Anderson (1991) call a "communityof inquiry" where participation is "leveled" for all.19 Initially, groups were composed of members from both classes (sections of thecourse) in the expectation that only an electronic (and not a physical) presence wasnecessary. This policy was subsequently revised to draw group members from the sameclass, to provide the opportunity for face-to-face backup for the asynchronous contact.20 In this study, early and visible intervention by the instructor in electronic essaydiscussions not only gave students a motivational impetus, but provided them withexamples in interrogating evidence, constructing criticism, deconstructing

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Course EvaluationAn action-research format does not lend itself to the controlled environment of a

clinical experiment where a ceterus paribus condition may be imposed, and the effects ofa course treatment can be carefully monitored.21 However, the Accounting EducationChange Commission suggests a number of “indirect” criteria for evaluating theeffectiveness course designs such as the one enumerated above:

1. To ensure high and even participation within the constraints of a large classsize

2. To stimulate debate and dialogue3. To cultivate collaborative responsibility4. To develop leadership qualities5. To infuse a grasp of current affairs that enhances student control over their

careers

One benchmark for evaluating the effect of the new courseware is by comparisonswith the non-asynchronous course formats that existed previously. In this era, students inthese sections completed few or no essays assignments, and little or no collaborativegroup project work. At best, essays were handwritten, poorly constructed, neverexceeding three per course, and were not examined and discussed by student peers. Thestatistics for the asynchronous course are shown in Table II.

Insert Table II about here

The increase in student interaction evidenced in Table II is matched by a dramaticimprovement in students’ grasp of historical, professional, and technological material, aswell as their enhanced ability to apply this understanding in conducting their lives. Theinstructors judgement on which this assertion is based, is clearly highly subjective, butdraws from multiple instances for corroboration. Appendix I contains three examples ofstudent scripts as evidence of the quality of analysis and insight. The assignment towhich these scripts were responses was to assess the validity of two competinghypotheses as to changes presently underway in accounting: the skills upgrading thesis,and the skills polarization thesis. The assignment tests the students’ understanding of thesocial origins of technological change, and the manner in which this is currentlyreconstituting accounting work.

ImplicationsIn recent years, asynchronous technology has become emblematic of the

educator's worst nightmare. It embodies the specter of a Phoenix-like electronic campus, counterpositions, and marshalling criticism. Setting an early example in this mannerobviates a frequent danger with network-based learning where students are neglected,feel isolated, and fall into a rut (Trentin, 1996).21 The price paid for this experimental control (internal validity) is in terms of externalvalidity: loss of proximity to realism-in-actual-process.

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geographically decentered, devoid of physicality, where servers stand in for instructors,and only the modems do the handshaking. Without wishing to minimize genuineconcerns about the commodification of educational work (Dillard and Tinker, 1996;Tinker and Yuthas, 1994; Tinker and Koutsoumadi, 1997; 1998) this study reports somepositive findings for the educator. Many inner city educational institutions have beensavaged by funding cuts. Class sizes now often exceed 50, simplistic multiple choicequizzes "Rule", and the written essay is all but extinct.22 However, this case study showsthat asynchronous technology, far from putting universities out of their misery, canrestore quality to education with a student-centered curriculum. Under the coursewareregimen, instructors may assume a central role that is a major advance beyond theirpresent role as quiz masters and Scantron operators.

Realistically however, the economic impact of this technology still raises concernsabout the future of accounting education. The previous study describes a form oftransitional technology, where students currently enjoy “the best of both worlds”: aheavy infusion of investment in technology, supplemented by considerable face-to-facecontact. Yet dramatic and irresistible cost savings accrue from asynchronous deliverysystems and pairing-back on the labor-intensive face-to-face components. Whilecompetitive market forces may initially generate a greater array of “products” anddelivery technologies, the relentless drive to economize may eventually lead to a greatlyexpanded, low-cost form of Mac-Ed in accounting.23 If we turn to other media to discernwhat is in store for accounting (e.g., the newspaper and television experience forinstance) variety and choice may implode towards a dumbed-down average aseducational providers struggle to control a middle ground.

22 The rot has set in to the point to the point that, when accounting faculty considerreintroducing essay items into examinations, many colleagues doubt their competencein correcting grammar and punctuation, or to grade "subjective" essay submissions. Onone occasion they suggested that the College’s English Department be asked to staffthis work.

23 This instructor was given additional pay in compensation for the increase in workload.However, even greater reward was derived from the satisfaction of fostering asubstantial improvement in the students’ educational accomplishments. The latter mighthowever prove short-lived if there is an intensification of teaching work.

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McGinn, D., “College Online, Newsweek, April 24, 2000

Nelson, I., "What's Happening in the Job Market?" New Accountant, April, 1998.

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Picciano, A,G., "Developing an Asynchronous Course Model at a Large, UrbanUniversity" Journal", JALN Volume 2, Issue 1, March 1998.

Rosen, Michael, “Breakfast as Spiro’s: Dramaturgy and Dominance”, Journal ofManagement, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 31-48, 1985

Rosen, Michael, “Coming to Terms with the Field: Understanding and DoingOrganizational Ethnography”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol.28, No. 1, January 1991.

Rosen, Michael, “Staying on the String: The Yo and the Market in Eighty-Nine”, CriticalPerspectives on Accounting, Vol 1, pp. 337-365, 1990.

Roy, D. "Efficiency and the Fix", American Journal of Sociology, Vol. LX, No. 3,November 1954.

Smith, C., Whipp, R., and H. Willmott, "Case-Study Research in Accounting:Methodological Breakthrough or Ideological Weapon?", Advances inPublic Interest Accounting, Volume 2, 1988, pp. 95-120.

Smith, T., THE LOGIC OF MARX'S CAPITAL: REPLIES TO HEGELIAN CRITICISMS,(Albany: State University of New York, 1990)

Taylor, Frederick THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT,(New York,1967).

Tinker, T., "Like Lambs to the Slaughter: How the Accounting Establishment fails itsStudents without exams", July 1999, PASS.

Tinker, T., "Sleepless in Seattle: Farewell Democracy, Hello WTO!" Electronic Journalof Radical Organisation Theory,http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/ (March, 2000).

Tinker, T., and A. Koutsoumadi, “The Accounting Workplace: A Joyless Future”, TheAccounting Forum, Vol. 21, No. 3 & 4, December 1997 – March1998, pp. 289-316.

Tinker, T., and A. Koutsoumadi, “The Mind is a Wonderful Thing to Waste”: Think Likea Commodity, Become a CPA!” , Accounting, Auditing, andAccountability Journal, Volume 10, No. 3, 1997.

Tinker, T., and K. Yuthas, “Paradise Regained? Myth, Milton, and ManagementAccounting" (with K. Yuthas) Critical Perspectives on Accounting,Vol. 5, No. 3, September 1994, pp. 295-3110.

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Trentin, G. “Internet: Does it Really Bring Added Value to Education". InternationalJournal of Educational Telecommunications, 2(213), 97-106, 1996.

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Table I:Organizing project Groups and Essays

2 classes 102 students 10 projectgroups

4 Essays 428 individualstudent essaysubmissions*

intra-groupcomment period

on individualsubmissions

First GroupLeaders draft:

10 Group Essays(followed byintra-group

comments periodon the draft)

Final GroupLeaders

Submissionby 10 Groups

* Includes multiple submissions by some students.

Table IIPerformance Measure of the 102 students in the AIS two classes

Per Student All StudentsEssays written 4.2 428*Comments on the work of others 18 1836Leadership role 1 102

* Includes multiple submissions by some students.

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Appendix I

Essay example 1

Each day the press is full of reports about how the world is changing. The mostprominent changes we see in the world today concern modern technology, primarilycomputerization. Although there has been a leveling off in recent years of personalcomputer sales, nobody can argue against the impact these machines have made or thefact that they will infiltrate our lives in the future to depths we can't now imagine. Someof the greatest transformations are occurring in the work place. How do we adapt tothem? How do we keep up? These questions may be better answered if we understoodthe ideology behind them.

In Harry Braverman book, Labor Capital Monopoly, the author describes thetraditional Skills Upgrading Thesis and counters it with his own Polarization Thesis inattempting to explain the role of technology and the change it's made to society in recentdecades.

Skill is the ability to use knowledge effectively in executing and performing tasks.Skilled workers have been described as those who understand the underlying principles off their jobs, it is a craft, and so they are irreplaceable. Semi-skilled workers are those whohave jobs that require some mechanical knowledge and basic operations. Unskilledworkers are mere laborers, people with little or no knowledge of the mechanical operation.

The Skills Upgrading Thesis argues that continuing improvements in technologygive rise to the need for constant retraining and reeducation, which leads to advancing theskills and qualifications of workers. As a result of technology people are now facing thethreat of losing their job because a process has changed, been upgraded, or been entirelyeliminated. These transformations have been labeled as a skills gap. In accounting, largefirms are attempting to bridge this gap through the 150-hour requirement. Thosecharacteristics which were traditionally accepted as adequate have become obsolete andthe majority of workers and graduating student are not equipped to meet the employeequalifications of today' ' businesses.

The Skills Upgrading Thesis is based upon the premise of two market trends. Thefirst is the shift of workers from one major occupational group to another (farming tomanufacturing). The second explanation is the prolongation of education (Braverman426). It is believed that enhancing skill levels will improve society by making it moreefficient and productive. This thesis has also been broken down into social andprofessional segments. Today politicians and big business leaders (like the largeaccounting firms) have developed platforms calling for this skills gap to be bridgedthrough additional educational.

Braverman’s Polarization Thesis argues that as technology advances, itpolarization work force into those that are skilled and unskilled. This happens because it

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takes far fewer employees to operate the new technologies. Those few fortunate to takethis role do experience an upgrading of their skills by having the capability to operate thenew technological development (computer for example), but far more workers becomedeskilled because whatever skills they possessed become obsolete. In addition, the newjobs produced in today's economy are lower paying due to the efficiency of these newproducts. These changes have put workers on a treadmill in attempting to keep up.Braverman urges that the Upgrading Thesis is an inadequate analysis and that the skillsgap can't be closed through education alone.

Braverman argues that there has arisen a new interdependence between business(and all of society for that matter) as a result of the new products and services thattechnology has brought forth under capitalism. Skill that once, under the old system, wasan art form of quality and rich with religious fervor, has now under capitalism, becomeonly those activities considered beneficial to the company. Braverman calls this theshedding of labor through technology. The skill of the worker has been trashed for thegoals of economization, a direct objective of the interdependent capitalist. The sheddingof labor has bought on the destruction of the extended family and replaced it with thegrowing role of the state in the workers life (for example regulatory agencies involved inactivities like the SAL A century ago, the first industrial revolution transformedblue-collar workers; today the second transforms white-collar workers. The product ofthese changes is two classes of workers; a smaller number of core workers with skills tooperate modern technology and a larger number of peripheral workers that are deskilled.Both are victims of economy and efficiency enforced in our new technologicallyinterdependent society.

Braverman’s argument that today 's businesses are interdependent, focused oneconomic efficiency, and shedding labor is very evident in the world around us. Mergersand acquisitions, downsizing, and the infusion of computer information systems arecommonplace today even in the field of accounting. New products in assurance servicesare being introduced. The 1 50-hour requirement has been adopted in attempt to close theskills gap. The Big 5 firms are hiring fewer CPA s New areas of accounting are beingforged in this new society as well. The emergence of watchdog groups like the SEC andCertified Fraud Examiner are by-products of the type of business being conducted todaylargely due to technological capabilities that were previously nonexistent. Theseexamples all support Braverman 's contentions that certain skills become less valuableover time polarizing the workers. Due to the nature of changes taking place workers haveless control over the processes of labor, less understanding of their task, and the inabilityto perform the process of completing an entire product. Take Boeing for example.Through the introduction of robotics and computerization, they have decreased thenumber of workers necessary to build an airplane from sixty to twenty. Braverman statesthat technology deprives workers of skills by taking away the creativity and inventivenessof the production process, as seen here with Boeing. Even better evidence underscoringBraverman s thesis concerns our Waren Case, spreadsheet, and MYOB assignments thissemester.

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The accounting profession was long centered on the manual exercise ofbookkeeping. Prior to spreadsheets and computer programs, accountants spent long hourstransforming purchase orders and sales invoices into an intricate financial web ofdocuments, journals, and reports. The labor was tedious and time consuming, requiringhighly skilled and knowledgeable workers with an acute attention to detail and anunderstanding of the effects of one transaction on another. This was emphasized incompleting the Waren Case, which allows accounting students to put into practice thetheory they have learned.

The spreadsheet portion of the project was a valuable tool in cutting hours off thepress by putting all the account balances in front of the user, available at a glance. It alsoprovided am safeguard against miscalculations since all the columns and rows had tobalance out. The spreadsheet requires minimal amount of new skill in carrying out theprocess. It eliminated time-consuming activities and made accounting easier to someextent.

MYOB accounting software, when compared to the traditional and spreadsheetmethods, has taken accounting in a whole other direction. Although the software isnowhere near as user-friendly as Quick books software, it did make a significantdifference in the bookkeeping task. Using the software makes clear that * is now moreimportant to know how to input each transaction than to know accounting. Once theinputs are complete, the computer automatically carries out the other tasks aligned withthem (linked accounts), resulting in a huge savings of time. Reports are produced with aclick of the mouse button. Changes are easily and accurately made without the need toerase various numbers on numerous journals, ledgers, and statements. Tediousinformation like addresses and contract terms only has to be entered once.

After completing these assignments and our study of current events in accounting,it is evident that the Skills Upgrading Thesis, emphasizing education alone, cannot be theanswer. Braverman’s thesis better explains the revolution taking place in capitalistsocieties. In analyzing the three parts of our assignment, Braverman's points are supportedby the transition of accounting from traditional methods to MYOB

Traditional methods require a great deal of skill, knowledge, and art to perform. Itwas a craft in which the end product had a direct link to a person, not a machine. Eachproduct was unique, far from the generic commodities being produced by today'scomputerized technology.

In MYOB much of the requirement has shifted from understanding accounting toknowing simple inputting procedures. When compared to traditional processes, one cansee there is less knowledge necessary for using MYOB. The skill of accounting to someextent is withering away. MYOB is to accounting what the assembly line was to FordMotors in the early 1900's. Fewer, less skilled workers and shorter production times arethe norm.

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Accounting has not been immune to changes and the profession has probably notseen the last of them. There is no way that bridging the gap through education alone will"fix" society (Upgrading Thesis). As we have seen in MYOB technology is polarizing thework force. Fewer accountants are needed. They need new computer skills having greateremphasis on technology and less on accounting. Those who set themselves apart will layhold of the fewer core jobs available as a result of these changes. All others (deskilled)will be delegated to peripheral positions. Accountants must position themselves to offerservices that computers cannot. Regardless of how advanced technology becomes, thecore jobs will always be filled by workers having good judgment and able to render soundadvice. Workers do need to upgrade their skills through education. However technology,economization, and globalization are creating interdependence that is a driving force,shaping the world, as we know it. These factors are beyond our control as individuals. Itis up to us to interact with them in whatever way necessary to better ourselves and secureOUT own future

Essay example 2

The more I read in the formal and informal literature of occupations, the more Ibecame aware of a contradiction that marks much of the current writing in this area. Onone hand, it is emphasized that modern work, as a result of the scientific-technicalrevolution and "automation," requires even higher levels of education, training, thegreater exercise of intelligence and mental effort in general. At the same time, a mountingdissatisfaction with the conditions of industrial and office labor appears to contradict thisview. For it is also said-sometimes even by the same people who at other times supportthe first view-that work has become increasingly subdivided into petty operations thatfad] to sustain the interest or engage the capacities of humans with current levels ofeducation; that these petty operations demand even less skill and training; and that themodern trend of work by its `'mindlessness" and "bureaucratization" is alienating evenlarger sectors of e working populations.

Technology and work is a subject, which has abstracted major thinkers seeking toexplain cultural, political, and economical change. Marx, Veblen, Weber and morerecently, Milton Friedman, Daniel Bell, and Ronald Inglehart all have pointed to ways inwhich the state of technology shapes the rest of society. Periods of rapid technologicaloccupational change produce destabilization and unrest in society. Class structure, thehierarchy of trades, the demand for skills, changes in income and life style, the need forinstitutional supports, job satisfaction, and political issues are all affected by socialchange. Our paradigms of macro societal development have evolved with technologicaladvancement from pre-industrial, through industrial, and, currently, to postindustrialsociety. The Pre-industrial era is characterized as agrarian society (feudal in Europe).Close to two-thirds worked the land in 1840; manufacturing was largely in the form ofartisanship and small shop production. With the industrial era of the I9th century and thegrowth of farming technology, the population shifted from rural to urban areas' followingthe increase of employment in factories. The decline of an agrarian way of life is reflectedtoday in the minute portion of the work force' two and one-half percent, engaged in

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agricultural work in the United States. In 1998 we are experiencing the advent of apostindustrial society with its de-emphasis on large factories and mass production. As thistransition from industrial era upholds, only 16 percent of the work force remains infactory today, while the manufacturing share of the GDP has fallen, as well, from 29% in1950 to IS TO in 1993. Growth in service and high technology industries hasaccompanied the decline in factory and mass production. This new postindustrial systemis characterized by increasing demand for technology, education, and innovation to besupplied social institutions shaped by the societal conditions and requirements of anearlier era.

Harry Braverman very interested in studying the capitalistic society in a very closeapproach into the consequences of particular kinds of technological change. Bycomparing and differentiating working class under monopolist capitalism, he was veryconcerned with the ideas, and the concepts of skill, training and education. Furthermore,Braverman was concerned that capitalism degrades workers' skills by taking awaycreativity from the working process In order to maximize profits. He argues that there aretwo main theses: polarization and upgrading thesis.

The mastery of skill has long been a predominant concept in the human culturewhere it is defined as the ability to use knowledge effectively in the execution of tasks.What exactly is skill? Braverman suggested that, for the workers, skill is "thecombination of knowledge of materials and processes with the practiced manual dexterityrequired to carry on a specific branch of production" (443.) During the twentieth century,skill has been classified into three categories: skilled, semi-skilled, and un-skilled. Theupgrading thesis argues that in order to increase productivity and achieve economicgrowth' we must constantly improve the skills of the working population throughextensive training and education. The polarization thesis, on the other hand, emphasizeson the necessity to utilize today's advanced technology to increase production andefficiency. Although the upgrading thesis is what we would like to strive for and "fit" outsociety into, we can not ignore the fact that with advanced and improved technology,today's society has comfortably and easily been de-skilled and polarized.

Upgrading thesis argues that the changing work-environment requires"better- educated workers. Upgrading thesis seems to rest upon two marked trends. Thefirst is the shift of workers from some major occupational groups into others; the secondis that most people's education in school should be prolonged. In the last seventy years,the number of laborers has declined. A large part of this classification had becomeoperatives. This shift represents that a massive number of people have higher categoriesof skills than before. With introduction of new technology workers have to learn how tooperate new machines. Therefore, they have to attend some courses to upgrade their skills.A high school diploma is no longer effective for most jobs today. Today most firmsrequire a college degree forcing to prolong their education. An example of the upgradingthesis is that a higher level of skill and education is required today for a clerical position.Where not too long ago, a clerk used a typewriter to create letters, reports etc. And todaycomputers are used instead with such software programs as MS Word and Word Perfect.

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An individual must upgrade their computer knowledge and skill in order to be consideredas a candidate for such a position.

The gap between skilled and non-skilled workers is a matter of years of trainingand education. The requirements of literacy and familiarity with numbers have beengeneralized throughout our society. It is not needed just to obtain a job, but for theconformity to the rules of society. The more "skills" a person has the more profitable heor she is. Employers raised their standards regarding education. Now a days, even thesimplest job requires some computer knowledge and general business background.Simplified, the upgrading theory indicates that workers' skills need to be upgraded inorder to maintain their level in the workforce or to move upward. Majority of people'sskills has improved because of the consequence of technological change (What Happenedto the Job Market?). However, the shortcoming of this thesis is that it takes a long time toupgrade average people's skill. Of course it costs more. Also according to Braverman,requirements for prolonged education are not necessarily for upgrading our skills, but forscreening out job applicants and reducing the supply of labor. An example is the150-Hour Law, which requires the accounting students to complete an extra year ofschool of unspecified criteria. In actuality all that this requirement is doing isdiscouraging students from entering the accounting fields, reducing the supply ofaccountants in the job market.

The polarization thesis can best be described as the slow decline of the work forceas a direct result of technological and scientific breakthroughs. The skills polarization asargued by Braverman is that polarization has led to workers losing their skills withoutgaining new abilities and that the more science is incorporated into the workplace, theless these workers understand about their task (425). We have a problem with theextremes that we have imposed on ourselves. We have the extremely skilled working tocreate products that allows the extremely unskilled to work effectively and efficiently.This difference in ability, knowledge, and skill is allowing for the "astute" workers toeliminate the in-betweeners. That is going to be a problem when we have one sidegeniuses while the other side we have idiots (Other Millennium Bomb). In a recent articleread in a business magazine, McDonalds plans to replace their manual French fry stationworkers with robots that watch and dispense fries when needed. Imagine how widespreadthis problem must be if it even effects those workers in the fast-food area. Bravermanseems to understand that human labor is no longer an important role in the production ofgoods and services. What was once required is now merely an option, that being theoutlook on human presence in the company of production. It seems the polarization thesisis trying to show how it is better to increase science than to increase a workers knowledge,which would result in the decrease of the workforce. This creates a dual labor force,which would contain the skilled and secure workers as opposed to the unskilled andinsecure workers; a detriment to the work places (A Flexible Future).

Analyzing the "upgrading" and "polarizing" thesis in terms of the Waren projectand the database approach of MYOB, we compare in fact two different systems (atraditional or a mechanical system versus a computerized system based on high

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technology). The traditional concept of an accounting skill was replaced by technical andengineering skills based on limited operations by utilizing computers. A practicalexample would be H&R Block. The complicated process of preparing tax return has beensystemized and mechanized. Waren project is more demanding in terms of knowledge,training, and information. MYOB, on the other hand, requires more technical skills,computer skills, and less tools and methods of basic financial accounting systems.Working on the Waren project, we had to go through each step in the documentation.Doing that we became more knowledgeable about many aspects of accounting systemsand recording functions. In MYOB, the process is already registered and does not implysuch a depth understanding of all documents, records, and system procedures.Furthermore, we had an opportunity to compare how much time it would take to processroutine paper work for one month manually and with the help of an accounting softwarepackage. The difference was tremendous. It would take many hours to fill out all thenecessary journals manually. The software package can save a lot of time and preventmost human mistakes. However, The computer operator would require a different set ofskills. Probably, that person would not need a deep knowledge of bookkeeping but ratherknowledge of computers. Our experience with the movement from classical Waren tospreadsheet enhancement, and to MYOB can be used to demonstrate the upgrading thesis.Workers' technological skills are increased through this process resulted in a major shiftfrom unskilled workers to semi-skilled workers. The new skills are obtained through abetter education and training; thus, the working population is upgraded. The skillpolarization took place when we use computer software, such as MYOB as a primary toolto perform the tasks. The computer software allows a significant reduction of time andworkers needed to complete the project.

The constant change toward efficiency has increased the level of socialinterdependence in capitalist society. Our society is no longer based on self-sufficiency.Portion of the labor force becomes de-skilled and eventually lost, their independence andcontrol of how they produced and what they produced. This process of controlling,restricting, and de-individualizing labor by management is a key feature of capitalism.The "big five" accounting firms, as product of capitalism, controls new skills required inaccounting and the work performed by accountants. Today's modern corporation is anexpression of interdependence. They are products of various mergers among companiesseeking to increase efficiency and to gain more market control. However, with thisgrowing social interdependence comes a growing vulnerability. This is where theaccountants are needed as "watchdog" to protect the public interest and to avoid financialbreakdowns. As Braverman pointed out, the groups of people affected by failure increaseas interdependence increases. As a result of this social interdependence, the auditor'sdecision can affect the movement in the stock market. Furthermore, a failure in themarket could affect the world's economy as it is evident from the current turmoil of theworld economy, and also as it was seen in the depression of the 1930. Therefore, it is veryimportant for the auditor to be able to identify any "Red Flags" and to make sure there is aproper system of internal control in place. In the case of Lincoln Savings, auditors did notverify that they had performed a responsible credit check of their debtors. Also inbuilding the Phoenician, there was not an investment appraisal of the project, which is

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highly needed. Because of these missed "Red Flags" there was a great failure, in whichmany stakeholders were affected, including investors, politicians, employees, and theFDIC, which ultimately paid for the failure.

Undoubtedly, technology has made numerous skills obsolete and gave rise to newskills, increasingly urgent and valuable. The Accounting profession has evolved into anoccupation of two extremes. One is data entry, which requires limited training, and theother one according to Mr. Nelson (What Happened to the Job Market?), an expandedinformation market, price competition, aired new technologies and increasing liabilityresulting from stakeholder lawsuits pursuant to the massive frauds of the past twodecades, require the acquisition of new skills. Greater analytical skills, the ability to solvebusiness problems using information systems, assurance services, business-strategicmanagement skills, business advisory services, and fraud detection are just a few of thesenew skills.

The proponents of the skill-upgrading thesis praise the increasing prestige of theprofession and the new services. However, as Braverman pointed out, this is merely anideology. There are several negative effects in the form of massive layoffs and thewidening gap between the highly skilled and unskilled workers. These changes are theresult of the degradation of work due to technology. In the article "A Flexible Future,"firms seek to increase their ability to adjust quickly and cheaply to technological change,to reduce employment costs and to continue the high rate of growth in productivity. Onemethod firms use to achieve these goals is by dividing accounting work, for example, intocore and periphery workers, where long-term commitments are established with coreworkers and peripheral workers are brought in to achieve greater flexibility in the numberof employees employed. New technology makes it possible for firms to higher fewer highskilled workers and more lower skilled workers with lower pay whose job is only tooperate the machines. This reduces employee costs and creates flexibility in the jobmarket, according to the employer version. Likewise, the Ernst &: Young mergerproposal states that the firm wants to hire "people with skills needed...to meet thegrowing demands of clients" and stresses the importance of " leading-edge technology"and " the knowledge to provide industry-based service." As more and more softwarebeing utilized in the workplace, capitalists are able to reduce number of professionalsemployed, therefore, lower costs to achieve higher profit. This is an unavoidable trend inthe capitalist society. Companies can now only hire five employees to do the jobs thatwere formerly performed by fifty people. As accounting students, we have to realize thisfact and find ways to make ourselves be the five, but not the other forty-five.

By analyzing both theoretical and practical aspects of the changing in theworkforce that has been undergoing in the past decades, we learned something veryimportant for our future. We find out that no matter what kind of job we are going to have,either entering data or providing advisory services, we need to be better educated and welltrained in order to be accepted in the workforce. However, a higher education does notguarantee a good job and higher quality of life. Even though the upgrading thesis statesthat the working population is upgraded through higher education and better training, as

26

an individual, one still needs a unique quality that separates us from the rest of theworking population. We are forced to find new ways of applying our knowledge andaccept the crude reality that we live in a very industrialized society with a strong systemof capitalism on which new skills are demanding and old skills become obsolete. Forexample, bookkeeping skills are no longer an important part of accounting profession, aswe do not need accountants to do data entries. In order to survive and succeed, we need tofocus on unique qualities, such as developmental skills that are related to the newassurance service sector, which provides advisory and consulting services, or to educateourselves as a fraud examiner. These sectors are the areas that cannot be replaced bymachines and these are also the areas where we can continuously utilize our creativity andinventiveness. More and more machines and software will be developed and used in thework place as tools for capitalist to achieve higher profit. We do not have control overthis trend because it is derived from the very nature of this society.

However, as human beings, we do have control over ourselves. We are capable oftransforming ourselves to meet the new challenges. By understanding all these, we areconfident that we will achieve our goals and succeed. So is labor forever condemned toits generally degraded state? Braverman offers a vision of a work force no longerpolarized but "united in the collective body which conducts it." This signifies the removalof the inherent conflict between labor and management. Effective skills upgrading requirea totally different economic system and the removal of the social bias against manuallabor. A meaningful education requires the introduction of labor during the school yearsand students being able to perceive education as a lifetime process, which they should beable to manage themselves after graduating. Given the present economic system andhuman nature, wouldn't it be surprising if the masters of capital were to share their wealthwith the workers, which is what Braverman's strategy implies?

Essay example 3

Capitalism has caused two great changes in the process of labor. The first stagechanged the organization of labor, where traditional work was divided into its constituentparts and performed by a series of detail workers. The second stage entails a change in theinstruments of ~ labor. Because of an increase in technological advances, work hasbecome mechanized or automated. The major characteristic of capitalism is a constantchange toward efficiency. This change in the nature of work has resulted in changes in theway work is done, the creation of new service products and new levels of socialinterdependence. Technology has been used in order to reach the objective of efficiencyand effectiveness but at the same time deskilled the individual worker.

Consequently, the worker eventually replaced the valued craftsman. Thetransformation of the workplace and the need to control workers can evidently be seenfrom the type of machinery introduced in the factories during the Industrial Revolution.Workers eventually lost their independence and control of how they produced and whatthey produced. This process of controlling, restricting, and de-individualizing labor by

27

management is a key feature of capitalism. The "big five" accounting firms, as productsof capitalism, control new skills required in accounting and the work performed byaccountants. De-skilling of work due to technological advancements can also be pertainedto the accounting profession. With the introduction of computers and accounting software,certain accounting knowledge, skills and jobs will be eliminated. There are two viewsthat explain the need and effect of these new skills resulting from increased technology.They are the skills upgrading thesis and the skills polarization thesis.

Braverman in his book, Labor and Monopoly Capital, states that the changingconditions of industrial and of office work require an increasingly "better-trained", "bettereducated" and thus an upgraded working population. The upgrading thesis definesupgrading as a moving forth with technology and stresses the importance of enhancingskill levels as a means of improving society in an efficient and productive manner. "Theupgrading thesis seems to rest upon two market trends. The first is the shift of workersfrom some major occupational groups into others; the second is the prolongation of theaverage period of education" (Braverman, 426). A good example of this shift inoccupational groups was the decrease of non-farm laborers who had become "operatives"by 1970. This created a massive upgrading of workers to a higher category of skill. Theywent form unskilled to semi-skilled workers. "With the increasing mechanization ofindustry the category of the 'unskilled' would register a precipitous decline, while that ofthe 'semi-skilled' would show an equally striking rise" (Braverman). The change incategory was brought about simply because these workers had to operate machines. Thisupgrading was based upon a simple mechanical criterion.

The skills polarization thesis agrees with the skills upgrading thesis on the pointthat there has been an increase in the skills of the workforce. However, the skillspolarization thesis gives more insight as to what is actually taking place. The skillsupgrading thesis does not explain fully why there has been a decline in unskilled labor.Workers classified under the unskilled category have declined because according tostatisticians the definition of skill has changed and there has been a creation of a newcategory of labor known as the semi-skilled workers. This change moved many workersfrom being classified as unskilled to semi-skilled or skilled. Also, since work in theservice sector is considered skilled labor and since there has been an increase in theservice sector and decrease in the manufacturing sectors, the unskilled category hasdeclined.

The skills polarization thesis best explains the accounting profession today. Thecomputerization of many accounting procedures has led to a bifurcation of the skillsinvolved leading to a skills gap. Large CPA firms argue that in today's workplace, peopleneed abilities and skills that are quite different from those imparted in schools. Theyemphasize the need for changes in the curriculum by implementing the 1 50-hourrequirement. The future for accounting is in the assurance services and consulting arisingfrom the need of accounting information. The Big 5 are expanding to take control of thisnew market since accountants are in the best position to do so. An attempt to develop newskills, such as communication, ability to judge and analyze and strategic-managementskills, represents the reskilling process in the accounting profession. A practical example

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of deskilling would be H&R Block. The complicated process of preparing tax return hasbeen systemized and mechanized. "The availability of inexpensive, sophisticated, anduser-friendly tax software has drastically reduced the demand for routine preparationservices for personal tax returns. Thus, demand for entry-level tax 'grunts' to crank outreturns is decreasing " (What Happened to the Job Market?). Firms are hiring moreexperienced and more non-accounting individuals. The skills required are no longer forthe "number crunchers," but for people who have analytical skills and knowledge ofbusiness activities.

These changes are also reflected in the transition from the manual Waren project to theMind Your Own Business Software. Prior to the introduction of accounting software, theskill level needed to succeed was very high and commanded rigorous training.Progressing through the process of performing accounting activities for Waren, from themanual entries in the Excel spreadsheet to the MYOB software, it becomes evident that areduced comprehension and skill level is demanded in each step. With the existence ofsoftware packages one can be an integral part of a company without having a thoroughknowledge in the field. Even though the manual accounting method was helpful inlearning and understanding the mechanism of bookkeeping, it proved to be timeconsuming, tedious and susceptible to errors. Many activities, such as, writing invoicesand checks, were boring and redundant. The introduction of the spreadsheet applications,Excel and Lotus, substantially simplified the operations and reducedthe time needed to complete the task. With the use of formulas one is able to calculatequickly and accurately. The skill required to prepare financial statements is eliminated,since they are generated automatically. The endless trial of paper work has beentransformed into automated activities. With one entry of information about a supplier orvendor each document required is instantly filled in. The software packages prove to bean efficient method of record keeping and a useful tool to analyze data. At any time it ispossible to produce reports or perform financial analysis using bar charts, graphs, andfinancial ratios. Time needed and labor costs are reduced substantially, leaving time foraccountants to use the information to give valuable evaluations of the firm.

The constant change toward efficiency increased the levels of socialinterdependence our society is no longer based on self-sufficiency. Today's moderncorporation is an expression of interdependence. They are products of various mergersamong companies seeking to increase efficiency and to gain more market control.However, with this growing social interdependence comes a growing vulnerability. Thisis where the accountant is needed as a "watchdog" to protect the public interest and toavoid financial breakdowns. As Braverman points out, the groups of people affected byfailure increases as interdependence increases. As a result of this social interdependence,the auditor's decision can affect the movement in the stock market. Furthermore, a failurein the market could affect the world's economy, as was seen in the Depression of the1930's. Therefore it is very important for the auditor to be able to identify any "RedFlags" and to make sure there is a proper system of Internal control in place. In the case ofLincoln Savings, auditors did not verify that they had performed a responsible creditcheck of their debtors. Also, in building the Phoenician there was not an investment

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appraisal of the project, which is highly needed. Because of these missed "Red Flags"there was a great failure, in which many stakeholders were affected, including investors,politicians, employees, and the FDIC, which ultimately paid for the failure.

Undoubtedly, technology has made numerous skills obsolete and gave rise to newskills, increasingly urgent and valuable. The Accounting profession has evolved into anoccupation of two extremes. One is data entry, which requires limited training, and theother is a full range of consulting and assurance services. The proponents of the skillsupgrading thesis praise the increasing prestige of the profession and the new services.However, as Braverman points out, this is merely an ideology. There are several negativeeffects in the form of massive layoffs and the widening gap between the highly skilledand unskilled workers. These changes are the result of the degradation of work due totechnology. In order to succeed, we cannot avoid upgrading our skills and become meredata entry workers. It should be our goal to place ourselves among those with higherskills, ready to make constant changes. In the competitive, free market system, successcomes to those who are most innovative and best prepared for changes.