How Skill is Related to control
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Highly skilled employees are harder to control than less-skilled employees. The
most highly skilled employees are considered professionals. Professionals have
significant responsibility and have conventionally had the freedom to design
their own work processes in the ways that suit them best. They don't need
someone else to manage their time. A health professional's judgment in deciding
how to get work done should be respected by hospital management.
In general, the more highly skilled employees are, the greater their bargaining
power in negotiating the terms of their employment. Because an 18th-century
cobbler had special knowledge and skills, that cobbler's livelihood was assured.
But the job of someone working on an assembly line in a shoe factory can be
learned quickly, so that worker can be easily replaced. Because assembly-line
workers know this, if not highly organized, they're easier to control than more
highly skilled workers.
For this reason, a corporate employer will generally deprofessionalize its
workforce as far as possible. Hospitals are no different. Hospital management
believes that health professionals have too much power and targets them for
deskilling through the redesign of work processes.
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