Social assessment of workplace technology—some experiences with the German program “ Humanization of work”

Abstract

Many of the problems and issues involved in the social assessment of workplace technologies can be exemplarily studied in the development of the West-German program on the humanization of work, which has been running for over ten years and after a period of reorientation now seems to be settled for another decade or more. This paper provides an outline of the development of the program, especially of its instruments, and provides some examples from its practice. Some lessons are drawn from the program's experience for three problem areas: The use of technology assessment in support of government policy making; the actual development of workplace technology; and the attitude of labor unions toward new technologies. The transferability of the program's set-up to other countries is considered briefly.