E-Government Implementation for Internal Efficiency: Perceptions and Experiences of Control at City of Cape Town, South Africa

Background

In explaining the degradation of work and changes in occupations in the 21^st century, Braverman (1974) saw scientific management and technology at the center of the labor process, increasing managerial control through the separation of conception and execution. The monopolization of information by the management on the shop-floor formed the source of control, while workers continued to lose skill and salaries. Through the separation of conception and execution, the rationale for the existence of management and the means for subordinating labor to managerial control could be reinforced (Braverman, 1974). Management control strategies and use of technology would be used to maximize control over workers thereby maximizing the capitalist’s interest to reduce costs and maximize profit (Braverman, 1974). While Braverman (1974) explained control based on the objective work condition, Edwards (1979) looked at the subjective sources of control beyond the objective capitalist conditions. He noted that through direct or simple control individual owners could be present on the shop floor, rewarding and punishing behavior (Edwards, 1979). With technologies that maximized the transformation of labor power into labor, technical control could maximize efficiency, enhance control over workers but create the potential for worker resistance through their shared experiences of work (Edwards, 1979). Bureaucratic control would create rules to govern the workplace thereby removing the unrestricted supervision and rewards and punishment based on established rules and procedures set out (Edwards, 1979).