Reglementierte Kreativität

During the process of computerisation—mostly referred to as digitalisation today—software has become the dominant means of production, and the division of labour in industry in the form of the reduction of manual operations has been transformed. Knowledge management by means of results is replacing scientific management as a guiding principle. In this way, the division between management and execution is losing its effect of increasing productivity; its function of guaranteeing dominance has become precarious and has increasingly come into conflict with the growing knowledge and skills of the workers. In this study, the author examines the practical contradictions resulting from the hierarchical division between management and execution both theoretically and empirically. In doing so, she demonstrates how companies have reacted to the challenges posed by computerisation neither optimally nor profitably. She analyses how this has resulted in the need for greater democracy in the division of labour, so that workers can develop their ‘cooperative individuality’ and creativity.