gain the interests of the capitalist class versus the workers. Duncan Gallie has shown how important it is to approach the question of skill from a social class perspective. In his study, the majority of non-manual, intermediate and skilled manual workers believed that their work had come to demand a higher level of skill, but the majority of manual workers felt that the responsibility and skill needed in their work had either remained constant or declined. This implies that Braverman's claims can't be applied to all social classes. The notion the particular type of technology workers were exposed to shapes their experience was most forcefully argued in a classic study by Robert Blauner. He argued that some work is alienating more than other types because of the different technologies workers use. Alienation, to Blauner, has four dimensions: powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation, and self-estrangement. Individuals are powerless when they can't control their own actions or conditions of work; work is meaningless when it gives employees little or no sense of value, interest or worth; work is isolating when workers cannot identify with their workplace; and work is self-estranging when, at the subjective level, the worker has no sense of involvement in the job. Blauner's claims however fail to recognize that the same technology can be experienced in a variety of ways. Studies have shown that cultural differences with regard to management–union relations, levels of hierarchical control, and reward and performance appraisal policies mean that the experience of the same kind of work can vary considerably between countries and firms. The individualization of work and the need for workers to have more flexible skills in order to respond to technological changes means that Blauner's characterization of work experience is no longer valid. Additionally, workers today may work in teams to alleviate workers' sense of alienation, since they are involved in the entire process, rather than just a small part of it. In conclusion, automative technologies and computerized work systems have typically enhanced workers' job satisfaction and skill deployment in the better-paid, secure public and private sector jobs. But, in more non-skilled manual work, they have just perpetuated job dissatisfaction, especially for the many women involved in this type of work. See also Bibliography of sociology Economic sociology Industrial and organizational psychology References Footnotes Bibliography Further reading Secondary sector of the economy Economic sociology Industrial relations