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The chapters of this work summarize the results of 35 years dedicated to studying how technologies change work & organizations. The first chapter places current developments in artificial intelligence into the historical context of previous technological revolutions by drawing on William Faunce's argument that the history of technology is one of progressive automation of the four components of any production system: energy, transformation, & transfer & control technologies. The second chapter lays out a role-based theory of how technologies occasion changes in organizations. The third chapter tackles the issue of how to conceptualize a more thorough approach to assessing how intelligent technologies, such as AI, can shape work & employment. The fourth chapter discusses what has been learned over the years about the fears that arise when one sets out to study technical work & technical workers.

This essay responds to, largely concurs with, and extends the concerns Jerry Davis expressed in his June 2015 editorial essay in ASQ about the state of research in organizational theory. In particular, it discusses the reasons novelty has become such a valued commodity in organizational theory and its unintended consequences. Fault lies with the way students are trained, the reward system that most universities implicitly or explicitly use to promote faculty, and the role that editors and reviewers play in wittingly or unwittingly rewarding the quest for novelty in the peer-review process. One way to revitalize organization theory while also addressing such problems would be for the researchers to begin to focus on the myriad ways that organizations shape our society and for organizational theorists to begin to collaborate with engineers and researchers in schools of public policy who are more aware of and interested in addressing problems that organizations, especially profit-making firms, create as they seek to shape their own environments.

In this article, Stephen Barley examines the extent to which the U.S. military serves as a provider of skills in the civilian economy. His investigation centers around the following questions: Do training and education in the military transfer into the civilian workforce? If the military does prepare individuals for civilian jobs, will reductions in accessions constrict the availability of trained personnel, just as firms are realizing that they require a workforce more highly skilled than in the recent past? Barley presents a review of studies focusing on the economic returns to military service, which fall into one of three categories: the effect of military service on earnings potential; the effects of military training and occupational speciality; and the effects of military service on employment. Barley concludes by offering a series of recommendations for policy, highlighting the fact that returns to service are primarily due to access to further education.