Automation is the process of advanced mechanisation. The possibilities of automation depend on the nature of the end products, and on the extent to which a company is willing to commit itself to turning out a few standardized items.

Automation has attracted the attention of the sociologists. According to them, automation has important consequences which extent well beyond the work place. In particular, it has been suggested that automation may produce important changes both within the working class and in the relationship of the working class to the rest of the society.

According to Blauner, automation produced the non-alienated worker; it replaced dissent between workers and management with consensus. Repressive and coercive control was succeeded by con­sultation and co-operation. The hostility produced by alienation was dissipated by meaningful work in a more cohesive work atmosphere.

However, he says that automation has resulted in the decline of class consciousness amongst’ workers. His social personality is increasingly like that of’ new middle class, the white-collar employee in the bureaucratic industry