TRUST, DISCRETION AND RESPONSIBILITY - THE DIVISION OF TECHNICAL LABOR

This paper examines the role which multinational corporation (MNC) bra nch plants play in the development and maintenance of the boundaries b etween technical occupations in the Irish Republic. In doing so, it ex amines recent attempts to characterise such workers as incumbents of ' high-discretion high-trust' work roles and also as 'trusted workers'. This paper argues that such attempts are lacking in explanatory power because they fail to account for other factors. In the Irish case, the se include levels of qualification, the higher status of theoretical a nd abstract knowledge, the fusion of technical and managerial function s and the greater organisational importance of the more senior technic al positions.