Employment and Organizational Change in the Information Society

1. Information Society Course (PR1172)2001/2Lawrence Green and Ian MilesPREST & CRIC Lecture 7 Employment, Jobs and the Organisation of Work in Information Society

2. Overview • Organisational change – factors, trends, and perspectives • The role of ICTs in organisational restructuring & development • New organisational forms • The implications of change for employment & occupations – the new ‘information workers’ • The transformation of occupations & job content - the experience of work in Information Society • Changing organisations, changing work – summary and conclusions

3. Organisational Change: Business Factors & Socio-economic Trends Globalisation Technology (especially ICTs) Professional Discourses & Trajectories Regulation & Legal Requirements Innovatory Capabilities Organisations/Employers Competition Alliances & Partnerships Evolving Demand Tertiarisation Feminisation Demographics

4. Business Factors (1) • Technology – an object and source of development and innovation (new opportunities, products and services) • ICTs – new opportunities for production and exploitation (new opportunities for gathering, storing, manipulating and using data/information) – ‘information’ as a key resource in innovation • Globalisation – the opening-up and merging of markets • Competition – the erosion of monopolies and increases in competition based on price, cost, quality and time (delivery and service levels as factors in competitive advantage)

5. Business Factors (2) • Innovatory capabilities – acquisition & development of innovation-facilitating skills and attitudes (sponsoring perpetual innovation in rapidly evolving and re-structuring markets) • Alliances and partnerships – recognition of the networked and interlinked nature of innovative activity, production and business – vertical ‘disintegration’ & the growth of outsourcing • Regulation - legislation relating to Health &Safety and employees’ rights (payments, pensions, and the ‘social wage’) • Professional and managerial discourses and trajectories – the role gurus, champions, narratives and (vogue) business philosophies in shaping organisational strategies and responses

6. Socio-economic Trends • Evolving Demand – new forms of consumption, disaggregation of demand, and changing preferences (new goods, related services and service products) • Tertiarisation – de-industrialisation and the rise of the services sectors • Feminisation – the entry of increasing numbers of women into paid labour (push & pull factors?) • Demographics – an ageing population and an ageing workforce (issues of mobility, recruitment, retention, and training)

7. The organisation of work: postulated trends (1) The transition from ‘Fordism’ to ‘Post Fordism’ Characteristics of Fordism: • The ‘modernist’/Taylorist project (early to late middle C20th) • Mass production of standardised goods • Servicing mass markets • Fragmentation & control of the labour process • The payment of (relatively) high wages as a means of stimulating demand Fordism: a victim of its own success? • Disaggregation of demand • Increasingly marginal gains in efficiency/productivity • Alienated and disaffected labour

8. The characteristics of Post Fordism • The post-modern project 1970s to present (?) • Reduced and limited production runs • Serving niche, specialised and rapidly changing markets • Disaggregation and fragmentation of demand (new forms of consumption and consumers) • Greater flexibility in production (enabled – in part - by the introduction of computer technologies) • Greater flexibility required of employees (numerically and functionally) • Outsourcing of non-core functions (the emergence of core and peripheral labour markets)

9. FordismPost-Fordism Fixed Product Lines, Long Product Runs Short production runs, re-tooling and varied production Production Innovation Low level and supplier driven Perpetual and market driven Mass Markets, Stable Tastes, Loyal Consumers Marketing Niches, Demanding Consumers, Changing and Fragmenting Steep Hierarchy, Vertical Chains of Command, Mechanistic Organisation, Vertical & Horizontal Integration, Central Bureaucracy Business Organisation Flatter hierarchies “delayered firms” More lateral communications, Organic rather than bureaucratic, Autonomous profit centres, internal markets, outsourcing, networks, professionalism, entrepreneurism

10. Labour organisation, work, and class Fordism Post Fordism (2) Localised bargaining, pay systems; “atypical” work forms and workers, segmented workforce, Pluralistic classes, multiparty systems, social movements, single issue politics and interest groups Mass unions, centralised bargaining with common scales, traditional proletariat; Unified classes, dualistic politics, class parties Public Services: Welfare & Education “Consumer choice”, Private provision Credit transfer, modules, independent study Standardised services, state provision (funded via taxation) Prescribed courses Source: adapted from Michael Ruston, New Left Review, 1989

11. The organisation of work: postulated trends(2) Transition to a ‘Post Industrial’ Economy • The growth of the tertiary sector – the greater part of new value-added is created in the non-industrial sectors • Ascendance of knowledge - the ability to produce material artefacts is subordinated to (and dependent upon) a capacity to acquire and deploy information & knowledge • The growth of the ‘information service’ sector - harvesting, storing & supplying data become core economic activities (Soete) • The informatisation of work - information activities penetrate all economic sectors and activities: ICTs become central to the efficient production of goods and services

12. Transition to a ‘post industrial’ economy (cont.d) • Productivity and competitiveness - dependent upon a capacity to generate, process and apply knowledge-based information • Recursive innovation - knowledge production, technological development and innovation become cumulative, mutually influencing and recursive (Castells) • Globalisation as the driving force – increasing and transnational competition demands rapid, continuous and focused innovation • Networking and ICTs - integration, networking and timely access to knowledge (relating to products, competitors, suppliers and consumers) becomes central to success – ICTs afforded a central role

13. The organisation of work: postulated trends(3) The penetration and changing role of ICTs Early deployment of IT • IT as a computational technology (1950s to 1980s) – IT deployed pre-eminently as an automating, cost-cutting and efficiency-leveraging tool • IT as a centralised resource – housed in (and guarded by) IT departments • Mainframe computers used largely for data-processing tasks, management information and control functions (e.g., MIS) Recent and contemporary deployment of ICTs • Technological advance and the distributed use of ICTs (PCs, office systems, intranets and extranets) • The ascendance of EDI and e-business systems • Organisational and inter-organisational platforms – the rise of network computing

14. Penetration and changing role of ICTs (cont.d) Key trends: • Rapid Diffusion – distribution has been rapid and comprehensive • Penetration & reach - ICTs have penetrated many new areas of business (few activities are immune) and many more employees are exposed to technology usage • Networking - ICTs are used both within and across organisations (networking is a key function) • Transformed usage - from ‘automation and computation’ to ‘communication, networking and the co-ordination of activities’ - a fundamental shift is underway in the way that ICTs are deployed in and across commercial and public organisations – cost-cutting and efficiency gains are substituted with efforts to achieve growth and value-added through knowledge creation and application in innovation processes

15. Organisational change: interlocking trends & factors Post Fordism Post Industrial Forms Of Organisation Penetration & Role of ICTs Socio-cultural Trajectories (demographics, feminisation etc.)

16. Trends and factors in organisational change and the organisation of work: a summary (and critique?) Key influences on change in the past 40 (?) years • Social, cultural and demographic trends • Post Fordist practices – flexible production and production for specialised and perpetually evolving markets…but, what is the evidence for PF, where is it encountered and to what extent (Kumar)? • Post industrial organisation and globalisation – the ascendance of the tertiary sector and ‘knowledge’ as a key component in value-added, innovation, and new products & services…but, hasn’t knowledge always been at the heart of business processes and innovation? • The penetration and changing role of ICTs – distributed computing, networking and communication displace the use of IT as an automating tool…but, both the deployment and value of ICTs are a function of wider organisational strategies and choices (see below)

17. Technology Technology ‘impacts’ with employment and working life The implementation of ICT is connected intimately with the development of organisational strategy Organisations Organisational change resides predominantly in changing job practices (and numbers of employees) However, technology both enables new and eradicates existing structures and processes Technological and Organisational Change: a Dynamic Relationship

18. The role of technology and ICTs in organisational restructuring and development (1) • Beware ‘technological determinism’ – ICTs do not simply impact with organisational structures: the deployment and use of technology is connected intimately with organisational choices, strategies and aims (and management styles) • Implementation: a political process - deployment of technology is a political, negotiated and frequently contested process – power relationships and group and individual interests play an important role • Learning & shaping - much learning surrounds the deployment of technology – ‘usage’ and functionality is frequently a negotiated and lengthy process and much technology is ‘re-shaped’ during implementation and early usage phases (eventual modes of use can be very different from those intended at the development stage – especially where users have not been consulted/involved in system design) • Success factors - rationale, form of implementation, and degree of employee involvement in system design, interact and impact massively with the successful (or otherwise) deployment of new technologies

19. The role of technology and ICTs in organisational restructuring and development (2) The rationale for the introduction of ICTs can vary widely between organisations and between & within sectors: • Efficiency gains (automation and the substitution of human labour) • Value-adding (to products and processes) • Leveraging of image and visibility (externally) • Internal pressure (perceived need) and ‘political’ lobbying • Increased communication and networking opportunities (internally and with clients and suppliers) • ‘Pull through’ into EDI and e-business networks • Facilitation of new products and processes • Access to new markets (and delivery channels)

20. New organisational structures & forms: the implications of recent socio-economic & technological trends (1) Manufacturing (1) – flexible production and flexible workers • A shift to Post Fordist practices? The introduction of ICTs and advanced technologies into the labour process • IT has implications for cost structures and product cycles (design processes, ordering and inventory, waste management etc. all affected by ICTs) • New factors of production require a new logic of production (JIT, quality circles, problem-solving teams etc. – new forms of flexible working) • Increased flexibility in production (partially contingent upon ICTs) – re-tooling and rapid shifts from the production of one artefact to another (to meet rapidly changing and fragmenting demand)

21. New organisational structures & forms: the implications of recent socio-economic & technological trends (2) Manufacturing (2) • Modularisation of products • Outsourcing of non-core tasks and functions • Workforce - functional and numerical flexibility to accommodate market trends • Flexible specialisation (Piore and Sable) & Responsible autonomy (Kern and Schumann)

22. New organisational structures & forms: the implications of recent socio-economic & technological trends (3) Services (1) • A shift to post-industrial forms – the influence of ICTs? • The ‘flattening’ of traditional hierarchies and delayering of organisations • Increased communication within and across organisations • Integration in global and domestic ‘value’ chains & networks – new forms of governance of supply chains and EDI relationships

23. New organisational structures & forms: the implications of recent socio-economic & technological trends (4) Services (2) • Value-added from information gathering, generation, manipulation, packaging, and use • Competitive advantage derives from access to and intelligent use of knowledge assets (relating to customers and suppliers), quality products, and speed of delivery • Outsourcing of peripheral functions (often to e-workers) • The emergence and evolution of new activities (call centres and web-based firms) • A tendency towards smaller organisational size?

24. Organisational change – some caveats • The descriptions above represent an idealised and raw caricature of each sector • Some of the trends that are ascribed to one sector may apply equally in the other • A convergence between manufacturing and services is underway (encapsulation – many goods have a service component and vice versa) • Considerable heterogeneity remains – managerial choices relating to technology and strategy shape trajectories and conditions within specific organisations

25. Implications of organisational re-structuring and ICTs for employment & jobs (1) Functional Flexibility – core & skilled staff • Polyvalent skilling – a requirement for multi-skilled and adaptable staff – the erosion of traditional craft demarcations • Responsible autonomy – employees expected to have more creative input and autonomy in production processes (direct control is reduced for ‘high skill’, core workers) • Channels of communication between managers and operational staff are opened-up – direct relationships enable rapid feed back and collaborative working

26. Implications of organisational re-structuring and ICTs for employment & jobs (2) Numerical flexibility and the emergence of ‘atypical’ work – (mainly) non-core & less skilled staff • Atypical time use – part time, flexitime, shift work • Atypical locations – satellite offices, mobile work, telecentres and telework • Atypical contracts – fixed term, ‘zero hour’, performance-related pay and ‘piece work’ • Atypical employment – self-employment, subcontracting, agency employment

27. Implications of organisational re-structuring and ICTs for employment & jobs (3) Delayering • Flattened hierarchies – ICT facilitates enhanced and direct communications and data capture relating to operations (via MIS etc.) • Challenges to middle management as intermediate strata are ‘stripped out’ (a process of down-sizing or ‘right-sizing’ as functions are outsourced, core competencies are foregrounded, and ICTs obviate the need for human oversight and data capture relating to operations) • New responsibilities for ‘front office’, field, and production staff as middle management jobs are shed

28. Implications of organisational re-structuring and ICTs for employment & jobs (4) Information Workers • New forms of work are generated by ICTs (in existing and new ‘technology focused’ organisations) • Approximately 800,000 IT practitioners in the UK (and >18m users of ICT facilities and applications) • High skill occupations – software and content development, analysts and programmers, installation of hardware and software, systems administration, computer and communications engineers (high skill ICT workers constitute 2% of national employment) • Lower-skill occupations – maintenance, data input, computer operators • Some major issues – skills gaps and skills shortages are impeding business use of ICTs; gender bias – women typically occupy the low-skill occupations and are decreasing in presence and ‘operator’ grades are eroded

29. Implications of organisational re-structuring and ICTs for employment & jobs (5) Key issues and polarised debate • Deskilling or upskilling – some deskilling is evident and some tasks in the manufacturing and services sectors have become routinised. However, upgrading appears to predominate – new processes and the use of ICTs imply upskilling for a majority of workers (98% report no decrease in skill levels in the past four years) • Job displacement or the generation of new employment – some jobs have been destroyed (even within the ICT sector) but substitution is evident. A growth in high level managerial and technical occupations has been recorded and the growth of services has attracted many new workers (albeit often into routine and mundane work) • Degradation of labour versus new forms of (skilled) employment – new skill mixes are appearing and skill shortages are evident. An expansion in professional work (associated with the ICT and knowledge industries) undermines the ‘mass degradation’ thesis. However, some routine tasks have become subject to increased control and monitoring. In general, a mixed picture (according to job & sector)

30. Job content & the experience of work in Information Society (1) • Employment remains central to inclusion – both structurally and psychologically • Balance - the balance between employment, family and leisure may be stressed for some workers – the ‘dual shift’ may impact negatively with experience or work for some women (cultural practices are failing to keep pace with changes in the organisation of work and women’s participation) • Psychological stress - increasing for some workers as responsibility and accountability is increased (especially where delayering has occurred)

31. Job content & the experience of work in Information Society (2) • Progression - opportunities for training and advancement are improving for some groups of workers (but traditional biases are still present) • Routine and mundane work - common in service occupations (even much ICT work – e.g., data entry - is mundane and repetitive!) • Surveillance - ICT offers myriad opportunities for surveillance and monitoring of performance (the ‘IT Panopticon’, Zuboff) • Job satisfaction - frequently related to employee involvement in ‘change’ processes, restructuring and the implementation of ICTs

32. Job content & the experience of work in Information Society (3) • ICTs: mode of deployment - satisfaction is also related closely to the implementation of ICTs as either an ‘automating’ or an ‘informating’ feature of work • Health effects – ICTs linked with stress, RSI, and eye complaints (ergonomics or inherent problems in the technology?) • Contracting - peripheral and non-standard forms of work/contracting are a source of insecurity and disaffection for many • Experience of work - closely related to autonomy, remuneration, and security but some professionalised workers report increased alienation (as a result of discontinuous change)

33. Changing organisations, changing work: summary and conclusions (1) • Technologies and forms of work - selected rather than pre-ordained – technology does not drive the organisation of work but is implicated in the development of systems and structures • Work design - involves multiple players with partial understandings, different objectives and interests and differential access to power and resources • Heterogeneity - wide differences in the organisation of work are apparent within and across industrial sectors (despite some overarching trends) – the organisation of work processes is highly heterogeneous

34. Changing organisations, changing work: summary and conclusions (2) • New organisational forms - some new forms of organisational structure are evident – ICTs play an important role & increased demands for flexible labour and flexible production methods are common • Flattened hierarchies – lead to increased responsibility and communication • Knowledge - increasing use of ‘knowledge’ in recursive innovation processes - a growing feature of contemporary organisations • Outsourcing - and non-standard forms of contracting have accompanied organisational change in the past 20 years

35. Changing organisations, changing work: summary and conclusions (3) • Job creation and upskilling (?) - ICTs have implied the emergence and expansion of several occupational groups – ICT does not appear to have led to generalised de-skilling (but a mixed picture in some industries and sectors) • Experience of work - differs massively between sectors, occupations and workplaces – increased responsibility and skill-demands are reported but mundane and ‘scripted’ jobs remain as a feature of the contemporary labour landscape