Commercial 'Globalization' -- the acceleration of world integration
following the end of the cold war and the resulting moderation of
barriers to the movement of capital -- has produced a tremendous
interest in process engineering methodologies in most large
corporations.
This re-engineering of processes, in combination with the use of
emerging information technology, is transforming the white-collar
workplace. Post-Fordist thinkers suggest, as do most corporate mangers,
that the result of this transformation is a re-structured workplace that
emphasizes worker empowerment and democracy - due to the need to attract
and retain highly trained knowledge workers.
Neo-Fordists, among others, are more cautious and suggest that, in at
least some workplaces, recent experiential worker-controlled knowledge
structures are quickly being replaced by standardized and centralized
control of the new systems.
An example might be the emergence of telephone "call-centres." Are
employees in these centers emerging 21st century "knowledge workers" or
do they represent the industrialization of office work?
Such workers, for example, work on a virtual assembly line - the phone
calls represent an intangible product that moves across a white collar
workbench, workers are under close supervision (calls are usually
monitored), an individual worker can't leave her desk without someone
taking her place, workers often don't have a personal workstation
(Hotel-ing concepts are used - that is, workers are assigned a different
workstation when they arrive at work), the work includes the use of
part-time and casual staff and dress codes are often relaxed to business
casual -- for non-management staff. The parallels to factory work are
interesting.
The work itself is skilled in that it often requires a worker with
advanced training in some business discipline - Investments, Financial
Counseling, Mortgages, Mutual Funds or other Corporate-specific products
or services. Competencies and attributes required usually include
language ability, dispute handling as well as the other verbal skills
and mental processes necessary to integrate multiple inputs. Much of the
corporate specific knowledge required to do the job is provide as
embedded learning, or just-in-time training, within the information
systems present at each workstation.
I am a Human Resources Director and a part-time graduate student. I am
would value any comments or observations from the members of the
World-Systems community on this thesis.
Thanks in advance.
Hugh MacDonald
uisdean@fox.nstn.ca or
hugh.macdonald@utoronto.ca