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Sat 18 Feb, 2006 10:06 pm
By Paul Andrew Bourne, B.Sc (Hons); Dip. Edu.
The advent of the Information Revolution has transformed the business landscape (Ditlea, 2005). The new mode of work is no longer confined to stated structures with particular bureaucratic guidelines from a centralized factory, office or workplace within stated time intervals but work is now decollectivised and flexible(Bridges, 1994; Halal, 1996; Zbar, 2001; Di Martino, 2001; Roitz, 2003; Ditlea, 2005 ). Alternative office solutions are emerging with accelerating speed to address the new innovative technology. Telework is one of the by-products of the Information era, and it is functioning in a particular social space, which offers a new genre of knowledge, expertise, design organization, employer-employee relationship, employment, "pay-for-performance" and "pay-for-position". Telework (or telecommuniting) is simply not just work but it is a synergy of different socio-physical activities: It is a structure to which discourse must be applied to explain the tenets of this space. Multispatial canon of this commodity influences the physiological structure of the organization, the employee involved in the process and its socio-economic and political reach are immense. The socio-economic and technological transformations which are inevitable from telework emphasize the immediacy for appropriate policy framework that will underpin the new pathway that will guide the functioning of new economies in particular to those in the Caribbean.
The traditional "job" in which an individual reports for work some distant away from his/her residence is fading, work can be done at home. Information technology and telecommunication are widening the modus operandi in which people function and exist, thereby allowing easier access to resources and this is fashioning a path to which organizations now must structure their operations with a futuristic plan. Come the next decade the configuration of an organization and mode of work will be channeled in keeping with the transformation opened by telecommunication. The futuristic "job" now must be viewed within the context of computerization, efficiency, flexibility, high-end performance and cost-effectiveness. Within the socio-political environment of ?'electronification' which is geared toward reducing time spent in the manipulation of task, information systems which are user-friendly and cost effective will offer convenient ways in the execution of duties to which telework is that vehicle.
This two paragraph diatribe can be summarized by a simple statement that information technology continuously changes our concept of what constitutes "paid work" or "a job". His reference to the Caribbean is irrelevant unless he has specific local data to discuss.
Thank you, fresco. I remember when I worked for Boeing back in the 70's. I was a secretary and we did everything on a typewriter. Well, Boeing purchased a Word Processor! None of us even knew what it was! And it had to be in a room all by itself because it was this huge thing. The floppy disks were 12"x12" I think. It was an amazing machine. An Amtext 425. Funny how I remember the name of it.
I ended up ended up being the first Word Processor Operator at the Wichita Plant because my boss was the only one that would let his secretary go to learn how to use it. Back then, secretaries were a boss' righthand. If you wanted to get to the boss you had to go through the secretary first.
I loved it! I've been hooked on computers since. I wish I knew the programming ins and outs but I can pick up the software workings fairly well.
Now, I would imagine no office desk at Boeing is without a computer. I guess we have all wondered from time to time if we will get to the point that we won't need individuals to work the computers anymore. Wouldn't surprise me.
Telwork, and telecommuting
Paul Andrew Bourne
I am forwarding a view that work has changed within the context of time, globalizaation, typologies, topologies, and political systems despite our inflexibility.
The question to which I seek a discourse on is, "Why have organizations stuck in the time zone of the nineteenth century concerning work and perception of work?"
Well, I thought I kind of knew what you were talking about but I can see I don't.
What in the world do you mean by ...stuck in the time zone of the 19th century......? Do you maybe have some examples? I am really lost.
A well known variation on this theme is discuss whether "machines doing all the work" would be a utopia or dystopia from the point of view of the psychology of "self-worth". Organizations perceiving is of course a dubious anthropomorphism which endows sociological structures with qualities of its individual members.
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