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The University of Manchester AMBS 2021 BMAN 73150 Trends in Global Business & Management 2921 LECTURE 4 New technology, the organisation and work: The implications of Robotization and automation will it keep changing and what are the implications of current circumstances? PART 1: New technology and change as a fascination

Professor M. Martinez Lucio

Outline of Lecture

PART 1 - NEW TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE AS A FASCINATION -

DIMENSIONS AND ISSUES IN ROBOTIZATION: REALITY AND FANTASY

PART 2 - CHANGES IN THE WAY WE WORK AND ARE EMPLOYED

THE ‘PLATFORM ECONOMY’ AND THE ‘GIG ECONOMY’:

TELEWORKING AND WORKING FROM A DISTANCE

PART 1:

NEW TECHNOLOGY AND

CHANGE AS A FASCINATION

DIMENSIONS AND ISSUES IN ROBOTIZATION - REALITY AND FANTASY

1. Technology and our inner fantasies

The lure of technology is deep within our imaginations

The idea of a future where communication and robotization dominates our social and economic landscape is always present

There are also fears and concerns with the idea of being replaced and being seen to be redundant due to such changes

Why is this relevant? Well in many ways these concerns and fears but also expectations and fantasy seem to enter the debate on how organisational change and the transformation of work are understood

Link to cinematic representations: Visions of the future in the past – short section of the film Metropolis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcReykfvqi4

Blade Runner 2049 (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCcx85zbxz4

World Economic Forum

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold…The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent. When compared with previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country. And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance.

(World Economic Forum, 2016)

The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is

Headline hype: the heightening of expectations

A world without work

Robots could wipe out humanity by accident (UK Mail Online, 20/02/16)

Humans will eventually merge with robots to become an elite race of cyborgs (Daily Express May 2017)

Sex robots promise 'revolutionary' service but also risks (The Guardian, 04/07/17)

Within five years computers will become so smart they will keep people as pets (1983 Ed Fredkin, head of AI lab at MIT)

2. Context and drivers of technological change

As the economy takes a downturn, technological determinism pops up

* Second Machine Age, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industrie 4.0

Debates on future of work is dominated by influential texts speculating on effects

* Consensus that an upheaval in work organisation, job design, and labour

markets is coming

Current unease concerns end of the professions (Susskind and Susskind 2015)

Susskind, R. E., & Susskind, D. (2015). The future of the professions: How technology will transform the work of human experts. Oxford University Press, USA.

Numbers

The US has less than half the robots per 10,000 employees compared to Japan and the Republic of Korea

In the last 10 years, the adoption rate of robots increased by 40% in Brazil, 210% in China, 11% in Germany, 57% in the Republic of Korea, and by 41% in the US

Main drivers of growth:

*Automotive industry, electrical/electronics industry, metal industry,

rubber and plastics

Automotive industry is continuous strong demand, while others are showing accelerating demand

Definitions

Robots

Often refers to software that performs certain repetitive and dreary tasks so that humans can concentrate on more unstructured and interesting tasks (Lacity and Willcocks 2016)

Prompts belief that robots will become super-intelligent

Use of the word intelligence applies differently to robots and people

In context of robots, it addresses an algorithmic category of processes

‘Smart computing’ would be more appropriate (Aleksander 2017)

Brings to mind visions of electromechanical machines that perform human tasks, but often far less threatening.

But even after 60 years of intense scientific effort, the intelligent robot is proving to be more elusive than predictions of futurologists.

Intelligence in humans satisfies human needs such as procreation, food acquisition by foraging and use of locomotion to organise foraging. Robots do not have such needs. Algorithmic category of development does not include life-need characteristics of human intelligence.

Trying to create robots with IT-powered human-like intellectual prowess may be a mistakenly framed ambition. But using IT to power robots with highly mechanistic functions is worthwhile, providing machines that support human needs. But robots as mechanical super-tools less newsworthy than a fantasy of robots surpassing humans in terms of mental capacity.

The singularity argument

Some of the popularity of doom-laden reports due to two major speculative arguments: singularity and artificial general intelligence arguments.

Vinge is a sci-fi writer

The design of a better bicycle is not the same as designing the designer of the better bicycle. There is a disconnect between being competent AI designer and being a designer of designers. Like a belief that base metals will be turned into gold – it’s bound to happen some day. Self-regenerating singularity hypothesis is based on machines that we simply don’t know how to build. No evidence that singularity is bound to happen, based on advances in technology.

Concept originated with Vernor Vinge (1983)

*created a scenario where robot designers are planning ever smarter robots to the extent that robot becomes so clever it can design the next even smarter robot without human intervention

Belief that robots will give rise to even smarter machines ending supremacy of humans who will be replaced by robots – essence of argument.

AI will make humans redundant through self-perpetuation of ever smarter robots

Moore’s law (1965)

Singularity is seen to arise from Moore’s law

Computing power doubles approximately every two years – the exponential growth trend

It is an observation or projection, not a law

The Apollo guidance computer that took early astronauts to the moon has the processing power of 2 Nintendo Entertainment Systems

The Cray-2 supercomputer from 1985—the fastest machine in the world at the time—roughly measures up to an iPhone 4 let alone 12

But – arguments confuse processing chip power with an understanding of how biology leads to intelligence of humans

Some day, machines will acquire better-than-me design skills and singularity will happen. Alchemists used to make same claim – the more we master chemistry, more likely we are to make gold.

Making a machine faster is not same as mental activity.

The Artificial General Intelligence argument (AGI)

So they build road maps.

AGI issues a challenge to AI workers in arguing there is intelligence in every day human activities and these are worth modelling to get a better idea of what intelligence is

AGI researchers argue that the intelligence that goes into walking in a kitchen and making cup of coffee is an unmet challenge

They argue this requires a more holistic and systematic approach than conventional AI effort that goes into designing better vision or locomotion algorithms

Types of knowledge

Codified knowledge: Subject of continued research

Can be transcribed using structured procedures, theoretical logic, algorithms, databases, expert systems, etc.

Tacit knowledge: remains dependant on human involvement and cannot be translated into a computer language

Involves actions performed without individual being able to explain exactly how, as well as skills and reasoning processes that are intuitive

Workers skills tend to combine codified and tacit knowledge

Brain-inspired robots?

In 2013 the EU commission funded the Human Brain project (1.19billion Euros over 10 years)

After 3 years no matter how massive or complex the computational models of the brain might be, they will not yield a theory of how it relates to the unconscious mind

Little evidence of going in direction of systems that threaten human intellect through these heavily funded projects.

Looks at neuroinformatics (way formal neural models process info; brain simulation, supercomputing, medical informatics, neurorobotics).

It will not come from investing in supercomputer, regardless of how big/powerful. Like saying if we spend enough money on a telescope it will reveal all mysteries of universe.

Technology, speculation and grand narrative

Previous waves of technological advancement also led to cataclysmic predictions about job displacement and changes in working life

During 1970s oil crisis the ‘electronic cottage’ was seen as a solution, suggesting ‘literally millions’ of jobs would shift from the factory and office back to the home (Toffler 1980)

In early 1980s it was forecast that 50m people would lose their jobs due to ICTs by 1990 (Braham 1985)

There are may texts that predict ongoing and systematic change within organisations and at work

This time it’s different?

The level of robotics use has almost always doubled in the top capitalist economies in the last decade (Roberts, 2016)

Progress is being aided by complex datasets as big data algorithms can substitute for labour in a growing range of non-routine cognitive tasks

Business services are at an inflection point (Willcocks and Lacity 2017) as robotic process automation and voice recognition technology threatens to substitute human labour

Despite a notable absence of workplace studies, various authors document how technology can potentially be used to replace a diversity of human actions

3. Impact on Jobs

‘We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task’ (Vardi, director of institute for IT at Rice University in Texas, 2016)

Similar pattern as singularity – unsubstantiated prediction with no supporting evidence which gives rise to pessimism and fear

Frey and Osborne (2013; 2017)

Study of the likely impact of technological change on 702 occupations, from podiatrists to tour guides, animal trainers to personal finance advisers and floor sanders

Findings:

Anticipate ‘first wave’ will affect transportation/logistics, office and admin support, and production (in manufacturing)

Followed by services, sales and construction occupations

Second wave will be dependant on overcoming engineering bottlenecks related to creative and social intelligence – affect occupations that rely on creativity, caring for others, negotiation, persuasiveness, etc.

They place management, business, finance, education, healthcare, arts, and media in low risk category

Low-skill workers whose jobs are susceptible to computerisation will re-allocate to tasks requiring social and creative intelligence

BUT…. Arntz et al (2016) suggest many of high risk occupations contain substantial amount of tasks which are hard to automate, so numbers are an over-estimation. They estimated that across 21 OECD countries, 9% of jobs are at risk of automation

Key Texts: Ford (2015)

a former Silicon Valley software entrepreneur

If robots take all the jobs, our long march of progress may well go into reverse.

"Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future"

Packed with irresistible gee-whizz facts

Running through text is assumption that technological innovation may lead to major shift in boundary between codified and tacit knowledge

This time the robots are coming for (almost) all the jobs

* Robots are getting too smart, too flexible and too convenient

Key Texts: Ford

Argues that globalization, the decline of unions and the capture of government by special interests have all contributed to a rise in economic inequality

The result: "The fruits of innovation throughout the economy are now accruing almost entirely to business owners and investors"

Argues technology now threatens even the nimblest and most expensively educated

*Lawyers, radiologists and software designers have seen their work evaporate to India or China

He predicts that new industries will “rarely, if ever, be highly labour-intensive”

Ford, M. (2015) Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. Basic Books,

For a good review of the book read: IJHRD-Vol-1-No-1-Final.pdf (ijhrdppr.com)

Ford's thesis is not new. Similar outbursts of techno-pessimism pop up every time the economy takes a downturn or machines make a paradigm leap.

He predicts that new industries will “rarely, if ever, be highly labor-intensive,” pointing to companies like YouTube and Instagram, which are characterized by “tiny workforces and huge valuations and revenues.” On another front, 3-D printing is poised to make a mockery of manufacturing as we knew it. Truck driving may survive for a while — at least until self-driving vehicles start rolling out of Detroit or, perhaps, San Jose.

Key Texts: Brynjolfsson and McAfee (2015)

Second Machine Age

Foresee a potential employment crisis

*They suggest this time automation escalation may be too fast and too steep for surplus labour to be absorbed elsewhere

Like Ford, although they argue manual, routine jobs remain most vulnerable to automation, also concerned that machines will replace non-manual, non-routine jobs, including several high paying ones

*Journalists, translators, lawyers, photographers, stock brokers, software developers

In their view, unemployment results from workers possessing ordinary skills or the wrong education

They link the rise of digital technologies to the polarisation of the labour market and potential increase in inequality

Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. WW Norton

& Company.

The Second Machine Age (2014) has become something of a byword for the new technological revolution that society is now living through, illustrating the wide influence of the book.

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey business book of the year award in 2014 and is listed as a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post bestseller, indicating its broader appeal

Authors have promoted the ideas contained in their book at various high profile gatherings including the 2015 and 2016 World Economic Forums in Davos. Some prominent public figures e.g. Andrew Haldane, Chief Economist of the Bank of England have also invoked the book in speeches and articles. Politically, its ideas are seen to present both a warning of how

Critique

Much of the debate fails to uncover the linkages between the politics of production and digital technologies

Rather than being some neutral force, digital technologies are deeply connected to relations of power

These relations, more directly, influence the form, direction, and outcomes of digital technologies, including within the work realm

Digital technologies are not neutral as such, but rather are created, harnessed, and reproduced under conditions where power resides with capital, not labour

So digital technologies are favourable for employers and unfavourable for workers but that also depends on the employment relations context, the level of rights that exist, who designs new technology and for what purpose

Much is due to a fetishizing of technology amongst managerialist academics and amongst society as well

Dig tech seen in apolitical terms - is more in their book on the power of computers than on the power of capital and as such they fail to explain how these technologies are and will be used in ways that increase the exploitation of workers.

power is treated almost as an after-effect of digital technologies. What the authors fail to show is how power affects the selection and evolution of digital technologies.

Robotic jobs – the robotisation of the self

Technology often employed as a mechanism of control rather than minimise ‘grunt work’

Increase in bio-tracking (previously used for animals)

Use of sensors in helmets/hats of electricians and train drivers to detect fatigue, stress, mood and emotions

Badges can be used to monitor employees tone of voice, how often speak in meetings, who they speak to, and for how long

Amazon warehouse pickers wear wristbands which constantly track and rate productivity levels

Platforms have led to rise of ‘algorithmic management’ (Lee et al. 2015)

Uber drivers face an assemblage of digital devices on the dashboard: number of trips, number of hours online, fares per hour, acceptance rate, and driver overall rating, all of which are compared with ‘top drivers’ (Rosenblat and Stark, 2016)

Issues of control and monitoring in the gig economy and more generally

Phoebe Moore on performance management and control: increasingly we are seeing an interest in greater surveillance and also personal control over the bodies of the workforce:

(Moore, P. (2020). Who is the" smart worker"? Who should she be?. Global Labour Journal, 11(2). https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/globallabour/article/view/4313 )

Questions of monitoring have been remade over time and raise issues of privacy and dignity at work: the move to greater gig working, platforms, and teleworking are framing new debates on the question of work intensification, privacy and change

However these developments are not inevitable and are political and organisational choices and employers and governments make: they do not arise from the technology itself so there is a wider possibility of countering such developments or mediating them

See Mihalis Kritikos, (2020) Workplace Monitoring In The Era Of Artificial Intelligence

https://epthinktank.eu/2020/12/22/workplace-monitoring-in-the-era-of-artificial-intelligence/

Read: A. Deppler (2021) Watched Over by Machines: AI and Surveillance at Work

https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/watched-over-by-machines-ai-and-surveillance-at-work/

And how extensive is the effect of robotization

Read the following article in The Conversation that argues the idea of technology displacing work may be a myth. (https://theconversation.com/automation-robots-and-the-end-of-work-myth-89619).

What can be done: Education?

So what can we do? The standard prescription is more education. Keep ahead of the robots by acquiring skills. Some techno-utopians go so far as to suggest that technology will save us from technology, by "disrupting" higher education with cheap online classes, and thus vastly expanding educational opportunity for all.

Suggestion of getting an education emphasise their attention on the individual

most were about technology amplifying and enhancing human attributes and strengths

Ford doesn't buy it. Staying ahead is a loser's race, in which ever larger numbers of people fight for ever smaller numbers of jobs.

We are running up against a fundamental limit both in terms of the capabilities of the people being herded into colleges and the number of high-skill jobs that will be available for them if they manage to graduate". "The problem is that the skills ladder is not really a ladder at all: it is a pyramid, and there is only so much room at the top."

Ford's preferred "dramatic policy response" — a redistribution of wealth from the winners to everybody else, in the form of a "guaranteed basic income" that ensures displaced workers have enough income to keep the consumer economy chugging along.

Keep ahead of the robots by acquiring skills (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014)

Contrary to today’s worst fears, robotics could facilitate the rise, not the demise, of the human “knowledge worker”, but managers need to prepare staff for the unavoidable changes to their current jobs, enabling them to upskill, specialise and re-train where necessary (Lacity and Willcocks 2017)

Lacity and Willcocks found that for every 20 jobs lost through automation, approximately 13 new ones could be created

How to support people when jobs no longer exist

Finland – 2k people for 2 years.

Level – if near poverty rates could simply streamline welfare systems and manage mass pauperisation

How to deal with capital

Reduction of the labour supply by reducing working time

End 40hour week and move to PT working (Larry Page, CEO Google)

Reduce working week to three days (Carlos Slim, Mexican telecom magnate)

Universal basic income

Giving every citizen a liveable amount of money without means-testing

Depends on what level it is set

Must be sufficient to live on, must be universal, and must supplement (not replace) the welfare state

A matter of perspectives and approaches

Three perspectives:

Doom-mongers

Optimists (but on condition we re-skill)

Automate everything

Debates about future of work are heavily reliant on futurology and speculation

Key issue: technological ability does not necessarily equal adoption and implementation; depends on wider socioeconomic context

AMBS BMAN 73150 2021 Manchester University Professor M Martinez Lucio Lecture 4 Part 2 – technology: changes in the way we work source of picture: http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/01/does-eu-law-protect-gig-economy-workers.html

4. The ‘platform economy’, gig work, and the decentring of work and the organisation?

The ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ has many dimensions but beyond robotization and questions of drone technology there are other dimensions changing the nature of work irrespectively

Beyond physical dimension of work and robotization there are also questions of qualitative shifts due to the development of the platform and the gig economies which are the focus of this section.

The use of new forms of internet-based digital connectivity to decentre and fragment organisations and work

The creation of new patterns of organisational relations that are based (although not necessarily) on individualised or insecure forms of employment

Platform economy and gig work

http://www.differencebetween.net/business/economics-business/difference-between-sharing-economy-and-gig-economy/

https://www.toptal.com/insights/future-of-work/traditional-employment-gig-economy

https://www.thoughtco.com/gig-economy-4588490

These are short texts worth looking about the impact of the gig economy

The question of the platform economy

The question of new technology and its impact is also important beyond the question of robotization

‘Advances in mainly internet-based digital connectivity and matching technologies, combined with financialised strategies like venture capital, gave facilitated the emergence and rise of the platform economy (Srineck, 2017)’ (quoted from Vandaele, 2018: 8)

The emergence of digital labour platforms and their impact on fragmenting work

The move to independent subcontractors and ‘self-employment’

Range of sectors are seeing changes: private transportation and delivery, gaming industry, IT more generally, and others

Tends to parallel a greater ‘decentralisation’ of service delivery and production

ADD WHAT THEY SAY Howcroft, D., & Taylor, P. (2014). 'Plus ca change, plus la meme chose': researching and theorising the new, new technologies. New Technology, Work and Employment, 29(1), 1-8.

Vandaele (2018 – see link below) classifies it in terms of:

Online work: micro and macro crowdworkers

Online crowd work (low skilled, repetitive e.g. data entry)

Online macro crowd work (requires professional knowledge eg graphic design)

b) Offline work: on-demand digital platform workers

In private settings: repair work or domestic services (domestic work for example)

In public space: delivery and transport (e.g. Deliveroo and Uber)

https://www.etui.org/Publications2/Working-Papers/Will-trade-unions-survive-in-the-platform-economy-Emerging-patterns-of-platform-workers-collective-voice-and-representation-in-Europe

The gig economy in reality

Some concerns

That the workplace environment is not protected and there is very little health and safety

The nature of employment contract and lack of protection: see video by Phoebe Moore for the ILO in 2018: Protecting Workers in Digital Economy: Phoebe Moore, University of Leicester

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqsoPPyjqoE (further references to her work – see earlier slides)

It is individualised and questions of worker voice and engagement may be limited as such due to the way workers share no common workplace and reference point

There may be little negotiation power and the status of self-employment may not necessarily be a legitimate one as responsibilities are transferred from the organisation to the worker

There may be issues related to quality and control similar to those raised with subcontracting generally

There might be issues as to who is responsible for training and development in terms of the workforce as responsibility for materials and development are transferred over to the worker

Conflict and strikes in the gig economy

There are a range of disputes emerging around a range of issues – for an overview see:

Chris FORDE, Mark STUART, Simon JOYCE, Liz OLIVER, Danat VALIZADE, Gabriella ALBERTI, Kate HARDY, Vera TRAPPMANN, Charles UMNEY, Calum CARSON, (2017) The Social Protection of Workers in the Platform Economy

https://business.leeds.ac.uk/research-ceric/news/article/187/how-to-make-the-gig-economy-work-for-everyone

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2017/614184/IPOL_STU(2017)614184_EN.pdf

There are new forms of organising and solidarity emerging:

Johnston, H. & Land-Kazlauskas, C. (2018). Organizing on-demand: Representation, voice, and collective bargaining in the gig economy. Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 94. Geneva: ILO.

The use of the courts has been a major point of reference in struggles against companies such as Uber or Deliveroo:

Minter, K. (2017). Negotiating labour standards in the gig economy: Airtasker and Unions New South Wales. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), 438–454.

The use of social media and the Internet in terms of organising workers:

Wood, A. J., Lehdonvirta, V. & Graham, M. (2018). Workers of the Internet unite? Online freelancer organisation among remote gig economy workers in six Asian and African countries. New Technology, Work and Employment, 33(2), 95–112.

A new demand for collective organisation emerges and solidarity across platform labourer:

Wood, A., & Lehdonvirta, V. (2019). Platform labour and structured antagonism: Understanding the origins of protest in the gig economy. Working Paper presented at the Oxford Internet Institute Platform Economy Seminar Series March 5th 2019 available: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3357804

Issues in the status and experience of worker in offline work: on-demand digital platform workers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnTbiiFgziU

Reasons for tensions and issues

There are a range of factors that contribute to these issues and tensions related to the context of de-regulation generally, the decline or weakening of collective worker voice, the ambivalent nature of employment regulation, the way in which technology and platforms have been developed by key companies, the use of vulnerable workers within the platform economy and gig working, and various others.

There is no inevitability as to why employment conditions for gig workers in the platform economy have to be negative although the reality appears to suggest it is becoming worse although recent court cases are challenging the situation.

Why context is key: many developments are the subject of legal and regulatory interventions according to De Ruyter and Brown (2019: 69) as in the role of the courts over the status of the employer and their rights is important

‘Gig workers in October 2018 staged a number of strikes across the UK in protest over pay. Companies affected included Wetherspoons, McDonalds, Uber eats and TGI Fridays. The strikes were coordinated across a number of regions, including South America, The Philippines, Japan and parts of Europe (BBC News, 4 October 2018). As a result, there have been signs that gig companies are being subjected to increasing critical scrutiny.

In the UK the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices (July 2017) concluded that all work should be fair and prompted the UK Government to assert that workers rights will be “strictly enforced” (BBC News, 11 July 2017)

In the UK Uber lost a court appeal and received the judgement that drivers should be treated as employees (BBC News, 10th November 2011); the same judgment occurred in California where drivers were deemed to be employees and not contractors (BBC News, 17th June 2015).

The Court of Justice of the European Union stated in 2017 that Uber is a taxi firm and therefore subject to all the same regulations as any other company (BBC News, 20th December 2017).

In December 2017, Uber’s license was suspended in Sheffield following the company’s failure to provide data after official requests (BBC News, 7th December 2017). The suspension was subsequently lifted.

In September 2017, Uber lost its licence to operate in London with one MP stating that Uber was “morally wrong” (BBC News, 11th July 2017). In June 2018 Uber won its appeal to overturn the ban.

The willingness of authorities to engage critically with gig companies is for some a positive sign, but for others it is a diminution of choice for both consumers and workers.’

5. From teleworking to mobile working

Moving into the realm of the way people work at home:

However other forms of work have been organised around distance and home based working for some time

The emergence of new forms of technology have accelerated these and their development

The case of teleworking and mobile working is another dimension of the changes we are seeing

Given framework of modern organizations has been within physical boundaries of the w/place, teleworking has the potential to impact significantly on traditional organisational structures and hierarchies

Electronic homeworking has been discussed for past 2 decades. Aim to look at some of the assumptions that underlie the different meanings attached to this. Few things date more quickly than prophecies about what future will be like.

Going to look at how use of ICTs allow people to work at a distance from their employers, generally at home. Occupied central place in forecasts about future of work.

Working at home is frequently portrayed as one of the ways in which work and family life can be reconciled – benefit to employees often not the case – no choice to work at home, requirement of the job – only decision is where to locate within the home.

ICTs are challenging the traditional temporal and spatial boundaries of jobs

Idealised view:

Rural cottage

Domestic tranquillity

No rush-hour commuter train

Promises best of both worlds – full participation in international flow of ideas and information in the protective sanctuary of the home

Teleworking history

Handy (1984) and Toffler’s (1980) ‘telecottaging’ offers ‘domestic rural bliss’

* ‘50-80% of jobs could be conducted at home’

Origins in oil crisis of the 70’s

Danny Quah – ‘weightless economy’ and dematerialised world

The spin regarding such forms of working

It seems there are no losers in teleworking

Family-friendly

Improved quality of life

Balance of work and life

Flexibility

Cost reduction

Improved productivity

Reduction in turnover and absenteeism

Employment for women, disabled and the socially excluded

Pollution reduced

Carbon footprint and travel time reduced

Diffusion of telework

Regular (at least 1 day per week) home-based teleworkers constituted 2.1% of labour force

Of these regular teleworkers only 3% are described as permanent (SIBIS 2003)

Background characteristics prior to the pandemic

overwhelmingly male

predominantly in 30-49 category

from significantly higher educational backgrounds

disproportionately drawn from Financial and Business services

more likely to work for large organisation

Inconsistent definitions of concept been employed in number of major studies. Boundaries are unclear between those working at home using ICTs, much broader notion of mobile telework or those working in neighbourhood offices.

Background characteristics - does not suggest telework become characteristic mode of employment for broad stratum of workforce. On contrary, regular teleworkers tend to be representative of a group of experienced, male, professional-,managerial employees who might be expected to exhibit a relatively high degree of autonomy in decision-making. Secretarial and clerical duties are least often practised activities of telework. Despite predictions, not extended into lower skilled, less knowledge intensive areas.

Issue of Choice

‘Choosing where to work therefore, represents another perk for those already occupying an advantaged position in the labour market and one which is only given to those who can be trusted to deliver wherever they decide to work’

(Felstead et al., 2002:221)

Mobile telework

‘The workplace today can be found anywhere electronic networking is possible (planes, trains, hotel room, airport lounges)’ (Nunes 2005)

Rise of multi-location workers – whose work requires them to travel to and work at diverse range of locations

Always on call – expectation of responses 24/7

The pandemic and teleworking

Increasing push towards women in teleworking

Dual roles become intensified due to family and work balance broken

The tensions emerging into work life balance

The problem of work materials and support

The problem of spaces and autonomy at home

Surveillance has increased

The pressures from health and safety due to lack of mobility, use of ICT and related factors

Stress related issues and lack of socialisation and networking in workplaces

For a review of the impact of the pandemic on teleworking and the question of new technology read

Hodder, A. (2020): Hodder, A. (2020). New Technology, Work and Employment in the era of COVID‐19: reflecting on legacies of research. New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(3), 262-275.

Tavares, A. I. (2017). Telework and health effects review. International Journal of Healthcare, 3(2), 30. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aida-Isabel-Tavares/publication/318108862_Telework_and_health_effects_review/links/5966524e0f7e9b80917fea7d/Telework-and-health-effects-review.pdf

Gálvez, A., Tirado, F., & Martínez, M. J. (2020). Work–life balance, organizations and social sustainability: Analyzing female telework in Spain. Sustainability, 12(9), 3567.

‘Technological’ change

Employment options vary according to context

Operational change

Teleworking

Spatial

Separation

Isolated, poor support and surveillance

Health & safety

and broad support

Platform Economy

& Gig Work

Distant Management

Robotisation

Function

Displacement

Self-employment

& lack of support

Direct employment and stronger worker rights

Job destruction

Job Complementation

& creation

Summary

So we need to look at dimensions of change in terms of technology in terms of robotization, platform economy, and teleworking – for example and how they reshape the organisation

The trend of new technology is complex and multi-layered

Outcomes may also depend on the context in terms of legal rights, the regulation of businesses and the nature of political relations and the balance of forces

We are seeing major changes in work but they are shaped not simply by technology but by organisation, power and regulatory contexts