Conference for the UniGlobal organization about the new time-space framework of work

1. Out of the box
How ICT reshapes the work question
Henri ISAAC
Associate Dean for Research, Rouen Business School, France

2.  The invisible industrial revolution ?
 Temporal effects of ICT
 Spatial effects of ICT
 Socio-economic consequences of the digital revolution
 new type of economic organization
 Toward a new work regulation
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Agenda
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3.  We experience an on-going industrial revolution:
– Digitilisation is a structural trend (money, sound, text,
image, video)
– A new raw material : information
– And now economic value
 Source of value:
– No longer based upon capital or goods ownership
– The age of access (Rifkin, 2000)
– Intellectual capital versus physical capital
– Positive externalities of electronic networks
 Cognitive capitalism
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The invisible industrial revolution?
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TEMPORAL EFFECTS OF ICT
Anytime, anywhere, always on

5. Towards ubiquity
Wired networks Synchronisation Wireless networks
connectivity
Desktop computer
laptop
Ultra
portable
PDA
Wap phone
smartphone
Terminal
Sedentary
Usages
mobile
Usages
Nomadic
Usages

6.  Time compression
 Time extension
 Mixed times
 Parallel times
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Temporal effects of ICT

7.  Shrunk Temporal horizons:
– Very visible in the financial decisions (short term
management)
– Also very visible on the financial markets (high freqency
trading, HFT)
 But also at the individual level:
– Less time for decision making process
– Less reflexion because of people’s reachability
– Instantaneous culture leading to an urgency culture
– Time pressure is a key driver in work overload
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Time compression (instantaneity, real time)

8.  Extension of work in many different time zones:
– During the day before/after work time
– During pause/break time
– While commuting
– During the week-end
– During holidays
 Auto-connexion or required connexion?
 Which is the more problematic ?
 Addiction? Restless world?
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Time extension (never ending work)

9.  Private life enter the work time
 Work enter the private time
 Interweaving of different social times
 Historically, Capitalism has separed those two different
social activities
 Question:
– Is the blurring of this frontier a new step in the
development of capitalism?
– Exploitation of skills and values developed in the private
sphere?
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Mixed time

10.  Ubiquity: capacity to be in different time & space zones at
the same time
 Practices that have grown over the years
 Very visible in business meetings
 Questions:
– Are we able to manage simultaneous tasks?
– Are there differences among people (so called Gen Y) ?
– Phenomena contributing to work load
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Parallel times (simultaneity)

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SPATIAL EFFECTS OF ICT

12.  ICT drove the communication prices to almost zero
 Local/global reinvented
 But distance doesn’t disappear
– In e-commerce : goods support distance no longer the
customer
– People: Increase number of people traveling
 But, increase broadband (FFTH) will develop telepresence
tools
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It’s a small world

13.  Working everywhere !
– Train, tube, airplane, aiport, stations, cars, etc.
 The world is the office !
 Historically, we have been creating spaces dedicated to
work
 Many activities are based on work commuting
 Sustainable development ?
 Socialization ?
 Professional identity ?
 What can of society do we want?
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Spatial effects

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NEW TYPE OF PRODUCTIVE ORGANIZATIONS

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New type of productive organizations
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Virtual
company
Traditional
company

16. Université d'été 2009 16
Network Technologies & virtual network
1/29/2015
company
Intranet
Tier 1
Extranet
Tier 2
Extranet
Tier 3
Extranet
customer 3
Internet
Competitor 1
Competitor 2
Extranet
Competitor 3
Competitor 4
customer 2
Internet
customer 1
Internet

17. Traditional company vs. Virtual company
 Traditional company
– Hierarchy (cf. R. Coase)
– Subordination principle
– Salariat
– Unicity of time
– Unicity of location
– Value creation based upon
internal physical
ressources.
 Virtual company
– Network of contracts
– Access to ressource
through a network
– Electronic networks
– Asynchronous work in a
distributed network
– Value creation based upon
distributed ressources
connected by electronic
networks
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TOWARDS NEW REGULATIONS

19.  Rethinking the work question in other ways is key
 Why ?
– Increase in the lifetime (ageing society)
– We should consider different periods over the lifetime
– We should reconsider the frontier between private and
professional life because of the modern individualism
– We should reconsider time as the only measure of work
– We should consider quality of life as a starting point
 It is time to start answering these questions !
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Towards new regulations

20. Thanks for your attention
his@rouenbs.fr
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