A fundamental part of globalisation is technological advancement which has reduced time and space, made work more mobile and capable of being performed in different parts of the world without the need to actually set up physical facilities in other countries.

The Compendium tells us that the world economy is moving “from an industrial-type economy to an economy essentially built on services and technological innovations. In other words, what is happening is that services and activities with a predominant informational content show a much greater rapidity of growth than traditional primary and secondary sectors.

This entails far-ranging consequences for organising the production and exchange of goods, defining job requirements and providing effective social protection.”

“Thanks to technological innovations, the world of work is being enriched with new professions while others are disappearing. In fact, in the present phase of transition there is a continuous movement of workers from the industrial sector to that of services.”

This has resulted in the introduction of flexible employment relationships which seek to increase the capacity of businesses to adapt rapidly to market changes. There is now a need for more advanced and skilled workforces, and an increasing number of people who will not be working in an organisation, though they will be working for an organisation.

There will be a decreasing number of people working under “permanent” contracts of employment. “In particular, there is an increase in job activity in the area of personal services, in part-time, temporary and ‘non-traditional’ employment.” 

There are increased opportunities for working from home, flexible working hours and contract work, because of the increased phenomenon of contracting out and out-sourcing as businesses seek to concentrate on their core competencies, while providing an opportunity to make service work more productive.

The advantage of this is that it gives opportunities, income and dignity to service work and service workers. It allows the elderly and students the opportunity to work based on their needs, for instance; it allows the labour market to be more flexible.

“The transition currently underway signals the move from dependent work with no prescribed time limit, understood as a stable job, to a series of jobs characterised by many kinds of work activities, from a world of a unified, definite and recognised concept of work to a universe of jobs where there is great variety, fluidity and a wealth of promises.”

This offers opportunities such as:
- greater employee involvement in the design and execution of work
- less distance between managers and workers and hopefully a greater focus on workplace relations and policies conducive to better motivation and performance such as information-sharing and two-way communication
- skills enhancement to perform jobs with a broader range of tasks.

Despite these opportunities, “there are also many questions of concern, especially with regard to the growing uncertainty of work, the persistent presence of structural unemployment and the inadequacy of current systems of social security.”

The Social Justice challenge is to accommodate different types of employment contracts, and different types of pay systems to reward performance and skills that ensure a fair exchange between the employer and the employee. 

“The demands of competition, technological innovation and the complexities of financial fluxes must be brought into harmony with the defence of workers and their rights.”

“This uncertainty and instability involve not only the labour conditions of workers in more developed countries but affect also, and above all, the less advanced economic realities in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

The latter category, besides the complicated problems associated with changing models of the economy and of production, must deal daily with the difficult adjustment required by the current phenomenon of globalisation.

The situation is particularly dramatic for the world of work, affected by vast and radical cultural and structural changes in contexts that are often without legislative support and lack of programmes of professional training and social assistance.”

Regarding professional training, it is the responsibility of employers to make more investments in skills training, to offer incentives to employees to improve their skills, and for workers to take upon themselves some responsibility for their own development. 

Next week we look at globalisation and its relationship with small and medium businesses as well as informal and hidden economic activities.

To purchase a copy of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church contact the Catholic Commission for Social Justice, Archbishop’s House – 622-6680.