Patterns of Work Reorganization in the Course of the IT Industry's Internationalization

Abstract

The IT industry was considered relatively resistant to the international relocation of jobs, but such a perception changed profoundly during the 1990s when IT companies relocated services to low-wage destinations on a larger scale. According to many authors, IT offshoring not only jeopardizes jobs in high-wage countries, but also fundamentally changes the organization and control of IT work. Whereas IT work was once considered a prime example of post-Taylorist work organization, it is argued that the global division of labour necessitates the standardization and formalization of the labour processes, leading to extended managerial control and reduced autonomy for employees. Drawing upon two case studies in transnationally operating IT companies, this article critically examines this prognosis. It argues that forms of work organization and control in the IT industry do not develop homogeneously or uniformly. Instead, it is possible to identify specific modes of reorganization with very different consequences for employees' autonomy in the labour process that are shaped by the dynamic interplay between different patterns of internationalization, on the one hand, and the specific institutional settings of the offshore destinations, on the other.