"The Influence of the Information Society on Employment"
Edited by: António Brandão Moniz and Ilona Kovács
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Abstract |
The aim of this project IS-Emp on "The Influence of the Information Society on Employment" is centered on the analysis of the possibilities and needs for the development of the human resources in the framework of the future and possible trends of the information society. Instruments of anticipation of the influence of the information society on employment, on working conditions and on vocational training had been used. These instruments allow the development of adjusted policies to prevent or to neutralize the minus effect. In the years most recent it is verified the existence of an increased political interest on the steering of this Information Society-Employment relation. This interest still involves the fields of the scientific research and technological development, of economy, of telecommunications and infrastructures for digital communication, and of regional development. However, this interest lacks still of instruments that allow the decision-makers to know and to anticipate situations and, at the same time, to associate this anticipation to competence mapping in the some fields of the Information Society. The fast growth of the computer science and telecommunications employment created a great number of professionals, and continues to magnify the demand for programmers, system analysts, computer technicians and engineers. At the same time, for example, the electronic commerce starts to substitute the most conventional jobs of sales, and will change the structure of the job. The traditional occupations will tend to have larger qualification requisites in information and communication technologies. It was verified the initial hypothesis of this study of that, the prospective analysis on the relation of the information society and employment, can contribute effectively to identify trends, to clarify options, to suggest policy measures and, through this, to promote a bigger balance in the labour market. Thus, some areas of groups of questions (clusters) had been chosen that had determined the choices of the scenario situations in order to know the influence on the: a) technology, b) employment, c) institucional framework, and d) enterprise organisation. These situations had been placed to the consideration of about 40 experts who integrated the Delphi panel. The elaboration of the notation instrument (questionnaire) followed up the definition of subjects that had been evaluated in the first round by the experts panel. This study is developed still by an analysis of the information society and the employment change that we have come to attend in the last years of the 90s, and an analysis of the construction strategies of the information society, at the European level, as well as at the national level, including still the mechanisms of industrial relations related with the introduction of new technologies. A reference is made to each one of the scenario subjects that integrates the notation instrument used for the experts board. There one can find the main fields of debate and some of the possible implications that the information society can bring for the employment in its different forms. Finally, it is presented the data analysis gotten with the first application of the Delphi survey with some conclusions and implications for the development of one second phase where, after some necessary alterations, it will produce a new questionnaire based on the previous one.