Project Title:
Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies in India: Labour Market Implications for Developing Countries

Interim Technical Report
by the
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) India

Research Team
M. Vijayabaskar
Balaji Parthasarathy
Reshmi Sarkar

Date of Submission: 10 October 2002

Project Background:
This project seeks to examine how different modes of use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) impact labour market outcomes in developing countries. Policy makers in developing countries face a fundamental dilemma as they try and take advantage of the ICT-led third industrial revolution. On one hand, since ICTs are a new and rapidly growing economic sector, creating an ICT industry can generate vast employment opportunities. Further, since ICTs are also enabling technologies, the growing share of knowledge-based production globally warrants that, from a macro-economic perspective, economies develop a degree of technological capability in this sector if they are to compete in international markets. From a micro-economic perspective, promoting ICT based industrialisation and deploying ICTs in pre-existing industrial sectors can impart greater flexibility and efficiency to production systems in user industries.

On the other hand, even as the development of the ICT sector promises to generate new employment by creating a demand for fresh skills and new occupational categories that may not be readily available even in developed countries, the deployment of ICTs in existing industries creates challenges by transforming the organization of production. At one level, automating production can displace labour. But even if labour redundancy in numerical terms in not an issue, rationalizing production by deploying ICTs is likely to render existing skills redundant, profoundly altering patterns of labour demand. These seemingly contradictory tendencies highlight the importance of a clear understanding of how the production and use of ICTs will affect labour markets. In contrast to the extent of interest in these issues in developed countries, the labour market impacts of ICTs have received little research attention in the context of developing economies even as they strive to simultaneously provide quality employment and to improve overall economic productivity and efficiency.

Research in developed countries, by organisational theorists and labour economists, clearly shows that there is no linear causal relationship between technological change and labour market outcomes because of the diversity of mediating factors. The impact therefore varies across sectors and organisational types within sectors, critically influenced by institutional factors that mediate between technical improvements and their use in organisations. Policy makers then are faced with pressing questions about how ICTs are likely to affect the quality of work and careers, skill enhancement, and autonomy at work. Questions are also raised as to whether ICTs foster equality or reinforce existing labour market segmentation, such as those based on gender, observed in traditional sectors. The proposed study will help answer such policy questions by examining the impact of ICTs on the Indian labour market in two different industries. One is the call-centre and transcription industry, a new (at least in India) ICT service industry that has emerged in the last five years. The other is the older automobile and automobile components manufacturing industry, which is deploying ICTs extensively to reap productivity benefits. The objectives of the study consists of seeking answers to the following research questions.

Research Questions and Hypotheses
1.Does evidence from the ICT service industry and the automobile and component industry in India suggest that the promotion of ICT based industrialization in developing countries leads to:

• skill polarisationi.e. skilled workers with better knowledge of use of ICTs have better career and work opportunities, leaving the rest of workforce in dead-end, low-paying jobs.
• deskilling i.e. ICTs render traditional skills redundant and therefore tend to deskill the workforce.
• disintermediation i.e. ICTs reduce transactions costs involved in information flows within an organization and therefore undermine the need for middle management.
• gender neutrality i.e. ICTs reduce the need for physical labour and create white-collar jobs. Women, therefore, would find better employment prospects due to diffusion of ICTs.
• flexibility i.e. ICTs reduce coordination costs, allowing firms to rely on external labour markets and, therefore, promote greater labour market flexibility.
• autonomy at work i.e. ICTs ensure greater access to information among employees, therefore helping decentralized decision-making and giving employees greater autonomy at work.

2. How does the impact of ICT based industrialization on labour markets in India compare with changes observed elsewhere (developing and developed countries)?

3. What are the implications of the results of hypothesis testing and the comparison with other countries for:

Policy intervention in labour markets in developing countries
The relationship between technological change and labour market outcomes
In the following sections, we briefly discuss the progress made and highlight the major findings made thus far.

Progress of the Study

The project work was started from April 2002. To begin with, a review of literature was carried out in greater detail to locate the issue to be explored in larger theoretical debates on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs hereafter) on labour markets (Annexure I). The exercise also meant to draw insights from empirical studies undertaken elsewhere in relation to some of the themes indicated in the proposal. Most studies dealt with experiences in developed capitalist economies, further emphasising the need for similar exercises in the context of developing economies mired in large-scale chronic unemployment and underemployment on the one hand, and insecure employment in the informal economy on the other.

Subsequent to this exercise, secondary data pertaining to the automobile sector and call centre industry in India were collected. Gaps were identified which were sought to be filled in by recourse to primary data collection. Draft questionnaires were developed; one each for Human Resources Heads in the two sectors and one each for employees in the two sectors taken up for study. Pilot testing was done in one firm each in the two sectors. In the automobile industry, it was found that the impact was highly differentiated across jobs in the occupational hierarchy. Hence, a random sample survey proved to be a highly inadequate method for collecting data, especially given the large numbers employed and small sample size decided upon. However, a purposive sample could have been used, taking employees from each level. Given the reluctance of firm management to allow us to conduct such a large-scale survey among their employees, and the need to collect information on employees employed at different levels, we discarded such a method for a case study approach after a carefully evolved typology of firms and jobs. We reduced the number of firms to be studied from 15 to six, and more employees taken up for study in each firm. A check-list was used to elicit information from the employees and the interviews were in a semi-structured format. A check-list was used to collect information from heads of human resource departments on firm level changes in recruitment patterns, employment levels and reasons (Annexure IV and V).

In the call centre industry, however, there are few levels in the organisation and hence a sample survey is quite suited to elicit information. Structured questionnaires are used for collecting most data from the employees and Human Resource heads (Annexure II and III). Information on stress levels, reactions to the work environment were collected subsequent to the structured interview through follow-up questions in the form of a free-wheeling interview. At present information has been collected from four automobile firms and one call centre firm. In the automobile industry, a total of 80 employees have been studied so far and from the call centre industry, only 20 have been surveyed. Reluctance on the part of management to provide information or permission to interview employees are primary hindrances to completion of fieldwork. However, data collection to date does provide interesting answers to some of the questions that the study seeks to address. The following are tentative results obtained from interviews conducted so far.

• Firms, by and large, are yet to realise the full advantages of ICTs in the automobile industry.
• Use of ICTs in the automobile industry has led to reduced need for jobs in certain areas like documentation, inter-departmental communication, data processing and similar clerical work apart from losses due to automation in the shopfloor.
• However, this reduced need has not resulted in lay-off of employees due to strong institutional protection to employees in these firms.
• As a result, different firms, depending upon their growth, product market conditions and management, rely on different strategies to offset the changing labour requirements.
• While some jobs do require more skills with the use of ICTs, some have witnessed reduced skill content hinting at a possible skill polarisation.
• Given the lack of codification of business processes and procedures, in all the firms studied, the possibility of disintermediation, ie, removal or decline in size of middle management in the near future is remote.
• The marginal presence of women employees in the auto industry implies that ICT diffusion in traditional manufacturing really does not affect them.
• In the call centre industry, women are employed in almost equal numbers. The age profile is however mostly confined to the 18- 25 group, with almost all of them unmarried.
• In terms of salary levels, employee respondents opine that given their formal qualifications, employment in call centres is a better option compared to alternate sites of employment.
• Though some report fatigue and symptoms of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), many claim to enjoy their work as it gives them an opportunity to interact with other human beings. All of them concur that constant monitoring of their work induces lots of stress.
• No obvious differences in career mobility or salaries drawn between men and women are observed. Nevertheless, many women respondents state that it will be difficult for them to continue with such work after change of marital status.
• Scope for mobility is however restricted due to the small number of high-end jobs in the call centre industry.

Annexure 1

Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies in India: Labour Market Implications for Developing Countries

An Analytical Review of Issues Involved

Introduction

Promotion of information and communication technology (ICT hereafter) based industrialisation has been the concern of many a state initiative in the less-industrialised countries. The reasons are quite clear. Its adoption by user industries imparts greater flexibility and efficiency to production systems. Two, the growing share of knowledge-based production at the global level warrants economies to develop a degree of technological capability that would equip them to compete in the global market better. And finally, given a perceived ability to create decent employment opportunities, governments perceive the promotion of ICTs to be critical to employment generation. Its net effect on employment generation apart, its potential to shift patterns in skill demand, to alter existing patterns of labour market segmentation and thereby reduce or aggravate inequities across segments is even more important to labour market intervention. A critical review of literature pertaining to these aspects of ICT diffusion is therefore warranted to understand the various dimensions.

However, the impact of diffusion of ICTs across different sectors in the economy on the labour market remains under explored in less industrialised regions like India characterised by multitudes of production relations and labour market institutions quite different from that in advanced capitalist economies. The proposed study attempts to contribute to this neglected but important area by examining the impact of ICTs on the Indian labour market and implications for policy-making. The study is based on a comparison of two sectors, one, a traditional manufacturing sector like the automobile industry, and the other a new, ICT enabled services sector, call centres. Here, we undertake a critical review of studies that deal with the organisational and labour market impacts of ICTs. Prior to such an exercise, we shall draw the broad macro-economic contours within which ICTs play out their impacts at the micro-economic level.

The Context

The important contextual feature that needs to be privileged is the growing reliance on the world market for economic growth among the less industrialised regions. Limits to import-substitution based industrialisation (ISI) has forced governments in these countries to resort to a greater reliance on the external market for inputs and outputs. Ensuring competitiveness in the world market therefore assumes an unprecedented importance among policy makers of these countries. Production structures have to therefore cater to such markets effectively.

Accompanying this process of globalisation has been changes in the characteristics of dominant global output markets. To begin with, it is observed that there is a shift from production based on mass markets to one based on fragmented and flexible markets. The earlier era typically characterised as Fordist, emphasised mass production technologies, scale economies, high technical division of labour, divorce of conception from execution leading to monotonous, routinised work for a majority of the work force and a hierarchical organisational structure. Productivity and hence, the profit rate was sought to be raised through scale economies. Goods were relatively homogenous and produced for mass consumption. Wage rates were linked to productivity increases, thereby ensuring a steady market for the mass-produced goods. Mass production facilitated a greater technical division of labour and both in turn led to the creation of a dual labour market, with a managerial and designer elite at the top, leaving the numerically larger manual workers at the bottom of the hierarchy undertaking less skilled tasks. Job mobility was primarily internal and dependent on period of employment. Further, the rise of vertically integrated large firms helped the formation of class-consciousness and consequent development of worker associations to protect their interests.

The Fordist organisation, embedded as it were in a Keynesian welfare state in most of the advanced capitalist economies, assured employment security and social welfare to most employees. Mass production enabled a significant number of citizens to access goods never available or affordable to them earlier. Within this framework it was possible to successfully formulate and implement collective bargaining arrangements related to salaries, working conditions and leisure time for a significant share of employees in the manufacturing and services sectors (Marglin and Schor 1990). [1]

This seemingly stable arrangement began to reach its optimal productivity levels by the end of 1960s. Inflexibility of wage rates due to strong worker associations, in conjunction with the inherent limits to extent of division of labour soon forced decreases in profitability of capital. This crisis in Fordism is held to have set off two crucial processes. One, firms in the advanced capitalist economies began to move out of the confines of the domestic market to explore new markets, especially in the peripheral economies. Second, and more important in the context of this study, they began to shift the labour-intensive segments of the production process as a means to cut down costs of production (Froebel, Henricks and Kreye 1980). Simultaneously, at the level of the nation-state, the crises led to a weakening of the welfare regime and initiated the process of cutting back on social security provisions. The last mentioned factor along with the shift of manufacturing operations to the periphery is argued to have led to the demise of mass consumption due to skewedness in income distribution. [2] This collapse of mass markets, leaving in its wake, a highly segmented consumption economy, moved organisational priorities away from achieving scale economies towards assuring scope economies through greater product differentiation and adaptability to customer preferences. The resultant industrial organisation system best suited to the new production and distribution has come to be termed as post or neo-Fordist, or flexible specialisation systems (Amin 1994). They are characterised by the following:

a) Heavy dependence on information technologies (telecommunications, computers)
b) customised products and services
c) networked to one another and with clients:
e) more flexible and ability to rapidly adapt to changing market conditions
f) small-scale, specialised, dependent on partnerships and alliances with other organisations with related competencies
g) Less hierarchical, decentralised organisational structure, empowered, creative workers, often working in teams
i) global Operations

The increased diffusion of ICTs has therefore taken place under such sweeping organisational and market changes and in fact appears to aid this process. Any study of the impact of ICTs at the micro-level needs to situate itself in this macro-environment to ensure better understanding of the influencing variables.

ICTs and Employment in Developing Countries with special Reference to India

Impacts of microelectronics, communication and information technologies on the organisation of production and employment in industrialised and to a limited extent in less industrialised countries have been highly discussed (Castells 1999; Bryanjolfsson and Hitt 1998; ILO 2001). Discussions essentially relate to its enabling potential for employment and quality of work, and questions are raised as to whether such technologies foster equality or reinforce existing polarities between regions, classes and gender. Studies also point to the opportunities they present for less developed countries (LDCs), in terms of employment for school leavers and earning foreign exchange, and on the unsubstantiated expectation that such relocation of work offers the opportunity to 'leapfrog' into a new technology age in which LDCs could have a comparative advantage (ILO 2001). The discussion on the diffusion of ICTs in developing countries, has however, by and large ignored the contractual position, wages, career paths and working conditions including employee health and safety of new technology workers. Given the amount of interest in these issues within developed countries, this is a serious omission.

Some contend that because of better access to technology and knowledge, the growth of this industry will provide an opportunity for developing countries to easily ‘catch-up’ with the industrially advanced nations (Perez and Soete 1988). Since this technology is not matured, they are at early stages of the product life cycle, which enables firms in developing economies to build capabilities much faster. Second, many sectors within iCTs rely more on human capital and less on physical capital investments rendering build-up of human capital base critical to the ‘catching-up’ process. It is therefore believed that developing economies that have a strong human capital base like India may be successful in such efforts.

Simultaneously, with the increasing role of information processing and micro-electronic based technologies in production, even in traditional sectors, a failure to develop technological capabilities in this sector poses a serious threat to such economies. Lack of infrastructure, physical like telecommunications, or social like educational institutions, do constrain economies from taking advantage of this ‘window of opportunity’. In such a context, the new technologies may result in creating or accentuating economic inequality between regions. This has led to a series of state initiatives in many of the less-industrialised regions to promote sectors that produce information and communication goods and services, but importantly sectors that are enabled by these technologies. India has been a forerunner in this regard, and has managed to build capabilities in some segments of ICTs, especially in the software services segment. However, studies also observe that there are several barriers that restrict firms from moving into more value-adding segments of the sectors (Heeks 1996).

The development or promotion of ICT sectors in India taken place amidst concerns of large scale underemployment and employment generation initiatives by policy makers. Despite more than five decades of planned industrialisation, access to employment in the formal sector in India is confined to less than 10 per cent of the total workforce in the country. Given that regulated work conditions, wage levels and employment security are confined to this sector, policy initiatives to enhance employment in this segment is important. Even within this formal sector, however, disparities based on gender and caste continues to be reproduced (Rothboeck and Acharya 1999). Policies like positive discrimination in the public sector and promotion of sectors that employ women have been formulated to generate social equity through employment in this segment.

Significantly, since the 1980s, there have been strong indications of a job-less growth in the organised manufacturing sector (Nagaraj 1994; Goldar 2000). Even in the 1990s, we observe that employment in the organised sector as a whole has only grown at roughly an annual average rate of 1.5 per cent between July 1987 and December 1997. [3] The problem has been further compounded by a burgeoning supply of educated youth seeking employment in the formal sector. It is in this context that the significance given to the ICT based sectors like the software sector needs to be understood. In India, rooted in four decades of import-substitution based industrialisation, a relatively healthy base in ICT production has been created. This, coupled with trends at the global industrial level, has led to the creation of a vibrant software industry. Despite being located in a peripheral region, it is one of the fastest growing segments of the global software industry. A consistent annual growth rate of over 50 per cent throughout the 1990s is unparalleled, which is believed to continue in the years to come (Kumar 2000).

Therefore, the government has identified ICTs to be a thrust sector for future growth in national wealth and quality employment. [4] The period since the 1960s has also seen the government emphasising the need to reduce employment discrimination against women, especially in the public sector (Banerji 2000). The recently established IT taskforce to the government which addresses the future of IT industry including software production expects a net employment creation by 2.2 million employees by the year 2008 (NASSCOM 2000). Further, this sector, especially IT-enabled services like call centres, medical transcription, back office work processing, etc., are held to offer considerable employment avenues for women unlike the traditional manufacturing sector (Mitter and Rowbotham 2000). Elsewhere, especially in the South East Asian newly industrialising economies (NICs), introduction of ICT sectors like information processing and hardware assembly led to the entry of large numbers of women into the labour force, lending credibility to such initiatives to enhance women’s participation in the workforce (http://sdnp.delhi.nic.in/resources/labour/news/bl-24-8-women.htmlref). Given the potential role envisaged for ICTs in both employment generation and reduction in labour market segmentation, it is worthwhile to understand the various approaches and examine empirical support to them as a prelude to our enquiry.

Overview of Findings on ICTs, Work and Employment

It has been observed that the impact of technical change on quality of work and employment are crucially mediated by organisational imperatives (Holfman and Novak 2002). At the same time, organisational forms, outcomes of a multiplicity of factors including technologies deployed, are also transformed as a result of adoption of new technologies. As has been observed in the case of substitution of water mills with steam power in the textile industry and the transformation of the putting-out system to workshop based production with the advent of centralised power sources, technologies even transform the spatial structure of an industry. That firms derive productivity benefits of new technologies only when their adoption is accompanied by appropriate organisational innovations is well documented (Murphy 2002).

The new organisational shift towards a more global, flexible mode, relies heavily on deployment of advances made in the realm of information and communication technologies to co-ordinate the decentralised production and distribution segments. While the movement from Fordist to post-Fordist organisational models was facilitated by developments in information and communication technology, the enhanced demand for these technologies in the post-Fordist context has set the ground for rapid technical change and growth of this sector. The rise of knowledge based production systems are also argued to play its part in reconfiguring the Fordist labour market into post-Fordist or ‘flexible labour markets’.

Developments in ICTs enable firms to co-ordinate spatially dispersed activities without much increase in transaction costs through effective functioning of information networks. Another area where developments in IT have facilitated the new organisation is in the realm of production flexibility. [5] To cater to a highly customised demand, dedicated machines that perform routine tasks become redundant. Instead, machines need to adapt efficiently to changes in output and this has been made possible by the use of computer numerically controlled machines (CNCs) and computer aided design and manufacturing. A crucial element of the new organisational form is therefore a high reliance on information processing and communication technologies. Changing market trends play an overarching role in enhancing the need for ICTs in firms. Higher customisation, on the one hand, makes acquiring relevant information on finer consumer differences critical to successful competition. In addition, increased competition based on innovation renders decreasing the time to market period critical to competition. The importance of ICTs to firms operating in such a context of greater relevance of information is therefore obvious. Though this dimension is evident even in traditional industries like clothing, footwear, etc., it is especially high in the growth of the knowledge-based sectors like hardware and software sectors of computers, microelectronics and telecommunications. These changes are expected to exert a strong influence on work and employment, and also contribute to productivity and output increases in related sectors. [6] Further, given its ability to automate physically demanding manual tasks, it undermines the basis of gender-based discrimination witnessed in industrial labour markets and hence, offers the potential to provide employment opportunities for women, marginally represented in such sectors earlier. Having delineated the macro trends that make ICT diffusion critical to growth and development, in the following sections, we focus on micro-impacts of ICTs, with emphasis on labour market impacts.

Research on the micro-economic impact of ICTs, apart from productivity impacts, can be broadly classified into three strands (Laudon and Marr); impact on organisational structure, on quality of work and on labour market segmentation. We examine each of these strands in the following sub-sections.

(a) Impact on Organisational Structure and Firm size

One stream of enquiry focusses upon how ICTs transform organisational landscapes; the inter-firm and intra-firm division of labor and its co-ordination through market or authority (Blau, 1976; Laudon 1976; Kling and Iacono 1984; Gurbaxani and Whang 1991; Carley 2000). One explanation for the rise of firms treats imperfect information in markets and consequent costs associated with search and coordination as a determining factor. Given that, organisations have an optimal structure that minimises the costs of information acquisition and processing as well as its use in monitoring, etc. To the extent that deployment of ICTs enhance either the availability of information or increase the ease of processing, the structures need to be transformed to ensure better utilisation of ICTs deployed. In principle, ICTs are available to all firms in an economy. However, it is found that its effective implementation towards economic gains is dependent upon organisational restructuring to ensure an optimal structure given the new technological regime (Bresnahan and Greenstein 1997). There are various propositions concerning how ICTs can change organisations. To begin with, is the proposition that ICTs may alter firm size; lead to the rise of smaller firms. The arguments for this reduction in firm size proposition are two, labour substitution and outsourcing.

(i) Labour substitution:

This hypothesis is based on the fact that increased automation leads to reduced need for labour as well as enhanced productivity. When capital investments in IT are cheaper compared to employment of labour, firms may substitute IT for labour. This process can be further divided into IT-enabled machines replacing manual labour in the shop floor and ICTs replacing those employed in data processing and communication. However, empirical evidence to support this hypothesis has not been convincing, as exemplified by the discussion on "IT productivity paradox" (Brynjolfsson 1993). Its effects are also conditioned by labour market rigidities. In labour markets with few barriers to exit, it may be expected that ICTs displace labour. On the other hand, under rigid labour market conditions, deployment of ICTs ought to take place without displacement of labour, probably altering the nature of work. Once again, while firm-level impacts are easier to discern, larger macro-economic impacts are difficult to discern due to the multiple and overlapping influences on employment like output markets, policy variables, etc. Furthermore, studies of the relationship between IT and employment, also indicate that IT may actually increase employment, and may in fact complement employment rather than substitute (Morrison and Berndt 1990). Such findings however, do not shed any light on the changes in skill or job profile, if any, that use of ICTs may require. Similarly, use of ICTs may lead to improved labour productivities, lowering the cost per unit of output. Assuming that the price elasticity of demand for that output is high, demand for that product increases forcing firms to expand capacity, leading to increased firm size. Though empirical evidence for this possibility is not available, it definitely goes to show that the impact of ICTs is dependent upon even industry-specific factors.

(ii) Outsourcing:

Another important impact of ICTs, especially in the context of developing economies is its ability to reduce transaction and co-ordination costs, and consequent impact on firm size. ICTs might lead to smaller sized firms because they enable firms to "outsource" more of their activities. ICTs enhance firms' ability to buy rather than make more of the components and services inputs required for production and/or delivery. The choice depends upon relative costs of production vis a vis that of coordination. While production costs refer to the costs of the physical production process itself, the latter refer to the costs of 'managing the dependencies' between production tasks. It would include, for example, costs of ensuring availability of material and factor inputs at the right time, ensure movement of work-in-progress through the production process, etc. Co-ordination costs can be internal or external. Internal co-ordination costs include the costs of managers and others who decide when, where, and how to produce whereas, external co-ordination costs include (a) the supplier's costs for marketing, sales, and billing and (b) Costs for finding suppliers, negotiating contracts, and payments. In both cases, as can be seen, co-ordination costs include information intensive activities such as gathering information, communicating, and making decisions. Since ICT is particularly useful to such information intensive activities, several works suggest how IT might affect firm size by reducing these co-ordination costs, depending upon which kinds of costs are affected most (Gurbaxani and Whang 1991).

Transaction cost theory (Coase 1988; Williamson 1985) that most deals with information processing imperative of firms suggests the following possibilities with regard to diffusion of ICTs and its impact on firm size and structure. [7]

Reducing internal co-ordination costs relative to external coordination

If IT reduces the costs of internal co-ordination more than external co-ordination, then we would expect firms to make more things internally. This means that firm size will increase with use of ICTs. To cite, if IT reduces costs for managers to monitor and control their subordinates' work in a large organisation, then this might lead firms to make more things internally where they could be controlled more effectively and at less cost than if they were purchased from an external supplier. One type of internal co-ordination cost simply involves provisioning of information to decision-makers and transmission of information about these decisions to different levels in the organisation. Another important internal co-ordination cost arises when the interests of individual employees are different from that of the firm as is quite often the case. Pointed out by proponents of 'agency' theory, this would imply costs of monitoring and provision of incentives and disincentives to ensure performance (Jensen 2000). Since all these activities are information-intensive, theoretically it seems plausible that ICTs may affect their costs. The last aspect, as can be seen, has obvious implications for autonomy of labour, which will be discussed later.

Reducing external co-ordination costs more than internal:

If ICT reduces the costs of external co-ordination more than internal co-ordination, then we would expect firms to rely more on outsourcing for their inputs. The average size of firms will therefore decrease. For example, if it is easier and cheaper for a firm to find an external supplier for new parts than to make them internally, then the firm is more likely to buy the parts from external suppliers than to set up internal manufacturing capacity. This phenomenon is especially evident in the case of the automobile industry, which requires a large number of small component inputs for a single unit of output. Typically, 70 to 80 per cent of their component inputs are sourced from external suppliers.

When firms want to buy components from independent firms, they are often threatened by the possibility of "opportunistic" behaviour of firms with whom they negotiate and enter into contracts, forcing them to incur costs to reduce the scope or impact of such behaviour (such as legal and accounting expenses). Such costs would not be necessary if the same transactions were co-ordinated internally. For example, when a supplier invests in special machinery that is useful only for one customer, the supplier is vulnerable if that customer threatens to buy somewhere else. Similarly, when it is difficult for buyers to find out about alternative sources of supply, they are vulnerable to monopolistic pricing from their suppliers.

Use of ICTs make available better quality information to firms and thereby reduce the scope for opportunism (Brynjolfsson 2000; Brynjolfsson, Malone and Gurbaxani 1988). By reducing the costs of searching and accounting activities that are needed for co-ordination with external suppliers, IT can make outsourcing more attractive to firms. A related effect of IT is that it might reduce market co-ordination costs by changing the "specificity" of assets themselves. For instance, Klein, Crawford and Alchian (1978), and Grossman and Hart (1986) have emphasised that when assets are specific to one another, market co-ordination will be inefficient and this may lead to common ownership of large, related sets of assets. However, if IT facilitates techniques like flexible manufacturing, it may decrease the specificity of assets, and thus transform internal production into production organised through smaller units co-ordinated by markets. Brynjolfsson (1991) modelled the impact of greater asset flexibility, to demonstrate that a broader distribution of production knowledge and co-ordination knowledge favours market co-ordination.

Reducing co-ordination costs more than production costs:

While in the above two sections, we traced the impact of relative changes in different types of coordination costs on the inter-firm division of labour, other studies point to the changes wrought about by reduction in coordination costs in total (both internal and external) in relation to production costs. It is argued that when both kinds of co-ordination costs decline relative to production costs, it would still favour buying to producing in-house. First, as noted above, the costs of identifying suppliers and negotiating contracts make external co-ordination more expensive than co-ordinating the same activities internally (Williamson 1985). However, when external suppliers cater to a large number of customers, they can reap gains from scale economies of scale and efficiency through specialisation that internal production could not achieve. Thus, in general, buying rather than making leads to higher co-ordination costs but lower production costs.

If IT reduces both internal and external co-ordination costs, it will decrease the disadvantages of sourcing from external suppliers. If more outsourcing occurs because of this or any of the other effects, we should expect a decrease in firm size, in terms of both material assets and numbers employed. As can be seen, unlike the labour substitution proposition based on automation, here, employment does not decline, but gets divided among new independent firms. There is limited evidence to suggest that ICTs do lead to a decline in firm size in certain industries. A study of the metal-working industry found that there was a fragmentation of vertical integrated firms and that this could be partly attributed to increased use of ICTs (Carlsson, 1988).

While the above discussion pertains to impact of ICT use on firm size, another related set of questions concerned the impact of use of computers on distribution of power within an organisation, ie, its ability to increase centralised authority or to decentralise decision-making powers, with its attendant implications for labour autonomy and control over work. Empirical evidence is again divided on this. While some studies found a considerable increase on centralisation of decsion-making power subsequent to introduction of computers, another set of studies pointed to contradictory tendencies. One study (Blau et.al 1976) interestingly observed from a sample of over 100 manufacturing firms, that use of computers ‘onsite’ led to dencentralisation while their ‘offsite’ use promoted centralisation.

Admittedly, both these sets of studies were based on the assumption that technology was the prime mover that determined the distribution of power within an organisation. This premise was soon questioned by another set of scholars in the 1970s who argued for a more complex explanation for organisational structure. In fact, the causality was seen to be reversed by some scholars (Laudon 1974) who felt that the way technologies are deployed in an organisation was dependent upon the authority structures present. Technologies, in this case, only acted as a tool to reinforce structures that management deemed appropriate. This understanding implies that management, faced with many options, do not face any constraints in implementing what they perceive to be the best. This perspective, termed as the ‘organisational imperative’ by George and King (1991) in opposition to the ‘technological imperative’ that guided research earlier, has been tempered by the same authors by drawing upon a ‘reinforcement politics’ perspective where organisations are constrained by their history and conflicting goals. Once again, the discussion, rather than argue for a specific kind of impact, highlights the importance of institutional factors in shaping outcomes.

ICTs and Nature of Employment

Another strand of literature concerns changes in the locational design of work due to introduction of ICTs (Zuboff, 1984; Sproull and Kiesler, 1991) and implications for nature of employment generated. Since ICTs reduce coordination and communication costs, it is not necessary to bring workers together to a single workplace. As has been pointed out by Marglin(1974), the origins of the factory form of production organisation lay essentially in the need to monitor and control the pace of work as otherwise, it would be difficult to ensure compliance from the workers. Subsequently, it enabled the development of Taylorist techniques that not only reinforced capital’s control over labour, but also created a dual labour market, with the separation of intellectual labour from manual labour. Use of ICTs, especially advanced communication technologies, coupled with appropriate incentives can provide an opportunity to employees to undertake homework, or more broadly ‘telework’, ie, distance working facilitated by ICTs. Since the nature of work is primarily information processing and knowledge creation, employees with access to information processing and communication tools can carry out their work without considerations of location. This possibility opened up by ICTs has even been seen as an environmentally sound option as it reduces the need for urban transport.

On the flip side, it also weakens the traditional bases for organising labour and collective representation of labour. ICTs, by facilitating firms to employ homeworkers on a contractual basis, are seen to promote insecure employment opportunities. In the Indian context as well as in the context of other low-income economies, this potential of ICTs is seen to push employment from the formal sector to small firms in the unorganised sector where employment is not protected by any legislation. Further, if this feature of ICTs encourage the formation of small firms that are narrowly specialised, it also implies that there is less room for employee mobility within firms, transforming the career paths of employees (Francis, 1986: 154–158). Vertical mobility of employees will be ensured primarily through movement from one firm to another rather than through intra-firm mobility. While the above discussion pertains to changes in the nature of employment due to adoption of ICTs, ICTs are also expected to profoundly alter the content of work, shifts in skill demands and consequent impacts on labour market segmentation.

ICTs and Quality of Work Content:

The difference between the set of impacts discussed above and this aspect of impact stems from two perspectives of work, one as an end in itself and another as a means to other ends. One, work is an end in itself, an expression of innate human aspirations to creative and meaningful labour. Second, work is means to earn income and secure livelihoods. While the earlier discussion pertains to work as means to ensure steady access to income and decent living conditions, here, we discuss about ICTs potential to create meaningful and fulfilling work for employees. There are generally two contrasting theses about new technologies including ICTs and impact on the quality of work:

the 'postindustrial thesis', in which automation is seen as liberating workers from routine tasks and producing a skilled, stable, well-paid, committed and autonomous labour force (Bell 1973);

b) the 'degradation of work thesis', in which innovation is seen as designed to reduce skill requirements and transform work activities into repetitive routines, so that labour becomes cheap and easy to substitute (Braverman 1974; Aranowitz and Difazio 1994).

The former understanding of impact on work is partly related to the earlier discussions on labour substituting ICTs. Degrading, monotonous labour which was seen as essential to societal progress, but inimical to those employed at it can now be left to ICT driven machines, leaving human beings to take care of more creative and knowledge-based work. Thus, authors contend that ICTs when diffused in an organisation, undermine the need for routine clerical work and reduce some subset of blue-collared work as well. What cannot be automated are tasks that require exception processing, spatial or visual skills or those that require non-algorithmic reasoning (Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson and Hewitt 2000, 4). Apart from such impacts in traditional sectors, the growing knowledge and information content of the new sectors too would require a highly skilled workforce. What this argument misses out is the growing complexity in division of labour as a society/economy progresses. Thus, while it may be true that ICTs does liberate a set of workers from drudgery, accompanied as they are by growing complexities of economies, it is quite possible that new tasks are created that may require labour of a very monotonous and unskilled kind that are not readily amenable to automation. In fact, the post-industrial thesis presupposes a movement towards dominance of the service economy in terms of both employment and production (Castells 1999, 203). Again, since substitution of labour by ICTs are driven by relative costs of labour, the extent to which the substitution takes place may differ across economies, with a lot less incentive for labour surplus economies to substitute as compared to that witnessed in advanced capitalist economies.

The second thesis stems from the Marxist perspective on capitalist dynamic as one driven by capital’s need to exercise control over labour to ensure adequate extraction of surplus value. When capital engages labourers to work in a firm, the capitalist essentially buys the labourpower of the labourers and not their labour. It is therefore critical to capital to ensure that it extracts adequate labour from the labourpower of employees. This need to exercise greater control over labour is seen to be a primary factor conditioning the organisation of production in a capitalist society. Deskilling or reduction of complex tasks like that of a craft worker into simple tasks is important to this end. When the broken down tasks can be undertaken by unskilled workers, it reduces the bargaining power of skilled labour while simultaneously serving to expand the supply of labour from which capital can draw from. The introduction of Taylorist principles to the shopfloor, for instance, seeks to reduce labour’s control over the pace of work, and thereby improves capital’s ability to extract the requisite amount of labour.

Braverman’s work, taking cue from Marx’s analyses of factory system in England in the wake of the Industrial revolution, is premised on the above logic of the capitalist firm. However, critics have pointed to the absence of the possible role that labour struggles can play in modifying strategies in the workplace. Workers, by resisting deskilling efforts of capital can force capital to resort to other means of extracting surplus value including use of more productive technologies. As can be seen, deskilling or degradation of work has less to do with technologies per se, but are only visible in the need for capital to control the pace and quality of work.. Information and communication technologies, when used towards this purpose may downgrade the quality of work. Another criticism of the deskilling hypothesis concerns the very notion of skill that Braverman uses to explain the process of deskilling. He derives his understanding of skills from craft based skills, which may not necessarily be valid in a different historical period.

At a theoretical level, since ICTs reduce coordination costs between different work processes, it facilitates/encourages firms to fragment tasks so as to enable them to improve labour productivity. At the same time, when routine tasks can be automated, ICTs reduce unskilled work. This has led to the argument that ICTs alter the distribution of employment among occupations and skill classes of workers (Braverman 1974; Katz 2000; ILO 2001). While the familiar pessimistic Luddite view is that technology will destroy jobs and increase unemployment, the other view is that new jobs, many of which are better paid, are being created in place of ones which cease to exist.

Let us however, now examine these contrasting propositions in relation to the empirical evidence generated through follow-up studies. A few confirm the deskilling hypothesis. Braverman, himself, analysing the impact of introduction of numerically controlled machine tools, found that it reduces the craft-based machine operator to that of a machine tender where the skill requirements are much lower. Kraft's (1979) study of impact of IT on computer programming too led to a similar conclusion. Programming, a highly craft-like job, has been subject to fragmentation and routinisation of tasks, leading to deskilling among software programmers. Greenbaum’s study of transformation of software programming in the 1970s too noted deskilling tendencies, wherein efforts were undertaken to subdivide programming into less skilled, routine tasks and skilled ones (1976).

Such observations are supported by Aronowitz and DiFazio (1994, p. 21), who noted that the development of computer-aided software now threatens "the most glamorous of the technical professionals associated with computer technology programming. . . ." Although there will remain a need for "superprograrnmers" to create new and innovative software, the majority of computer programmers are likely to be replaced by intelligent software that is already capable of automatically writing most of the low-level, routine programming turned out by today's programmers (Aronowitz and DiFazio, 1994, p. 21, quoted in Gurbaxani et.al). Castells too observes that just as information technologies have eliminated a number of routine jobs, it has also created a need for new unskilled tasks (206).

On the other hand, studies do indicate the elimination of routine tasks like documentation and record-keeping, a tendency that questions the proposition that ICTs in general lead to a deskilled workforce (Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson and Hitt 2000). Even within software programming, it has been argued (Brooks 1976) that programming continues to retain its craft basis despite efforts to introduce various software engineering processes into development of software. Again, on the other hand, authors have contended that software programming has taken the same route as other manufacturing operations with its splitting up into various small functions capable of being undertaken by the less skilled (Greenbaum 1976). Part of our uncertainty about the effect that information technology has had on the nature of work can be traced back to the considerable uncertainty about the conception of skill. About all we can say is that the introduction of information technology changes the nature and type of skill used in the workplace, but without a shared, operational definition of skill, we have no means of judging if the net effect of computerisation is towards deskilling the workforce.

The impact of IT on employment is not therefore uniform. It can reduce work to deskilled and repetitive jobs and it can also create innovative work and new skills. It can fragment and control labour or it can enable decentralised decision-making and more autonomy. If the workplace is a 'contested terrain' as argued by Edwards (1979), then the direction of change in the organization of work depends on the strength of and organisation of labour as well. This proposition also finds empirical support in a few studies (Clement, 1991; Ormos and Blameble 1989 cited in Ng and Yong 1995). Strong trade union demands coupled with a more open government (e.g. in the Scandinavian countries) can provide channels for participation of labour in planning and use of new technologies.

The impact of the introduction of IT cannot thus be analysed apart from its immediate context of social relations and the existing organisation of work. The extent of impact will also vary depending on the type of machines being installed, the period of installation and the existing labour processes, which are being automated. While studies tend to classfiy labour into too broad categories like clerical or blue-collared or managerial, differences in terms of impacts can be observed even within these categories, calling for a more nuanced treatment of the subject. Further, given other social bases of segmentation like gender and ethnicity, the impact of ICTs too may differentially affect these categories. For instance, while the new technology skills are being polarised by gender, it is also evident that women are entering computer professions in both the developed and developing countries, leading to class polarisation within the female labour force itself.

This means that deskilling and intensification of work are not inevitable consequences of technological change, but neither will technology automatically create better opportunities. Given the multiplicity of institutional variables that mediate between availability of new technologies and their deployment, impacts are complex and conditioned by relations of power. Studies in fact reveal that the nature of change depends on relative power of the workers. For example, clerks fared less well, on average, than professionals. Again, secretaries sometimes experience better work improvements than workers, primarily women, who were involved in back office processing transactions. Occupational power thus, plays an important role in shaping the way ICTs restructure work content (George and King 1991; Attewell, 1987).

Such skill-biased technical change runs counter to the Marxist contention that technology when deployed in a capitalist society serves to fragment tasks and deskill workers. There have been many studies that address the measurement of extent of skill bias and its role in the increasing income inequalities witnessed across the globe during the last two decades (Castells 1999). As stated earlier, it needs to be noted that the introduction of ICTs has taken place in conjunction with dismantling of social security nets and greater internationalisation of production to take advantage of low labour costs outside the advanced capitalist economies. Though different methodologies have been developed to net out other effects and isolate the impact of new technologies on skill requirements, there is a consensus by and large that new technologies require complementary skills to ensure their optimum utilisation.

Some of the implications of this are that employees will have many jobs in their work career. They have to move from one job to another as job requirements change, for which they need to constantly update their skill profile according to changing market requirements. Thus, they must be 'trainable' in new skills. This capability depends on possessing a particular educational background; have easier and speedier access to knowledge, which can be codified and disseminated - a major benefit to developing countries. Having said that, it also needs to be understand how traditional forms of labour market based segmentation like that based on gender are undermined or reinforced through use of ICTs.

Women’s Employment and Diffusion of ICTs

We have already discussed the factors that encourage optimistic visions of ICTs enhancing women's participation in the workforce. Here, we examine the theoretical sources of alternate understanding of this dimension as well as review the empirical evidence found in this regard. Given the diverse nature of jobs generated by ICTs, nature of women's employment and work too can be varied. The dynamics of diffusion and use of computer technology are also varied, reflecting the differences in institutional arrangements across different sectors and countries. To begin with, while ICTs have diffused to a great extent in advanced capitalist economies, in low-income economies diffusion of ICTs is more recent phenomenon and more importantly, given the lower relative costs of labour, it has not permeated throughout firms.

Women's employment in ICT sectors range from low-skilled, low-paid data entry jobs to high-skilled, high-status professional jobs of systems analysts and computer programmers, though most are concentrated towards the low-skilled end of the spectrum (Mitter and Pearson 1992; Pearson and Mitter 1993). Interestingly, the bulk of women's employment in computer-related occupations in both developed and developing countries has been concerned with the entry and manipulation of data via computer keyboards. It needs to be remembered that women’s employment even in traditional sectors are confined to data entry jobs like typing or jobs that require soft skills like inter-personal skills, communication skills, etc. Thus jobs like secretarial assistance and public relations promotion were and still are undertaken by largely by women. The predominance of women in similar jobs in ICT sectors therefore is indicative of carry-over of existing gendering of work.

With the advances in telecommunications technology, there is an increasing trend to relocate or subcontract office services to low-wage countries countries, where women are employed in low-skilled data entry and other jobs at a fraction of the cost of comparable labour in high-income economies (ILO 2001; Mitter and Rowbotham 1995). Even highly-skilled software services are being undertaken by firms in low-income economies like India with a pool of skilled low cost labour (ILO 2001; Heeks 1996). Apart from such rise of new sectors, use of automation in traditional sectors also portends important changes to labour markets. Thus, the extent to which such trends would affect women’s employment in these countries is worthy of examination.

The following review is primarily based in the set of papers in Mitter and Rowbotham (1995). To begin with, Acero delineates the ways in which women employees respond to organisational changes like automation, drive towards more efficiency and importantly quality of output to meet the challenges of global competitive pressures. Interestingly, she finds that women employees understand the need for skill upgradation and demand from management the need for innovations in in-house training systems. To a certain extent, her fndings support the deskilling and degradation of work hypothesis of Braverman, and a possible feminisation of work as a result of changes in technologies. Yet she also finds an opposing trend: new production processes demand a number of high-end skills including technical and managerial expertise for core occupations. The inability of women to find adequate access to these jobs are due pre-entry barriers to entry into the labour market like social and educational institutions that deter women from upgrading their skills. Her observations that women's position in the intra-household division of labour plays an important role in determining on women's status at work stress the need to have a deeper insight into the links between private and public domains in workers' lives. 'New technology, in reducing the skill components of assembly-line jobs, makes these more accessible to women. Increased job opportunities, however, bring new tensions in workers' domestic lives. The evolving situation in the household poses special challenges to women who take time off in order to organize around their workplace demands, or who take initiatives in family planning.' Increasing entry into paid employment has nevertheless contributed to autonomy for women at work and training possibilities to a limited extent.

Gannage’s paper relates the formation of identities with the use of ICTs among the female workforce. She stresses the need to go beyond a pure gender based understanding of labour segmentation and its dynamic to one that combines it with class and ethnicity to understand the changing labour processes in a ‘post-industrial’ society. Thus, even within women employees, segmentation based on educational qualifications which in turn are partly a reflection of their class status are found to exist and which may in fact, be enhanced in a ‘knowledge economy’. This contention finds an echo in ILO (2001) and Rothboeck, Vijayabaskar and Gayathri (200). The latter work that examines the labour markets in the Indian software industry finds that there are caste-class differences within women employees in the Indian software industry.

Gannage analyses the modes by which use of ICTs in tandem with new corporate strategies to improve quality and time to market, alter the careers of immigrant women in Canada. She observes that while there has been a displacement of labour to an extent, it has also led to a polarisation of skills and increase in insecure home-based work. Her observations call for radical reformulation of labour union strategies state policies in the wake of new organisational and labour market changes, like encouragement of skill formation and creation of institutions that undermine discrimination based on gender and ethnicity.

Banerjee relates the employment of women in electronics production in Calcutta to an important structural feature of low-income, labour-surplus economies; the predominance of the informal economy characterised by insecurity of employment and degraded work conditions. In Calcutta, a number of consumer goods are assembled in informal sector units using imported components and large number of women employees. Assembly jobs, as is well known, does not require much skills and hence poor women with little formal qualifications or training are employed at low wage rates. Interestingly, she observes that this process has enabled some of the employees to acquire skills to help them assemble entire units. Acquisition of such skills definitely opens up opportunities for vertical mobility. Nevertheless, given perceptions that women are not good enough for such complex tasks, and lack of formal qualifications to back them up, this build up of skills has not been translated into movement to entrepreneurship and consequent access to higher incomes. Once again, we find that traditional sources of labour market discrimination continue to retain their hold in labour markets in ICT based sectors as well.

This finds additional support from Gaio’s analyses of women’s employment in the Brazilian software industry. Though this sector employs a large number of women (nearly 50 per cent of the total workforce), a major proportion of them are employed in low-end jobs like data entry and data processing, with women occupying a much lower share in software development work. At the same time, the fact that they have entered into the workforce, their low status notwithstanding implies that ICTs do have the potential to reduce discrimination. Thus, unlike other scholars of the Bravermanian kind who are pessimistic about prospects for women in the context of enhanced use of ICTs, Gaio perceives a few positive signs:

"The labour process theory, she argues, gives too much attention to the 'hard' side of technical knowledge, which is amenable to deskilling through Taylorism and automation. The approach fails to note the growing importance of the 'soft' side of technical knowledge, such as communication and user-producer interaction, which enables women to achieve economic advancement and greater social power. The declining importance of mainframe computers, she argues, gives a reason also for revising a certain strand of the radical feminist vision of technology, that thinks primarily in terms of 'hard' machines, embodying male dominance and power."

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu37we/uu37we03.htm#1. beyond the politics of difference.Introduction )

Pearson, on the other hand, does not envisage better work for women in the new work environment, though she does concede that enhanced work opportunities may lead to more autonomy for women in other spheres. Analysing the work conditions of data-entry workers, she observes that such work poses a number of health hazards like Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) to which women are more susceptible given their predominance in such jobs. More importantly, she points to the problems faced by employees and unions in making such hazards declared as injurious as they do not result in any external injuries. She calls for a more pragmatic approach to such issues to ensure that women gain some advantages in the new work environment.

Webster (1985) analyses the effects of office automation on women’s work and finds that even within women’s jobs, the impacts are quite differentiated. It has led to deskilling in some jobs and removal of routine work in others. She argues that power relations within the firm condition the differential impacts. Jobs with better status and higher in the hierarchy experienced reduction in monotony while those lower down experience deskilling. Thus, studies on impacts of ICTs on women employees need to take into account other factors to gain a better understanding.

Objectives of the study

Earlier, labour market changes brought about by new technologies were very much along the pattern posited by Braverman. Skilled jobs, mainly the jobs of men in manufacturing industries of developed countries, were reduced due to automation. Simultaneously, there was an expansion of low-skilled jobs particularly in the manufacture of electronic components which offered low skilled women in several developing countries, especially in south east Asia, considerable employment opportunities. Also, diffusion of ICTs has increased efficiency through its capacities to link distant markets, economise on inputs and rapid product design and development.

The potential created by the enormous flexibility of the microelectronic technologies and of machines embodying them opens up new avenues of employment opportunities, which is yet to be realised in several low-income economies including India. Since the same equipment can be used for a large variety of designs and production processes, producers can switch between different designs and products as well as quantities of output without deleterious loss in efficiency. They are therefore in a position to undertake mass customisation without significantly adding to their unit costs. However, for such production to be efficient, it is imperative that the labour working on those machines understands the new technologies and is also well informed about product market trends. Moreover, for a smooth transition from one product or process to another, the workers need to work in close cooperation with one another as well as with management. New technologies are therefore argued to provide an opportunity for a more creative engagement with work for labour as well as encourage teamwork (Piore and Sabel, 1984).

In literature regarding the impact of these technologies on labour processes, the trends of deskilling and feminisation of employment on the one hand, and creation of creative, artisan-type jobs on the other hand, have been widely noted. With the greater integration of domestic input and output markets with the global market, active efforts to promote ICT based sectors and use of ICTs to compete, there are uncertainties not only about the likely size of the additional employment in this field in India, but also importantly about the nature of those jobs, the kind of labour that would be required for them, and the prospects of it being available and actually drawn from among women.

As several studies have pointed out, there have been marked differences in the impact on labour processes of these new technologies, even between countries at apparently similar stages of development. It has also been pointed out that the pace and form of utilisation of available technologies are crucially dependent on the institutional background of a given economy (Freeman and Perez, 1988). Given the lack of adequate understanding of the relationship between diffusion of ICTs and labour market impacts in India, the a study towards this becomes important.

In this context, we seek to capture answers to the following questions in this study.

To what extent has information technology been introduced in traditional manufacturing sectors in India? (Planning, manufacturing, administration, accounting)?

Has the introduction of information technology had any quantitative impact on the level of employment and, if so, on what job profiles?

Has information technology had any qualitative effect (e.g., better working conditions, more satisfactory or creative work, and, if so, on what job profiles?

What are the major ways of dealing with technologically redundant workers?

Has any training been provided to workers to adjust to the new technology?

What new skills are required, if any, when recruiting new workers, as the result of the information technology?

How is technology related to the flexibilisation of working patterns?

Are new opportunities, in which female labour is actually preferred, arising?

What would these require in terms of skills and training patterns'?

Are the new jobs and work environments safer and healthier for women?

In more specific terms, the following aspects will be examined.

1. Does evidence from the ICT service industry and the automobile and component industry in India suggest that the promotion of ICT based industrialization in developing countries leads to:

skill polarisation i.e. skilled workers with better knowledge of use of ICTs have better career and work opportunities, leaving the rest of workforce in dead-end, low-paying jobs.
deskilling i.e. ICTs render traditional skills redundant and therefore tend to deskill the workforce.
disintermediation i.e. ICTs reduce transactions costs involved in information flows within an organization and therefore undermine the need for middle management.
gender neutrality i.e. ICTs reduce the need for physical labour and create white-collar jobs. Women, therefore, would find better employment prospects due to diffusion of ICTs.
flexibility i.e. ICTs reduce coordination costs, allowing firms to rely on external labour markets and, therefore, promote greater labour market flexibility.
autonomy at work i.e. ICTs ensure greater access to information among employees, therefore helping decentralized decision-making and giving employees greater autonomy at work.

2. How does the impact of ICT based industrialization on labour markets in India compare with changes observed elsewhere (developing and developed countries)?

3. What are the implications of the results of hypothesis testing and the comparison with other countries for:

Policy intervention in labour markets in developing countries
The relationship between technological change and labour market outcomes

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Annexure 11

Questionnaire for Call Centre Employees

1. Name of the firm: ____________________________________________

2. Location of the firm: ____________________________________________

3. Types of Service offered by Firm: _______________________________

4. Division/Department employed: _______________________________

5. Designation

I Personal Information
1. Name of Professional: ______________________________

2. Age: (1) 18-21: , (2) 22-25: , (3) 26-30: , (4) 31-35: ,

(5) 36-40: , (6) 41-45: , (7) 46-above:

3. Sex: (1) Male (2) Female

4. Marital Status: (1) Single: , (2) Married: , (3) Divorced: (4) Widower: (5) other ____

5. Do you have children? (1) Yes , (0) No

If yes: how many? ________________

6. Religion: (1) Hindu , (2) Muslim , (3) Christian

(4) Others: __________ (please specify)

7. Caste: (1) FC __________ (please specify)

(2) BC __________ (please specify)

(3) SC/ST _______ (please specify)

8. Place of Origin: (1) Metropolitan _____

(2) Urban _____

(3) Semi-urban _____

(4) Rural _____

9. Parent's Occupation

II Educational Qualifications/Institution

1. Could you please indicate the highest degree you attained?

Please also give some information about call centre related certifications.

	Art	Science	Commerce	Institute
Less than XII
12 Standard
Graduation
Postgraduation
Certified Course in Call Centre Technology	Specify:

2. In which year did you enter first job? 19_____

III Information on current and previous employment:

1. Date of joining this firm: (DD/MM/YY) ___ / ___ / 19___

2. Position currently held: _____________________________________

3. Could you please give us information about previous positions held within this firm?

Please use the coding below the table

Position Held	Period	Nature of Service	Responsibility	Gross Salary per Annum	Source of Information about job?

Coding: Position held:

(1) Agent (2) Supervisor (3) Manager (4) Any other (specify)

Period:

(1) Less than a year, (2) 1-2 years, (3) 2-3 years, (4) 4-5 years, (5) more than 5 years

Responsibility (number of people reporting to you):

(1) No personnel, (2) 1-3 personnel, (3) 4-10 personnel, (4) 11-20 personnel, (5) 20 and above personnel

Gross Salary:

(1) 50, 000 to 1 lakh per annum, (2) 1 lakh to 2 lakhs per annum, (3) 2 lakh to 4 lakhs per annum,

(4) 4 lakh to 6 lakhs per annum, (5) 6 lakhs to 10 lakhs per annum, (6) 10 lakhs to 20 lakhs (7) 20 lakhs and above

Source of Information

(1) Advertisement, (2) Campus interviews, (3) Recruiters, (4) Personal contacts, (5) others (specify)

4. Could you please give us information about your previous job/s held?

Please use the coding below the table

Job Held/Firm name and locality	Period	Responsibility	Gross Salary	Reason for leaving?	Source of Information about job?

Coding: Same as above plus

Reasons for change

(1) Better Salary (2) Reputation of joining the firm (3) More Challenging work (4) Change in job status (5) Private reasons, specify

IV Current Work and Employment

1. Entry question: Could you please describe a typical working day?

_____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

2. Can you please tell us how you were selected?

a) For your current job?

(1) Aptitude/written test (2) single Interviews (3) Multiple Interviews (4) Promoted based on peformance Promotion based on years of experience Any other, specify

b) For your first job in the current firm?

(2) Aptitude/written test (2) single Interviews (3) Multiple Interviews (4) else

c) For your first job in the industry?

(1) Aptitude/written test (2) Single Interviews (3) Multiple Interviews (4) else

V Working Conditions:

1. Are you (1) a permanent employee?

(2) a contract employee ?

2.1) If yes, please specify the period of contract ________

(1) 1 year (2) 2 years (3) above 3 years

(3) Trainee

2. Is this mode of employment same for everybody in the firm?

a) Yes. b) No.

3. If no, what are the reasons for differences?

a) Don't know b) More skilled and hence difficult to replace c) Different positions d) Any other (specify)

4. Are you eligible for :

(1) Provident Fund (1) Yes (2) No

(2) Medical Allowance (1) Yes (2) No

(3) Maternity / Paternity benefits (1) Yes (2) No

(4) Health Insurance (1) Yes (2) No

(5) Educational Allowance (1) Yes (2) No

(6) Housing (1) Yes (2) No

(7) Car (1) Yes (2) No

(8) Telephone (1) Yes (2) No

(9) Dearness Allowance, (1) Yes (2) No

(10) Leave Travel Allowance, (1) Yes (2) No

(11)Provisions for Training (1) Yes (2) No

5. What is your gross salary?______________

6. How much leave are you entitled to :

(1) Annual leave days ______ days

(2) Sick leave ______ days

(3) Casual leave ______ days

7. On an average, how many hours do you work (a) each day ______(night shift)

(b) each day ______ (day shift)

(b) per week ______

8. When was the last time you went on vacation?______________________________________

9. Did you utilise all your entitled leave days the previous year? (1) Yes o, (0) No o

9.1 If no, could you please give us a reason why? ____________________________________

10. In this industry, work is considered to be stressful and strenuous. Do you suffer from any ailments? (1) Yes o (0) No o

10.1 If yes, can you please specify your answer? ____________________________________

11. Is your work monitored?

12. If yes, please explain how.

13. Does monitoring create stress?

14. If yes, please elaborate.

15. Have you or your colleagues suggested alternative forms of monitoring?

16. If yes, were they acted upon by management?

17. Is there any provision for you to negotiate with management in matters relating to work pressures,

VI Job Satisfaction

1. Now, we would like to ask you some questions about job satisfaction :

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rank the following

Job satisfaction	Rank	Reasons for satisfaction / dissatisfaction
1.  Salary
2.  Leisure
3.  Relationship with Colleagues
4. Relationship with Boss
5. Team Work
6.  Professional environment
7.  Opportunity for Professional development
8.  Content of work
9.  Organisational routines
10. Do you feel over-qualified for this job?

VII Prospects for mobility

1. Has anyone, either from Human Resource department or your boss, discussed your career opportunities and future prospects in this firm? (1) Yes o (0) No o

____________________________________________________________

2. Do you expect to get promoted next? (1) Yes (0) No

If no, please specify _____________________________________________________

3. Which criteria do you think is the most important ones to be promoted?

essential important not important

(1) length of stay in the firm

(2) quality of work

(3) Quantity of work

(4) Ability to work in a team

(5) Acquisition of new skills/certifications

(6) others (specify)______________________

4. How long do you intend to continue in this firm?

(1) 1 year o (2) 2 years o (3) more than 3 years o (4) do not know/open o

o

5. If you decide to leave this firm, what could be the main reasons :

(1) Lack of internal job mobility

(2) Inadequate salary

(3) Lack of challenge/learning opportunities

(4) Better opportunities somewhere else

(6) Others,_______________

6. What are the other likely job opportunities for you outside this industry?

7. Given a choice, where would you like to work with your current qualifications?

8. Can you explain the reasons for the choice?

9. Where would you like to see yourself in five years from now?

_____________________________________________________

10. How do you intend to realise those plans?

__________________________________________________

VIII Training

1. How do you keep yourself updated?

(Rank the following)

(1) Reading

(2) Courses

(3) In-house training

(4) Colleagues

(5) Other ________________

2. Have you undertaken any training courses (after joining this firm)?

(1) Yes (2) No

2.1 If yes, please specify:

Nature of Training	Period	In-house	External	Source of funding

3. Did the training have any direct impact on your a) salary or b) promotion prospects?

Could you please specify?

___________________________________________________

4. To what extent have you been able to make use of the training you underwent?

(1) always/daily (2) often (3) rarely (4) never

Please specify how ___________________________________________________

IX Questions about socialising/networking

1. Do you meet with other call centre employees/working colleagues after work?

(1) Three times a week (2) once a week (3) twice a month (4) once a month (5) hardly

2. During those get-togethers, what are those conversations mostly about?

	Very often	Rarely	never
(1) Work content
(2) Job openings
(3) Development in Industry
(4) Private Conversation
(5) Others ______________

3. How important do you think are the get-togethers for your career development?

(1) Essential (2) important 3) not important

3.1 If it is essential and important, please explain why

___________________________________________________________________

X For women employees only

1. Related to the question above, have you ever felt that your career development has been

affected due to you being a woman? (1) Yes (2) No

1.1 If yes, could you please specify those factors?

(1) Personal: family/household: __________________

(2) Professional: ______________________________

(3) Institutional level: __________________________

2. Do you see any difference between men and women in regard to their career planning and promotions within the firm? For instance, do you feel that men have better chances of becoming supervisors or managers in call centres? What could be the reasons for differences if there are any?

___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

3. Have you ever personally experienced any discrimination from either your colleagues or your boss? (1) Yes (2) No

3.1 If yes, please specify how _________________________________________________

4. Do women earn the same wages as men for the same work?

______________________________________________________

5. Do you know of women who have been discriminated against and not given the same opportunities as to their male colleagues? (1) Yes (2) No

5.1 If yes, please specify how _________________________________________________

6. How would you rate the firm policy with regard to women and in comparison to the former company you worked for? Please specify what you like and what you dislike.

Previous:______________________________________________________
Present:_______________________________________________________

7. To improve the career prospects of women, which firm level policy do think you should be undertaken at the political and at the enterprise level?

___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

Thank you very much for your cooperation

Annexure 111

Questionnaire for Head, Human Resources, ITES Firm

1. Name of the firm: ____________________________________________

2. Location of the firm: ____________________________________________

3. Types of Service offered by Firm: ____________________________________________

4. Organisational Structure

Job Type (Level)	Required minimum qualification (incl. Training in computer usage)	No. Employed		No. of People Reporting
		Male	Female
Agents/Associates
Team Leaders
Managers
Trainers
Others (Specify)

5. What are the major sources of recruitment?

a) Arts Colleges in Bangalore

b) Arts Colleges in other Metros

c) Technical/Professional Colleges in Bangalore

d) Technical/Professional colleges in other Metros

e) Call Centre Training Colleges

f) Others (Specify)

6. Over time, has there been any diversification of sources?

7. Do you feel that in the future, even school leaving students can be recruited for work?

8. If yes, why has it not happened yet?

9. If no, what are the main reasons?

10. How do you recruit them mostly?

a) Campus Recruitment b) Newspaper ads c) Walk-ins d) Others (specify)

11. Have there been changes over time in the mode of recruitment?

If yes, please explain.

12. How are the employees appointed?

a) Permanent b) On contract

If b), please specify the period of contract ________

(1) 1 year (2) 2 years (3) above 3 years

13. Is this mode of employment same for everybody in the firm?

a) Yes. b) No.

14. If no, what are the reasons for differences?

15. Are the employees eligible for

(11) Provident Fund (1) Yes (0) No

(12) Medical Allowance (1) Yes (0) No

(13) Maternity / Paternity benefits (1) Yes (0) No

(14) Health Insurance (1) Yes (0) No

(15) Housing (1) Yes (0) No

(16) Car (1) Yes (0) No

(17) Telephone (1) Yes (0) No

(18) Dearness Allowance, (1) Yes (0) No

(19) Leave Travel Allowance, (1) Yes (0) No

(10) Provisions for Training (1) Yes (0) No

16. What is the initial gross salary?

17. How are the increments fixed?

18. How much leave are they entitled to?

(4) Annual leave days ______ days

(5) Sick leave ______ days

(6) Casual leave ______ days

19. What are the systems in place for promotions?

20. What are the incentive systems in place to improve productivity?

21. In terms of service delivery, what are the major complaints from clients?

22. What are the corrective steps that have been taken in this regard?

23. Are there any metrics in place to reduce defect rates, success rates, etc?

24. What kinds of performance monitoring systems are in place?

25. Are there any disincentives to improve delivery?

26. What has been the annual employee turnover?

27. Has it come down over time?

28. What are the primary reasons?

29. What do you feel needs to be done to reduce/retain employees?

30. Do you feel that there are inadequacies in the quality of recruits?

31. If so, please elaborate.

32. What is your opinion about the quality of training being provided in call centre training colleges?

33. Do you think that there is a need for some kind of regulatory bodies to ensure quality of training?

34. Do you perceive any differences in the quality of work output between male and female associates?

35. What are the major threats to the growth of this industry in India?

36. What are the steps that you feel that the government ought to take to ensure the growth of this industry?

Annexure IV

Questions to be asked to Departmental heads, Auto Firm

Primary Functions of their Department

No.	Functions
1
2
3
4
5
6

2. Various jobs and their roles, numbers

Job Type (Level)	No. of employees		Required minimum qualification (incl. Training in computer usage)		Changes in nature of tasks undertaken/Other remarks
	10 years before	Current	10 years before	Current

3. Date of implementation of ERP
4. Reasons for implementation
5. Reactions of people at various levels
6. Changes in work content: increase, decrease, quality, any new tasks required
7. Decision on no.of people to be interviewed.
8. Overall impression on productivity improvements
9. How many would be redundant? Would they have removed anyone if there were an exit policy?

Annexure V
Check List/ Questions for Employees in the Auto Industry
1. Name
2. Designation
3. Year of joining
4. Initial job?
5. Educational Qualifications
6. Trade union member? If yes, name of TU
7. Nature of job
8. Were you informed about ERP before implementation?
9. How often do you use a computer in a day? Frequency? Total Time used in a day?
10. Were you given any training before use? If yes, details: time, title
11. If no, how did you learn?
12. Are you using the computer to perform the same task as before?
13. If yes, what are the advantages? Less time? More output? Less monotony?
14. If no, what is the kind of work that you do?
15. Does using computers mean additional work?
16. Or greater intensity?
17. What are the overall benefits of ERP?
18. Do you prefer to work in the pre-ERP environment?
19. Do you think that without labour laws, you may have lost your job due to use of computers?
20. Did you have discussions with TUs on the possible impact of ERP solutions on employment in your firm?
21. Do you feel that your manager has better control over your work than before?
22. Do you feel that the control you used to have over your work has come down?
23. Do you think that you know more about the work you do, and its importance in the overall organisation?
24. Will use of ERP affect your promotion prospects?
25. Do you use the computer for any other additional purpose?
a) For communication? b). For information collection? C). For learning?

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[1] Of course, we do not posit this model as an exclusionary one as authors like (ref) do point out the fact that it has never been the predominant organisational norm in any of the advanced capitalist economies. However, it also needs to be remembered that, it is this model that was touted as the ideal one towards which ‘less modern’ or ‘less progressive’ organisations need to approximate.

[2] Wage inequality is found to have risen throughout the 1980s in the USA and in the European Union, because of strong national instittutions, rigid real wage rates led to rise in unemployment (Rajat Acharyya, Sugata Marjit, 2000, pg. 3505-6)

[3] Calculated from Gupta S.P (1999, 8, Table 2).

[4] See “Report of the Study Team on Computer Software for the Eighth Five Year Plan for Electronics Industry”, Electronics Information and Planning, November-December, 1989.

[5] ibid., pg. 158 “…information technologies are arguably the major facilitator and expression of flexibility.”

[6] **idpad29: In a study of the economic impact of the software industry in Southeast Asia countries by the Business Software Alliance and Price Waterhouse, it was found that there was a multiplying economic effect of about 1.7 (conservatively) for upstream and downstream industries.

In addition, end-user industries also benefit enormously from reduced cost, increased productivity and increased business opportunities. As shown in fig. 1, for every baht created in the software industry, 1.7 times that amount is created from upstream and downstream industries and upwards of 10 times that amount could be realised from productivity gains and increased business opportunities from practically every imaginable industry.

[7] The following discussion is largely based on Brynjolfsson et.al (1994).

Additional Resources Read the Abstract and Project Proposal Read the Final Technical Report