The author of the article, Sean O’Riain must have been ultra-fascinated with the transitions in the nature of the workplace, claiming it has gone “global” which notably implies that the software development career path is an epitome of the big change brought about by ever-increased worldwide networking. But however fascinating the discussions on the changes are, there are a number of overlooked attributes of this new global workplace that is not so different from the old operations of many transnational firms and workers. The following is a discussion on the illusions of the transition into a global, cyber-workspace.
Illusion of Mobility One important illusion about this “global” workplace and networking is the phenomena of firm-jumping for software professionals. The career pattern becomes more “portable” than institutionalized. The “high mobility” phrase used by the author and the supposed removal of attachment to the concept of a stable employer has given way to a new form of attachment to the software platform. Sean O’Riain significantly missed this point while rambling about the big changes in the professional workplace within the context of globalization.
The author’s implied illusion, that the software professionals have gone beyond the self-contained paradigm of the organization, will begin to blur with an awareness that the software platforms themselves are innately self-contained and albeit inflexible at times. For example, a Java programmer thinks that his skills may lead him to transnational employment, but at the end of the day, realizes he cannot go trans-platform or cross-platform with his programming skills, unless he knows multiple computing languages, which makes a rare ace of a programmer.
The Essay on Global Software Industry
Global Software Industry The world software market exceeded $265 billion in 2010, according to MarketLine. Market growth is expected to exceed 6% yearly between 2010 and 2015, bringing the market to almost $357 billion. Home use and general business applications lead the market at almost $64 billion, accounting for around a quarter of the overall market, which encompasses systems and application ...
This means that if he is very specialized with Java, he will be unable to use other programming platforms that are somewhat alien to it like Perl or Python. Software mobility (whether used as a bargaining chip, or a career strategy) is actually laudable in the context of applying skills across firms and countries, but is quite unthinkable in the context of working with various programming platforms because of the need to specialize and upgrade one’s expertise in that particular platform.
The celebrated shattering of the old, geographically-fixed workplace is replaced by a new digital workplace (the software platform) into which the highly-specialized developer is attached. Even the concept of a virtual work team “across 8 different time zones” (O’Riain) is also considered an illusion such that the geographic workplace is just replaced by a virtual platform in cyberspace. “Stronger” Team Culture
Another illusion is about this “strong team culture” or assumed team loyalties. If O’Riain claims that there is high employment mobility and that their software skills are available, the situation is very much conducive to dissolution of team loyalty rather than building strong relationships with a team. Each member of the team can really become “software cowboys” as O’Riain called them, and can easily be attracted to jump to another development team without even finishing the project.
There will be no “intensification of team cooperation” but there will be an intensification of team member turnovers due to high mobility and skill portability. There will be no “introversion of team members” but extroversion to sell software skills to firms worldwide. This makes mercenaries out of programmers, no different from the old Machiavellian foreboding that team members are not forged through loyalty-based principles, but a sense of utmost selfishness or personal gain.
The Term Paper on Workplace Writing Skills
Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………&# ...
As the author rationalizes the act of companies offering permanent jobs for skilled developers to keep knowledge within the organization, nothing can really stop them from sharing trade secrets and software codes to other teams or developers for a hefty fee. The profit-motivated environment in fluid cyberspace context makes individual and intellectual piracy even more favorable to them. Moreover, the supposed politics of “time-space intensification” is not new to the software industry, which in turn is no different with any profit-making ventures.
British and American trading companies in Asia have transcended time and space in their style of operations which are still prevalent to the 21st century digital industries, yet the only difference is the transition of the product delivery arena from the oceans (due to shipping), to light-speed cyberspace. Conclusion These two main illusions support the argument that business practices, whether old-fashioned industrialist or software development, did not change its principles of work and profit motivations.
There are only transitions into the transnational workplace (from place to platform) and the virtual team culture which is still motivated by selfishness and devoid of loyalty. Team politics is not in a post-deadline phase as O’Riain puts it, but in just a simple post-physical workplace phase. The same old politics of business-driven contractors still exist and have not changed.
Reference O’Riain, S. (2001).
Net-Working for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace. In The Critical Study of Work, Labor, Technology and Global Production. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.
