To what extent has globalisation changed the nature of work Essay - 1

To what extent has globalisation changed the nature of work - Essay Example One of the main sectors where the new economy has been witnessed and experienced is in the workplace. This essay discusses how globalisation has changed the nature of work. Technological developments, which are driven by globalisation, have resulted in large-scale changes in the nature of the labour market or paid employment. Changes may involve greater part-time, casual, or flexible work, as well as adjustment in the level of risk or modifications in labour requirement amplifying the need for highly skilled workers (Berberoglu, 2002: 187-8). The nature of such transformations, and the degree to which they are pervasive all over the economy, are debated. Some scholars view globalisation as a catalyst of major transformations in the nature of work. A quite controversial perspective was introduced in the book The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin (Berberoglu, 2002: 188). He claimed that the use of technologies across all segments of the economy, as motivated by the intensifying process of globalisation, was ever more disrupting and dislocating manual, human labour. In the past, as segments that had encountered new technologies reduced labour, the excess wage earners had been absorbed by some segments like retail, which had enlarged. However, the introduction of computers had depressing implications, Rifkin claimed (Ahier & Esland, 2013: 16): Now, for the first time, human labour is being systematically eliminated from the production process. Within less than a century, â€Å"mass† work in the market sector is likely to be phased out in virtually all of the industrialised nations of the world. A new generation of sophisticated information and communication technologies is being hurried into a wide variety of work situations. Intelligent machines are replacing human beings in countless tasks, forcing millions of blue and white collar workers into unemployment lines, or worse still, breadlines. But Rifkin also