New Workers in a new Economy? Web Workers in the Labour Market

Management and popular litterature talk about a new economy and a new type of knowledge workers. The new knowledge workers are said to be loyal to their portfolio and working in their own interest rather than taht of their employer. Drucker (1993) asees this as a change in power from employers to knowledge workers in control of the new capital, knwoledge. The knwoledge workers are also workers knwon for working long hours, Do we see a growth of a new knwoledge economy and new and powerful knwoledge workers who work hard to improve their personal opportunities, or are the long hours a rsult of the pressure in the new economy? Using data from a study of web-designers in advertising and a web-based information systems provider, we argue that the so-called new economy and the new workers are very well understood with our 'old' concepts. Even if the workers are motivated by professional interest and find work meaningful and exciting, their hard work and long hours are primarily motivated by the economic pressure of new entrepreneurial firms.

Til publikasjon: https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3851489 | Publiseringsår: 2001 | Tidsskrift: