Boundaryless Work?

Thanks to Peter for sparking this, my second posting.

I concluded my first post by asking ...“What affect has new media had on your work and learning?”

And Peter responded....“New media hasn’t changed my life....it is my life!”

I find this response remarkable in many ways – but here I consider two.

First, Peter's comment caused me to notice how I think about the place of new media in the sequence of people’s career trajectory. By asking about the affect of new media on work and learning, I assume most people encounter new media after they enter into a career. Peter’s response reminds me that this sequence of events (a career followed by an encounter with new media) is not the same for everyone. For some, like Peter their involvement in new media is followed by work and learning and this sequence may make a big difference for the significance of new media in everyday life.

For me, and perhaps others of my generation (Generation Jones) new media potentially disrupts our work and learning – it 'affects' our work and learning for it may change what we do in some way. Like this blog for example, it is changing the way I present my research findings and it may also change the way I write. I struggle to figure out how to integrate into my everyday experience - you may note that this is only my second post since launching last week.

For Peter, and perhaps others of his generation and new media community, new media has no affect on their work and learning for as Peter puts it, it is my ‘life’. It is already an integrated part of his everyday life.

My second point is what I find most remarkable about Peter’s comment. Not only is new media his life, it also appears as though his work and learning are synonymous with his life. Peter answers a question about his work and learning with a statement about his life – it like work, learning, and living are all somehow part of the same activity.

Social researchers claim that the division of labor - including the division between work and everyday life, reflects social purposes as well as social relationships. Work activity itself is recognized as perhaps the most significant mechanism for the socialization of adults. Indeed, throughout history the organization of production has explained how people and groups come together, form bonds, pursue common goals, and learn and develop as individuals and as a culture.

Barley & Kunda (2001) in an excellent essay on the need for more research on the changing nature of work, observe that in pre-modern, agrarian society people were socialized into a communal division of labor. The concept of work was unremarkable for it was an integrated and natural function of communal life. As the industrial revolution took hold, people left their small communities and took on jobs and began to separate their work - physically, temporally, socially, intellectually, and emotionally from other spheres of life. Industrial or economic modes of production became the dominate mode for organizing human production and as a consequence, class positions and work roles became the dominate mechanisms for adult socialization.

However we all know what has happened to the industrial 'job'! Let's just say it is not your father's job anymore! We are all well aware of the new formats for organizing production - indeed networks and other more fluid organizational formats are not that new anymore.

Salling Olsen (2001) claims these more fluid organizational formats and the new productive relationships they generate, have broken down the structures that once separated work from everyday life. Work requires much more individual responsibility for the development of skills, careers, and identities - individuals are called upon to become active agents in creating the circumstances of their own socialization.

And this is where Peter's comment and my research intersect. The focus of my research is on work and learning and the apparent break down of the boundaries between the two once distinct activities in industrial society. One was educated, prepared for work, and then entered into a career track that guided or even helped to pull them along - up the ladder - to more knowledge, expertise, and for some, prestige. Workplace learning (my field) was organized to help individuals learn the new knowledge and skill required to progress up these pre-existing career ladders.

But now, many of the traditional career ladders have broken down, and where they remain, many people are thwarted in upward progression by steep learning curves, as well as industrial restructuring or other forms of economic disruption. This is all having a huge affect on the social institution of school and on people like me who have spent their careers working to support learning in the workplace. We must rethink conventional notions about the relationship between work and learning as well as our understanding of how individuals are socialized in society in the new structures that are emerging for organizing production today.

Is work once again becoming ubiquitous in society? Some argue that work and by extension, careers are now boundaryless with people taking on up to seven distinctly different roles in production over their lifetime. Is this your experience - or do you experience a sense of coherence in the numerous work roles you may have taken on in your career?

My thanks once again to Peter for providing the grist for the mill.\