Management and intangible labor division: a study on the work organization in the context of the new information and communication technologies

Abstract

This project aims to analyze the intangible work in a call center company named Atento, a company that is largely based in the use of new information and communication technologies (NICTs). While some theories indicate an increase of autonomy and creative participation of immaterial labor due to the introduction of NICTs, others indicate a reproduction of labor exploitation techniques that would resemble those of the old Fordist factory. Given this historical and theoretical context, our a central objective in this research is to verify, based on an empirical research in the Atento company, how much the work in this place is or is not determined by work management processes similar to those of taylor-Fordist industries, verifying, also, the influence of management in determining the forms and contents of the work, especially with regard to autonomy and intervention of the workers in the production. In this sense, our research problem is based in the following question: Is immaterial labor still in a job exploration frame marked by forms of Taylorist organization of the work and in the frame of the intensity and repetition similar to the Fordist industry or this kind of work would stimulate, by their cognitive character, a process of autonomy and freedom within the work processes?