Issues in focus
Work in the digital age
The future of work is now. We work side by side with intelligenz technologies. Does that frighten us, or does it give us courage? Automation and AI are changing the world of work. How will we work tomorrow, and who gets a say? No machine can give us the answers. Not yet, it can't. Sleeves up - there's work to be done!
At this point we have set up the dossier “Work in the Digital Age”, in which we wrote about the transformation of the world of work and corporate co-determination within the framework of the research project "Competitor and Complementary - the Relationship between Corporate Co-Determination and New Participation Platforms". This research project was completed in 2020 with the publication of the finished study. We wish all interested parties a pleasant reading of the study and look forward to continue exchanging ideas with you! With the completion of the project, we will also end the active editorial work on this blog - but the articles will remain online.
Our next research project in the field of work is titled "Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Work - Implications, Possibilities and Risks" - more information can be found here.
re:publica 2018
Surviving Social Media in the workplace
Symposium at CAIS Bochum
Shaping participation on platforms
Workshop (in German)
Competitor and Complementary
Still “Neuland”?
The digitisation of the world of labour – this has almost become a mantra. Whole of Germany is talking about changes in everyday working life, the labour market and industry…
“Cleanliness is next to godliness”
Recruited from the street, content moderators sit in front of screens for hours, filtering violence and hatred from our timelines. They are exploited, mostly left alone with the psychological consequences…
Digital work: Unions focus on the crowd
IG Metall is the world’s largest organised employee representation. For them, as well as for other unions, working in the digital age raises many new challenges and tasks. Stefan Stumpp,…
Creating value with the crowd
The crowd is continuously gaining significance for organisations. What exactly makes it so valuable? This article by Stefan Stumpp, associate researcher at HIIG, inquires which areas of an organisation profit…
Participation Allgäu-Style: The Case of a Bavarian Family Business
Co-creation, transparency and other forms of employee participation are becoming more and more of a necessity for enterprises – not only for start-ups, but also for small and medium-sized, family-owned…
The future of work? Working on the future!
Until 2030, half of our jobs will have disappeared. Simply gone, fallen prey to “Artificial Intelligence”, replaced by robots. Ghostly visions like these are now wandering through feuilletons, best-selling books…
Answers from the past
Recently, reports on the various aspects of the “future of work” have been accumulating. Nevertheless, the visions about the digital society and the role of work in it seem to…
You’re fired
Emojis, gifs and chat programs like Slack are designed to lighten the mood in the office. Our guest contributor Bianca Xenia Jankovska believes: As long as the hierarchies remain rigid,…
Silicon Inquiry
The Silicon Valley ideology is a morally destitute trap. But could its well-paid staff transform it? Building on her experience as a Google developer and a tech startup founder, guest…
Slack & Co.: The German Way
“Social Collaboration” platforms like Slack, Sharepoint or Yammer promise more transparency and employee participation within enterprises. Long ago, one entire economy has found its own way to achieve this: Christopher…
A risk worth taking: Studying content moderation on social media platforms
While social media platforms choose to identify themselves as neutral platforms, there is growing complexity around the ways to analyze their structure, operational dynamics as well as the regulatory frameworks…
The empire of internet celebrities
Carla is an influencer and gets her first big photo exhibition sponsored in a Berlin museum in May, Stefanie is a DIY podcaster and is about to sign her first…
Emojis or empowerment?
By implementing internal communication platforms, enterprises are hoping to promote efficiency (vulgo: to get rid of e-mail), transparency and employee participation. But such platforms are unlikely to take off by…
Employee empowerment or workers’ control? The use case of enterprise social networks
In the context of the digitization of the workplace, numerous companies are introducing digital platforms that are intended to strengthen employee participation. The implications of social media for the meaning…
Why Social Collaboration doesn’t work without participation
Digital Platforms like Yammer, Slack or Sharepoint are ushering in a new era of communication and collaboration within enterprises. They have got what it takes to boost the productivity and…
Trade Unions – Partner or Antipode of the Crowd?
Working in the crowd on so-called virtual platforms is developing into a recognisable employment and business model on the internet. Despite their many differences, the platforms that have emerged over…