Changes in the workplace

Future transitions in employment must be considered against the background of a number of forces shaping the workplace of the 1990s. Internationalization of the Canadian economy and reengineering of processes due to advances in computing and communications have produced fundamental changes in the working environment. These changes are likely to increase in the future.

Because Canada lags behind other industrialized nations in the application of advanced manufacturing technologies, the challenge before Canadian workers will be to ensure that they have either suitable skills or access to the training and retraining programs necessary to adapt successfully to the rapid change in processes on the shop floor and in the office.

Evolving paradigms of business organization pose a particular challenge to those making transitions in employment. The traditional pyramidal corporate structure -- with its linear chains of command and communications and expectation of performing all necessary functions within the corporation -- is already giving way to flatter organizational structures. Table 2 lists characteristics of the "traditional model" .of the workplace and the "emerging model," which is receiving more and more attention as it is said to be at the root of the economic success of Canada's most important competitors.

Research being carried out at the Industrial Relations Centre, Queen's University, demonstrates a relation between "progressive" management policies and practices and economic performance. It also confirms the superiority of the "emerging model" in the Canadian context.

With employers moving toward increasingly diversified, flexible models of organization, there will be growing pressure on workers to adapt their skills and undertake training to meet rapidly changing corporate requirements. As well, less-stable corporate structures present the prospect of less-secure employment for many workers. This has given rise to the development of nonstandard forms of employment. In Good Jobs, Bad Jobs (1990), the Economic Council of Canada reported that only 50% of employment growth in the 1980s was in standard employment (full-time, permanent jobs); 32% was in part-time jobs and 18% in other nonstandard arrangements (short-term jobs, self-employment, and temporary work through agencies). Both part-time and short-term employees are most likely to be young and female -- the people who also experience the most transitions. These jobs do not usually offer the experience necessary for taking advantage of more rewarding employment opportunities.