the industrial era has simply been replaced by the raw data of the information
age. Entering and processing such data is essentially just as routine and mono-
tonous a task as working on an assembly line in an automobile plant. These
routine production services are not associated with a particular country; they
can be performed anywhere and everywhere. Wage costs are therefore the only
criterion for deciding where to locate them.
2 In-person services. Like the previous category, this one also covers basi-
cally simple and repetitive tasks requiring relatively little training. Examples of
jobs in this category are: salespeople, hair stylists, waiters and waitresses, clean-
ing staff and receptionists. The major difference between this category and rou-
tine production work is that in-person servers provide their services directly to
the consumer and that their work must therefore be performed at the location
where the consumer is present. Consequently, they have nothing to fear from
lower wage costs in other countries. They are, however, under greater threat
from the increasing computerization of the many jobs they perform. Consider,
for example, the cash dispensers which have become an indispensable part of
life for so many people. And as many of these jobs require no special training,
in-person servers are finding themselves competing more and more with
unemployed routine production workers. Finally, this category of employee
depends very heavily on the affluence of its customers. If a country is unable
to attract enough economic activity, then it will not have the financial
resources to cover in-person services.
3 Symbolic-analytic services.The most important feature of the jobs in this
group is they require skills in problem-solving and problem-identification.
Some examples are research scientists, engineers, consultants and managers,
but also architects, musicians, film producers and journalists. These occupa-
tions are highly specialized; by definition they entail a proper education. Most
of them require a university degree or higher vocational training. This group of
employees will benefit the most from prosperity, simply because they bring
added value to the production process. Like the work performed by a
routine production worker, the activities of symbolic analysts are not bound to
a particular location. By using the available communication and information
technology, companies can avail themselves of their services anywhere in the
world. And since the definitive criterion here is not wages but special skills,
these activities are not automatically carried out in low-wage countries.
The number of people who can actually benefit from the new opportuni-
ties is therefore quite limited. The future seems particularly bleak for unskilled
labourers in Western countries, simply because they will be unable to make a
clear-cut contribution – either in the form of specific skills or in the form of low
wages – to the global production process. They simply cannot compete against
the wage levels of employees in poor countries who perform exactly the same
type of work. Even dismantling the social security system – which some regard
as the main culprit behind the high cost of labour in Europe – offers no real
alternative. After all, wages and terms and conditions of employment will
26 International Human Resource Management