Companies using ICT are more competitive
[05/05/2008]
A report from the UOC reveals that workers at knowledge companies earn 35% more
A report from the UOC reveals that workers at knowledge companies earn 35% more
Network enterprises are more competitive than other companies, according to a report coordinated by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) entitled “ICT and work: towards new organisational systems, new salary and employment structures, and new mechanisms for intermediation”. The study also shows that workers at knowledge companies earn 35% more than the average. These data come from a sample collated from more than 2,000 companies representing Catalonia’s business fabric.
The report, coordinated by the UOC’s Economics and Business Studies lecturer and Director of its interdisciplinary group on ICT, Joan Torrent, concludes that network enterprises in Catalonia achieve better results than traditional companies. Nonetheless, the report also reveals that only a fifth of Catalan companies are network enterprises.
The characteristics of network enterprises can be summarised in terms of permeable boundaries, simplified structures, project orientation, direct communication, commitment and confidence.
Higher salaries in knowledge companies
Another highlight from the study shows that the average salary for workers at knowledge companies (the ICT sector, publishing, research and development, and education) is 14.4 euros an hour, a figure that is 35% higher than the average for the other employment sectors (data from 2002). Likewise, the salary gap between men and women is half that seen in other kinds of companies.
The study forms the backbone to the latest issue of the UOC Papers e-journal and contains interesting data on the importance of the use of ICT in finding work, data that shows that only 27.8% of internet users in Spain have used it to find work and that, for the most part, it is women between the ages of 25 and 34 who use these new mechanisms for searching for employment.
The dossier, which involved participation of experts from the UOC and King Juan Carlos University, concludes that “the introduction of ICT, on its own, does not lead to any results in the employment market”. The experts state that it is when this implantation of technology is combined with other factors (company structuring or workers’ skills) that improvements in labour conditions and companies’ economic results can be seen.
Economics and Business Studies