Currently the``creative industries'', especially the British film industry, are receiving much popular attention. The aim of this paper is to present a description and evaluation of employment in the film industry, and through doing so to challenge dominant populist and academic analyses of employment in this sector, as exemplified by the Labour government and a number of British and American academic commentators. These analyses are both premised on the apparent occurrence of an epoch breaking change in society, the balance of economic activity in society and the organisation of work. However, trends in employment practice over recent years, it would appear from the survey evidence and from other sources presented here, have not improved in the manner they could be expected to if such fundamental epochal change had occurred. Rather the data presented here point to much continuity in the employment relationship between capital and labour.

No abstract

Outsourcing is a strategy being considered appropriate to cope with the current turbulent times. In the information systems (IS) area, outsourcing has fastly become an essential part of an organization's IS strategy. By signing outsourcing agreements, firms expect to reduce their overall information technology (IT) costs, focus on their core competencies, and gain superior technical resources. This paper offers a conceptual model for the area of outsourcing, which is based primarily on the concept of meta-abilities. The principal argument offered by this paper is that organizations need to develop meta-abilities in order to facilitate the process of outsourcing.

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the career and work experiences of a little researched group: highly skilled women IT contractors. It considers their reasons for entering the IT field, including the decision to become contractors. It demonstrates the complexity of power and influence of IT contractors and the resilience of the gender order in IT work.