Home > Media Coverage > Globe and Mail, December 12, 2002

Study to look at high tech's coming of age

By Katherine Harding, The Globe and Mail, Toronto
It's an area. where few academics have dared tread: How does the information technology sector deal with an aging work force?

Julie McMullin, a sociology professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., wants to be one of the first researchers to tackle the complicated question. Yesterday, she received a $3-million grant from the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to launch a fouryear, international study called Workforce Aging in the New Economy.

She was inspired to look at the issue after visiting her brother's Ottawa-based software development company, bitHeads Inc. "When I walked in, the first thing I saw was the bar and draft beer being poured, and a pool table and arcade. I thought: 'What is going on here?' Everyone looks like they are having a blast. How can that be?' "

Ms. McMullin started wondering how prepared these untraditional companies are to deal with their workers' "life-course transitions," including having a baby, getting sick or preparing for retirement. "Most IT firms have just dealt with the school-to-work transition. That's why you see the bars and pool tables,"

Her research team also plans to investigate:

• Discrimination based on age, gender, race and ethnicity in the IT work force;
• The transformation of employment relations in the New Economy;
• Employment growth in IT labour markets.

Ms. McMullin said she would like to be able to formulate human resources policy for the IT sector and others, so "that government, employers and employees can deal more effectively with aging work forces and employment diversity."

She speculated that the main reason sociologists have not tried to explore this special and growing sector before is because of "research bias.

"We see our job as studying"inequality, so how can there be inequality in IT work? It's a privileged educated and highskilled situation, but in fact you're not going to find a lot of older workers working in these dynamic high-powered firms. You aren't going to find a lot of women.;it's the same with racial and ethnic minority groups."

The study involves researchers at eight universities, along with various labour groups, technology organizations, government agencies and IT companies in Canada, the United States, Australia 'and the European Union.

Original Citation Information:

Harding, Katherine. (2002, December 11). Study to look at high tech’s coming of age. The Globe and Mail.