Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33938 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 2135
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
New technologies and new work practices have been introduced and implemented over a broad range in the production process in most advanced industrialised countries during the last two decades. New work organisation practices like team organisation and job rotation require interpersonal communication to a larger extent compared to the traditional assembly line types of production. In addition to handling the formal language, communication in this respect includes country-specific skills related to understanding social and cultural codes, unwritten rules, implicit communication, norms etc. In this paper we analyse whether these developments - by increasing the importance of communication and informal human capital - have had a negative effect on employment opportunities of immigrants. The results show that firms that use PCs intensively and firms that give their employees broad autonomy employ fewer non-Western immigrants who have not been raised in Norway (i.e. arrived as adults). Furthermore, the negative relationships are especially strong for low-skilled non-Western immigrants. These results may add support to the hypothesis stating that new technologies and (some) new work practices are biased against non-Western immigrant workers, and especially those with low formal skills.
Subjects: 
immigrants
employment
new work practices
new technology
JEL: 
J61
J71
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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