Ahmet Aykaç (Theseus): the change of work

"When leaving the industrial company for the information one, the relationship between the employer and the employee will no longer exist and it will be replaced by a system of partnership. The social laws will have to adapt.

"Specialised in management by new technologies, the Theseus Institute, at Sophia Antipolis, focused on the problem of work and social laws. Its manager, Ahmet Aykac has even launched with other academicians a great programme of research on the change of the nature of work and relationships at work. His opinion? The current framework of social laws will explode with the new economy.- Sophianet.com : what leads you to this conclusion? Ahmet Aykaç : "Let's consider things in terms of economic power. What is the economic power? It is the ability to use the fruit of someone else's work. If I can take the fruit of your work, I own the economic power over you.Let's analyse from this point what happened since the Antiquity. In Greece as in Roma, the political system was based on slavery. It was the keystone of the economy. The aim of the exercise was to optimise the work of the slave, coarsely speaking. Then, the feudal system came into force. The economic power was then based on the ownership of lands. The all legal system aimed at the optimisation of the land acquisition.The industrial revolution made everything collapse towards the capital ownership. The economic power wasn't based on the land but on the ownership of means of production. Another legal system was set up for the optimisation of the use of capital. It is clear that a close relationship between the work and the social system exists. If I ask the question today of what is going to be the source of economic power in five up to ten years, everybody answers: information and knowledge. The legal system will then have to change in order to allow the optimisation for the acquisition of knowledge.- What is going to change with the information company era? Ahmet Aykaç :The change from the industrial company to the information one entails a deep change in the nature of work. If it is possible to separate capital and human beings, however, knowledge and human beings are closely linked. You can become the owner of machines and pay people to work on those machines. However, you can't become the owner of someone's knowledge. For that, you have to become its partner. In order to have access to someone's knowledge, you'd better use other types of relationships, as the ones of the partnership.The current social laws rule the relationships between the capital owner and the salaried employee who has only his work to sell. In order to be efficient, the relationship between the employer and the employee will have to be over and a system of partnership will have to be set up, with an association in the decision-making and a share of profits as of risks. Nevertheless, it will be soon impossible to manage a system for which the basis are different with old laws. As a consequence, laws will inevitably change…- How long? Ahmet Aykaç :600 years lasted before the church destroyed the roman empire. The industry destroyed the feudal system in one hundred years. The deep change that we face nowadays should be achieved in 20 or 30 years time. However, it is ten years since the process began.Which advices can you give to students?Ahmet Aykaç :There are two main ones. First: you have to keep in mind that you have to be mobile. If you plan to stay in the same company for thirty years, it is a monumental mistake. Moreover, a way to be mobile is to keep your capital for yourself. Second: this intellectual capital depreciates faster than a machine. It is then necessary to update it all the time…"