Competitive Use of IT: Towards a State of Forgiveness?

Abstract

The research relates to an outset of an observation in contemporary worklife theories, conceptualizing the digital development as signifier to stress and dysfunctional business environment. In a current market of globalization, the competition has increased significantly, and the exploitation of resources are valued in their competitive importance. In the thesis of this paper, I ask, in relation to the report “IT use in companies”, how the Danish educational system effects the Danish ability to competitively exploit IT use. The elementary school reform is presented and gives its contribution as the presented part of the Danish educational system. It begins by describing the development in the Danish state form, how the school has developed from the welfare state, into a marketization of the school, as a school for the competitiveness. It is a change in the school to focus on greater results and academic individuals, instead of the earlier social values. Analyzing this agenda, the theoretical stance of Habermas is used to provide an analogy of the relationship between his modes in society and how the state form has developed. Jürgen Habermas’ distinction of the life-world and the system corresponds to the evolvement in the Danish state and permits the research to use his arguments about society, in connection to how the competitive focus on IT use affects the social values and society. The research begins by analyzing the agenda of the school reform, in relation to the economic sight of Adam Smith. It addresses the importance of an effective production of a workforce that lives up to the demands in businesses. This leads to a discussion of how the school reform change the overall focus in objectifying the competitiveness as important to the school and how this affect the individuals involved, in connection to the theories presented by Adam Smith and Jürgen Habermas. As this research wants to identify a broad understanding of the subject, the research continues by introducing Gary S. Becker and how he implies to compute the best conditions for a strong national human capital. He presents the last theoretical stance to how IT exploitation is related to the educational system, and how it should be structured in order to increase the competitiveness. The last part of the research tries to connect the discoveries with an elaboration of the individual position in the competition state. It tries to impose or suggest, different possibilities to reach a kind of freedom inside the normative controls. Based on the theoretical data, the final remarks in this paper unites the different discoveries in connection to the data found in the presented case. The effectuation of the educational system and competitive use of IT affects the social structure and beliefs. By collecting the discoveries in the discussion of Adam Smith and Jürgen Habermas it provides a foundation of comparing to Gary S. Becker. The discoveries of how the competitive exploitation of IT affects the individual development in society is at the end connected to different suggestions to social functionality.