New Forms of Learning and Work Organization in the it Industry: A German Perspective on Informal Learning

According to the German Federal Association of Information Economy, Telecommunication, and New Media (Bitkom) information technology includes both the production of office machinery and data processing equipment and the domain of software and IT services while the production of communication engineering equipment and facilities as well as communications services belong to the division of telecommunication. Accordingly, production and work structures differ greatly within the IT industry as documented by the industrial sociological study by Baukrowitz and Boes (2002). The segment of software development and IT services, with which the following study was concerned, is characterized by work processes which do not correspond to a traditional tayloristic work organization and division of labor but are mostly carried out in the form of project work. This has consequences for the high staff qualification requirements and for the shaping of the qualification development