Collaborative Research: Global Innovation and the Changing Nature of Domestic Engineering Work

创新越来越多地在全球范围内进行。越来越多用于刺激美国公司创新的金融资本被花在了国外：国内公司在其他国家雇佣科学家和工程师，以利用高技能工人的优势，同时削减成本。本研究考察了导致任务型离岸外包的创新投资是否以及如何改变了美国国内公司的职业工作性质。这项研究建立在先前资助的国家科学基金会工作的基础上，该工作研究了先进的创新技术如何改变工程工作的性质。它考察了创新投资作为一种外生力量的可能性，这种力量为公司重组提供了机会，从而成为离岸外包的催化剂。该研究还考察了企业在国际市场上取得成功的能力的后果。这项研究的重点是通用汽车（General Motors）的经验：作为应对当前经济危机的一部分，美国政府向通用汽车提供了134亿美元的联邦贷款。利用这些贷款，通用汽车正在重组其全球业务，包括工程业务。因此，该研究促进了对科学投资对职业结构和全球劳动力市场影响的理解。研究设计包括在通用汽车位于美国密歇根州沃伦、印度班加罗尔、巴西圣帕罗和德国吕塞尔斯海姆的四个全球工程中心进行实地研究。对所有四个研究地点的工程经理和工程师的访谈结果进行了分析。此外，网络方法允许通过揭示工程师和与其相互作用以完成工作的其他人之间的通信模式来探索结构的变化。这项研究至少在三个重要方面具有更广泛的影响。首先，该研究揭示了在汽车工程的背景下，创新投资如何通过国际化改变国内劳动力。这些信息可以为有关改变国内外创新工作结构和内容的未来投资的政策决策提供信息。其次，该项目提供了详细的民族志文件，说明随着创新工作向海外转移，国内工作的结构和内容发生了变化。第三，这项研究促进了对工作如何变化的理解，从而有助于梳理出哪些因素对于决定工作任务在全球公司中应该如何分配是重要的，以及应该实施哪些类型的技术来促进任务的转移。

Innovation is increasingly undertaken on a global scale. More and more financial capital used to spur innovation in U.S. firms is spent abroad: domestic companies employ scientists and engineers in other countries to take advantage of highly skilled workers while simultaneously cutting costs. This research examines whether and how innovation investment that leads to task-based offshoring changes the nature of occupational work in domestic U.S. firms. The research builds on previously funded NSF work which examined how advanced innovation technologies were changing the nature of engineering work. It examines the possibility that innovation investments act as an exogenous force that provides the occasion for firms to restructure, and hence act as a catalyst for offshoring. The research also examines the consequences for the firms' ability to succeed in international markets. The particular focus of the research is on the experience at General Motors (GM): as part of its response to the current economic crisis, the U.S. government has extended GM 13.4 billion in federal loans. With these loans, GM is restructuring its global operations, including engineering. The study thus advances understanding of the impact of science investments with respect to occupational structures and global labor market. The study design involves field research at four of GM's global engineering centers located in Warren Michigan, U.S., Bangalore India, Sao Palo, Brazil, and Russelsheim, Germany. The results of interviews with engineering managers and engineers at all four of the research locations are analyzed. Additionally, network methods permit the exploration of changes in structure by uncovering patterns of communication between engineers and others with whom they interact to accomplish their work. There are at least three important ways in which the research has a broader impact. First, the study reveals, in the context of automotive engineering, how innovation investments are changing the domestic workforce through internationalization. This information can inform policy decisions about future investments that change the structure and content of innovation work at home and abroad. Second, the project provides a detailed ethnographic documentation of the changes in structure and content of domestic jobs as innovation work becomes offshored. Third, the research advances understanding of how work is changing and thus helps tease out both what factors are important for determining how work tasks should be distributed in global firms and what types of technologies should be implemented to facilitate the transfer of tasks.