It has become a cliché that information technology, which has spread through all levels of society, is revolutionizing both personal life and the world of work. And yet the take-up of that technology and its impact on our relationship with the world, with time, with knowledge and with others is still an ongoing phenomenon, which François Silva and Arnaud Lacan refer to here using the recently-coined word numéritie, a French equivalent of the English term “computer literacy”. And it is without doubt in the occupational world, in the relation to work and the organization of enterprises, that computer literacy has an essential role to play, as this article shows.
After presenting the issues inherent in computer literacy and the postmodernity it underpins, Silva and Lacan show what perspectives are opened up by the new technological tools in terms of human resource management and company organization. They call, in particular, for a substantial reshaping of managerial practices, which have to develop away from oversight and monitoring activities to a more regulative role (with regard to relationships, human interaction etc.) befitting the postmodern values that have accompanied the rise of computer literacy. In their view, the point is to “reenchant” daily life at work through quality human relationships geared towards collective effectiveness.
