Open AccessInvestigating Real Work Situations in Translation Agencies. Work Content and Its Components
Author(s) -
Anna Kuźnik,
Joan Miquel Verd
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
hermes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.759
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1903-1785
pISSN - 0904-1699
DOI - 10.7146/hjlcb.v23i44.128882
Subject(s) - outsourcing , work (physics) , agency (philosophy) , translation (biology) , service (business) , process (computing) , computer science , content analysis , content (measure theory) , knowledge management , process management , sociology , business , engineering , mathematics , marketing , social science , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , messenger rna , gene , operating system
The aim of this article1 is to analyze work content and its components in translation agencies. In the conceptual part of the article, we refer to concepts taken from the sociology of work and translation studies. In the analytical part, we use data produced by Stelmach in her study carried out in a small translation agency in Poland using the technique of self-observation (Stelmach 2000). The aim of Stelmach’s study was to record and analyze all the activities that formpart of the production process of a translation service. Because the observation was continual in time, it provided a complete list of all the activities carried out by the permanent staff occupying two internal jobs. Stelmach’s approach was quantitative and not focused on specifi c, translation-related work organization. In this article, we reinterpret these activities as the content of the work in translation-related internal positions, and compare it with Gouadec’s model oftranslation service provision process (Gouadec 2002, 2005a, 2005b, 2007). The data analyzed show the importance of outsourcing in the everyday activity of translation agencies and (partly as a consequence of this outsourcing) the magnitude and importance of the management activities carried out by the staff.