Article published in:
Fair MT: Towards ethical, sustainable Machine Translation
Edited by Joss Moorkens, Dorothy Kenny and Félix do Carmo
[Translation Spaces 9:1] 2020
► pp. 12–34

“A tiny cog in a large machine”

Digital Taylorism in the translation industry

| Dublin City University
Translators have worked with the assistance of computers for many years, usually translating whole texts, divided into segments but in sequential order. In order to maximise efficiency and inspired by similar moves in the tech industry and predictions for Industry 4.0, large translation companies have begun to break tasks down into smaller chunks and to rigidly define and monitor translation processes. This is particularly true of platform-mediated work, highly collaborative workflows, and multimedia work that requires near-live turnaround times. This article considers such workflows in the context of measures of job satisfaction and discussion of sustainable work systems, proposing that companies prioritise long-term returns and attempt to balance the needs of all stakeholders in a translation process. Translators and translator trainers also have a role to play in achieving this balance.
Keywords: translation industry, fair MT, digital Taylorism, scientific management, business ethics, labour sociology, sustainable work systems
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • From Taylorism to digital Taylorism
  • Digital Taylorism and the translation industry
  • Motivation and job satisfaction
  • Work system sustainability
  • In summary: Aiming for balance
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00019.moo
References
Abdallah, Kristiina
2010 “Translator’s Agency in Production Networks.” In Translator’s Agency, edited by Tuija Kinnunen and Kaisa Koskinen, 11–46. Tampere: Tampere University Press.Google Scholar
Abdallah, Kristiina, and Kaisa Koskinen
2007 “Managing Trust: Translating and the Network Economy.” Meta: Journal des traducteurs 52 (4): 673–687. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ajunwa, Ifeoma
Forthcoming. “The Paradox of Automation as Anti-Bias Intervention.” Cardozo Law Review. Crossref
Bass, Scott
2006 “Quality in the Real World.” In Perspectives on Localization, edited by Keiran Dunne, 69–96. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt
2000 Liquid modernity. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Berardi, Franco ‘Bifo’
2012 “Semio-Capital and the Problem of Solidarity.” Panel contribution to We Have Our Own Concept of Time and Motion, organized by Auto Italia in collaboration with Federico Campagna, Huw Lemmey, Michael Oswell, and Charlie Woolley, August 2011 Accessed 2 March 2020, https://​libcom​.org​/book​/export​/html​/45057
Bernal-Merino, Miguel Ángel
2013 “The Localisation of Video Games.” PhD thesis, Imperial College, London.Google Scholar
Bodie, Matthew T., Miriam A. Cherry, Marcia L. McCormick, and Jintong Tang
2016 “The Law and Policy of People Analytics.” University of Colorado Law Review 88 (4): 961–1042.Google Scholar
Bond, Esther
2018a “The Stunning Variety of Job Titles in the Language Industry.” Slator. Accessed 27 December 2019, https://​slator​.com​/features​/the​-stunning​-variety​-of​-job​-titles​-in​-the​-language​-industry/
2018b “Alpha Rebounds from Losses, Says Tech May Degrade Environment for Translators.” Slator. Accessed 27 December 2019, https://​slator​.com​/financial​-results​/alpha​-rebounds​-from​-losses​-says​-tech​-may​-degrade​-environment​-for​-translators/
2019 “IYUNO Media Group and BTI Studios Merge in Deal That Will Reshape Media Localization.” Slator. Accessed 12 November 2019, https://​slator​.com​/ma​-and​-funding​/iyuno​-media​-group​-and​-bti​-studios​-merge​-in​-deal​-that​-will​-reshape​-media​-localization/
Brödner, Peter
2009 “Sustainability in Knowledge-Based Companies.” In Creating Sustainable Work Systems: Developing Social Sustainability, edited by Peter Docherty, Mari Kira, and A. B. (Rami) Shari, 53–69. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Campbell, Iain, Ian Watson, and John Buchanan
2004 “Temporary Agency Work in Australia (Part I).” In International perspectives on temporary work, edited by John Burgess and Julia Connell, 129–144. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carr, Nicholas
2010 The Shallows. London: Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Caruso, Loris
2018 “Digital Innovation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Epochal Social Changes?” AI & Society 331: 379–392. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chesterman, Andrew
1997 Memes of Translation: The Spread of Ideas in Translation Theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Conti, Robert F., and Malcolm Warner
1994 “Taylorism, Teams and Technology in ‘Reengineering’ Work-Organization.” New Technology, Work and Employment 9 (2): 93–102. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Courtney, Jennifer, and Mary Phelan
2019 “Translators’ Experiences of Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction.” Translation and Interpreting 11 (1): 100–113. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cronin, Michael
2017 Eco-translation: Translation and Ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene. Abingdon: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
CSA Research
2019 “The Largest Language Service Providers: 2019.” Accessed 6 September 2019, https://​csa​-research​.com​/More​/Global​-Market​-Study​/Top​-100​-LSPs
Dachs, Bernhard
2018 The Impact of New Technologies on the Labour Market and the Social Economy. Brussels: European Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA).Google Scholar
Dam, Helle V., and Katherine K. Zethsen
2008 “Translator Status: A Study of Danish Company Translators.” The Translator 14 (1): 71–96. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De George, Richard T.
2014 Business Ethics. Seventh Edition. Essex: Pearson.Google Scholar
De Stefano, Valerio, and Antonio Aloisi
2018 “Fundamental Labour Rights, Platform Work and Human-Rights Protection of Non-Standard Workers.” In Research Handbook on Labour, Business and Human Rights Law, edited by Janice R. Bellace and Beryl ter Haar, 359–379. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Docherty, Peter, Mari Kira, and A. B. (Rami) Shari
2008 “What the World Needs Now is Sustainable Work Systems”. In Creating Sustainable Work Systems: Developing Social Sustainability, edited by Peter Docherty, Mari Kira, and A. B. (Rami) Shari, 1–22. Abingdon: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dranch, Konstantin, Renato Beninatto, and Tucker Johnson
2019 “Nimdzi 100.” nimdzi Market Reports. Accessed 6 September 2019, https://​www​.nimdzi​.com​/2019​-nimdzi​-100/
Drury, Horace Bookwalter
1915 “Scientific Management. A History and Criticism.” PhD thesis, Columbia University. Accessed 2 March 2020, https://​archive​.org​/details​/scientificmanage00drurrich​/page​/n5
Durban, Chris
2011 Translation: Getting It Right. A Guide to Buying Translation. Virginia: American Translators Association. Accessed 2 March 2020, https://​www​.atanet​.org​/publications​/getting​_it​_right​.php
Ebert, Philip, and Wolfgang Frebichler
2017 “Nudge Management: Applying Behavioural Science to Increase Knowledge Worker Productivity.” Journal of Organization Design 6:4. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Elkington, John
1999 “Triple Bottom-Line Reporting: Looking for Balance.” Australian CPA 69 (2): 18–22.Google Scholar
Ferraro, Tania, Leonor Pais, and Nuno Rebelo Dos Santos
2015 “Decent Work: An Aim for All Made by All.” International Journal of Social Sciences IV (3): 30–42. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, R. Edward
1984 Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston: Pitman.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton
1970 “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” The New York Times Magazine, September 13 1970.Google Scholar
Frischmann, Brett, and Evan Selinger
2018 Re-Engineering Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Garcia, Ignacio
2017 “Translating in the Cloud Age: Online Marketplaces.” Hermes 561: 59–70.Google Scholar
Gazzaley, Adam, and Larry D. Rosen
2016 The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World. Boston: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Georgakopolou, Panayota
2019 “The Future of Localisation Is Audiovisual.” In ITI Research e-Book: Ethics and Machines in an Era of New Technologies, edited by Sarah Bawa-Mason. London: Institute of Translation and Interpreting.Google Scholar
Góis, António, and André F. T. Martins
2019 “Translator2Vec: Understanding and Representing Human Post-Editors.” Paper presented at the MT Summit 2019, Dublin. Accessed 2 March 2020, https://​arxiv​.org​/abs​/1907​.10362
Graeber, David
2018 Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Graham, Dominic
2019 “Future of the Deal: Macro Level Look at M&A.” Paper presented at the ATC Language Industry Summit, September 2019.
Gray, Mary L., and Siddharth Suri
2019 Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Hart, Stuart L.
2007 Capitalism at the Crossroads. Philadelphia, PA: Wharton School of Finance Press.Google Scholar
Heinberg, Richard
2011 The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality. British Columbia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Herzberg, Frederik
1959 The Motivation to Work. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
[1967] 1987 “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Harvard Business Review, Reprint 87507.Google Scholar
Jackson, Maggie
2018 Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention. New York: Prometheus.Google Scholar
Jemielity, David
2018 “Translation in Intercultural Business and Economic Environments.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture, edited by Sue-Ann Harding and Ovidi Carbondell Cortés, 533–557. Abingdon: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jessop, Bob
2007 “Fordism and Post-Fordism.” In Encyclopedia of Governance, edited by Mark Bevir, 314–315. California: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kovach, Kenneth A.
1987 “What Motivates Employees? Workers and Supervisors Give Different Answers.” Business Horizons 30 (5): 58–65. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Krifa/Happiness Research Institute
2019 Job satisfaction index 2015 (Report). Copenhagen: Happiness Research Institute.Google Scholar
Kronenberg, Kenneth
2018 “A Timeline of RWS Acquisitions.” Accessed 15 September 2019, http://​www​.kfkronenberg​.com​/Timeline​_of​_RWS​_acquisitions​.doc
Lee, Dami
2019 “Adobe Is Cutting Off Users in Venezuela Due to US Sanctions.” The Verge. Accessed 24 October 2019, https://​www​.theverge​.com​/2019​/10​/7​/20904030​/adobe​-venezuela​-photoshop​-behance​-us​-sanctions
Llorens, Miguel
2010 “A Personal Response to Lionbridge VP Didier Hélin’s Unilateral Demand of a 5% Discount.” Accessed 30 October 2019, http://​traductor​-financiero​.blogspot​.com​/2010​/11​/personal​-response​-to​-lionbridge​-vp​.html
Macey, William H., Benjamin Schneider, Karen M. Barbera, and Scott A. Young
2011 Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, Practice, and Competitive Advantage. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Mallon, Mary
1998 “The Portfolio Career: Pushed or Pulled to it?” Personnel Review 27 (5): 361–377. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moniz, Helena
2019 “Crowdsourcing and Related Tools for Quality Monitoring in Post-Editing Machine Translation.” Paper presented at the MT Summit 2019, Dublin.
Moore, Phoebe, and Andrew Robinson
2016 “The Quantified Self: What Counts in the Neoliberal Workplace.” New Media & Society 18 (11): 2774–2792. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moorkens, Joss
2017 “Under Pressure: Translation in Times of Austerity.” Perspectives. Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. 25 (3): 464–477. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2020 “Comparative Satisfaction Among Freelance and Directly-Employed Irish-Language Translators.” Translation and Interpreting 12 (1): 55–73. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moorkens, Joss, and Marta Rocchi
Forthcoming “Ethics in the Translation Industry.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics, edited by Kaisa Koskinen and Nike K. Pokorn. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon
2012 “Translation as Human-Computer Interaction.” Translation Spaces 11: 101–122. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Olohan, Maeve, and Elena Davitti
2015 “Dynamics of Trusting in Translation Project Management: Leaps of Faith and Balancing Acts.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 46 (4): 391–416. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Parasuraman, Raja, Thomas B. Sheridan, and Christopher D. Wickens
2000 “A Model for Types and Levels of Human Interaction with Automation.” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics – Part A: Systems And Humans 30 (3): 286–297. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Parenti, Christian
2001 “Big Brother’s Corporate Cousin.” The Nation. Accessed 7 October 2019, https://​www​.thenation​.com​/article​/big​-brothers​-corporate​-cousin/
Pidchamook, Wichaya
Forthcoming. “Freelance Subtitlers in a Subtitle Production Network in the OTT Industry in Thailand: A Longitudinal Study.” PhD thesis, Dublin City University.
Pielmeier, Hélène, and Paul O’Mara
2020 The State of the Linguist Supply Chain. CSA-Research. Accessed 24 February 2020, https://​insights​.csa​-research​.com​/reportaction​/305013106​/Toc
Popper, Karl
1970 “The Moral Responsibility of the Scientist.” In Induction, Physics and Ethics, edited by Paul Weingartner and Gerhard Zecha, 329–336. Dordrecht: Reidel. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Postman, Neil
1992 Technopoly. London: Penguin Random House.Google Scholar
Puttock, James
2018 “Fast Track TV Subtitling: Past, Present and Future.” Paper presented at the Language and the Media Conference in Berlin, on 5 October 2018.
Pym, Anthony
2012 On Translator Ethics: Principles for Mediation Between Cultures. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pym, Anthony, François Grin, Claudio Sfreddo, and Andy L. J. Chan
2012 “The Status of the Translation Profession in the European Union.” Luxembourg: European Commission.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Castro, Monica
2015 “Development and Empirical Validation of a Multifaceted Instrument for Translator Satisfaction.” Translation and Interpreting 7 (2): 1–21.Google Scholar
2016 “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sources of Translator Satisfaction: An Empirical Study.” Entreculturas 7–81: 195–229.Google Scholar
Roettgers, Janko
2016 “The Technology Behind Netflix’s ‘Chelsea’ Talk Show.” Variety. Accessed 30 October 2019, https://​variety​.com​/2016​/digital​/news​/netflix​-chelsea​-encoding​-ui​-translation​-1201776469/
Rubery, Jill
2013 “From ‘Women and Recession’ to ‘Women and Austerity’: A Framework for Analysis.” In Women and Austerity: The Economic Crisis and the Future for Gender Equality, edited by Maria Karamessini and Jill Rubery, 17–36. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ruokonen, Minna
2013 “Studying Translator Status: Three Points of View.” In Point of view as Challenge, edited by Maria Eronen and Marinella Rodi-Risberg, 327–338. Vaasa: Vakki Publications.Google Scholar
Sakamoto, Akiko
2018 “Disruption in Translator-client Matching: Paid Crowdsourcing Platforms vs Human Project Managers.” Revista Tradumàtica 161: 85–94.Google Scholar
Scheiber, Noam, and Kate Conger
2020 “The Great Google Revolt.” In The New York Times. Accessed 22 February 2020, https://​www​.nytimes​.com​/interactive​/2020​/02​/18​/magazine​/google​-revolt​.html
Sennett, Richard
1998 The Corrosion of Character. The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. London: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Shreve, Gregory M.
2009 “Recipient-Orientation and Metacognition in the Translation Process.” In Translators and their Readers. In Homage to Eugene A. Nida, edited by Rodica Dimitriu, 255–270. Brussels: Les Editions du Hasard.Google Scholar
Silva, Catarina
2019 “Improving Domain Adaptation for Machine Translation with Translation Pieces.” Paper presented at the MT Summit 2019, Dublin.
Smil, Vaclav
2019 Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities. Boston: MIT Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Frederick W.
1911 The Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper and brothers.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward P.
1967 “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.” Past & Present 381: 56–97. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Timmermans, Job, Bernd Carsten Stahl, Veikko Ikonen, and Engin Bozdag
2010 “The Ethics of Cloud Computing: A Conceptual Review.” In 2010 IEEE Second International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, 614–620. Indianapolis, IN, USA: IEEE. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tinsley, Royal L.
1976 “Translation as a Career Option for Foreign Language Majors. CAL-ERIC/CLI Series on Languages and Linguistics, no. 37.” Bulletin of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. 7 (4). Washington DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.Google Scholar
UN General Assembly
2015 Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Wajcman, Judy
2015 Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wakabayashi, Daisuke
2019 “Google Relies On Underclass Of Temp Labor.” In The New York Times. Accessed 27 December 2019, https://​www​.nytimes​.com​/2019​/05​/28​/technology​/google​-temp​-workers​.html
Walker, Charles R., and Robert H. Guest
1952 The Man On The Assembly Line. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weizenbaum, Joseph
1986 “Not Without Us.” English translation of a paper presented in German to the Association of Computer Professionals, West Germany, July 1986. Accessed 19 August 2019, https://​freegroups​.net​/guide​/not​_without​_us/. Crossref
Wood, Alex J., Mark Graham, Vili Lehdonvirta, and Isis Hjorth
2019 “Networked but Commodified: The (Dis)Embeddedness of Digital Labour in the Gig Economy.” Sociology 53 (5): 931–950. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zider, Bob
1998 “How Venture Capital Works.” Harvard Business Review. November-December 1998 Accessed 2 March 2020, http://​wire​.cs​.nctu​.edu​.tw​/ICT​-lecture​/lecture​/Dennis%20Punjabi​_Venture%20Capital​_Overview​_Havard​.pdf
Zink, Klaus J.
2014 “Designing Sustainable Work Systems: The Need For A Systems Approach.” Applied Ergonomics 45 (1): 126–132. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zuboff, Shoshana
2019 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Buts, Jan
2021. Targeted individuals. Translation Spaces 10:2 ► pp. 181 ff. Crossref logo
Fırat, Gökhan
2021. Uberization of translation. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 8:1 ► pp. 48 ff. Crossref logo
Kenny, Dorothy
2021.  In Handbook of Translation Studies [Handbook of Translation Studies, 5], ► pp. 74 ff. Crossref logo
Nunes Vieira, Lucas, Valentina Ragni & Elisa Alonso
2021. Translator autonomy in the age of behavioural data. Translation, Cognition & Behavior 4:1 ► pp. 124 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 november 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.