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Translation Spaces: Online-First Articles

Agile working and job satisfaction for localization language agents

ORCID logo | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
The localization industry has developed at the levels of content, technology and workflow. While agility can describe any virtual job nowadays, its application in localization should be highlighted, since agile working is now widely adopted in developer teams. Job satisfaction has been researched within translation studies, sociology of work and organizational research. This article addresses the impact of agile working in localization, as a virtual and IT-related domain, on the job satisfaction of localization language agents. It is based on a survey and tackles agile working aspects that are relevant to the translation workflow in localization. It also borrows key job satisfaction elements from other domains, which can reveal understudied areas in our domain. The results show, for example, a positive relationship between job satisfaction and in-process and in-team recognition, as well as autonomy. Job satisfaction is lower when there is a lack of context or small-size projects.
Keywords: agile translation, agile working, invisibility, job satisfaction, localization, translator’s autonomy, translator’s recognition
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Localization and agile working
  • Agile translation and job satisfaction
  • Methodology
  • Results and discussion
    • Characteristics of the respondents
    • Job variety: What is being localized?
    • Task significance: Context and quantity
    • Feedback: Frequency, perception, and risks
    • Task identity and autonomy: The impact on the value of work
    • In-process satisfaction
    • General satisfaction
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
Published online: 27 September 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.24011.kas
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