Ultimately, what Steve is interested in is the lowest bid: ‘the lowest bid wins’. This means that his suppliers could come from almost anywhere. The ‘most traditional of British fare’ that Steve buys for Whitbread might be produced anywhere in the EU, or even further afield. The cheap chips that Steve can now access because of new technology may mean that local chip makers will lose out, or they will have to match or beat the prices that Steve can get at his online auction. This, in turn, could mean the restructuring of local chip production and this may have an impact on jobs.

Of course, all this is mere hypothesis. A social scientist would be interested in finding out the extent to which these kinds of changes have occurred. Put another way, a social scientist might be interested in quantifying the extent to which some groups are winners and others losers in the ‘Information Society’.

The creation of the cyberboss may well have an impact on others. The emergence of a new kind of work practice, it seems, could lead to changing patterns of work for others across a wide spectrum of employment.

But where is the real evidence..?