I've just posted a short essay from Israel Gat on the AgileThinkers.com blog.
It's about what Israel describes as the "Social Contract" between software workers and their employees and how it can change in an agile environment. It's short, it's sweet, and it is one of the most important pieces I've read in a while.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of my leading Agile projects over the past five years has been dealing with the broken social contract. With globalization, off-shoring, outsourcing and reduction in the workforce being so pervasive, the social contract between employees and corporations in the software industry has for most practical purposes broken. The implied agreements by which employees form productive teams and maintain cohesive organizational order have at the very least been shaken, and very possibly voided altogether ...
[read the rest on AgileThinkers.com]