CHAPTER 9 Flashcards
(14 cards)
Automation and Job Creation
Automation lowers prices
* That increases demand for product
* It also increases real incomes
* Increased demand → more jobs
* Number of manufacturing jobs worldwide is increasing
* Martin Carnoy: Workers today work less than workers 100 years ago
Effects of Increase in Productivity
Higher productivity → higher material standard of living
Workplace Changes
- Organizational changes
- Telework
- Temporary work
- Monitoring
Organizational Changes
Information technology integration into firms
– Automating back office functions (e.g., payroll)
– Improving manufacturing
– Improving communication among business units
Telework
- Employees work away from traditional place of work
- Examples
– Home office
– Salespersons with no office - About 20% of Americans do some telework
Advantages of Telework
- Increases productivity
- Reduces absenteeism
- Improves morale
- Improves company resilience
- Saves employees money
Disadvantages of Telework
- Threatens managers’ control and authority
- Sensitive information less secure
- Teleworkers less visible
- Teleworkers “out of the loop”
- Isolation of teleworkers
- Teleworkers work longer hours for same pay
Temporary Work
- Companies less committed to employees
- Companies hiring more temporary employees
- Saves money on benefits
- Makes it easier to downsize
- Long-term employment for one firm less common
Monitoring
- 82% of companies monitor employees in some way
– Purpose: Identify inappropriate use of company resources
– Can also detect illegal activities - Other uses of monitoring
– Gauge productivity (10% of firms)
– Improve productivity
– Improve security
Arguments for Globalization
- Increases competition
- People in poorer countries deserve jobs, too
- It is a tried-and-true route for a poor country to become
prosperous - Global jobs reduce unrest and increase stability
Makes the United States subordinate to the World Trade
Organization
* Forces American workers to compete with foreigners who
do not get decent wages and benefits
* Accelerates exodus of manufacturing and white-collar jobs
from United States
* Hurts workers in foreign countries
…………………some people have access to modern
information technology while others do not
Digital divide:
Evidence of the Digital Divide
Global divide
Social divide
Models of Technological Diffusion
Normalization model
Stratification model
…………..rate at which a new technology is assimilated
Technological diffusion
