Introduction Of Information And Communication Technologies Commerce Essay

Introduction Of Information And Communication Technologies Commerce Essay In this era of modernisation, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a vital role in businesses and firms of all sizes. The term ICT has progressed and evolved to include many aspects of computing and technology, and has indeed become very distinguishable. In this essay, the ways in which the introduction of ICT affects power relations in the workplace will be discussed. First, a definition of the phrases ICT and power relations in the workplace will be provided. In what follows, I will establish the particular effects that ICT directly brings to the workplace namely surveillance, a change to organization structure, increased communication as well as how it skills and deskills workers. Explanation on how these effects subsequently affect power relations in the workplace will then be provided. The Information Technology Association of America defines ICT as the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ICT involves converting, protecting, transferring, keeping and receiving information. This is all done with the aid of computers and software. On the other hand, power refers to the ability to translate influence or make a difference. The actions of one person affect that of another. According to Foucault (1988), within the field of power relations, what one person does affects a second, which affects a third, and so on. The characteristic of power relations is that, as agents in the structure, some men can more or less determine other mens conduct, but never exhaustively (David Owen, 1994). Power relations precipitate all the strategies, the networks, the mechanisms, all those techniques by which a decision is accepted and by which that decision could not but be taken in the way it was. Foucault goes on to say that Power relations are multiple; they have different forms, they can be in play in family relations, or within an institution, or an administration or between a dominating and a dominated class. In this essay, it can be summarized that power relations in the workplace means the ability to affect how other people w ithin the workplace do work. Surveillance The introduction of Scientific Management, also known as Taylorism saw an era where managers strived for control over workers. The introduction of ICT to the workplace has allowed managers to practice methods of worker surveillance that have never been seen before. ICT has given managers the ability to pry on their staff by doing things like keystroke counting, listening in on phone conversations (to monitor quality of service provided by staff), telephone call accounting (registering information about the time, duration, destination and cost of phone calls), entry and exit controls using smart cards (which give information on staff whereabouts), electronic cash registers and product scanning systems (provides details on who handles what merchandise, volume handled and how efficiently), the reading of electronic mail and the use of video cameras for video surveillance (After ILO, 1993, pp. 12 13). In the past, managers were only able to monitor the performance of whole departments by monitoring things like quantity and quality of products produced. However, new information technologies have enabled employers to gather highly detailed performance related data regarding not only the work but each individual worker itself. This can now be done on a minute by minute basis and often without the employee being aware (Gandy, 1993; Lyon, 1994). The information gathered by managers is most of the time too overwhelming to go through stringently. Power relations become relevant when this vast information about worker performance is collected. This is because managers must now decide if or how to use the information gathered on worker performance. Due to the economic demands to become more efficient and more profitable, managers are pressured to use the information at hand to hopefully enhance performance and efficiency of workers (Susan Bryant, 1995). Managers or employers will be able to take courses of action based on the worker performance information. For instance, reprimanding individual employees for dismal performance or changing standard operating procedures. One of the side effects of this is that it legitimizes decisions to further intensify worker surveillance for the benefit of profitability and efficiency. Modern surveillance in the workplace can be modelled after Jeremy Benthams Panopticon the prison complex designed whereby prison guards would be able to watch prisoners without being watched back (Zuboff, 1988). Nevertheless workplace surveillance using ICT differs from Benthams Panopticon because workers are certain that they are being watched all the time. The constant visibility and unverifiability that employees experience through workplace surveillance may have significant positive implications on the way they work (Zuboff, 1988, p. 321). A phenomenon that Zuboff refers to as anticipatory conformity often happens because of the mere existence of surveillance. Since workers are aware they are consistently being watched, a culture of self discipline tends to take place to reduce the risk of unwanted discovery. This is interesting because it allows change in the way workers work without management having to take extra action. This worker self discipline helps prove Foucaults argument (1979) that sooner or later, individuals become bearers of their own surveillance. (Lyon, 1994, pg. 133) Even if workers dont willingly self discipline themselves, it is highly likely that because of the readily available system generated information about each others performance, peer surveillance and intervention will get to them before management intervention will (Laabs, 1992; Lyon, 1994). As employees become more and more accustomed to surveillance methods, employees may be able to get away with doing less by working around existing sys tems to avoid detection. However, such occurrences are deemed to be less likely to happen compared to trends of conformity (Zuboff, 1988). It may also be argued that surveillance encourages workers to work harder and to become more productive as their efforts are now more easily recognized by management. This means that individual workers are more likely to be rewarded for putting in extra effort. Furthermore, employees are less likely to be put at fault for the wrongs of others. This phenomenon also happens automatically because of the existence of surveillance in the workplace without any direct intervention from management (Zuboff, 1988). The last two points show how the existence of ICT in the workplace (which allows for worker surveillance) may allow for management to relax control over workers and at the same time expect positive returns whilst having to exert less authority or power in the workplace. Communication and Organization Structure The introduction of ICT has allowed us to interact at almost same speeds a matter of seconds regardless of whether we are a few meters or a few miles away from one another. In the past two decades following the birth of utilities like e-mail and ultra fast internet connections, the workplace has experienced a significant change in operating procedures and structure due to this advancement in communication capabilities. Firms are now able to function on a transnational basis. Managers from firms are able to operate from their home countries without having to incur the financial, physical and opportunity cost of leaving their home country (or at least less often). The ability to communicate over distances and at such great speed has allowed managers to run things thousands of miles away on a real time basis. The complexity of a firm may change from that of vertically complex to horizontally complex due to the ability of managers on top of the hierarchy to communicate with more people at a greater ease. The need for extra layers of hierarchy to delegate tasks becomes unnecessary because of better communication technology. Workers at the lower end/bottom of hierarchy may find it easier to pitch ideas because there may be less red tape to go through before their idea can be proposed. On the other hand, CEOs may find that instructions are conveyed to their subordinates more clearly and effectively because these instructions need not be passed on to too many levels of management before it reaches everyone. The ability to communicate with ICT may also affect the centralization of a firm. A centralized firm is one where decisions in the organization are concentrated at one point. The introduction of ICT will become a catalyst to the decentralization of a firm (John Bratton, 2007). With ICT, it is much easier for senior management to solicit information and ideas from workers down the hierarchy. This is because, as mentioned, the means of communication make conveying and soliciting an idea much simpler than before. Prior to this, a physical meeting with high level management would be needed to pitch an idea; which means that it would virtually be impossible for a low rank worker to contribute any ideas to the firm. With the improved ability to communicate amongst workers and management, senior management might be willing to give more decision making autonomy to workers since their input would be more accessible. This has a major impact on power relations in a firm because communication ma y allow for control to be relaxed as decision making input may come from both sides of the hierarchy. Having said that, the extensive use of e-mail and electronic communication in the workplace means people seldom ever have to meet (Argyll and Cook, 1976). Not physically meeting takes away the ability to analyze the personal construct of others (Adam Webber, 1981). Personal construct theory deals with a range of professional social skills that enable people to analyze interactions from different perspectives and make judgements about peoples personalities and meanings. These skills are drawn from physical interaction with individuals. The effects of this are adverse because little or no consideration will be taken about workers feelings and personality. Deskilling and Enskilling Argument Deskilling is defined as a reduction in the proficiency needed to perform a specific job, which leads to a corresponding reduction in the wages paid for that job (Bratton, 2007). In the Taylorist context, the deskilling argument focuses on the division of mental and physical labour and the breaking up of complex tasks into smaller, more discrete ones. The logic of capitalist production requires the constant transformation of techniques of production. This involves an increase in mechanization, automation which results in the displacement of skills (Penn Scattergood, 1985). The workforce becomes even more degraded and deskilled. For instance, fast food or retail outlets have electronic tills that scan, calculate and tell the cashier how much money to return to the customer as change. The cashiers job is repetitive, relatively simple and easy to keep an eye on because everything is electronic. The main goal of this is to not only ensure worker efficiency but to increase the degree of control the management has over workers. Very little is taken into consideration about worker satisfaction or fulfilment. Harry Braverman notes that the goal of the labour process under capitalism is to generate managerial control for maximization of efficiency and profitability (Glenn and Feldberg, 1979). Due to the fact that workers under this condition only concentrate on specific tasks, they lack the skills to do things out of their job requirement, perhaps because they have neglected and hence have forgotten about those skills. On the other hand, let us consider the enskilling argument. Enskilling is described as changes in work often involving technology that result in an increase in the skill level of workers (Bratton, 2007). Many individuals would have been retrenched due to technology making certain manual jobs automated. However, for those who still have their jobs, their job scope would have increased. ICT enables more people do more things. For instance, an editor in a publishing house in the 1970s would only have enough expertise and minutes in a day to be in charge of reading and editing hand written manuscripts whilst having to send them back and forth to the author through traditional postal mail. With ICT, manuscripts may be written, edited, and transmitted digitally; which saves time. ICT also makes it easy enough for the 21st century editor to acquire other hands on skills such as video editing and graphic design; tasks that would have formerly been left to specialist in those fields. In addition, one would be would be required to exercise many other discrete competencies such as copy editing, marketing skills and negotiating ability (Barry, Chandler, Clark, Johnston, Needle, 2000). Here, it is possible to notice an increase in skill variety, task identity and task feedback. The increased skill of the worker allows managers to give more autonomy to them. This effectively means that management may loosen its control over workers relaxing power relations between management and workers. However, some have argued that this enskilling of workers allow managers to control workers to a higher extent because tasks are now centralized on less individuals compared to when they were spread out over large amounts of people in scientific management. Conclusion I have displayed how the introduction of ICT to the workplace has caused an increase in worker surveillance, a greater capability to communicate and the enskilling/deskilling phenomena. I have then shown how the mentioned effects of ICT have affected power relations within the workplace by altering the magnitude (increase and decrease) of control, authority and influence management has over workers.

Michael Crichtons The Lost World Essay -- Michael Crichton Lost World

Michael Crichton's The Lost World I read Michael Crichton's The Lost World. In the following paragraphs, I will not only explain the book, but also give my critique of it. I will also give a paragraph that was probably the best paragraph in the book, in my opinion. The book starts out with Ian Malcolm, a mathematician who had already had an experience with live dinosaurs a couple of years ago on another island. He has pretty much blocked that experience from his mind. Anyway, it also talks about a man named Doctor Levine. This man talks at a lecture that Malcolm is watching about the theory of there being a lost world, an island, undiscovered, that has extinct animals on it, particularly dinosaurs. Malcolm dismisses this idea saying that is the dumbest thing he ever heard. After the lecture, Levine talks to Malcolm to help him in finding this "Lost World." Malcolm again dismisses him. After a couple weeks of Levine nagging him, he sort of gets more into the idea, and starts to believe it. Levine Narrows it down to one island, Isla Sorna, and just leaves without telling anyone. Two of Levine's students, Kelly and Arby, get worried when he wasn't there to teach their class, because they were supposed to go on a field trip with him that day. They go to a guy named Doctor Thorne, a guy that was making specialized equipment for their trip. He said that he didn't know what was going on. They contact Malcolm and they go to Levine's apartment. They go to his computer room and see all this stuff on the wall about site B. They go onto the computer and Arby gets all this stuff about site B on it. Malcolm then finds out that the island that Levine went to was Isla Sorna. They plan this whole trip to go there, just Malcolm, Thorne, and Thorne's assistant, Eddie. They also call a woman named Sarah Harding, a scientist in Africa, to come with them. She had to take a flight in a while, she was too far to just go with them. They told the kids that they couldn't go. They leave for a helicopter with a specialized explorer, and two trailers, with a lot of equipment. On the way there, Thorne gets a call from Arby saying good luck. They get to the island and search for Levine, with this device they have, the find him and go back to the trailer. Before the go back, you find out that that Kelly and Arby hid in a compartment in the trailer. The... ...ey take the boat off the island, and go home. I think the only weakness of the book is that it is too much like the first book, Jurassic Park. â„ ¢ The characters have similar strengths and weaknesses, two kids, etc. I also thing that there are numerous strengths to the book. It was very compelling, and some nights I'd be up until stupid hours in the morning reading it because I couldn't put it down. It was a thrilling book. It kept you wanting more. A particular passage which impressed me was PP 422 & 423, Chapter Exit, the whole chapter. I particularly liked this chapter because it sort of turned the table on humans. We always think we are superior to every other animal in the world, always taking them for granted, killing them and eating them. The T-Rex brings Dodgson back to the nest for the babies to eat, sort of like when a bird brings a worm home for its babies, only we're the worms. In conclusion, I really liked this book, it is my favorite book now. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. No matter what they are interested in. I didn't read Jurassic Park, â„ ¢ but I am definitely going to, and I can't wait to see the Lost World â„ ¢ on the big screen.

Racism in Professional Sports

Racism is a problem that has existed in our society for many years. The roots of racism date back to when slavery was considered normal, and even further back then that. Racism happens all the time, everyday and everywhere. It is a complex issue which occurs at many different levels. In the world of sports racism is happening more often and becoming more of a concern. The first major example is of Jackie Robinson. Robinson is considered a leader in the black community for breaking the color barrier in the sport of baseball. Although Robinson went through a great deal of prejudice, many black athletes today face similar problems. The National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and many other associations are dealing with this problem even still today. Racism doesn't only occur on the field. Today the management side of sports is more racist then the on field part. Racism is a problem that existed in sport when it first originated and continues to exist even in the world of sport today. Racism started in the beginning of sport when there were two separate leagues, the white league and the black league. It was in 1947, when Jackie Robinson stepped into the white world of baseball, that people noticed this was occurring. At the time no one was concerned with this because everything was segregated back then. â€Å"The verbal taunting, physical abuse, and death threats unleashed on him and his family had the 27 year old on the verge of mental breakdown (Guss, 1997). Robinson got through it by ignoring all those comments and using it as the reason he would play, to prove everyone wrong. He realized that he represented an entire race of people and if he were to explode he would condemn himself and his entire race. â€Å"I suffered then because I hoped to provide a better future for my children and for young black people everywhere, and because I naively believed that my sacrifices might help a little to make America the kind of country it was supposed to be†(Guss, 1997). Despite all the negativity, Robinson excelled in the majors by winning the 1947 Rookie of the Year award and helping lead his team to the World Series. Robinson's perseverance throughout his career is what paved the way for black athletes to make a stand and prove to the world that they can compete with white athletes. After Robinson's career was over the opportunity for black athletes to play on the same level as whites athletes had increased greatly. Although Jackie Robinson was discriminated upon half a century ago many black athletes today have to go through similar racism. In Major League Baseball racism is still a concern. Even though today African Americans are given an equal opportunity to compete, there are still certain people and players that disagree with this. In the same day and age that Albert Belle can earn $10 million per year, indicating that players are paid based on talent rather than skin color or personality, African Americans failed to make any progress (Guss, 1997). A big controversy that occurred during the 2000 baseball season included Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker. In an interview with Sports Illustrated Rocker made many derogatory, sexist, and racist remarks about the city of New York and the people who lived there. For his actions he was given a 22 game suspension and a reputation in society and throughout baseball as a racist(http://www. spn. go/profile/prifiles. com/mlb). Another example of racism in modern day baseball involves Marge Schott. â€Å"In an interview with Primetime Live, Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott repeated her belief that everyone uses the word nigger. She argued that racism is an invention of the press. Schott had been suspended from baseball for allegedly declaring that ‘I'd rather have a trained monkey working for me then a nigger,' and remarking ‘Hitler was good in the beginning but he went too far†(Steinberg, 1992). Schott was punished for her remarks with a $25,000 fine, a suspension for one year, and removal from the Reds day to day operations. Baseball chairman Bud Selig wants to make it clear to everyone associated with baseball that racism will not be excepted in this business. From John Rocker to Marge Schott the world of baseball has been altered by their remarks. It was thought that there was racist thoughts in Major League Baseball, but these two actions brought it to the forefront. The chairman definitely made the right move by suspending and fining these two. By doing that he shows that â€Å"racist utterances have no place in the national pastime†(Kirshenbaum, 1993). The National Hockey League is a sport that has been dominated by white players for its entire existence. There is an extremely small percentage of black players in the NHL today. Mike Greer of the Edmonton Oilers is one of these few black players. During one of the games last season Greer was being given a hard time and players kept yelling racial slurs at him. Another incident that occurred was between Marty McSorley and Donald Brashear. Donald Brashear, like Greer, is one of the few African Americans in the National Hockey League. The incident that occurred between these two was that McSorley hit Brashear in the face with his stick. This happened toward the end of the game, in which MrSorley was immediately thrown out of the game. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettmann acted quickly by hitting McSorley with a suspension for the remainder of the regular season, which only had twenty three games remaining. This was the longest suspension for any player due to an on ice incident. On top of that suspension the case was taken to court. â€Å"Although McSorley was found guilty by a Canadian court he received only an eighteen months probation, and the offense won't appear on his record if he completes the time without violating the terms of the probation. McSorley is also forbidden to play against Brashear in Canada or the U. S. during the probationary period. As an unrestricted free-agent it's possible no one will sign the 17-year veteran; if they do, he must meet with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman before being reinstated†(Hardesty, 2000). Race is an issue everywhere and it always going to be,† says Pro Bowl running back Ricky Watters. â€Å"It's sneaky now. The owners have to be politically correct now. It isn't fashionable anymore to be a racist. Now they have to kind of go behind the scenes, but believe me it's still there. It's not really something you can explain. It's just a feeling. Just look at how many black head coaches were hired this year†(Guss, 1997). This quote was in response to the year of 1997 when Sherm Lewis, offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers who is African American wasn't even interviewed for a head coaching job. This is an issue because teams usually look for successful coordinators to be the head coach of their team. Sherm Lewis had just led his team to a Super Bowl appearance, while having his offense lead the league in points and yards per game. On top of this Dan Reeves, former coach of the New York Giants, was offered a head coaching position for the Atlanta Falcons after going 31-33 his last four years. It makes you wonder why a successful offensive coordinator with four Super Bowl appearances under his belt would not get interviewed while another man with a poor record would be given a head coaching job. As NFL's all time sack leader Reggie White puts it, â€Å"There is racism in the NFL. There are teams who have problems with black coaches and black quarterbacks†(Guss, 1997). Racism does exist in every aspect of life. From earlier times to more recent times it is obvious that racism is a part everyday life. When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in sports in 1947 he had imagined that by today things would have changed significantly, and to some extent they have. Even though African Americans are now allegedly offered similar treatment in sport, they are still treated differently. In all sports there is a very small percentage of African American coaches and managers. In some cases the black coach has had a much better resume, but still not given the job. This is the world we live in today. Racism is still a problem and will continue to be until their are changes made in the front office. As Hank Aaron says, â€Å"It's a closed society in many ways. We will still have some problems in sports, no question about it. I want people to realize that we still have a long way to go†(Guss, 1997).

The Vietnam War Protests and the Antiwar Movement