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Tomorrow
how modern telecommunication change the definition of work In 1876 Alexander G. Bell created the thing that changed our world. Changed again…
And it wasn't the last change in the modern history. Later in the XX century the modulator-demodulator also known as modem was created and really started the Telecommunications Age. First computers were connected together and the Net started growing.
In the last 20 years the lifestyle changed very much. Cellular phones and electronic mail changed the way we communicate, satellite TV and WWW sites changed the way we get the news and on-line shops and junk e-mail changed the way we buy products and do our business. Work, social life, politics – the telecomms are coming everywhere, bringing freedom, equality and productivity. Now I will try to go deeper into these spheres.
Since the end of XIX century, when Marx wrote his famous book, "Capital", the economic meaning of work has changed dramatically. For Marx labour was nothing more but another resource like capital or land.
In XX century manager shows a bit more respect to employees. They are now individuals, who need to develop themselves and should be treated and motivated in right way.
XX century brought us a new idea: workers are paid for their time. Later, in mid-sixties, it was thought that companies pay their employees for their skills and personal qualities. Among those qualities were creativity, company loyalty. For those companies that eventually switched to new system, it became very difficult to properly measure worker's contribution to company's results. These companies try to increase workers morale, motivate them, because it is evident: if workers don't want to work, they won't work. Or at least, the results will be extremely poor. That's why in addition to motivation by money, managers try to create a feeling of mutual trust, belonging to company and common interests.
What new brings telework to this field? First it is ease of control and measurement. Results in electronic form can be easily archived, analysed by computers, forwarded for checking and copied. Next, all information about time and efforts spent is available. Another thing is that fixed time-based salaries are gone. The company will no longer care so about who and how much spent on a task. This will become a question of personal choice. Now everyone will be given a freedom to decide whether to work or to have a rest. This can differentiate workaholics from ordinary lazy people. Right now there are same rules for everybody. Rarely a company wants to have a lot of part-time workers. We cannot imagine a worker coming to factory when he is in the right mood. But with distant jobs you can have workers switching every now and then. We can even dream about perfect labour marketplace with contracts signed electronically for several hours. The psychological problems of switching jobs will be minimised. The retirement will no longer mean break of social relations, because they aren't based on physical presence in the company HQ or at the factory.
This system of personal freedom have the potential to eradicate unemployment by allowing real-time communications and negotiation between employers and employees, leading to equilibrium labor price.
If you can measure the result of an office work, you can evaluate if it worth paying the money for result you get. Or the jobs are completely useless and ineffective. This can lead to boost in productivity. In telework usually people are paid for results, not for time. This motivates them to get better results, thus increasing productivity again! On the other hand, regardless of employee's results, the company always gets what if pays for! Combined efforts of ten people can cost the same for the company if they have the same effect. And now together with perfect labour market we come to what Marx was talking about – labour is just the same as machines or land. The motivation is the problem of the person himself! And with a freedom of work choice motivation is not the problem. With telework one can easily apply for the job he likes and the company can review all candidates just comparing the results of their work.
Реферат опубликован: 16/02/2007