More on Minorities (LA Times, 28 Jan 00)
President's State of Union Speech (Thurs night)
Digital divide--have to do something about it
Others
Digital divide is all but gone
Latinos, blacks, asians
signing up for internet service
at a rate faster than whites
Estimated near term peak
Latinos, blacks, whites--40%-44%
Asians--68%
Latinos buying PC's at twice rate of whites
DD on basis of income, education, age,
rural v urban
Volunteer efforts--using recycled machines
Federal study--"Digital Divide"--98 data
white-minority gap was 13% in '97
white-minority gap was 20% in '98
Impact on Organizations, Individuals, Industries
Information
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User/Consumer
A. Jobs-- How has computerization
affected the number of jobs?
B. Nature of work-- How has computerization
affected the nature of work?
C. Wages-- How has computerization
affected wages?
D. Computer people
E. Computer organizations
A. Jobs-- How has computerization
affected the number of jobs?
1. Loss of jobs has to be expected--
If companies buy IT to increase productivity,
have to expect loss of jobs to cut costs of production
2. Gain of jobs
In IT companies
Hardware, Software, Internet, Consulting
What if IT cuts costs and prices are cut,
Increase in demand could create jobs
Will this shift jobs
between companies in same industry
or increase jobs overall in economy?
3. Current data
Very low rate of unemployment
High rate of spending on technology
So--computerization must be good for employment!
(Remember the productivity story)
4. Changing jobs, changing skills
So computerization can increase overall employment
But computerization changes world, so
Who should be responsible for retraining, relocating?
How are you going to keep up with changing world?
B. Nature of work-- How has computerization
affected the nature of work?
1. Deskilling of some jobs
People converted to machine operators
Skill elements of jobs have been reduced or removed
2. Upgrading of other jobs
Does IT mean fewer, brighter people in work force?
People have to understand IT
IT jobs can be very interesting
People have to learn to use data IT makes available
3. Do all people want their jobs upgraded?
Do all people want to be creative on the job?
Do some people want to do their job
to earn a living so that they
can get their excitement from other pursuits?
The academic argument
Scientific management
Hawthorne experiments
Reality considerations
4. Today's world--employer-employee relationships
Cannot expect to stay with an organization for a lifetime
Fast changing world. No commitments on either side.
Best you can expect is an opportunity
to learn new skills
and get new experiences
Have to manage your own career
Not like the military or
Old style organizations
Big increase in use of temps and part-timers
Is telecommuting a factor?
affecting relationships?
C. Wages-- How has computerization
affected wages?
Down--until recently--last couple of years--
wages have not shared in economic growth
money used for other things
Now labor shortage and
concern over lack of wage growth(?)
have changed things
Some growth in unionization
Up--
for highly skilled people
for high level management
D. Computer people
Good Bad
Smart Narrow focus
Motivated Other relationships suffer
Money Take money and run (?)
Optimistic Not always realistic
Tech oriented Not people oriented
E. Computer Organizations
Characteristics Problems
Risk takers High failure rate
First product Second product
Managers are Keeping up w/change
techies
Major successes Major failures
Creative Not-invented-here is bad
Standards Don't share, e.g., Apple
Leadership Can pioneers manage?
Get job done Seems messy
eat hot dogs, but
don't look inside
Summary
A. Jobs-- How has computerization
affected the number of jobs?
B. Nature of work-- How has computerization
affected the nature of work?
C. Wages-- How has computerization
affected wages?
D. Computer people
E. Computer organizations
Logistics
25 Steps
Wednesday--Health and Safety
Lunch--Wednesday, 1:00 PM
Video to Science Library
History of Internet
History Channel, Tonite, 7 PM