Effects on Business, Indivdual and Society-Work

Business

They can employ people from a wider network therefore they can employ the best people suited for the job rather than the people who happen to live nearest.

May reply to much on technology for example if a computer network was to go down work would have to stop.

Blackberries make working more efficient

Expensive set up

Retraning costs

Individual

More jobs available ie ict technician

Manual job loses for example car manufacturer replaced by robots

People can spend more time at home with the family if they telework

Hours you want

Less traveling-video conferencing


Society

Massive change on jobs available

If people work from home will rush hour exist?

Blackeberries and work

Features of a blackberry and why they are good for work.

The blackberry includes internet so you can view and send emails in and out the office. For example if you were travelling to London by train to your office, you could view all your emails beforehand and read up as to what is going on and what you have to do and know for the day ahead. This saves time when you reach the office as you can start working striaght away. This is one of the many reasons why so many businesses now issue their employees with Blackberries to make them more efficent at work.

It also gives you 3 gadgets all in one:

• Your laptop to access your email, write up documents and research
• Your phone to contact colleagues, clients, bosses and also your family and friends
• Music. For the train journey to and from work.

News Story

Blackberry users 'work an extra 15 hours a week' out of the office

Staff with mobile technology such as Blackberries work an extra 15 hours a week as they constantly check emails even out of the office, according to new research.

A survey of over 600 employees revealed many were turning into workaholics because of the ability to receive and send messages and work online even when they were at home.

Employment law firm Peninsula said the working week was being extended to around 55 hours for many people and urged employers to make sure their staff were not breaching working time regulations

"Employees should be encouraged to take appropriate rest breaks if they do choose to continue working out of hours. Having a well rested employee with a good work/life balance is a lot more useful than a tired employee that put one too many hours in the night before."

Retaining for ICT improvements

Many people who found that their job had disappeared because of the introduction of computes have had to retrain.

They might have been kept on to do the same role but using a computer rather than doing things by hand.

Or if their job disappeared completely, they would probably have had to train and learn a whole new set of skills.

Training can be given by the personnel department or by other workers. Or it could be purchased from specialist companies who visit the organisation and train people 'on-site'.

Workers can also go on courses at the local college to learn new skills.

This training has many faults. While people are learning new skills they are not working to their full as they are doing something at the same time. The company may fall behind loosing money which can be extremely crucial for a lot of companies. Also the training is extremely expensive although in the long run it is really good to be up to date.

ICT and Accounting

Accounting

Before the development of ICT accountants would keep track of all financial records by hand.
They would enter every payment and receipt into a ledger. This was a full time job for many people.

I spoke to my grandad who was an accountant back in the 1950s and he told me, ' when i was working you actually had to be good at maths. Now spreadsheets and calucaltors all do it for you. Really you dont have to understand what you are doing anymore. I studied a math related course at Oxford university. As far as im aware all you need now is basic computer skills and take a college course for 2 years. I studied for 6. It wasnt until later calculators were invented making life easier. Admittedly we did have a machine but it made more mistakes than i did! It was easy to make a mistake, to add up something incorrectly or even to forget to record something.'

Calculators were not invented until the late 70's.

The introduction of calculators helped to speed up the work involved in balancing the books and helped reduce some of the mistakes made.

When financial packages and spreadsheets for personal computers came along around 1978, it transformed the way businesses handled their financial accounts.

With these changes, the role of Accounting Clark largely disappeared. They now had to re-train to use the new electronic spreadsheets.

The skill of mentally adding up numbers quickly and accurately was no longer required as the computer could do this much faster and more reliably



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Graphs on Teleworking

New Jobs

Computers in the Office
With the advent of reliable computers, desktop machines started to replace the typewriter. This meant that office typists had to learn new, more varied skills. Many expected to lose their jobs as fewer and fewer typists became needed. Computers, however, had many varied uses and each demanded a different, specialist set of skills:

• Spreadsheets started to be used for accounting, analysing data and modelling situations creating job roles ranging from data inputters to ICT Managers.

• Databases and other management information systems (MIS) also needed specialist staff.

• Software and hardware engineers were required to prevent and solve technical problems.

• The success of the Internet brought with it requirements for Web designers and programmers.

Network Technician

• Helps set up office and school networks
• Monitors network performance
• Installs new software
• Sets up and monitors user accounts
• Ensures network security

Computer programmer

• Writes the code for new software
• Adapts or develops existing software

Website Designers

With the explosion of the Internet, there has been a huge demand for people who can design and write websites.

Help Desk Operator

• Answers technical problems from staff
• Provides advice when software/hardware not working
• Resets passwords
• Can remotely control a computer screen to demonstrate how to do something.

Business Analyst

Because businesses need specialist software and hardware to suit their particular needs, most large organisations employ a team of business analysts.
These analysts examine the methods currently used by the company and determine what works and what needs improving. They then work with employees,employers and software developers to design and create a new system to solve the business' requirements.

 Unfortunately some jobs are lost due to the increase in ICT


Since ICT can automate many jobs and do them not only faster but also more accurately, then many of the old jobs have disappeared.
We no longer have typing pools full of secretaries, there is no need for an office full of clerks to calculate and count out weekly wages, there is no need for printers to manually typeset the newspaper pages. Many hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs over the last couple of decades.


For example car manufacturers have been replaced by robots who paint cars quickly and accuratly.
Robots also do not need:

• they do not need breaks for tea and coffee
• they can work 24/7
• they dont need to sleep
• there is no cost after the inital cost

But still there are issues

• someone still needs to watch over them in case one has a fault
• if one fault occurs work can be put on hold whereas a worker could be quickly replaced wif someone was taken ill. 

Journalists

Printing industry

Daily newspapers used to be printed on this old fashioned printing press.

Printing used to be a very manual, skilled job taking years to learn

In 1985, photo-typesetting was developed and it made it possible to automate the printing of newspapers and books.
This is the modern day printing press.

Nowadays, newspapers are written by journalists who use a computer.

The digital layout is then transferred to the printer and newspapers are printed very quickly in their thousands.

Up until the mid 1980s, when letters or reports needed to be typed, a maual typewriter was used.

Each page had to be typed carefully since mistakes were hard to fix - usually the page would have to be typed out again.
There were no formatting features - if you wanted something bold, you had to type over the same words twice

Using a typewriter was a skilled job since there was no room for mistakes.

Teleworking

Over the last several decades ICT has changed a lot in the work place leading to companies who would have never existed before existing now, adaptions being made with other companies and many people being replaced as new technology is brought in.

ICT has led to a big change in the way a lot of people work. Because of the Internet and the ability to communicate with the company network from anywhere in the world, many workers now work part time or full time from home. It is a new method of working.

Advantages

For individuals

- You can work the hours you want, for example you could get up at 6am and finish by lunchtime.

- It makes possible to work around family commitments, for example young children or elderly parents.

- You can take a break when you want one.

- It saves a huge amount of time that would normally be spent travelling to work. You can spend that time working instead. It is estimated that the average person spends around 4 hours travelling to work each week. That is a lot of time sat in a car!

- You save the cost of petrol that you would normally need to travel to work and also the cost of car parking tickets.

For the company

- They can employ people who don't live near to the office. This means they can choose people who might be willing to work for lower wages.

- If there is a shortage of skilled labour in the local area then they can get the skilled staff that they need from elsewhere in the country.

- they might be able to keep hold of valuable members of staff who might otherwise leave, for example, women who have just had a baby.

- they can have smaller premises so they save money on rent.

- they get workers who might be more satisified with their jobs and thus be more committed or work harder.

Disadvantages

For individuals

- It is hard to feel like you can ever get away from work.

- You might end up working longer hours than you would in an office.

- You might always be 'on call'. Because you are at home, the office might think that you are always available to do just a bit more work

- There can be a lot of distractions and you might be tempted to do other things rather than work

- You can miss out on the social side of work.

- It might affect your career prospects. If a promotion comes up in the office, you might not be thought about for the role.

For the company

- They are not always sure that people are putting in the right amount of hours

- Work might not be delivered on time

- Workers might not be at home to receive an email or urgent telephone call

- Work might be of a lower standard than when produced in the office

- Hard to motivate staff and have a feeling of a good company spirit.

- Managers still like face to face contact with employees

- Firms might have to address the criticism that they are running 'digital sweatshops'

- There might be legal issues such as insurance and health and safety implications 

Why teleworking is possible

• 
  
  video conferenceing-talking to clients overseas without paying, or the company paying for travel
• 
  
  webcams-talking to your boss who may be in the office
• 
  
  instant message-receiving tasks instantly
• 
  
  e-mail-sending and recieving files with attachments

ICT is more likely to have changed someone's work rather than led to them losing their job. People in certain professions have had to be retrained to make use of modern technology:

• Secretaries now use word processors and not typewriters.
• Travel agents book holidays by computer, not by phone or letter.

• De-skilling has taken place. Some jobs which needed a high level of skill in the past can now be done more easily. For example, print workers today can use DTP software to lay out their work.
• Designers now use CAD software rather than pencil and paper on a drawing board.