The Impact of Technology on Work and Employment - Essay Sample

Introduction

Technology has dramatically changed how organisations do business by enhancing efficiency and quality of operations and extension of operations and global influence. While some people believe that technology has ruined employment and the workplace, others who have managed to keep up with the pace believe that it is the best thing that happened in business. In this regard, technology can either benefit or harm the workplace or employment depending on how well firms utilise it. Also, the effects of technology are most notable on employees and performance of tasks, which are core determinants of organisational success. Given the impact of technology in the workplace and employment, it is important to analyse important factors such as its evolution, applications, and positive and negative effects to the organisations and employees to determine if firms should continue to adopt new technology.

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How Technology Has Evolved

The effects of technology in the workplace have significantly changed over time owing to advancement in human civilisation. The evolution involved moving from eras in which people were unaware of and did not depend on technology, to an era where people cannot live without technology. There are three notable periods that relate to the advancement of civilisation and the adoption of technology. The initial era was the agricultural era, followed by the industrial era and the digital era (Cascio, & Montealegre, 2016). The agricultural era and the industrial era were important in the development of the digital era. The agricultural era involved the use of natural sources of power such as water and wind. Due to the limited nature of this power, the levels of production were low and utilisation did not go past land, the physical environment, and livestock. In the industrial era, production was mainly dependent on industrial power and maximisation of productivity, output, and efficiency depended on the relationship between the customers, distributors, and manufacturers. Both of the above eras were difficult for business and involved slow operation and losses.

The agricultural and industrial eras paved way for the digital era. In the current era, the generation and exchange of goods and services are easier as they depend on digitalised knowledge, information, and data. The advantage of this new era is that operations are faster and coordinated, thus reducing the marginal cost of production. In the digital era, companies have successfully integrated technology into almost all aspects of organisational operation. This means that production is faster and more efficient, and communication is effective.

Application of Technology in the Modern Workplace

Technology has entirely disrupted the traditional way of doing things in the workplace and replaced most manual activities. Also, there has been a significant change in the application of technology since the inception of the digital era. Whereas initially computers and other devices were programmed to perform different tasks, in the modern workplace, these devices can perform additional activities and perform robotic tasks. Technology is now applicable in training whereby employees can receive educational and training materials at their convenience. Training has been revolutionised and can now take place over the phone. Another modern usage of technology in the workplace is the assessment of stress levels, injury, or disability of employees through the use of microchips ad other attachable devices.

Furthermore, technology currently plays a central role in monitoring customer information, sales, and products. This increases timeliness and efficiency and reduces losses. In addition, the use of personal computers, tablets, and phones have made it easier for employees to work from anywhere since it is now easy to stay connected to the office (Cascio, & Montealegre, 2016). This has had the positive effects of promoting diversity and enhancing the development of different working styles. Other applications include employee tracking, performance of tasks by intelligent robots and computer programs, traffic monitoring, and research (Cascio, & Montealegre, 2016). Therefore, technology has assisted in easing tasks in almost all areas of an organisation, with positive impacts on speed and efficiency.

Positive Impacts of Technology on Work

Technology has a significant positive impact on the relationship between the employee and the employer. This improvement comes about as a result of increased collaboration between the employee and the employer through videoconference, email, and data/file sharing (Gibbs, 2017). Also, this has replaced the traditional mode of organisational leadership that involved leaders making core decisions alone. Employees are now involved in decision making since it is now easier to communicate and exchange thoughts. Also, employees and employers can interact at personal levels, which provide employers with the chance to understand their employees at deeper levels. These interactions can be used to collect insights from the employees and use these in enhancing inclusivity and productivity. Systemic relationships are then established, whereby the responses from employees are utilised to identify key themes and unidentified issues raised by the employees. Systemic relationships enable organisations to analyse large volumes of information and utilise them to increase the value that employees bring to the workplace.

Technology improves organisational communication, which is beneficial to employees and management, both in the organisation's premises and in remote areas. Employees can now work remotely and remain connected to the office without the need for cellphones. This can be accomplished using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), whereby office phones are linked to Ethernet cords at home or remote areas (Mayhew, 2018). Another improvement in communication is in the use of video conference whereby staff members can hold meetings and discussions online without necessarily being physically present in the meeting location. This improvement in communication is also vital in interviews, whereby interviewees that are out of reasonable commuting location can use video conferencing to interview. However, dependence on technology for communication in the workplace can be disastrous when individuals use it as means to avoid face-to-face communication and physical interaction. There are sensitive topics and critical decisions that require to be dealt with face to face such as disciplinary actions, appraisal, and performance evaluations. These topics require the observation of noon-verbal cues and discussions of the way forward. Therefore, use of technology in communication can impact an organisation positively or negatively.

Another positive impact of technology is the enhancement of efficiency in task execution. Technology improves the way employees carry out different tasks thus making them more efficient and reducing the burden of doing repetitive and tedious tasks. Additionally, the use of technology simplifies various job functions and thus enables employees to acquire satisfaction and hence improve their performance. An example of this is the configuration of Outlook to send personalised messages to a large number of people (Mayhew, 2018). Traditionally, this task would involve typing, proofing, and sending messages to individuals, which would take hours and also cause boredom and fatigue. Thus the automation of such activity leads to improvements in speed and accuracy. This is similar for other complex tasks that required a lot of time to accomplish in the past but can now be done in a short period. Technology has entirely changed the job design of many jobs across organisations. As technology increases the automation of simple tasks, employees refocus on the more difficult tasks and those that are difficult to automate.

Technology has greatly reduced work-related movement by providing easier means of communication. Contrary to the traditional system, employees do not have to move to other locations to meet clients as it is now easier to communicate using technological tools such as Skype and email (De Wet, Koekemoer, & Nel, 2016). Therefore, technology has broken geographical barriers and thus increased globalisation. The benefit of this is that employees can now serve a wide range of clients from different parts of the world. Without such improvements in technology, companies would not serve as many customers as they are currently serving. Also, it would take longer to accomplish tasks because of the time spent moving from one location to another. Movement also reduces since employees can now work from their homes or those of their clients. In this case, employees and managers can create virtual offices anywhere and stay connected to their clients and the office.

Negative Impacts of Technology on Work

Technology has significantly affected the quality of communication in the workplace through the replacement of face-to-face communication with online communication. Increased usage of emails for communication has been reported to affect relationships between colleagues negatively. This occurs when individuals read too much into the message and over-analyse it, hence distorting its original intention. Besides, technology has reduced face to face communication with some employees emailing colleagues in the same room instead of approaching them physically. Resultantly, the professional relationships that result from face to face contact are lost. In addition, the use of instant communication through email, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms provides expectations that responses will be instant, failure to which working relationships are negatively affected.

In addition to deteriorating communication, increased automation and adoption of technology in the workplace has negative effects on conflict resolution. Employees opt to use online communication as a means to avoid face to face confrontations. It is considered easier to apologise or forward blames through email than by confronting colleagues. In most cases, conflict resolution that is done through the phone is unsuccessful as most employees use it as an avoidance technique. Also, conflict resolution through emails and other forms of online communication compromises the hierarchy in a workplace as employees can communicate with managers and supervisors that they do not report to. This affects the professionalism of conflict resolution and increases conflicts between employees and managers.

Effects of Technology on Employment

Technology alters the workplace as well as the entire concept of employment. New technology substitutes most tasks that were traditionally performed manually, causing a reduction in the demand for the skills necessary to execute these tasks (Gibbs, 2017). Technological improvement reduces the demand for skills necessary for the performance of tasks that can be performed by technological tools. On the other hand, there is a general increase in demand for skills that assist in the performance of tasks that are complemented by technology. In this regard, technology affects different skills in different ways and can lead to the loss of jobs and wages for individuals with skills that can be automated. The most affected individuals are those in middle-skill jobs because most of these jobs rely on routine processing of information, decision making, and calculation, tasks that are easy to automate (Gibbs, 2017). High-skill jobs mostly remain unaffected as they require high levels of creativity, social skills, and cognitive tasks. Low-skill jobs also have low levels of automation since most of them involve direct consumer interaction, teamwork, and greater...