To what extent has the world of work changed over the past 100 years - Essay Example

? To What Extent Has The World of Work Changed Over The Past 100 Years? And What Do These Changes Say About Contemporary Society? Instructor: Date: The world witnessed a great deal of changes and incredible inventions in the past century. Many countries have made much advancement in various areas of society. The modern mode of living is quite different from how people lived in the past century. According to Durkheim (1997), technological advancement in the past 100 years has been more than all previous years combined. Work, which is the center of people’s lives, has also changed in the last 100 years. Work has far-reaching effect on the well being of families, societies and nation as a whole. It is at the heart of social, economic and political dynamics. The world of work has largely been affected by unprecedented economic and social transformations that have occurred in the last 100 years in many societies around the world. The perception and reception of these changes differ from one individual to another or groups of individuals to another. While some individuals in the contemporary society believe that the change in the world of work is accompanied by numerous opportunities for more satisfying work and better living, others believe that it closes off chances for better life and working environment (Grint, 2005). Since the last century, the world has encountered adverse economic changes that have moulded the world of work. The Great Recession is a perfect example of economic changes, whose impacts are still felt to date. For the last few decades, the world has been struggling to rebound from the depths of this economic change. World job markets are reshaping in a bit to provide sustainable employment to the people. As such, mode of employment has changed drastically. In the past, long term employment was the main tenet of most working environments. However, this trend has changed in the recent past. Notably, long-term employment is no longer common in the modern days as evident in the statement, “As the world job market struggles to rebound from the depths of the Great Recession, one thing that’s not getting as much attention as it used to is how long-term employment trends are changing–and that not everyone may find a job even when the pace of recovery hits its stride again someday” (Goudreau, 2012). Therefore, it has become hard for most people to secure employment even if the pace of economic recovery hits its stride in the recent past. The traditional economy that featured in the past century has been completely phased out. What is being currently witnessed is knowledge economy. In effect, physical and manufacturing works are slowly being abandoned and are disappearing. Technological advancement in the modern economy has resulted in the introduction of computers, which have disrupted stable occupations such as administrative jobs and postal service. This has happened in developed countries particularly in the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom. According to Grint (2005), this trend may be just the beginning as it is anticipated that more would happened in many countries across the globe. Since technology is rapidly improving, most jobs in the industries will be automated in the near future. Consequently, the jobs that would be available are those that can be done by a piece of software or robot. This means that people in the contemporary societies are likely to experience a great deal of challenges in securing employment (Grint, 2005). The world of work 100 years ago only accommodated men and women of certain social class. Women in most societies were denied to pursue their careers on the notion that they are supposed to perform household duties. The job market was not good for women. In fact, many institutions of higher learning were once domains of certain class of women and men. This is because women from lower classes of the society were not allowed to pursue their education and careers. However, as the world moves towards service economy, many aspects of an individual have been considered for efficient and effective production. With the passage of various international laws and regulations governing employment and human rights, individuals of all classes including women have been granted opportunities to access employments without discrimination (Forbes, 2013). In the modern days, most sectors of economy especially health care and personal services are dominated entirely women. For example, 15 million women in the United States of America occupy various positions in education and health sector, up from about 2 million in mid 20th century. The gender balance concern that has been addressed sufficiently in most developed countries has opened employment opportunities for women. Notably, this trend is not limited to few developed countries. Globally, women have engaged themselves in education and health care programs (Forbes, 2013). In the last century, many countries have realized the significance of eradicating poverty and narrowing income gaps between different individuals in the society. This is supported by the statement in ILO report, “The need to reduce absolute poverty and narrow income gaps is widely accepted in both developed and developing countries as essential on moral grounds, as well as from the real politik view of the underlying causes of social, economic and political instability” (ILO 2006).This need has been experienced in developed, developing and undeveloped countries as a development imperative on moral grounds (Marsh, 2009). This has also been fueled by underlying causes of socioeconomic and political instability in many countries around the world. Notably, many countries have abandoned authoritarian systems in their governments, and this has widened the scope for free expression of democracy by both men and women. The democratic demand for a fair chance for a decent employment by men and women is a subject of change in the world of work. In the last 100 years, societies have strived to narrow inequalities in the distribution of income and resources in a bid to bring a rapid pace of convergence between the rich and the poor. This represents a development imperative that has been in existence for the past many decades, and this has been considered a powerful engine for drastic changes in a vast range of aspects of the world of work (Morgan, 1998). According to the report by International Labour Organisation (ILO) (2006), the world has experienced a mixed progress in reduction of extreme poverty. The ILO (2006) further indicates that the number of people living on $US1 has declined in the past few decades. This trend is attributed to change in the employment laws and rights. Prior to this, discrimination and inequality within the field of employment was common in reference to gender, sexuality, transgender and racial origins. Countries have worked singlehandedly to combat discrimination in the working environment. For example, the members of European Union have been firm and bold on this issue. They have worked hard to promote the principle of equal treatment of men and women in employment and industrial relations. Unlike in the last century, the objective of fair competition for employment has been a key pillar of the society in this century. In 1990s, EU worked towards creating a common labour market by allowing workers to move freely from one society to another or one country to another (International Labour Organisation, 2006). The organisation also strongly advocated for equal treatment of workers thus prohibited discrimination of workers based on sex. Note mentioning, discrimination of workers based on sex is not limited to EU countries. Direct and indirect discrimination has been outlawed in many countries of the world. Therefore, it can be argued that both men and women in the modern days are involved in the world of work, something which did not happened 100 years ago. This is change that is has positively affected the lives of people in the contemporary society (Forbes, 2013). We are living in fast world. Everything is changing rapidly. As such, success of business firms and organisations has been affected by a numerous factors. With industrializations and globalizations, investors have managed to invest across national borders. Business firms are establishing themselves in overseas markets. This is something that was practically impossible 100 years ago. Consequently, this has resulted in stiff competition between firms in different industries (Ritzer, 2009). This trend has forced firms to formulate ways of making their products and services stand out in the market as the primary way of attracting and retaining customers. One of the strategy that has proved worthy in achieving this objective is effective and efficient production. This approach has been embraced by companies such as McDonald and Starbucks. The success of the former company has been associated with what Ritzer called McDonalds’ model, which incorporates elements such as efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. The analysis of the model of McDonaldization as described by Ritzer (2009) is based on Max Weber’s theory of rationalization. Due to competition, it has become mandatory for business firms to ensure that business processes are organized in order to ensure that everything is done at the right time and the right place. This is important because it guarantees maximum gratification for the clients and maximization of profits for the entity. In order to achieve this, firms must have the right workforce and the equipments. This means that firms in the recent days have been forced to pursue extensive training of their employees in order to make them in the working environment. This is something which was not common 100 years ago since most organisations did not subject their employees to intensive training and education programs. In addition, few firms were operating in the industry hence they enjoyed monopoly. These firms did not value the quality of the products or services that the end users receive. Unlike today, the focus of quality the customers get was not important. Efficiency is the world of work has become paramount in the contemporary society. Standardization in the working environment has become a crucial element of success as evident in the McDonald’s. This has been achieved by the company by observing the aspect of predictability of its products. In the past, firms care less about producing products that would influence perception of customers in diverse geographical areas. Now, firms are struggling to produce products that are same everywhere. Customers, even they are different locations, expect nothing less than the standard products offered by a firm. Therefore, employees in the world of work have been encouraged to be initiative and innovative (Ritzer, 2009). As discussed earlier, there is a growing threat of substituting human beings with nonhuman technology in the world of work. With the advancement of technology, it is no longer necessary to have many employees in the working environment in order to achieve mass production. The tendency of employing nonhuman technology is a feature that characterizes most working environments of modern times. This enables a company to have far better control of uniformity of mass production. Basically, the number of human beings involved in production of products and services have become too little in the recent times. The dimension of control, which is one dimension of McDonaldization model described by Ritzer (2009), is commonly practiced by companies in the modern times. The replacement of human beings with technology has enabled companies to further have control over the remaining employees. In some organisations such as McDonalds’, customers do some work for themselves, something which was rarely practiced 100 years ago. As suggested by Ritzer (2009), the dehumanizing effects of McDonaldization model do not imply that it has detrimental effects only to the interest of people in the society. There are certain advantages that offset the demerits on the world of work. One of these advantages is availability of more products and services (Ritzer, 2009). Division of labour is a common trend in the world of work in the modern days. This has been necessitated by the fact that employees should be effective and efficient in their undertakings. The concept has been widely utilized in all organisations. In order to achieve this, workforce has been subjected to intensive educational and training programs. Historically, the growth of total output, the emergence of the trend of capitalism and sophisticated industrialized processes has resulted into increased complexion of division of labour. Even though division of labour was observed even in ancient Sumerian culture, it was not complex as it is today. The concept was based only assignment of duties and responsibilities associated with trade and economic interdependence. With economic and social changes that have been witnessed in many countries of the world, division of labour has been advanced. This has been driven by the desire to make employees in the world of work more competitive. Division of labour is now a dominant feature of the world of work and has helped in increasing individual worker productivity (Durkheim, 1997). Generally speaking, the world of work has drastically changed over the past 100 years. Most of these changes are attributed to technological advancement, social and economic laws and complexity of organisations and companies. Organisations have embraced completely different models of operations and management of human capital in a bid to attain sustainable development in the competitive global markets. Men and women are now equally involved in the world of work. These changes indicate that the contemporary environment is better than the ancient environment and that it should be prepared for more changes in the near future. References Durkheim, E 1997, The Division of Labor in Society, New York: Free Press. Goudreau, J 2012, The Future of Work: A Golden Age for Working Women, viewed April 28 2013 Grint, K 2005, Sociology of Work 3rd ed, Cambridge: Polity Press. International Labour Organisation, 2006, The Changing Patterns in the World of Work, viewed 28 April 2013 Marsh, I et al (eds) 2009, Sociology: Making Sense of Society 4th edition. Chapter 12 Morgan, G 1998, Images of Organisation, London: Sage. Macionis, J 2012, Sociology 14th Edition, Boston: Pearson. Ritzer, G 2009, The McDonaldization of Society, Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press. Read More