beekman5 std ppt_15

2002 Prentice Hall

Chapter 15

Computers at Work

2002 Prentice Hall 2

Topics

In the Information Age

Where Computers Work

Management by Computer

Computers and Jobs


Into the Information Age

Paradigm shift—a change in thinking that resultsin a new way of seeing the world.

Three Major Changes: The Agricultural Economy The Industrial Economy The Information Economy


The Computer Age

Technology was central to each of these transformations.

The agricultural economy grew from the plow, the industrial revolution was sparked by machines, and the information age is so dependent on computers that it’s often called the computer age.


Where Computers Work

“All those ones and zeros we’ve been passing around—the fuel that fans the digital

fire—have reached critical mass

and ignited, big time.”

—Steven Levy

Entertainment

Publishing

Medicine

Airlines

Science


Entertainment

The production of television programs and movies involves computer technology at every stage of the process.

Virtual newscaster Ananova delivers on-demand newscasts over the Web.


Publishing

The newspaper industry has been radically transformed by computer technology.

Reporters scan the Internet for facts, write and edit stories on location using notebook computers, and transmit those stories by modem to central offices.

Artists design charts and drawings with graphics software.

Photo retouchers use computers instead of brushes and magnifying glasses to edit photographs.


Medicine

High-tech equipment plays a vital role in the healing arts.

Medical students and professionals use this virtual emergency room to simulate processes of collecting vital signs and other patient data.


Airlines

Without computers, today’s airline industry simply wouldn’t fly.

A flight simulator might have a graphical user interface that makes the computer screen look and act like the instrument panel of a real plane so that it can be run interactively by human pilots.


Science

From biology to physics, every branch of science has been changed by the computer.

In Argonne’s CAVE, a scientist can interactively study the relationships between the nucleic acids of the molecule.

A botanist can enter and analyze data in remote locations.


Three Computerized Workplaces

The Automated Factory

The Automated Office

The Electronic Cottage


The Automated Factory

In the modern automated factory robots are used for painting, welding, and other repetitive assembly-line jobs.

Computers also help track inventory, time the delivery of parts, control the quality of the production, monitor wear and tear on machines, and schedule maintenance.

Engineers use CAD (computer-aided design) and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) technologies to design new products and the machines that build those products.


Automated vs.Traditional Factory

Automation allows for tighter integration of planning with manufacturing, reducing the time that materials and machines sit idle.

Automation reduces waste in facilities, raw materials, and labor.



In the mainframe era, computers used for behind-the-scenes jobs such as accounting and payroll. Computer-related decisions were in the hands of

central data processing managers.

In the PC era, jobs migrated from mainframes to desktops, and people used PCs to do things that the mainframes weren’t programmed to do.



Enterprise computing - PCs are essential parts of the overall computing structure for most business enterprises

Workers use technology tools such as word processing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing and email

To lessen costs of PCs, companies replace them with thin clients.

– Refers to network computers, Internet appliances, and similar devices

– Low-cost, low-maintenance machines allowing workers to access critical network information without the overhead of a PC or workstation



Distributed computing integrates all kinds of computers, from mainframes to PCs, into a single, seamless system.


The Automated Office--Workgroup Computing

Groupware allows groups of users to share calendars, send messages, access data, and work on documents simultaneously.

Intranets - networks using HTML, Web browsers, and other Internet technologies to link employees

Extranets - networks open to strategic partners and customers


The Automated Office--Workgroup Computing

Workgroup systems have the potential to radically transform the way businesses operate. They make organizations:

flatter, so it’s easier for workers at any level to communicate with workers at other levels

more integrated, so different business units communicate more openly with each other

more flexible, so businesses can react more quickly to changes in their environments

less concerned with managing people and more concerned with managing processes



Experts have also predicted the paperless office - an office of the future in which magnetic and optical archives will replace reference books and file cabinets, electronic communication will replace letters and memos, and Web publications will replace newspapers and other periodicals


Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce has been around for years in its most basic form - buying and selling products through the Internet or a smaller computer network.

Electronic commerce also includes marketing, sales, support, customer service, and communication with business partners.


Electronic Commerce

Business-to-business (B2B) - transactions between corporations

Business-to-consumer (B2C) - transactions between businesses and consumers


The Electronic Cottage

“Telecommuting may allow us to redefine the issues so that

we’re not simply moving people to work but also

moving work to people.”

—Booth Gardner, former Washington governor

Futurist Alvin Toffler popularized the term electronic cottage to describe a home where technology allows a person to work at home.


Telecommuting

Arguments for: Reduces the number of automobile commuters, thus

saving energy, reducing pollution, and decreasing congestion

Saves time Allows for a more flexible schedule Can increase productivity


Telecommuting

Arguments against: Doesn’t fit those jobs requiring interaction Requires self-discipline Office social life missing Low visibility

Most telecommuters report that the ideal work situation involves commuting to the office 1 or 2 days each week and working at home on the others.


Telecommuting

Variations on the electronic cottage: Satellite offices Shared regional work centers High powered PCs and wireless hand devices for

mobile commerce


Management by Computer

A management information system is defined as a computerized system that includes procedures for collecting data, a database for storing data, and software tools for analyzing data and producing a variety of reports for different levels of management.


Management Information Systems

A top-level manager uses a management information system to examine long-term trends and relationships between departments.

Middle-level managers use the same MIS to produce departmental summary reports.

Low-level managers focus on day-to-day operations with detailed reports from the MIS.

MIS produce scheduled periodic reports and reports on demand.


Decision Support Systems

A computer system that supports managers in decision-making tasks

Spreadsheets for “what if” analysis, mathematical models of business systems


Other Management Tools

Project management software helps coordinate, schedule, and track complex work projects.

Expert systems can provide expert advice in limited areas.

Spreadsheets manage budgets, make financial projections, and perform a variety of other useful functions.

The Internet can provide instant information from sources all over the world.


Rule of Thumb: Considering Computer Careers

Learn touch-typing

Use computers to help accomplish your goals

Don’t forsake the basics

Combine your passions

Ask questions

If you can’t find your dream job, build it yourself

Prepare for change


Computers and Jobs

De-skilling

Up-skillingWhen jobs become more

technical requiring the worker to have more skills.

When a job is transformed so that it

requires less skill.


Productivity and People

All too often computers are introduced into the workplace without any consideration of the way people work and interact.

Workers expected to adjust to unyielding systems User training and support often inadequate


Human-centered Systems

Most successful computer systems are human- centered: designed to retain and enhance human skills rather than take them away.

Systems analysts and designers must understand the work practices of the people who’ll use the system.

Users of the systems are involved in designing the system and the system-related jobs.


Monitoring and Surveillance

Using computer technology to track, record, and evaluate worker performance, often without the knowledge of the worker.

Problems:

•Privacy

•Morale

•Devalued Skills

•Loss of Quality


Electronic Sweatshops

A typical data-entry shop might contain hundreds of clerks sitting at terminals in a massive, windowless room.

Workers—often minorities and almost always female—are paid minimum wage to do mindless keyboarding.


Electronic Sweatshops

Many experience headaches, backaches, serious wrist injuries, stress, anxiety, and other health problems.

Optical character recognition and voice recognition technologies will enable companies to replace workers with machines.


Employment and Unemployment

“My father had worked for the same firm for 12 years. They fired him. They replaced him with a tiny gadget this big that does everything that my father does only it does it much better. The depressing thing is my mother ran out and bought one.”

--Woody Allen



Because of automation the unskilled, uneducated worker may face a lifetime of minimum wage jobs or welfare.

Technology may be helping to create an unbalanced society with two classes: a growing mass of poor uneducated people and a shrinking class of affluent educated people.




Cautiously Optimistic Forecasts:

Technology will continue to spur economic growth and new jobs.

Economic growth may depend on whether we have a suitably trained workforce.

The demand for professionals - teachers and engineers –is likely to rise.

Painful periods of adjustment may be in store for many factory workers, clerical workers, and other semiskilled and unskilled laborers



Will we need a New Economy?

Do governments have an obligation to provide permanent public assistance to the chronically unemployed?

Should large companies be required to give several months’ notice to workers whose jobs are being eliminated? Should they be required to retrain workers for other jobs?




Should large companies be required to file “employment impact statements” before replacing people with machines in the same way they’re required to file environmental impact statements before implementing policies that might harm the environment?

If a worker is replaced by a robot, should the worker receive a share of the robot’s “earnings” through stocks or profit sharing?




The average workweek 150 years ago was 70 hours; for the last 50 years it has been steady at about 40. Should governments and businesses encourage job-sharing and other systems that allow for less-than-40-hour jobs?

What will people do with their time if machines do most of the work? What new leisure activities should be made available?

How will people define their identities if work becomes less central to their lives?