The article written by Mandel presented an explanation on why most Americans tends to work long hours at the office. Due to the boom of information revolution which increased the productivity by almost 70%, Americans were most likely to react in a different manner. While it is believed that having the technologies in the working force could reduce the amount of work load, the reverse of this belief is happening. Hence, technologies nearly cause people in the work force to work harder and longer.
It is also believed that the longer hours of work is due to a disorder in the organization of corporations and not due to their enforcement of power to exploit the powerless. The continuous development of the economy is accompanied by a more fast pace approach in communication and collaboration across the globe. Unfortunately, the current corporate structure seems to overlay ways in dealing with this change and is more likely to focus on how to work out with the essential elements to succeed (i. e. communication, coordination and teamwork).
Because of this, people in the labor force are pressured and find ways to meet the corporation’s expectations. Globalization and the internet are also considered as one of the causes of the addressed issue. Although new opportunities are being generated through internet and globalization, intensity in generating more work and competition also comes in hand. The presence of competition makes the work force to double their work in order to cope up with faster growth. 2. Certain moves are being applied different companies to solve the issue of overtime working in their work force.
The companies started to address this issue by first analyzing their internal social networks and identifying specific bottlenecks. One of the innovation that have proposed by Intel Corp. is creating technology that lowers the time cost of teamwork while other companies are providing more corporate support for both internal and external networks. A shift to a digital spine is also viewed as a means to address overtime working. Through web-based organizations and used of blogs, online databases and open-source software, coordination among people can be handled without sacrificing much of the worker’s time.
Dynamic profiling is also being considered by Intel to lessen the time spent in sharing knowledge and collaborating. Through this technology, areas of target based on the subjects provided can be automatically summarized. This regularly updated profile can help companies to locate potential resources and collaborators without spending too much time. Moreover, this technology doesn’t require workers to manually update their profile thus contributes in saving some of their time. New technologies that allows virtual meetings thus not requiring everyone to be physically present can also reduce the work load and time spent of individuals.
Development of technologies can therefore reduce the work load if these would be properly used and executed. Companies also consider eliminating unnecessary interactions in the workplace especially those which are regarded as low value interactions. At Masterfoods, the workflow of in packaging is being reviewed and redesigned. The company believes that by doing such, they can eliminate irrelevant steps that took up time.
Reference
Mandel, M. (32005, October 3). The Real Reasons You’re Working so Hard…what you can do about it. Business Week, 60.