Work and Employment in a Changing Business Environment

Stephen Taylor, Graham Perkins

• Publisher: CIPD - Kogan Page
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781398600218
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Work and Employment in a Changing Business Environment is the definitive textbook for the new CIPD Advanced Level 7 module. It provides students with an understanding of the major contemporary trends in the HR business environment and discussion of significant areas of HR and Learning and Development (L&D) activity that derive from or are given additional prominence as a result of environmental developments. It provides students with an understanding of ways in which major, long-term environmental developments affect employment, work and people management in organizations as well as a thorough grounding in current and short-term developments in the people management environment. These areas include globalisation, technology, the economy, labour markets, society, politics, public policy and employment regulation. This book also includes expert coverage of how change, innovation and creativity can promote improvements in organisational productivity. Most importantly, this brand new textbook covers the key elements that students on HR masters courses will need in their future careers including flexibility, agility and resilience. productivity, ethics and values, sustainability, equality, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing and working internationally. Case studies and examples demonstrate how the theory applies in practice and pause and review boxes will help students think critically about the content. Work and Employment in a Changing Business Environment is ideal reading for all postgraduate students on both CIPD and non-CIPD accredited courses. Online supporting resources include powerpoint slides for every chapter.

03

Technology 1

Getting here

The impact of evolving technology on our economy and society is self-evidently profound, as by extension is its influence on the development of business and the world of work. While there is nothing new about this state of affairs, a persuasive case can be made in favour of the proposition that we are currently living in an ‘age of accelerations’ (Friedman, 2016). New and improved technologies are being developed at a much faster pace than in any earlier period of human history, making this a fascinating and exciting time to be living and working, but also one in which disruption and uncertainty are the norm in many industries.

This subject is far too big to cover properly in a single chapter, so we are going to focus on different aspects in this chapter and the next. Here we are going to survey technological developments of the past and present, going on in Chapter 4 to discuss future developments. We will start with a series of observations about how technology affects business organisations and the world of work, using examples from recent and not-so-recent history to illustrate our key points. We will then go on to focus specifically on how recent and contemporary technological developments are affecting aspects of human resource management practice.

Technological development

When we think about the history of technology we tend to be drawn to the big landmark developments or ‘light bulb moments’ that changed history by bringing about a rapid improvement in people’s lives. These have occurred periodically throughout human history. Examples from the very earliest times are the ability to light fires artificially, the making of boats and the invention of the wheel. The ancient Egyptians invented writing, ploughs, toothpaste and the first reliable clocks. Ancient China saw the development of the first paper and block printing techniques, as well as the compass, kites and sails. The Greeks developed plumbing systems and maps and built the first lighthouse, the Romans going on to build arches, use concrete and create bound books. In more recent centuries examples of breakthrough inventions include optical lenses, gunpowder, printing presses, anaesthetics and vaccines, steam engines and electric power. In living memory, the major examples are communications satellites and the internet.

Most of the time, however, technologies advance in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary fashion as over decades they are steadily improved to be made more reliable, efficient, user-friendly and affordable. A process of steady refinement occurs in which many thousands participate, learning from one another’s successes and failures.

Smil (2005, 2010) shows how this process of evolution occurred, and continues to occur, in the case of cars. The first step was the invention of a workable internal combustion engine, which was collectively achieved in the late nineteenth century in German workshops by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach and Rudolf Diesel. They were, however, building on work of many others stretching back over a century previously, including those who had developed steam engines and stationary machines that were explosively powered. The 1880s saw the first commercial production of engine-propelled carriages on wheels that looked like two-seater tricycles and could travel at a maximum speed of about ten miles an hour. Engineers and manufacturers working in different countries then set about improving functionality and design, progress being made in steps over two or three decades. By 1900 cars with four wheels and canvas hoods that could travel at up to forty miles an hour were being manufactured. In the early twentieth century car manufacturing then took off internationally as different companies continued to work on refinements. Engines were improved with electronic fuel injection and turbo-charging, while steel frames, balloon tyres, four-wheel brakes, electronic ignition and power steering became standard features. Mass production of cars started in the 1920s, by which time a million were being produced annually across the world. Later in the century further improvements were made. Lighter materials were used, all manner of safety elements introduced and a wide range of additional electronic features were developed. The combined efforts of thousands of engineers and designers transformed car production in the twentieth century from a small, specialised affair producing a few thousand simple but expensive machines each year, to the biggest mass production industry in the world. Over fifty million highly sophisticated vehicles are now manufactured annually. It was a global effort. Most of the early developments occurred in Europe. Mass production was then pioneered in the USA, and many recent innovations in the fields of fuel efficiency and reliability emanate from Japan.

Technological advances in vehicle manufacturing have almost all been commercial in nature. They provide an excellent example of how entrepreneurs and businesses play a central role in carrying out the research and development activity that drives technology forward. Initial ideas lead to experiments and research, then to the manufacture of prototypes that are tested, modified and re-tested through a process of trial and error. International patents are secured and new products taken to market. All the time rival firms compete with one another in a bid to develop and exploit new technologies more effectively and efficiently in order to earn bigger returns on their investments. In these highly competitive commercial environments it is necessary to innovate continually so as to keep in step with – or preferably a few steps ahead of – rivals. Risks have to be taken in the process and it must be accepted that much investment in technological development will not have a commercially viable outcome.

It is by no means only commercial organisations that develop major technologies. Government laboratories and universities have also long been cradles of new invention, the products of which often subsequently go on to be exploited commercially. There are several pervasive products that were originally developed in military settings or sprung from research carried out for military purposes. The Colossus machines that were built for use by codebreakers working at Bletchley Park during the Second World War were the world’s first digital programmable computers powered by electricity. Radar was also developed for military use during the Second World War. One of the researchers working on its development, Percy Spencer, subsequently went on to use his know-how to invent the microwave oven. Telex was originally developed for military use, as were duct tape, superglue and canned foods. Satellite navigation systems and drones are the most prominent recent examples of military technologies that have gone on to be commercialised and sold widely.

While individual inventiveness and sometimes a touch of genius are vital, most technological development is very much a team effort involving a range of institutions, resources and sources of investment. Innovation thrives through human contact and networks. Formal education plays a major role, as does tacit knowledge gained through experience and passed on to others informally. Technology develops fastest when large numbers of knowledgeable people are actively involved (see Ridley, 2020), and it is the expansion of collaboration that explains much of today’s apparent acceleration of technological evolution. As Coggan (2020: 331–2) shows, the big difference between the present era and that of past centuries is not so much human inventiveness as our ability to network physically in multinational research teams, to meet at international conferences and trade fairs, and to communicate information and ideas rapidly and inexpensively across the world. The more people who have access to understanding and information about current developments, the higher the chances that new, improved generations of technologies will be devised.

In later chapters we will be discussing how organisations and their people need to be managed in order to make the most of technology by maximising productivity and promoting innovation and creativity. For now we just need to note that management styles and techniques play an important role in determining the effectiveness of investment in technology. Recruiting the right people, retaining them, engaging them and, particularly, providing them with the right developmental opportunities are essential. Above all there is a need to manage change effectively. This is always challenging, but becomes more so the faster technologies develop. There is a strong tendency for us to be suspicious of change and to fear its possible impact, but the history of business demonstrates the need to embrace it. There is much truth in Leon Megginson’s management mantra that ‘it is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change’.

CASE STUDY 3.1

Kodak and Dyson

In recent years, as the rate of technological innovation and progress has accelerated, we have witnessed the contraction of a number of once-dominant corporations. Sometimes it is because they do not innovate sufficiently, but often it is because they make the wrong strategic choices about technology when planning for the future.

The decline and fall of the Eastman Kodak Company (commonly known as Kodak) provides a spectacular recent example. Founded in 1881 in Rochester, New York, Kodak pioneered dry film photographic technologies and the mass production of pocket-sized cameras, later introducing colour film. By the middle of the twentieth century it dominated the international market for cameras and photographic film. Later, as Japanese competitors entered the market, Kodak lost its very dominant position, but it diversified successfully and continued to grow, remaining one of the world’s top five most recognisable brands.

In the 1980s and 1990s Kodak employed 150,000 people worldwide, and earned profits in excess of $2 billion each year. Kodak’s decline and fall after 2000 was swift and brutal. After failing hopelessly to predict the rate at which digital photography would eclipse the established film-based technologies, it made several very poor strategic decisions. Markets disappeared, debts piled up and fat profits turned into vast losses. This situation could, however, have been avoided because it was Kodak engineers who first developed prototype digital cameras in the 1970s. Instead of embracing the new technology, the company took a more cautious approach and decided to continue to focus on film-based photographic products.

In 2012 Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, subsequently selling off nearly all its remaining assets and patents. In September 2013 it emerged from bankruptcy planning to operate principally in the commercial printing industry. It now employs fewer than 5,000 people and is struggling to remain profitable.

By contrast, Dyson Ltd is an example of a highly successful company that has grown healthily in recent years as a result of its ability to develop technologically innovative products that have anticipated consumer demand very effectively. The company was founded by the British inventor James Dyson in 1993, using the money he had amassed from selling his designs for ‘ball barrows’ and ‘g-force cleaners’ to other companies. He was now in a position to set up a laboratory and to employ a team of people to assist him in developing products that he planned to manufacture himself.

Dyson’s first big success was the dual cyclone vacuum cleaner, a machine that had ‘designed out of it’ many limitations of conventional vacuum cleaners. It took fifteen years and over 5,000 prototypes before it was ready to take to market. Not only are ‘Dysons’ bagless and able to reach into every corner of a room, they are also attractively designed products that rapidly came to dominate the UK market, before becoming commercially successful globally.

In more recent years Dyson and his team have successfully pioneered further product innovations, including bladeless fans and AirBlade hand dryers. Dyson now employs over 12,000 people worldwide and is earning profits in excess of £900 million a year. Much of its recent growth is in Asian markets, where sales are growing very fast year on year. The company now runs its own university programmes aimed at training dozens of engineers and has invested billions in the development of artificial intelligence and robotics.

Snags and surprises

While, over time, technological developments have collectively brought great benefit to societies all around the world, it is important to appreciate that the processes whereby this has happened have not always been smooth. Wrong steps are frequently taken and poor judgements made, and it is often only with the benefit of hindsight that this becomes clear.

Sometimes, for example, an invention will have considerable prospects, but will not find a market because it is insufficiently user-friendly, too costly, or often is simply ahead of its time. The most celebrated examples are probably the Difference Engine and Analytical Engine that were designed by Charles Babbage, a Professor of Mathematics working at Cambridge University in the 1820s and 1830s. These were large, intricate mechanisms made up of gears and metal drives that could carry out highly sophisticated mathematical calculations and, in the latter case, print out the results. They promised to be much more accurate at maths than human brains, and as his collaborator Ava Lovelace later showed, were also programmable in the manner of a modern computer. The problem was their immense physical size and complex...