Technology in Workplace

UWE ID : 16044767

Technology in workplace

Introduction

Technology has revolutionized the way we perform in the workplace. It has simplified the work life of every individual in uncountable ways through the history till now. It has changed the way communication is channeled in the offices. It has had a major impact on the globalization of businesses with positive results on increasing global channels and consumers. Technology has been helping improve the communication channel in the workplace and save lots of time and energy and still, there are numerous possibilities to improve the communication in future with the help of technology. Through technology communicating with almost anyone in the world has become easy with very less hassle and expense. Looking at history, around the 1980s there was no way of communication at it is today, Computers being used even in workplace was extremely rare with no internet, email, social media sites, etc. Even telecommunicating and voicemail used to be a new thing. Land line phone, mail, and human interaction used to be common during that period. As of now, we can see millions of TBs of data being transferred just in one day. According to The Radacati Group, 205 billion emails were being sent each day in 2015.This proves that technology has been slowly but surely improving the way work is carried out over time. Also, aspects other than communication has improved a lot with help of technology in the workplace. Through technology, the workplace has become far safer while efficient at the same time. Technology has managed to save a lot of energy to carry out even most mentally and physically complicated works which never could have been possible for us to do ourselves. From storing huge databases of memory to sending multiple emails at once, everything has been possible with help of technology.

Communication technology for virtual workplace

With help of technology, Communication has become far more efficient and easier today. With help of communication tools like email, telephone, the internet, etc, carrying out day to day office work has become really easy and smooth. Communication advancement has made it possible for today’s entrepreneurs to follow up their business status through conference calls and emails while sitting in their comfortable chairs. This has brought possibilities for work from home culture in the workplace. With virtual workplace getting popular, there has been different new emerging positive outcomes and possibilities as well as negative complicated difficulties.

As communication became more advanced, individuals with different skills got opportunities to work as freelancers in different organizations through email channel.  According to Tammy Johns and Lynda Gratton, during 1980s, as freelance virtual workers started to emerge on an expansive scale, organisations contracted with those virtual specialists for discrete undertakings that weren't dependent on continuous joint effort, which helped both sides pick up flexibility. Organizational administrators were glad too, in light of the fact that this new independent pool gave them the adaptability to contract for pretty much work as business conditions justified, without the agony of cutbacks or of procuring more ability than they could use on a progressing premise. As said by the authors, Elance and oDesk alone have together pulled in 2 million enrolled clients and have associated laborers with tasks to the tune of very nearly a billion dollars in billings since they were propelled, in 1999 and 2003, individually. In 1995 eBay arrived, making a market foundation, secure installment components, and an administration framework as a notoriety rating protocol. Many acknowledged cost investment funds as they came to require less physical framework and accessed bring down cost ability outside their area.

With help of virtual workplace, employees can spend more of their time at home with their family even while working. These changes to the workplace can be more productive, without some type of face-to-face interaction the ability of teamwork can be compromised (Moufarriger, 2012). “You might be on a conference call with Europe in the wee hours and have to get your kids to a soccer game in the afternoon," Ferrazzi, best-selling author of books "Never Eat Alone" and "Who’s Got Your Back." said. "You can do it working virtually, and there’s real value in accommodating that employee need.”  Ferrazzi believes it is good for employers if their employees have a happy and balanced life. Looking at a situation at telecommunication service company, BT group, when the event 9/11 occurred during 2002-2003, they planned to have employees work remotely through their home. With many doubts that if employees working at home could perform equally as good as working in the office, even though strugging at first, later they even managed to outperform the traditional office workers with more productivity.

Virtual work place can even have huge benefit on our environment if we look at surveys and studies. A U.S government study showed that of 20000 federal workers could telecommute just one day a week, they would save over two million commuting miles, 102000 gallons of gasoline, and 81600 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each week. The emissions saving for one week under this arrangement are equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the average car over 9.3 years (Casico,2000). Such huge positive impact on our environment and future possibilities of conserving environment furthermore cannot be undervalued.  

Although such virtual workplace can be beneficial in some ways, it can have negative effects on the social lives of employees and also on their work outcome too. Working from home can cause employees to lack their interpersonal skills. According to Nestor-Harper, Such excess dependency on electronic means of communication can decrease vital personal interaction. In meetings people can be distracted by their phones, at their desks, they have a whole computer filled with distractions calling to them to put their work to the side and play the latest new time killing game, these are examples of the attending phase of the risk negotiation cycle (Waldron, & Kassing, 2011).

Virtual workplace can cause employees to lack the feeling of togetherness and united. According to Tammy Johnsand Lynda Gratton, Associations later started to understand that virtualization, in spite of the fact that an aid from various perspectives, was bargaining some conventional working environment benefits they had underestimated. Seeking after teamwork, they understood that an excessive amount of division and dispersion of work implied less common joint effort. Restless for innovation, they missed the sort of ideation that outcomes from serendipitous experiences and passage discussions. Suspecting the retirement of baby boomers, they stressed over the tactic knowledge that may go untransferred. Workers shared these worries: Their work lives frequently did not have a feeling of group and the extravagance of joint effort. Many experienced extremely minimal unstructured social contact. To be sure, at IBM a harsh yet sarcastic remark began coursing among workers: The organization's initials, they stated, stood for "I’m by myself”.

How technology has affected the workplace

What we are able to experience and have privilege of enjoying such advanced technology has come from never ending struggle of our predecessors and ancestors. With little by little, human being has struggled in advancing new technologies for a long period of time and such technologies has helped improve further development through businesses carried out by us. Utilization of such technologies in workplace has been crucial for us to improve and develop furthermore throughout our history. Now in this 21’s century technology has helped us in our workplace in numerous ways.

As presented by news24, during first industrial revolution around mid 18th century, by the help of chords, wheels, rollers and by use of steams, people managed to weave yarn to make cloth at a lot more faster and cheaper rate than through hand. Also, In America in 1793, Eli Whitney liberated slaves from the difficult work of picking sticky seeds from cotton bolls by creating a cotton gin that did that automatically. At a workshop Whitney also kept making guns, he had his staff make a similar part commonly with the goal that his firearms could be amassed rapidly. It worked, and businesses, for example, watch producers replicated his strategy. In 1831, Cyrus McCormick built a collector that cut wheat stalks as it was pulled by steeds and heaped them on a stage. Ranchers could collect speedier. In 1837, John Deere stuck the cutting edge of a steel saw onto a furrow and developed the steel-edged furrow to supplant cast-press ones. These were few of the beginning phase of use of technology in workplace. Although these were not huge inventions they played huge role in further improvement in technology and inspired others to strive for new technology.

As further explained by news24, In 1856, an Englishman found a method for making steel quick and cheaper, and different creators soon enhanced the procedure. In 1879, Thomas Edison made a light bulb that wouldn't burn out in a few hours, which resulted in factories to replace it with gas lights resulting in less number of fires breaking out. In 1861, a transmit line was hung across the nation in the US, boundlessly enhancing correspondence. It likewise wiped out the Pony Express delivery service; it went out of business that year. In quick succession came a series of achievements - the car, a programmed typesetting machine for printing, a tractor moved by an internal combustion motor rather than pulled by horses and the Wright brothers' plane. This can be taken as second phase of technology in workplace.