FACULTY OF ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES

INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK COVERSHEET

Coursework Details
Module Name INTERNATIONAL TRADE
and Code (MANM013)

Coursework Technology influence the future of work

Title
Word
Deadline 25th APRIL 2016 Coun 1400 words
t

Student Details
Student URN Student
6393876 Aina Fatiha binti Abdul Manas
(7 digit number on Uni card)
Name

Programme Msc INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

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To be agreed by Student

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“Futurists do not predict the future for the simple reason that the most exciting things

likely to happen in the coming years will be driven by developments that have yet to be

discovered”

(Thornburg, 1997)

Technology is changing the way we work and do business both within and between

countries. As late as the mid 1980’s, technology was still seen as a trend that would flow with

the transient of time (Hutinger, 2001). According to Mason (2015), without us noticing, we

are entering the post capitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information

technology, is the new ways of working and the sharing of economy. The previous ways will

take a while to fade, but it is time to be utopia. The economy is experiencing jobs recovery

and companies are making more money by hiring less people. Many junior level jobs are now

done by Algorithms, not human. For example, the banks do not need junior analyst, like fresh

graduate to analyse data because Algorithms can do it a million times faster. Decade ago,

there were no social networks and another decade before that, we do not even have the web.

If someone works in the web programming sector, online marketing sector, or mobile phone

industries, that kind of job does not exist twenty years ago. Technology has automated blue

collar jobs in the past and now it is starting on skill white collar job too. The economy is still

in a good shape. When we look back in time to the industrial revolution, we can see that

technology replaced many farming jobs. However, in the long-term period, technology

created more jobs in factories. Furthermore, if we fast forward to the future technology

advancement, it is going to replace white collar jobs but will create new jobs in a long-term

period of time.

 
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The key to this question is long-term. Our career is like climbing a ladder leading up

to our dreams. Algorithms are not going to replace all jobs. They are cutting jobs at the

bottom rank of the job ladder and instead, they reinforce the really high skill jobs at the top

rank. The people out of work today will soon find jobs again but the work would not be the

same. The mantra of the future world is education and advanced manufacturing along with all

the technology that fuels it. Earning a college education will absolutely make a difference to

our future and the facts are striking. On average, those who have a college degree earn almost

twice as much as those who do not. Completing college is gigantic and over a life-time, a

college degree is commonly worth almost a million dollars. The financial benefits of a

college education are significant, and they are very real. The U.S. Census Bureau (2016) state

in their portal that adults with advanced degrees earn four times more than those with less

than a high school diploma. Workforces with a master’s, professional or doctoral degree

earned an average of $82,320 in 2006, while those with less than a high school diploma

earned $20,873. Obtaining a college degree is not just about making more money. According

to Hansen (2015), a college education is associated with other benefits, such as:

1) Longer life-spans

2) Greater economic stability and security

3) More prestigious employment and greater job satisfaction

4) Less dependency on government assistance

5) Greater participation in leisure and artistic activities

6) Greater community service and leadership

7) More self-confidence
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A broad base of knowledge can be gained from college education on which to shape

and give better grounding at us to more of life’s problems (Roth, 2016). Although a college

education statistically offers a well shot at attainment wealth, it does not promise success. In

real life, there are distinction degrees holders who end up with convenience store careers

while the one who high school drop-outs are currently run multi-million dollar corporations.

However, earning a college education will expand our chances because the value of college

education is not just in the endpoint, but in the journey. This can be proved by the

information-based which skills-intensive economy of the twenty-first century, one thing is

clear, knowing means growing. While many workers will continue to be in occupations that

do not require a college education, the best jobs will be those requiring education and

training. In fact, the twenty occupations and careers with the highest earnings all require at

least a bachelor’s degree. Throughout the economy, occupations and careers that require a

college degree are growing twice as fast as others (Mason, 2015).

The future of work is competitive. No one is going to pay us just for having a college

degree. The percentage of people around the world with a college degree is growing. College

is the new high school and informal education is more accessible than ever. For example,

AcademicEarth.org posts courses online for free from top universities like Stanford and MIT.

There is no longer an excuse not to know how. Education can help in strengthen the shift to

mastery which I have confidence that in the future the means by which individual value is

created will shift from having generalist ability to having specialist ability and achieving

serial mastery. This is really crucial because if we remain a generalist, there are thousands,

perhaps even millions, of people who can do the same work as we do and yet faster, cheaper

and perhaps even better. Seniority will no longer promise us a job and office politics will

deliberately be thrown out the window. Competition for a jobs is no longer limited and we
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will have to differentiate ourselves from the crowd, build depth and yet be prepared to shift

gears across the course of working life (Gratton, 2010).

Not only that, the future of work is also transparent. No one is going to just take our

word for it. In the past, productivity was difficult to measure. Business wasted millions of

dollars every year paying for employee downtime. Now, time and task tracking tools are

revolutionizing productivity measurement. Each employee work can be directly tied to the

bottom line. Not to mention, the future of work is also flat. No one is going to complain about

their commute. In real estate, the mantra is location while at work, the mantra is

communication. Work used to be considered a place and the only option for communication

were landline phones or snail mail. Today, project teams use amazing web tools to work

together from anywhere in the world which tools like Skype have made long-distance calling

virtually free. Generally speaking, the organization is now flat. Call centres used to be

massive offices built in rural areas or countries like India. In the future, location will not

matter and work is on demand. No one is going to guarantee us a lifetime career. Many

businesses are choosing contact relationships over hiring new employees. In fact, the word

career is going to be outdated as the word typewriter.

As stated by Thornburg (2002), a leading researcher on the subject, workforces of the

future will need the following basic skills: comfort with uncertainty, an obligation to lifelong

learning, and the ability to be mobile. These basic skills do not focus on technology itself, but

more on life skills that societies will need if they are going to be successful in the next era.

According to Gandia (2012), by 2020, more than 40% of the workforce will be freelancers,

contractors and temporary workers. However, Thornburg (2002), have no idea what the jobs

of the future will be, or even what industries will be the strongest and no one has an accurate

image for the following centuries, in part because our economic system is not direct enough

to allow those kinds of predictions. The only certainty is change.

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In a nut shell, technology has extremely changed the world we live in and the shift has

changed business. The blend of technology and globalisation will have an insightful effect on

act we work in the future. Businesses will continue to see the impact of technology for years

to come, which means it will impact employees and society as a whole just the same.

Education will continue to play an important role in our ability to face the world of work and

having a college education will lead us to a well-paid job.

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References

Adler, P. S. 1992. Technology and the Future of Work. Cary, US: Oxford University Press.

Blinder, A.S. 2006. Offshoring: the next industrial revolution? .Foreign Affairs,

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/61514/alan-s-blinder/offshoring-the-next-industrial-

revolution ; viewed 28 March 2016.

Gandia, E. 2012. Data and analysis of freelancer demographics, earnings, habits and attitudes.

Freelance Industry Report 2012, 67-70.

Gratton, L. 2010. The future of work. Business Strategy Review, 21(3):16-23.

Hansen, K. 2015. Making a successful transition from college to career: time for a reality

check. Quintessential Careers, 1-7.

Herman, M.A .2015.Trends and challenges for work in the 21st century. U.S. Department of

Labor, http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/herman/reports/futurework/report.htm ;

viewed 28 March 2016.

Hutinger, P. L. 2001. Technology and education: what will the future bring?.

http://www/wiu.edu/users/mimacp/articles/teched.html ; viewed 28 March 2016.

Krugman, P .1996. White collars turn blue. NYT magazine,

http://mit.edu/krugman/www/BACKWRD2.html ; viewed 28 March 2016.

Mason, P. 2015. Postcapitalism : The end of capitalism has begun. United Kingdom: Allen

Lane Press.

Petrie, C. 2015. Predictions about the future of work.

https://www.computer.org/web/computingnow/cise ; viewed 28 March 2016.

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Sanchez, J. I., & Levine, E. D. 2012. The rise and fall of job analysis and the future of work

analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 63: 397 -425.

Simmonds, R. (2016). The future of work – what it will look like in 20 years.

http://rosssimmonds.com/uncategorized/future-work-20-years/ ; viewed 28 March 2016.

Thornburg, D. 1997. The future isn't what it used to be. The Thornburg Center.

http://www.tcpd.org ; viewed 28 March 2016.

Thornburg, D. 2002. The New Basics: Education and the Future of Work in the Telematics

Age. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.