Book report part 3

In this chapter of my book, the author focuses on the increased “uselessness” of educated workers in countries that have more industrialized economies. By using the term uselessness he is referring to the fact that there is an abundance of highly skilled, highly educated workers in the economy but many people are either unable to find work to utilize their knowledge and skills, or they are underemployed. The Author explains that there are three primary reasons contributing to this phenomenon. The first reason deals with the global labor supply. This relates to the increasing trend of domestic companies using outsourcing to foreign counties. There were two prime examples of this conveyed in the text. First, the use of call centers being used in India, as well as auto manufacturers moving their production to Mexico. Although everyone believes that companies are moving to foreign countries only for cheap labor, it is explained that this is only part of the story. Even though the ultimate goal is to save money on the part of companies, many of the individuals taking these types of jobs away from American workers are more trained and educated than their American counterpart. Not only are the companies benefiting by lower costs but they are also getting higher quality work at the same time. The second explanation is that there is an increased use of automation and the use of machines to do work once done by humans. Many experts believed that an increase in automation would create more white collar jobs but this is not turning out to be the case. More and more automation of labor is taking away jobs because of machines increasing ability to do tasks that humans are not capable of. A third reason for the increased uselessness of individuals is the factor of an aging population. People are living increasingly longer lives but conversely their skills are becoming obsolete at an increasing rate. According to the book people will need to relearn their skills on average three times throughout their career to stay at a qualified level. Apart from discussing the reasons for the uselessness of workers the author touched on aspects of the attitudes we take towards our work and some of the impact that has on this topic. The idea of craftsmanship was a large part of this discussion. The author put emphasis on the idea of putting pride into the work we do and doing something to get it right rather than to just do it. This is something that is not as emphasized as much nowadays and has led to a decrease in quality of work as well as innovation. Also, the author brought up the idea that organizations are supporting a system that stresses skimming over detail instead of dwelling on issues and bringing an aspect of craftsmanship to the table. These topics discussed can be related to what we have been discussing in class regarding culture. The fact that so many companies are resorting to outsourcing as a means of employment can be looked at from the organizations cultural standpoint. Since outsourcing has been such a heavily talked about topic, it is obvious that it is a concern of the public. The fact that companies are using outsourcing tends to be looked at negatively by most individuals. This is because it is taking jobs away from home and this is even more worrisome in the economic times we are facing. Even though it is important to the companies that are implementing these practices to save money, it is important for these companies to reflect and see if the decisions they are making are worth the negative social implications that are resulting. Even if it would cost more money to keep jobs domestic, companies need to determine if their core business values are going to include the idea of these social concerns. Also, the idea that there is a decreased emphasis put on craftsmanship is a reflection of the culture of big business. As a result of there being so many large corporations that are producing products on a mass scale, there is little room for entrepreneurs to compete and provide higher quality products to customers. I think it is important for business to reward those who strive to take pride in their work as well as do a quality job rather than doing a job just to do it.