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Pages:
7 pages/≈1925 words
Sources:
10 Sources
Level:
APA
Subject:
Business & Marketing
Type:
Research Paper
Language:
English (U.S.)
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MS Word
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Topic:

Management, Society and New Forms of Works (Research Paper Sample)

Instructions:

INSTRUCTIONS: WRITE A 7-PAGE PAPER IN APA IN WHICH you are to discuss the changing expectations and subjective involvement of employees in their work. Drawing from module materials, explore these transformations, connect these shifts to at least one of the following topic areas explored in the module:
SAMPLE: This paper examines the changing expectations and subjective involvement of employees in their work as reflected in unpaid digital labor and social media in the workplace

source..
Content:

Management, Society and New Forms of Works
Name
Institution
Management, Society and New Forms of Works
Introduction
Employees are increasingly facing new expectations that have resulted in new forms of work. These new forms of work are not always rewarded by the employers. The psychological contract is a concept that has captured the imagination of researchers as a credible framework with which employment relationships can be understood. According to Rousseau and Schalk (2000:1), the psychological contract is the individual’s belief with regards to the terms and conditions surrounding a reciprocal exchange agreement between the focal person and another individual. He asserts that a psychological contract arises when one party believes that there is a promise of a future return or consideration. In the workplace, the employer and the employee enter into a psychological contract. It is a reciprocal obligation or understanding that if the employee fulfills their end of the deal, they will reap benefits. Today, there is a shift in the nature of the psychological contract. Employers expect workers to devote their time and energy to work without providing assurances of reward to them (Gregg, 2011:165). For example, workers in technology companies (techies) are feeling left out as company leaders pursue profit. Techies are treated as pedants and not allowed to perform their job accordingly. There is a lot of unpaid digital work in information technology (IT) businesses especially regarding user-generated content. There is exploitation of users of corporate internet platforms because users create content as they use blogs, social media, microblogs, wikis, and content-sharing sites. In social media, for example, businesses are obtaining valuable information from likes and online activity of the users. Such information is used for product creation and marketing. This paper examines the changing expectations and subjective involvement of employees in their work as reflected in unpaid digital labor and social media in the workplace.
The problems of unpaid digital labor and free labor have now existed for a long time in labor discourses. Digital labor is an idea based on Marxist foundations regarding value production in contemporary capitalism. The first notable change in the involvement of employees in their work is that today, labor is not restricted to the employment relationship (Böehm and Land, 2012: 1). This change means that an individual can offer labor to a company without being an employee of that company. According to Hardt and Negri (2009; 258), this kind of labor is known as immaterial labor. There are many examples of unpaid digital labor today. These include content creation on the internet, use of social media sites, and blogs. Digital creation may comprise of activities such as web design and artistic input. There is a raging debate regarding digital labor, whereby one of the dominant claims is that contemporary internet businesses emerge from the exploitation of the unpaid/ free labor of users.
The first notable change in employee involvement contributing to unpaid digital labor is the emergence of bipolarity. Bipolarity involves rivalry between the business and the technical aspects of a company. The business side looks to maximize profit while the technical side looks to articulate their innovativeness and creativity in decision-making situations. The technical staff in a company usually performs numerous trials and researches in their development and creative processes. However, they may sometimes feel that they are not involved in decisions. In addition, they may feel that critical decisions involving their spheres of influence are not evidence-based. They believe that they can achieve better results if they are allowed to make decisions in areas where they are well-versed. Today, disagreements that occur between business and the technical staff affect the psychological contract between the technical staff and the company. Techies feel that their input towards work is not fully recognized. For example, web designers are often regarded as recalcitrant because of their attention to detail (Gonzalez, 2010; 1). Web designers have systematic approaches towards work that may not be ideal for a business looking to remain time-efficient. However, businesses should realize that it is this attention to detail that often results in the best product for the company. Failing to involve the technical staff in decision-making represents a breach of the psychological contract. Techies have a psychological contract with the employer. They expect the employer to reward their attention to detail with the opportunity to express themselves and perform their work to the best of their abilities without interruptions. However, employers realize that time equates to money and that a concise approach to problem-solving and decision-making offers the best chance at profitability.
Another reason for the existence of unpaid digital labor is the emergence of technical languages and the increasing need for thought-workers (Fuchs and Sevignani, 2013: 237). Today, employees are increasingly expected to think in abstract ways to develop technical solutions as demanded in different industries (Read, 2003: 136). For example, computer programmers and techies who develop algorithms undertake extensive thought-work without getting recognized or rewarded. Terranova (2000; 33) refers to this new form of work as net-slavery, where workers are engaged in "24-7 sweatshops." According to Gonzalez (2010; 1) in his article titled Sleep Workers, technical staff are thought-workers who continue working long after their working hours are over. For example, a computer programmer developing a given code finds themselves thinking about the challenges of their job even in their sleep. Sometimes, solutions come to such workers in their waking hours of the morning or just before they sleep. In his article, Gonzalez notes that he recently woke up in the morning to discover an error in a computer code that he had developed (Gonzalez, 2010: 1). His sleeping mind had been reviewing his work for the entire week. Neff (2012: 16) refers to this type of labor as venture labor while Shukaitis and Figiel (2015: 1) regard it as artistic labor. It is an investment of time and energy that involves taking up ownership of the work, even though, the individual does not own the business. Such individuals are expected to find solutions to technical problems at their places of work no matter the means taken to do this. These changes in expectations result in a shift in the psychological contract. Thought-workers are not rewarded for the solutions they discover in their own free time. Such workers feel that their input comprises of more hours than what is allocated for a normal work day. They believe that they should be paid extra for their "thought-work.”
Social media involvement in the workplace and the emergence of new media also cause a change in the expectations and subjective involvement of employees. Employees in careers requiring social engagement with the public are expected to understand and use Social Media without receiving additional rewards. Social media, initially seen as a distraction for workers in the workplace, transformed into a communications platform before becoming an information source. When Facebook emerged, employees envisioned that it would improve communication possibilities that were already part of their jobs. However, today, Facebook and other social media sites have transformed the job expectations of employees as well as their involvement (Gregg, 2013; 91). Journalists are expected to use social media to aggregate information and communicate news. Social Media is slowly taking the place of print, and other types of media and this change has affected the involvement of employees in the industry. Every journalist today is expected to know how to engage users through social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Today, all news agencies have Facebook pages and Twitter handles where they disseminate news and keep their followers engaged. Due to this development, the job descriptions and expectations of employees have increased, while their rewards have not.
The emergence of social media and other media has also resulted in a new form of work known as value creation or immaterial work. (Lazzarato, n.d. pg 1; Hardt and Negri, 2009 pg 258; Boehm and Land, 2012 pg 218). If one considers Marxist knowledge on the difference between labor and work, one realizes that labor does not have to exist in an employment arrangement. An individual may create value for a business entity without being an employee of the said business. This finding implies that online activity by internet users that results in value creation is a form of labor. The feedback, location and preference data that users of social media provide to the platform has become a very valuable asset that should be rewarded. For the user, using social media becomes fun and work at the same time. This value creation may be regarded as free labor or play labor because it is not rewarded. Free digital labor results in a data product, commonly referred to as big data that may be sold to advertising clients. In most cases, however, this data product is used in-house and helps tailor product features according to the preferences of the user. For example, on Facebook, the user may "like" several pages on various products. Facebook may analyze the "likes" of a given user and use this information to suggest other similar pages advertised on Facebook. Similarly, Facebook may sell this information, together with the user’s email address to a company like Google. Every time the individual is online, Google can then advertise products relevant to the user’s preferences. There are various other ways in which the expectations and ...
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