In a 2000 word essay

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Contents

Can I use the same topic as my business case presentation? ................................................. 2

What do you mean by “examine potential benefits and risks”? ............................................. 2

How do you interpret “ethics”? .............................................................................................. 3

What do you mean by “ethical dimensions”? ......................................................................... 3

What is a possible approach to “examine the ethical dimensions of these practices and consider how risks associated with these might be mitigated”? ............................................. 4

Can you recommend a structure for this essay? ..................................................................... 6

Should I use headings? ............................................................................................................ 7

How many references should I include? ................................................................................. 8

What type of references should I include? ............................................................................. 8

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Can I use the same topic as my business case presentation? Q: You have suggested some topics, but I’m keen to use the same topic that I chose for my business case video. Is this possible?

Yes. There are suggested topics, but you can also use the same topic you used for your business case.

What do you mean by “examine potential benefits and risks”?

Q: What do you mean by “examine the potential benefits and risks associated with” your topic?

A: The topics listed in the Wilkinson, A., & Barry, M. (Eds.). (2020). The Future of Work and Employment and examined in class are contentious due to the transformational — positive and/or negative impact they may have on future work (e.g. employment opportunities, the experience of work, the place of work, training and development, pay and remuneration, terms of work and working conditions, etc).

In your essay you should examine both the potential positive and potential negative implications of your topic. For example, warehousing RPA (Robotic Process Automation) may provide numerous benefits such as lowered costs and increased efficiency in workplace processes. But, this automation may also eliminate many lower-skilled jobs, particularly in

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global supply chains or global production networks (GPNs) and thus have a follow on social and economic impact.

How do you interpret “ethics”?

Q: How do you interpret “ethics”?

A: Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society. It is like a philosophy or code of moral principles practiced by a person or group of people. An example of ethics is the code of conduct set by a business. Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

• How to live a good life • Our rights and responsibilities • The language of right and wrong • Moral decisions - what is good and bad?

Ethics has also been interpreted as ‘acting with concern for the good of others in mind’.

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/

What do you mean by “ethical dimensions”?

Q: What do you mean by “examine the ethical dimensions”?

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A: FOW topics encourage debate because they are driving systemic change — social, technological, legal, political, economic, etc. This change affects people’s job opportunities, economic prosperity, and has broad social impact.

Because these FOW changes are complex and not unilaterally positive or beneficial, they require us to reflect on possible ethical dimensions.

For example,

• What is ‘meaningful work’ and how does a FOW change such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation) contribute to meaningful work, or detract from meaningful work?

• What are worker, business, and society’s rights and responsibilities in relation to RPA?

• Moral decisions - what is good and bad about RPA for workers, business, society?

What is a possible approach to “examine the ethical dimensions of these practices and consider how risks associated with these might be mitigated”?

Q: How can I examine the ethical dimensions of my chosen topic and identify how to mitigate risks associated with these ethical implications?

A: You may find using some of the elements of a PESTLE (political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental) or STEEPLE (social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal and ethical) analysis is helpful in examining your topic for ethical issues. For example, if your topic is RPA (Robotic Process Automation), one aspect of your topic is: What are the ethical issues of RPA eliminating lower skilled jobs?

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Table 1. Example analysis of warehousing RPA implementation, including possible mitigation strategies

Area of Analysis

Benefits Ethically Oriented Risks Risk Mitigation Strategies

Social Safer jobs Lifts routine jobs to a higher level

Change creates anxiety RPA may result in job losses Job loss can create social issues

• Change management program to communicate the impact of RPA

• Implementation of a reskilling program to redeploy affected workers

• Provide other training and education opportunities

• Include impacted workers in the decision- making and next steps process

Technological • Safer, faster, more efficient

• May create a new job group or family

• Require new work models and business rules

• Require training in the equipment

• Upstream or downstream impacts in the Global Production Network (GPN) or supply chain

Examine the value chain across the entire GPN for impacts and examine each of these for benefit, risk, and mitigation strategies (e.g. how many of our workers are female and what are the implications?)

Economic • Lower warehousing staff costs

• More efficient

Possible economic impact in other areas of the supply chain

See above

Legal Update the awards and work contracts

• May impact on existing worker award and contract arrangements

• May create more part- time jobs which don’t provide an adequate living wage.

Look to Voice, Equity, Efficiency model (Thomas, 2020) Chapter 12 in Wilkinson, A., & Barry, M. (Eds.). (2020). The Future of Work and Employment

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Can you recommend a structure for this essay?

Q: What structure do you recommend for this essay

A: There is no one size fits all approach. However, you should structure your paper so that your reader can follow your argument and the points you make. Here are example structures:

Figure 1 Example structures for the critical essay

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Table 2 Annotated example structure

Overview Summarises the changing work landscape and contextualises your topic. Your Topic Introduce your topic, its key dimensions or aspects, and its possible impact/s on future work. Advise your reader which of these aspects you will focus on or examine in more detail. Benefits of your topic In 1-3 paragraphs discuss the benefits your topic will bring to future work Risks of your topic In 1-3 paragraphs discuss the risks your topic will bring to future work. Mitigation strategies Examine and discuss possible mitigation strategies for the risks you have identified. Conclusion Conclude your analysis by recapping your key points.

Should I use headings?

Q: Should I format my paper with headings?

Yes. Providing headings (numbered or not numbered) helps both you structure your writing and helps your reader navigate your paper and the key points you make.

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How many references should I include?

Q: How many references should I include?

A: At a minimum you should include 6 references.

What type of references should I include?

Q: What type of references should I include?

A: You should include a minimum of 6 references. These references should be peer reviewed academic, professional, industry body, or government research and papers. You may find that the research you did for your presentation provides a good foundation but requires further depth. Particularly for the “risk” and “ethical dimensions” analysis, you are less likely to find this type of critical examination in general website searches, promotional materials, or Wikipedia.