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WorkinaGlobalSocietyTopic12019sem2.pptxBUSM4559 Work in Global Society
Topic 1 – Introduction: Why study work in management program and the crisis of liberal democratic capitalism
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Welcome to Work in Global Society!!!!!
Outline
Introduction to course
Why is it important to study the world of work in a management program?
What is the course about?
Topics
The coordinator and teaching staff
Assessment
Topic 1: Setting the context for studying the World of Work
Global capitalist society
Changing relationships between business, government and employees
Varieties of capitalism
Rising inequality, disruption and social unrest
Question: Does management practice have any relationship to the type of society we have become?
RMIT’s Undergraduate Management Major
Why introduce a course on Work in Global Society?
Management is the process of dealing
with or controlling things or people.
‘managing’ the economy
‘managing’ a department
‘managing’ a project
Work is an activity in which one exerts
Physical or mental faculties to do or
Perform something.
In capitalist societies, work has been
‘commodified’ and turned into
employment.
Employment is a relationship between
two parties (employers/employees)
where work is paid for.
Why introduce a course on Work in Global Society?
Successful organisations depend on good management
Most of us will spend a large percentage of our lives working for
and being managed by someone else
Society relies upon businesses managing their
organisations in socially responsible manners
Employees have certain expectations of their managers
A socially responsible management is one that
appreciates the working lives of employees and the
relationship between business and society.
What is this course about?
This course focuses on the changing nature of work in an increasingly globalised economy and the theories employed to understand work and its transformation. Work is central to our society, organisations, economy, households and personal lives. We depend on work to make a living and it can provide us with a sense of meaning. Employers depend on workers for their knowledge and skills and to make profits. There has been a significant transformation in the nature of work in recent years with major implications for how business operates and how we live our lives.
This courses aims to provide you with knowledge of key issues influencing the experience of work and the factors driving new approaches to managing the workplace and work arrangements and the implications of these approaches for workers and the nature of work. The course examines a range of perspectives and theories to explain the transformation of work.
What will we achieve?
Demonstrate an understanding of the way in which the globalisation of economic exchange and production is reshaping the nature of work;
Describe and explain the impact of changing legal and institutional arrangements and preferences on the regulation of work and employment;
Critically examine and assess the impact of different management practices on workers and the nature of work;
Develop analytical skills to identify, interpret and critical evaluate different conceptual and theoretical frameworks for understanding the transformation of work;
Comprehend and apply different social science theories to understand contemporary work and employment issues;
Value the ways in which employee interests and ideas can contribute to more socially responsible management practices.
Topics covered in the course
Week 1: Introduction to Course: Why Study Work in a Management Programme?
Week 2: Globalisation, Outsourcing and Offshoring
Week 3: Restructuring and Deindustrialisation
Week 4:Technological Change and the Future of Work
Week 5: From ‘job for life’ to the ‘Gig economy’
Week 6: ‘Flexibility’: a ‘win-win’?
Week 7: The Globalization of Labour: The Skilled and Unskilled Migrant Experience
Week 8: Control and Surveillance in the Workplace
Week 9:Socially Responsible Management and Workers Rights
Week 10: Jobs and Skills for the Future
Week 11: Employment Assistance, Knowing Your Skills and Revision
Week 12: Revision
Assessment 1 (20%)
Assessment 1: Reflection on Reading(s) 20%
Details:
Students are expected to complete the Career Planning with Credentials micro-credential, read 2 assigned readings and watch a video on the Future of Work (details will be provided on the Canvas site for the course). Students will produce a PowerPoint informed by the material found in the micro-credential, assigned readings and video material, and consider the following:
"Securing a 'dream job' is not always easy. It is influenced by both the individual's attributes, skills and experience and the broader structural changes impacting on the world of work"
Reflect on this statement and the ideas and evidence found in the required video, readings and micro-credential to consider the challenges you may confront in securing your dream job and how you might respond to these challenges.
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Assessment 1 (20%)
Each student will be expected to produce a PowerPoint of no more than 10 slides and use the notes section of your PowerPoint to write an explanation of each slide as if you were presenting the presentation orally.
Your written explanation (i.e. notes) should be between 800-1000 words with Harvard-style in-text referencing when referring to the assigned readings and micro-credential content.
Assessment 1 Assessment Criteria
Assessment criteria will be:
Ability to evaluate and reflect on the set readings and micro-credential material
Ability to identify the different perspectives on the changing future of work
Ability to identify the main issues/arguments presented in the readings and micro-credential material
Ability to apply these different perspectives and arguments to your own job experiences or future job expectations
Clarity of PowerPoint and written explanation of each slide.
The PowerPoint is due at 11:55 pm on Friday of week 4. The assessment will normally be marked within 2 weeks
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Assessment 2 (40%)
Assessment 2: Group Research Report 40%
How has the changing nature of work and/or labour markets impacted on the lives of workers?
As part of this group project:
In groups of no more than 5 students, develop an interview schedule related to the above question
Each group member will interview one friend or family member based upon the interview questions.
The group will produce a research report that includes a complete reference list and interview schedule.
Analyse the interview data and discuss the findings in relation to the semester’s literature and academic debates. Reports must include complete reference list and interview schedule. The report should be no more than 2,500 words long, excluding references
Assessment 2 Assessment Criteria
The group report will be due in at the end of week 10
Assessment criteria will be:
Appropriate use of literature to establish and frame a context for the question
Strength of linkages between the literature and the interview data
A clear argument and a logical and cohesive structure.
Use of relevant scholarly journal articles, and additional high-quality reference materials
Referenced in compliance with the RMIT Business Referencing style; including in-text referencing and an alphabetised reference list.
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Assessment 3
Assessment 3: Exam 40%
There will be a two hour examination covering the whole semester’s work scheduled during the examination period at the end of the semester. The examination will be in two parts.
Section A: Short Answers
Section A will include a number of short answer questions asking you to discuss key concepts that were covered over the whole course.
Section B: Essay Questions
Section B will involve answering two essay questions related to material covered throughout the semester.
Questions and concepts that appear on the exam will be taken from the list of concepts and questions provided for each week’s topic and discussed in the tutorials.
Topic 1: Setting the context for studying the World of Work
Objectives:
Begin to identity the global for studying the world of work
Identify some of the changing relationships between business, government and employees.
Discuss the importance of understanding global capitalism and varieties of capitalism
Investigate rising inequality, disruption and social unrest
Think about the question: Does how we manage an organisation have any relationship to the type of society we have become?
The emergence of global society
There is general agreement that we live in a ‘global’ era and this is important in understanding the changing world of work and employment.
Changes in the world economy have implications for workers in different parts of the world.
How is the world changing?
“There is general agreement that the world is changing, but considerable disagreement about how it is changing. Commentators variously locate this change in a ‘power shift’ from West to East, a trade superpower status from the United States and China or a transition from an era of bipolarity to one of unipolarity, multipolarity or even non-polarity” (Buzan and Lawson, 2014: 71).
Capitalism and the emergent world order (Buzan and Lawson, 2014)
‘We’re all capitalist now’ (Buzan and Lawson, 2014: 72) but live in different types of capitalist societies.
Varieties of capitalism:
Liberal democratic: ‘seeks to maximise economic autonomy, combine this with democratic governance and minimise the role of the state’ (76).
Social democratic: ‘’seeks to balance the market, the state and democracy’ (76).
Competitive authoritarian: ‘favours state control over the market and constrains democratic governance’ (76).
State bureaucratic: ‘attempts a complex, fluid mix of state ownership and market relations, while rejecting democratic governance outright’ (76).
Capitalism and the emergent world order (Buzan and Lawson, 2014)
“While capitalism has become the only game in town, no single form of capitalism has sufficient legitimacy or power to assert hegemony. Indeed, any attempt to do so is likely to see everyone lose. With this in mind, policy-makers should not seek aggressively to convert others to their mode of capitalist governance. Peaceful competition between varieties of capitalist governance will show soon enough whether one mode of political economy is superior to the others, or whether each of them simply offers a different balance of costs and benefits” (Buzan and Lawson, 2014: 91).
Question: Do different varieties of capitalism have different implications for workers?
The Crises of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
Post WW2 democratic capitalism established
Assumption that for capitalism to be compatible with democracy would need to be under extensive political control
Settlement between capital and labour
Welfare state
Free collective bargaining
Full employment
Keynesian economics
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The Crises of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
Late 1960s growth slows
Trade unions react with strikes
Govts accommodated union demands through inflation
Pressure to reduce inflation led to increased interest rates
Disinflation and unemployment
Attacks on trade unions
Outcome
Inflation rates remained low
Unemployment increased
Unionism declined
Strikes declined
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The Crises of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
Public debt increased as govt’s borrowed to fund benefits and services
Pressure from financial markets to reduce debt
The double deficit of govt spending and foreign trade
Mid 1990s governments turn to austerity
Cuts to public spending
Rising inequality caused by cuts in public spending and deunionisation
Citizen indebtedness as stagnant wage growth encourages people to take advantage of easy credit
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The Crises of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
‘Privatised Keynesianism’ i.e. replacement of public with private debt
Deregulation of financial sector
Crash of ‘Privatised Keynesianism’ in 2008 GFC
Financial sector made huge profits
Housing speculation
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The Crises of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
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The Crisis of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
Main struggle now between the banks and nation states
Price of financial stabilisation will not be paid for by the owners of money but by citizens
Political manageability of democratic capitalism has declined
Economic uncertainty – markets expect both govt debt reduction and economic growth
Democratic crisis – ‘the markets’ dictate what states can and can’t do for their citizens
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The Crisis of Liberal Democratic Capitalism
Citizens increasingly see governments not as their agents but as those of other states or international organisations
Impossibility of political expectations
Voters see they no effective choice
Economic power has become political power
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Rising Income Inequality - Piketty
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Rising Wealth Inequality - Piketty
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Outcomes
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Outcomes
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Outcomes
Political divisions
Geographic
Deindustrialised areas
voted for Trump and Brexit
Education levels
Educated voted to stay
in EU
Age differences
Older voters voted
for Brexit
Young workers less
likely to vote
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Question:
Does management practice have any relationship to the type of society we have become?
Questions and Readings
Concepts
Democratic capitalism
Varieties of capitalism
Privatised Keynesianism
Questions
Does management practice have any relationship to the type of society we have become?
Why is it important for management students to gain an appreciation of worker experiences?
How has business contributed to global instability?
Can workers, business and community prosper in this turbulent world order?
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References and Readings
Burawoy, M (2015) ‘Facing an Unequal World’, Current Sociology, 63(1): 5-34.
Buzan, B. and Lawson, G. (2014) ‘Capitalism and the emergent world order’ International Affairs 90 (1): 71-91.
Liversidge, A (2014) ‘Wolfgang Streeck Warns: Capitalism may collapse’, Talk in New York, 23 April, http://www.talkinnewyork.com/wolfgang-streeck-says-capitalism-may-be-over
Pearce, N (2014) ‘Thomas Piketty: A Modern French Revolutionary’, New Statesman, 28 March- 3 April http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/03/french-revolutionary
Bandelj, N., Shorette, K. and Sowers, E. (2011) ‘Work and Neoliberal globalization: A Polanyian synthesis’ Sociology Compass 5 (9): 807-823.
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References and Readings
Ghoshal, S. (2005) ‘Bad management theories are destroying good management practice’ Academy of Management Learning and Education 4 (1): 75-91.
Keane, J (2016) ‘Capitalism and Democracy [Part 3]’, The Conversation, 7 August, https://theconversation.com/capitalism-and-democracy-part-3-63632
Merkel, W (2014) ‘Failing Union of Capitalism and Democracy Fuels Rise in Inequality’, The Conversation, 2 June, https://theconversation.com/failing-union-of-capitalism-and-democracy-fuels-rise-in-inequality-27217
Streeck, W (2011) ‘The Crises of Democratic Capitalism’, New Left Review, 71: 5-29
