Meaningful Work

Meaningful Work
Author: Andrea Veltman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2016-09-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190618191

This book examines the importance of work in human well-being, addressing several related philosophical questions about work and arguing on the whole that meaningful work is central in human flourishing. Work impacts flourishing not only in developing and exercising human capabilities but also in instilling and reflecting virtues such as honor, pride, dignity, self-discipline and self-respect. Work also attaches to a sense of purposefulness and personal identity, and meaningful work can promote both personal autonomy and a sense of personal satisfaction that issues from making oneself useful. Further still, work bears a formative influence on character and intelligence and provides a primary avenue for exercising complex skills and garnering esteem and recognition from others. The author defends a pluralistic account of meaningful work, arguing that work can be meaningful in virtue of developing capabilities, supporting virtues, providing a purpose, or integrating elements of a worker's life. In light of the impact of meaningful work on living well, the author argues that well-ordered societies provide opportunities for meaningful work, that individuals would be well advised to pursue these opportunities, and that the philosophical view of value pluralism, which casts work as having no special significance in an individual's life, is false. The book also addresses oppressive work that undermines human flourishing, examining potential solutions to mitigate the impact of bad work on those who perform it. Finally, a guiding argument of the book is that promoting meaningful work is a matter of ethics, more so than a matter of politics. Prioritizing people over profit, treating workers with respect, respecting the intelligence of working people, and creating opportunities for people to contribute developed skills are basic ethical principles for employing organizations and for communities at large.

Information Technology and the U.S. Workforce

Information Technology and the U.S. Workforce
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2017-04-18
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0309454050

Recent years have yielded significant advances in computing and communication technologies, with profound impacts on society. Technology is transforming the way we work, play, and interact with others. From these technological capabilities, new industries, organizational forms, and business models are emerging. Technological advances can create enormous economic and other benefits, but can also lead to significant changes for workers. IT and automation can change the way work is conducted, by augmenting or replacing workers in specific tasks. This can shift the demand for some types of human labor, eliminating some jobs and creating new ones. Information Technology and the U.S. Workforce explores the interactions between technological, economic, and societal trends and identifies possible near-term developments for work. This report emphasizes the need to understand and track these trends and develop strategies to inform, prepare for, and respond to changes in the labor market. It offers evaluations of what is known, notes open questions to be addressed, and identifies promising research pathways moving forward.

Social Robots: Technological, Societal and Ethical Aspects of Human-Robot Interaction

Social Robots: Technological, Societal and Ethical Aspects of Human-Robot Interaction
Author: Oliver Korn
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2019-07-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3030171078

Social robots not only work with humans in collaborative workspaces – we meet them in shopping malls and even more personal settings like health and care. Does this imply they should become more human, able to interpret and adequately respond to human emotions? Do we want them to help elderly people? Do we want them to support us when we are old ourselves? Do we want them to just clean and keep things orderly – or would we accept them helping us to go to the toilet, or even feed us if we suffer from Parkinson’s disease? The answers to these questions differ from person to person. They depend on cultural background, personal experiences – but probably most of all on the robot in question. This book covers the phenomenon of social robots from the historic roots to today’s best practices and future perspectives. To achieve this, we used a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach, incorporating findings from computer scientists, engineers, designers, psychologists, doctors, nurses, historians and many more. The book also covers a vast spectrum of applications, from collaborative industrial work over education to sales. Especially for developments with a high societal impact like robots in health and care settings, the authors discuss not only technology, design and usage but also ethical aspects. Thus this book creates both a compendium and a guideline, helping to navigate the design space for future developments in social robotics.

Artificial Intelligence in Society

Artificial Intelligence in Society
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9264545190

The artificial intelligence (AI) landscape has evolved significantly from 1950 when Alan Turing first posed the question of whether machines can think. Today, AI is transforming societies and economies. It promises to generate productivity gains, improve well-being and help address global challenges, such as climate change, resource scarcity and health crises.

Rise of the Robots

Rise of the Robots
Author: Martin Ford
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2015-05-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0465040675

The New York Times-bestselling guide to how automation is changing the economy, undermining work, and reshaping our lives Winner of Best Business Book of the Year awards from the Financial Times and from Forbes "Lucid, comprehensive, and unafraid . . . ;an indispensable contribution to a long-running argument." -- Los Angeles Times What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making "good jobs" obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart software. As progress continues, blue and white collar jobs alike will evaporate, squeezing working -- and middle-class families ever further. At the same time, households are under assault from exploding costs, especially from the two major industries-education and health care-that, so far, have not been transformed by information technology. The result could well be massive unemployment and inequality as well as the implosion of the consumer economy itself. The past solutions to technological disruption, especially more training and education, aren't going to work. We must decide, now, whether the future will see broad-based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. Rise of the Robots is essential reading to understand what accelerating technology means for our economic prospects-not to mention those of our children-as well as for society as a whole.

The Rise and Fall of American Growth

The Rise and Fall of American Growth
Author: Robert J. Gordon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 785
Release: 2017-08-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400888956

How America's high standard of living came to be and why future growth is under threat In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, motor vehicles, air travel, and television transformed households and workplaces. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth challenges the view that economic growth will continue unabated, and demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 cannot be repeated. Gordon contends that the nation's productivity growth will be further held back by the headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government, and that we must find new solutions. A critical voice in the most pressing debates of our time, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come.

In Search of Stupidity

In Search of Stupidity
Author: Merrill R. Chapman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2003-07-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Describes influential business philosophies and marketing ideas from the past twenty years and examines why they did not work.

Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces

Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized Spaces
Author: Dr Julie Carpenter
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2016-01-28
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1472443136

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel are some of the most highly trained people in the military, with a job description that spans defusing unexploded ordnance to protecting VIP’s and state dignitaries. EOD are also one of the first military groups to work with robots every day. These robots have become an increasingly important tool in EOD work, enabling people to work at safer distances in many dangerous situations. Based on exploratory research investigating interactions between EOD personnel and the robots they use, this study richly describes the nuances of these reciprocal influences, especially those related to operator emotion associated with the robots. In particular, this book examines the activities, processes and contexts that influence or constrain everyday EOD human-robot interactions, what human factors are shaping the (robotic) technology and how people and culture are being changed by using it. The findings from this research have implications for future personnel training, and the refinement of robot design considerations for many fields that rely on critical small group communication and decision-making skills.

The Globotics Upheaval

The Globotics Upheaval
Author: Richard Baldwin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2019-01-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0190901780

At the root of inequality, unemployment, and populism are radical changes in the world economy. Digital technology is allowing talented foreigners to telecommute into our workplaces and compete for service and professional jobs. Instant machine translation is melting language barriers, so the ranks of these "tele-migrants" will soon include almost every educated person in the world. Computing power is dissolving humans' monopoly on thinking, enabling AI-trained computers to compete for many of the same white-collar jobs. The combination of globalization and robotics is creating the globotics upheaval, and it threatens the very foundations of the liberal welfare-state. Richard Baldwin, one of the world's leading globalization experts, argues that the inhuman speed of this transformation threatens to overwhelm our capacity to adapt. From computers in the office to automatic ordering systems in restaurants, we are familiar with the how digital technologies offer convenience while also eliminating jobs. Globotics will disrupt the lives of millions of white-collar workers much faster than automation, industrialization, and globalization disrupted the lives of factory workers in previous centuries. The result will be a backlash. Professional, white-collar, and service workers will agitate for a slowing of the unprecedented pace of disruption, as factory workers have done in years past. Baldwin argues that the globotics upheaval will be countered in the short run by "shelter-ism" - government policies that shelter some service jobs from tele-migrants and thinking computers. In the long run, people will work in more human jobs-activities that require real people to use the uniquely human ability of independent thought-and this will strengthen bonds in local communities. Offering effective strategies such as focusing on the social value of work, The Globotics Upheaval will help people prepare for the oncoming wave of an advanced robotic workforce.

Business Trends in Practice

Business Trends in Practice
Author: Bernard Marr
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119795575

WINNER OF THE BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2022! Stay one step ahead of the competition with this expert review of the most impactful and disruptive business trends coming down the pike Far from slowing down, change and transformation in business seems to come only at a more and more furious rate. The last ten years alone have seen the introduction of groundbreaking new trends that pose new opportunities and challenges for leaders in all industries. In Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That Are Redefining Organizations, best-selling business author and strategist Bernard Marr breaks down the social and technological forces underlying these rapidly advancing changes and the impact of those changes on key industries. Critical consumer trends just emerging today—or poised to emerge tomorrow—are discussed, as are strategies for rethinking your organisation’s product and service delivery. The book also explores: Crucial business operations trends that are changing the way companies conduct themselves in the 21st century The practical insights and takeaways you can glean from technological and social innovation when you cut through the hype Disruptive new technologies, including AI, robotic and business process automation, remote work, as well as social and environmental sustainability trends Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That Are Redefining Organizations is a must-read resource for executives, business leaders and managers, and business development and innovation leads trying to get – and stay – on top of changes and disruptions that are right around the corner.