Executive Summary
Ford and Taylorism theory has been there for many decades. It has its own advantage and disadvantage. However, we can still absorb from the theory and many of the methods are still practiced in this era. In this activity 1, we are going to summarize the ideas of Ford and Taylorism and discuss if the concept it accepted in many countries.
Secondly, in the second activity, we are going to review about globalisation by Thomas Friedman. We will mention about the risk of living in the flat world of globalisation. Globalisation has made a huge impact on economic. It has changed the way the world was revolving.
E-learning Activities
Week 1– Activity 1 – Ford and Taylorism.
The key idea of scientific management theory is
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The work is divided in call centres according to the expertise; therefore, we could use the theory to some extent. The productivity would be enhanced in this way. However, when the management takes control worker may not like it. The theory is thought to bring more harmony to the workplace.
As the Ford and Taylorism theory was developed many years ago still we can use the theory in some part of the world. It could be beneficial for some organization even if not for all of them. Depending on the workplace. But, the idea of dividing the workload is still practiced in today’s world. Rewarding the employees according to the hard work has proven to boost productivity and motivate other staff as well.
Week 2 – Activity 1 – Thomas Friedman on Globalisation; 3 Eras of Globalisation; World is flat.
Ghemawat (2007) detailed that globalisation is more than just a powerful economic and political transformation it bound people, countries and market closer. It is a growing network of different companies, groups, and individual. Globalisation has shrunk the world from size small to size tiny and flattened the world.
As Friedman said that the world is flat and the magnitude and speed of change in last decade are remarkable. Now people can connect and communicate to each other swiftly. The advancement of technology and geo-economics is reshaping our lives. It has its own drawbacks. He mentioned the
For some people, globalization is so feared it is synonymous with world destruction. In the end, for all we know, maybe this will be proven before it is over. In reality however, there are many good things that have resulted from globalization(1, Premise). Let’s for a moment focus on the economy, even though there are many other advantages that have been brought forward that will also be discussed. Many Americans do not appreciate how efficient our markets are, in this case efficiency in reference to supply and demand is number one. These efficient markets allow economies to grow. As many have learned in a global world, when one economy grows, it spurs growth in all the other economies
One of the ideas in the book includes the Globalization: The Super Story of which Friedman presents. Freidman identifies himself as one of the firm believers of the globalization. In his perspective, globalization regards the concept that people carry with them a bid framework through which they examine events, the world, decide what is relevant or not.
Pankaj Ghemawat believes we do not live in a globally flat world. In his work Why the World isn’t Flat he speaks of how this greatly wide spread globalization is more of an idea than the truth. Ghemawat claims that while globalization is a hot topic, it is talked about in more ways than it is actually used. According to the US library of Congress’s catalog, the rate of increase in the writings of globalization have been doubling about every 18 months since the 1990’s. While many more people are expressing their ideas of globalization we are not partaking in the actual actions of globalization nearly as much as these writings make it seem. Of course most of the ways we interact, as the writings suggest, are being done “we only interact in a way that is a fraction of what we could do”. A whooping 90 percent of all phone calls, web traffic, and investments are still only local interactions and plenty of the over seas transactions are still done with domestic companies that simply have operations in foreign nations. Since they are domestic all benefits from that operation will eventually, if not instantly, return home. It is said that “investment knows no boundaries” but if these investments are done with locally based companies located in an international location the geographical ground will not reek the benefits. While technological advances have made global interaction come with ease, it is a huge step to believe increased communication will take away the effects that
In this chapter, Thomas Friedman looks at how cultures and societies will have to deal with and adapt to the changes that globalization brings to the way of doing business. It affects whole companies and individuals. He gives the perception of the world is flattening by comparing the Industrial Revolution to the IT Revolution that is happening right now. The flattening process was identified by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. Marx’s writings about capitalism state “the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce (Friedman 234).”
he World Is Flat is Friedman’s explanation of the brave new world facing us. A world that is growing at a rapid pace never seen before in history. Friedman believes that flattening of the world has happened as a result of occurrence of a series of events which he outlines as ten flattening factors. The low-cost computers, dot com bubble, standardized file format, excess laying of optic fibres, outsourcing and offshoring are some of them. This phenomena has the potential to change all of our theories of economies, politics and jobs. It will increase competition and require not only an emphasis on new skills sets, but a much more self-reliant, creative and innovative mind-set.
Scientific Management, or Taylorism, is a theory of management by F. W. Taylor that analysed how the highest economic efficiency, especially labour productivity, can be achieved, hence the greatest prosperity for both employers and employees. The four principles that he brought forward are the replacement of the ‘rule of thumb’ work method with a scientific way to study work, matching and training the most suitable person to do each particular job scientifically instead of leaving the workers to choose their own work and teach themselves, the provision of detailed instructions and standard operating procedures by the managers to workers to ensure “all of the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science” and the division of work between workers and managers, which managers are responsible for planning and supervising while workers are to complete the tasks they are assigned to.
Constant change and a flat, global competitive market landscape were described by Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, as triple convergence and was a result of the ten flatteners. Friedman also stated that in “Globalization 1.0, countries had to think globally. In Globalization 2.0, companies had to think globally to thrive, or at least survive. In Globalization 3.0, individuals have to think globally to thrive, or at least survive.” (Friedman, 2007) The concept of needing individuals to think globally and thrive in the market led Friedman to travel and report on various educational cultures across the world. Friedman was determined to find “the right stuff” to make the youth in future generations
With the growing demand for professionals, countries and industries around the world have broaden their usual scope of search from within their own boundaries to across their borders looking for cheaper yet more capable men and women. In Thomas Friedman’s article, Globalization: The Super-Story, he defines globalization as the inexorable integration of markets, transportation systems, and communication systems to a degree never witnessed before. In simple terms, globalization is the process of international mingle that comes from the interchange of world views. Friedman is one of the key protagonists of the concept of globalization and defines this new system with a series of key words and three balances which make up the globalization system. Friedman 's three balance can be seen today and will be seen until a new system is adopted.
The video starts with Thomas Friedman, a veteran award winning American journalist, speaking of his visit to Bangalore in India to work on a documentary based on outsourcing, and how his meeting with the then CEO of Infosys influenced him in writing his book where he analyzes globalization and lists out the various factors that led to a “flat” world.
In Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat he presents his idea of the globalization of the world in all areas; from economic to communication with other countries. Friedman is a journalist from the New York Times and most of his work focuses on economic and technological innovations and advancements, and furthermore how they are associated to history. The ideas he presents in this book are both plausible and convincing. The main focus is whether the world is “flat“. The answer to this question depends on the readers’ political, economical, and technological opinions. Friedman does however present evidence in many situations where the globalization of the world is clearly evident. This essay will explore these different
‘Globalization: What’s new? What’s not? (And so what)’, portrays the speed in which globalism has increased through many different factors; economically, military, environmentally and socially. This is an idealist analytic approach, not set in stone. This leads on to
Globalisation can be defined as the movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration by countries and their populations globally. It is a constant process and it has resulted in the intertwining and generalisation of the needs and wants of people
Named after American industrialist Henry Ford, Fordism is essentially a modern socio-economic system designed on the bases of industrial mass production in the 20th century. There are many aspects of Fordism in terms of its social and economic organisation, such as the relation to production line techniques, the nature and pattern of consumption, and overall state regulation. This essay will firstly outline the three major characteristics of Fordism; the standardisation of goods produced, the synchronisation of assembly line workers, and the concept of how higher waged workers are able to afford the goods they produce. Moreover, the 21st century patterns of production,
Taylor's own name for his approach was scientific management. This sort of task-oriented optimization of work tasks is nearly ubiquitous today in industry, and has made most industrial work menial, repetitive, tedious and depressing; this can be noted, for instance, in assembly lines and fast-food restaurants. Ford's arguments began from his observation that, in general, workers forced to perform repetitive tasks work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. This slow rate of work (which he called "soldiering", but might nowadays be termed by those in charge as "loafing" or "malingering" or by those on the assembly line as "getting through the day"), he opined, was based on the observation that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work the slowest among them does: this reflects the idea that workers have a vested interest in their own well-being, and do not benefit from working above the defined rate of work when it will not increase their compensation. He therefore proposed that the work practice that had been developed in most work environments was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to be very inefficient in its execution. From this he posited that there was one best method for performing a particular task, and that if it were taught to workers, their productivity would go up.
“Globalization is today's reality. Like it or not, the move to a world economy is a fact of life. At some point in the 1990s the process achieved critical mass and people started to sit up and take notice. Many were apprehensive.