When Harvard Business School students were asked if they
would rather hire people or use technology in relation to the labor required to
run a business, most students preferred to use technology. The implications of this article reinforce
the popular idea that as technology advances blue collar jobs will slowly
vanish.
This article reminded me of the operations analysis and
management section of our lecture from last week. As we discussed the various types of
production lines including job shop, worker paced, machine paced, and
continuous flow. Although these lines
are equally common now, this article led me to think about the future of operations
and the human labor force. Will
worker-paced lines still be relevant in 30 years? How does this issue tie into
the fight for a national increase in minimum wage? It is possible that if minimum wage does increase significantly over the next few years on a national scale, more future business
owners will invest in technology to replace blue collar positions. This may be another reason why the fight for a significant increase in wages would be likely to do more
harm than good for lower class workers.
Additionally, is this sample of Harvard Business students
representative of the next generation of business owners? Will technology
eventually diminish the perceived value of human labor in society?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.