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sarahbunting

Punished by Rewards - 0 views

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    In Chapter 8 of Economics for Everyone, Jim Stanford brings up on multiple occasions the need for labour extraction, and the use of the carrot and stick (reward and punishment) model in all businesses. As soon as I was reading this it made me think of a book I read last year by Alfie Kohn on Punishment and Reward. Kohn believes that punishments are just as bad as rewards, and that using either reduces happiness, and productivity. The first section of the book focuses on the research showing that the use of both punishments and rewards is detrimental to people's ability to do good work. In the second section he looks specifically at punishments and rewards in 3 places, the workplace, the school, and the home. In the third section he suggests new methods of motivation for all three places. When I origionally read this I was focused on his his ideas about school, however he his theories are equally important to the world of work!
Melinda Mah

Distibuted Proofreaders: Welcome - 0 views

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    Distributed Proofreaders is a website that anyone can join, relating to the idea of co-creation in Chapter 5. OCR software reads the text of old books. People compare the software's output with the image of the original text to correct errors and formatting. Many languages are represented and many regional or other types of communities exist. Link to annotated version: https://diigo.com/04ed2x
shawnaderksen

Average household expenditure, by province (Ontario) - 0 views

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    Average household expenditures in Ontario in 2012 was $78,495 whereas the total median income of Ontario census families in 2012 was $74,890. This can be seen in this second link: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/famil108a-eng.htm This relates to chapter 9 of Stanford's book as he states "most households spend essentially all their income on consumption, and hence their savings are non-existent" (114). This can be seen with the two figures above. If you take the two numbers, households are actually spending more than they are making.
shawnaderksen

5 Reasons Millennials Are Going To Save The World (We Hope) - 1 views

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    This is a great article that relates to Miguel in Gratton's book. Miguel and his colleagues from around the globe are intuitive about the world around them and want to save it! This article is saying that Generation Y want to save the world. They are the most educated generation, understand that global warming is real, and also want to learn and make a difference in the world.
Melinda Mah

What Makes a Healthy Work Environment? - Healthy Environments - 0 views

  • Physically inactive employees cost employers $488 more per year in more in sick time, benefits and lost productivity
    • Melinda Mah
       
      It's to the employer's and owner's advantage to encourage good health in the medium- and long-term.
  • Employees who smoke cost companies $3,396 more each year
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Yet another reason not to smoke - it makes sense considering all the ill effects of smoking that we now know about.
  • Mental and nervous disorders have replaced musculoskeletal conditions as the top conditions causing long-term disability.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Now that it's become the more common thing, perhaps some of the stigma will go away, especially when it comes to fear of being fired or not promoted in a workplace.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • encourage workers to take responsibility for their own health, safety and wellness and contribute to creating a healthy work environment
    • Melinda Mah
       
      No one understands a person's health like that person.
  • create environments that make the healthy choice the easy choice
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This is important to do in many aspects of life. If fast food wasn't junk food, people would probably still choose it because it's easy.
  • promote work-life balance and make work a healthy life experience
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This shows employers care about their workers. It also means that there will be higher retention. For companies who are afraid that young people will leave after a year or two at their company and who refuse to train young people, it seems like this would be one of a bunch of ways to encourage employees to stay with that company. Treating employees well and caring about them makes tham more likely to stay.
  • jobs are challenging
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This is a good point that success only comes when jobs are challenging. Many people in low-paying jobs are unhappy because they do the same thing day-in, day-out, and it doesn't require much thought.
  • employees have adequate resources to do their job
    • Melinda Mah
       
      This reminds of jobs where employees have to bring in their own stuff to make their workplace happy, or even functional. Specifically, this reminds me of the elementary school teachers who are given a tiny budget that isn't even adequate for providing everyone with pencils for a year, let alone all the books, paper, markers, chalk and other teaching supplies.
  • Lower absenteeism
    • Melinda Mah
       
      Definitely true. If I had absolute independence in middle school, I would have skipped a lot of my classes and gone to do something else more interesting - like go to the library and read a bunch of books. As well, many people will show up but not actually do work. Because many people are paid either a) an hourly wage or b) to show up during certain hours, it encourages workers to be less effective with their time.
  • lexibility – allowing employees to have some capacity to adapt their workday to respond to family issues such as a child becoming ill or one who has special needs, school visits and parent-teacher interviews or special needs of elders. It typically includes family responsibility leave for employees. Supportive supervisors/managers whose management style values staff and is characterized by a desire to help employees achieve better balance between work and the rest of their lives. A culture that is family friendly - overall attitudes, beliefs, values and taken-for-granted ways of doing things that support work-family issues as legitimate workplace concerns, and as an opportunity to develop ‘new ways of working’.  Options include maternity, paternity, family and personal leave provisions. Alternative work arrangements – options are available to employees including daily or scheduled flex time arrangements, job-sharing, reduced hours, compressed work week, family leave options, part-time work, gradual retirement, telecommuting, other leaves and sabbatical options. Such alternative work arrangements are seen as ways of working, and employees using them are not sidelined, marginalized or belittled. Recognition of child and elder care issues including support for child care, providing access to a service regarding child or elder care, establishing on-site child care or, developing a consortium with other employers in order to provide emergency child care. This includes accommodating the needs of employees who are breastfeeding their children.
    • Melinda Mah
       
      In this list of reasons, all except one are family-oriented. I'm guessing only parents and children count as making a "family" for many people. Personally, I don't plan to have kids, and one of my parents passed away shortly after I finished high school. I hope this flexibility extends to family needs for couples who won't/can't have kids. Also, I wonder if this flexibility will extend to pet emergencies? What counts as a valid pet who is member of the family? For example, I can see a workplace sympathetic to a dog or cat, but maybe not to hermit crab.
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    A page of the BC Ministry of Health website that outlines what makes a healthy work environment. It's most important for the business itself to promote health because it makes it easier for all employees to be healthy and productive. Annotated Link: https://diigo.com/05nyj6
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    A page of the BC Ministry of Health website that outlines what makes a healthy work environment. It's most important for the business itself to promote health because it makes it easier for all employees to be healthy and productive. Annotated Link: https://diigo.com/05nyj6
Melinda Mah

Wired 13.05: Why the World Is Flat - 0 views

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    This article is an interview with the author. It gives a bit more background about the book and the author. As well, it provides more detail about the author's viewpoint, which is useful for understanding the text. Annotated link: https://diigo.com/071dt2
sarahbunting

Let's worry about skills, not outsourcing - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

  • Information technology workers displaced in Canada are being replaced not by cheap Indian workers but by better ones.
  • When businesses save money – and boost profit – good things happen. Because it’s in their DNA to grow, money saved by business is money invested – in new products, in workers, in research.
  • But if the shift were from Ontario to Alberta, would the outrage be as great?
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • And a dynamic economy isn’t created on paper or by central planning – it’s created by allowing the natural forces of capitalism to work.
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    Interesting article written in April 2013, when RBC was outsourcing jobs and there was much hype in the media about it.  The author makes some interesting points which I have highlighted for you to read.  Firstly, commenting on the fact that Indian workers are actually as well qualified or more qualified than Canadian workers to get the job done.  Friedman mentions this in his book when talking about his visits to Bangalore.  She notes that when businesses boost profit this is good for the economy because it means they will invest it. However, it was noted by Stanford in Economics for Everyone, that this is not always the case, and the amount of profit being spent on luxury goods rather than investment is currently increasing.  Interesting note the author makes about us vs them.  She mentions that if the jobs had been moving somewhere else in Canada, would the reaction have been just as passionate?  It is important to ensure that we are looking at cultural and racial issues here and taking these into account.   Lastly, she comments that on how we have to allow "the natural forces of capitalism to work".  Stanford also mentions how economists will often refer to capitalism as "natural" and that this is not true.  It is one economic system (which has been created by man) which we currently use, but it is not the only one that can exist, and it certainly did not exist before man did.  It is not natural like the seasons.  
arlaynacurtin

Like it or not, we're all neo-liberals now - 1 views

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    Every dog has its day, and the same applies to economic theory. Today's dog is neo-liberalism, a policy framework developed by economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, which found political expression under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
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    One of the main themes this week in the book "Economics For Everyone" is the term neoliberalism. Take a look at this article by the globe and mail. It talks extensively about how privatization, free trade and deregulation are changing society.
nmjanzen

Measuring the Economic Impact of the Non-Profit Sector - 0 views

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    In the first few chapters of Stanford's book - Economics is for Everyone - he speaks to how Economic Impact is measured in both the private and non-profit sectors in different ways. Having worked for non-profit organizations for a number of years, I was especially curious about how the economic impact of the non-profit sector is measured and found this great resource put together by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Especially enlightening is the PowerPoint presentation of International best practices for Tracking Economic Impact. Enjoy!
amycloutier

Capitalism is evolving, but into what? - 2 views

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    This is an extended excerpt from a book about the evolution of capitalism. I really liked how it got me thinking about the workings of capitalism and linked up with last week's readings about the future of work and the global market, and the need to look at things differently.
fawneferguson

What is a Think Tank? - 0 views

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    This website examines the Frasier Institute of Canada, it relates to the InnoCentive program Gratton speaks about in his book. They work to solve various problems in Canada and around the world by uniting people from various backgrounds.
meaghanpatrick

What Millennials Want in the Workplace - 1 views

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/01/13/what-millennials-want-in-the-workplace-and-why-you-should-start-giving-it-to-them/ Great article on Generation Y and the future of the workplace , ...

started by meaghanpatrick on 19 Sep 14 no follow-up yet
michwilson

Why Poor People Stay Poor - 0 views

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    Economics for everyone mentions the notion of poverty and what it means in reflection to the economy. I came across this article, it's a exerpt from a book that provides a different perspective on being poor and challenges what one may see as the 'social' of poverty.
Trish Gill

Seven Skills Students Need for their Future - 0 views

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    I recently attended a parent student council meeting and the principle indicated that there are a lot of schools paying attention to the works of Dr. Tony Wagner in order to enhance innovation skills within the high schools in Ontario. He also has a book called "Creating Innovators". Really interesting, think I am going to purchase it to read over the holidays!
dedingo

Industrial Structure and Jobs - 0 views

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    This article analyses both the positive and negative impacts of technology upon the jobs skills and indutrial working-pattern which The Shift focuses on. The digital technology has added a great deal of quality to productivity and industrial services, official work trends and has also created new jobs such as web designing, internet operator and so on. But it cannot be without negative consequences. The "new technologies have also shrunk or even eliminated other industries and the jobs associated with them 9e.g., electronic typewriter)." This is similar to what Gratton's reference to robot soemwhere in the book.
mcnarine

Self study on the internet - rare and valuable skills - 1 views

In our book Shift, it states that skills and competencies become valuable because they are rare, and are seen to be rare. I was curious to know more and in so doing I researched and found this sit...

started by mcnarine on 12 Dec 14 no follow-up yet
dedingo

From bean to cup: How Starbucks transformed its supply chain - 0 views

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    This article works as one of the best examples to understand the new trends, the global chaining which has extensively been elaborated by Friendman in his book The World is Flat. When the Starbucks face a cost problem in its operational system, the company applied certain improvement steps and made drastic changes: a plan for organization, simplifying the complex, "one world, one logistics system," and earning the company's confidence.
dedingo

Globalization Is Only a Good Thing If It Benefits All Groups of Society - 0 views

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    Salman Sakir's article is relevant to the issues raised in Friedman's book The World is Flat in which Friedman in a sense laments over the impact of globalization upon the developed countries, the USA for him, because the developing countries like Brazil and Asian countries like China and India have a massive work labour influence upon the West. Sakir focuses on both the positive and negative aspects of globalization, one of the five forces in Gratton's The Shift and a form of global economy as discussed by Stanford in his Economics for Everyone. Because of low wage and easy availability of experts/labour in the developing countries, foreign investments have been attracted by those Asian and developing countries where the jobs have been created for the locals. On the other hand, the citizens of the developed counters of the West and the North America have consumed the products from the developing countries in a reasonably lower price. Poverty ratio has been decreased in the developing countries which have also been integrated by the phenomenon of globalization. These are positive impacts. But in the developed countries, manufacturing industries have been moved out. so unemployment rate is ever increasing, Sakir highlights these aspects of globalization in this article.
dedingo

Six steps to successful supply chain collaboration - 2 views

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    I found this article as a useful resource to understand the importance of "collaboration" in the new market or business trend known as the global supply chain, which Freindman braodly explains in his book The World is Flat. The industries in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector have "identified collaboration with partners as their highest strategic priority." This article outlines six actions that manufacturers and retailer partners can take to ensure a successful supply chain.
dedingo

Studying the Impact of Technology on Work and Jobs - 2 views

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    Theodre Lewis shows his relevant concern with the impacts of technology on work and jobs which Gratton and Fiedman have elaborated in their books The Shift and The World is Flat respectively. Lewis's imperative voice is that the vocational institutions have to incorporate the technological trends to the traditional concepts of education system in order to make students adaptable to current job market. He pinpoints that those whose who are engaged in career designing or teaching now require to focus "on changing skill needs, changing work, changing jobs, and the role that technology plays in such change, there is need for an ongoing related discourse." This information is relevant to the course contents we dealt with.
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