Journal Article

Reducing working hours in an economy has been discussed as a policy which may have benefits in achieving particular economic, social and environmental goals. This study proposes five different scenarios to reduce the working hours of full-time employees by 20% with the aim of cutting greenhouse gas emissions: a three-day weekend, a free Wednesday, reduced daily hours, increased holiday entitlement and a scenario in which the time reduction is efficiently managed by companies to minimise their office space. We conceptually analyse the effects of each scenario on time use patterns through both business and worker activities, and how these might affect energy consumption in the economy. To assess which of the scenarios may be most effective in reducing carbon emissions, this analytical framework is applied as a case study for the United Kingdom. The results suggest that three of the five scenarios offer similar benefits, and are preferable to the other two, with a difference between the best and worst scenarios of 13.03 MTCO2e. The study concludes that there is a clear preference for switching to a four-day working week over other possible work-reduction policies.

This article presents the correlation between the economic background of a given era and legal regulation of labour. It aspires to answer the question: what legal construction most suits a current global economy. The author shows the effect of location conduction on the employment contract of today and offers three possible scenarios regarding future labour law. One such scenario is the maintenance of the current, traditional concept that strives to secure a balance between security of the employee and flexibility of employment. The second scenario entails possibilities provided by the so-called gig economy; it deconstructs almost all limitations provided by labour law and, at the same time, annuls the structure of labour law as it is today. The third scenario proposes an adaptation of a specific interpretation of long-term contract - relational contract - to labour law.

Recent technological advances in big data, machine learning, and robotics, have begun to have a negative influence on existing employment opportunities for human beings. Numerous studies have demonstrated a worrisome decline in low- and medium-income employment resulting from the replacement of human workforce with machines. A seminal study by Frey and Osborne in 2013 predicted that 47% of the 702 examined occupations in the United States faced a high risk of decreased employment rate within the next 10–25 years as a result of computerization. Despite the seemingly dystopian future foreshadowed by these numbers, the wholesale replacement of labor by machines will most likely not become a reality in the foreseeable future for an array of reasons, including the creativity required by many occupations and interventions by governments. However, despite the barriers, computerization is likely to have a significant effect on the current market. In this paper, we aim to track the relative quantities of jobs that are either susceptible or non-susceptible to computerization in the future, by developing and utilizing an analytical model using Markov chains. Various simulations performed using this model demonstrate the importance of intervention policies, such as improved technical education of the public, in controlling the rate of computerization. Moreover, the simulations identify the probable creation of new jobs that would facilitate new human employment. Although radical changes in technology and economy await humanity, adequate preparation will help to facilitate a smoother transition into the age of computers.

In 2007 there were 20.7 million people aged 50 and over in the UK representing a 50 per cent increase from 1951. This article, using the Labour Force Survey of the UK, describes recent trends in the characteristics and labour market participation of older workers including: the employment rate of older workers and regional patterns; the influence of partners on labour market activity; the likely occupations, working patterns, employment status and qualifications of older workers; and the older generation gender pay gap.

Digital transformation is rapidly causing major, even disruptive changes in many industries. Moreover, global developments like digital platforms (cloud) and IoT create fundamentally new connections at many levels between objects, organizations and people (systems-of-systems). These are by nature dynamic and often work in real time – further increasing the complexity. These systemic changes bring up new profound questions: What are those new software-intensive systems like? How are they created and developed? Which principles should guide such organizational design? Agile enterprises are by definition proficient with such capabilities. What solutions are the current scaled agile frameworks such as SAFe and LeSS proposing, and why? In this paper, we aim to recognize the design principles of future software organizations and discuss existing experiences from various different organizations under transformations, and the insights gained. The purpose is to systematize this by proposing a competence development impact-mapping grid for new digitalization drivers and goals with potential solutions based on our agile software enterprise transformation experiences. Our research approach is based on the resource-based and competence-based views (RBV, CBV) of organizations. We point out how most decision-making in companies will be more and more software-related when companies focus on software. This has profound impacts on organizational designs, roles and competencies. Moreover, increasing data-intensification poses new demands for more efficient organizational data processing and effective knowledge utilization capabilities. However, decisive systematic transformations of companies bring new powerful tools for steering successfully under such new business conditions. We demonstrate this via real-life examples.

A digital platform economy is emerging. Companies such as Amazon, Etsy, Facebook, Google, Salesforce, and Uber are creating online structures that enable a wide range of human activities. This opens the way for radical changes in how we work, socialize, create value in the economy, and compete for the resulting profits. Their effects are distinct and identifiable, though certainly not the only part of the rapidly reorganizing global economy. As the work by Michael Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer, and Peter Evans has shown, these digital platforms are multisided digital frameworks that shape the terms on which participants interact with one another. The initial powerful information technology (IT) transformation of services emerged with the Internet and was, in part, a strategy response to intense price-based competition among producers of relatively similar products. IT-enabled services transformation, as our colleagues Stuart Feldman, Kenji Kushida, Jonathan Murray, and Niels Christian Nielsen have argued in other venues, was based on the application of an array of computable algorithms to myriad activities, from consumption and leisure to services and manufacturing. The movement of these algorithms to the cloud, where they can be easily accessed, created the infrastructure on which, and out of which, entire platform-based markets and ecosystems operate. Platforms and the cloud, an essential part of what has been called the “third globalization,” reconfigure globalization itself. These digital platforms are diverse in function and structure. Google and Facebook are digital platforms that offer search and social media, but they also provide an infrastructure on which other platforms are built. Amazon is a marketplace, as are Etsy and eBay. Amazon Web Services provides infrastructure and tools with which others can build yet more platforms. Airbnb and Uber use these newly available cloud tools to force deep changes in a variety of incumbent businesses. Together they are provoking reorganization of a wide variety of markets, work arrangements, and ultimately value creation and capture.

The introductory article to the special issue “Labour Market in the Context of Technological Transformations” presents an overall picture of the latest technological trends altogether referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), their impact on the changing structure of the labour market, the demand for prospective skills, as well as emerging policy challenges. The author concludes that ensuring the resilience, adaptability and efficiency of labour markets are therefore not only a matter of addressing the skills needs of the Next Production Revolution, but also a prerequisite to social stability and cohesion.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue of the Journal of Service Management dedicated to the Thought Leadership in Services Conference held in Brisbane Australia in 2017. The paper also explores the disruptive and transformative role that technology is set to play over the next 30 years. Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides a brief summary of the papers within the special issue. The paper also introduces a conceptual framework identifying four quadrants that reflect different combinations of human touch and technology. This framework is used to examine the treatment of technology in the eight papers. Findings - While it is clear that technology is having a profound impact on service and is contributing to major changes within the eight service domains captured by the papers in the special issue; there were significant differences observed across the eight papers in the special issue. From the associated discussion, it is clear that the humanistic paradigm is still dominant within services, even though there is strong evidence that a shift is occurring. Originality/value - This paper extends earlier work exploring the infusion of technology within services to highlight the progress from a humanistic paradigm to a technology-centric paradigm.

This paper examines the impact of computer programming of robots on sequencing ability in early childhood and the relationship between sequencing skills, class size, and teacher’s comfort level and experience with technology. Fifty-eight children participated in the study, 54 of whom were included in data analysis. This study was conducted in two different school environments, where both class size and teacher’s experiences with the technology used varied – one teacher had used the system for the prior year, the other teacher had not. School environments were further subdivided into control and experimental groups. Kindergarten children in the experimental group were exposed to the TangibleK program for a period of twenty hours, taught by their classroom teacher. Children participated in computer programming activities using a developmentally appropriate tangible programming language, specifically designed to program a robot’s behaviors. All fifty-four participants sequencing skills were assessed before and after the intervention using a picture story sequencing task and analyzed using a repeated measures, 2x2x2 design ANOVA. A significant interaction was found between group assignment and test results. No significant interactions were found for school assignment. Results are discussed taking into account class size, teacher experience, and teacher comfort level with technology.