Q3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Q3 - Essay Example Since I work as an IT professional, I would categorize myself as a knowledge worker because of the technical knowledge I possess in the area of programming for various applications. Problem solving requires the application of this knowledge, and also requires soft skills such as the ability to work in groups, because most IT work is done in teams and groups. Some examples of knowledge workers are those who possess specialized or highly technical knowledge, such as engineers, medical or legal professionals or IT workers responsible for systems design. Most technology jobs fall under the category of knowledge based jobs, however in most occupations, routine, desk level jobs can be standardized and outsourced. Job growth in the next couple of decades is predicted to be highest in well paying occupations requiring â€Å"expert thinking† and â€Å"complex human communication.† (Levy and Murmane, 2004:80). Hence, knowledge workers are those who possess a level of knowledge an d the ability to engage in expert thinking and are also able to interact effectively with others at different levels. (2) In the knowledge economy, work patterns are changing. As pointed out by Smith (2005) in his comparison of the work habits of the Baby Boomer generation and the young workers of today who belong to the Internet age, there is a higher level of independence and flexibility sought by the latter. Communication between these individuals takes place through electronic means even as they are sitting next to each other. If creativity and innovation among these knowledge workers is to survive and thrive, they require the kind of flexible managerial support that will focus on the end product rather than dictate the method by which such an end is to be achieved. Where knowledge workers are concerned, soft skills and effective networking is also an

Do markets and the division of labour encourage or discourage social Assignment

Do markets and the division of labour encourage or discourage social cohesion - Assignment Example 7-10). This splitting up and distributing the labor into smaller tasks and jobs emerged the concept of division of labor, as the production process is a huge and complex process. Adam Smith, one of the well-known economists and capitalists, not only presented this idea of division of labor but also was one of the first people to attempt a theory of it. This means that instead of one person striving to complete the entire job, allocating a group of people to perform a small number of specialized tasks would result in greater productive outputs of intricate jobs with less amount of investment utilization (Smith, 2009, pp. 7-10). In other words, the breaking or splitting the entire (big) job into smaller tasks and duties so that multiple workforce performs the tasks and duties, instead of a single person performing the entire job. Moreover, the division of labors means that the labors come under severance into different categories of labor where each set of different workers perform a different task with the division of the work that can come under accomplishment into a product (Smith, 2009, pp. 7-10). This splitting up the workers for specialized work lays the foundation on the principle that the workforce would be able to produce a higher degree of efficiency and productive output when they comes under constraint to perform a particular process, rather than the entire route. Furthermore, by performing smaller tasks, the workers tend to become more skillful and expert in that particular area of production, thus they would be able to be more productive. This also means that the specialized worker would also require less time in production as the time in switching the jobs would come under elimination (Besanko, Dranove, Shanley & Schaefer, 2009, pp. 49-51). Division of labor is one of the fundamental ideologies used in the production systems. This division of labor into specialized jobs reduces the overall cost leads to the