CHAPTER 4 IT AND THE DESIGN OF WORK Dr. Mia Simmons

American Express Opening Case

? What is the “Blue Work” program?

? What was the strategic thrust behind the Blue

Work program?

? What are “hub,” “club,” “home,” and “roam”

employees?

? What is the role of technology in these

arrangements?

? What was the impact of Blue Work?

? Have other firms found roaming employment

useful?

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4

Work Design Framework

IT Has Changed Work ? IT has:

– Created new types of work

? Bureau of Labor Statistics: IT employment in

the USA is at an all-time high

? New jobs such as:

– Data scientists/data miners

– Social media managers

– Communications managers

– Enabled new ways to do traditional work

– Supported new ways to manage people

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How IT Changes Traditional Work

? Changes the way work is done

– Broadens skills; faster but more tasks

– Sometimes IT disconnects us from the tasks

– Sometimes people can perform more strategic tasks

– Few staff are engaged in order entry any longer

– Crowdsourcing is now possible at very low cost (M.Turk)1) Discussion post
Describe the characteristics of an employee ideally suited for telecommuting. Explain.
What are some issues you might face while collaborating on a virtual team? How could you mitigate the negative impact of those challenges?Include other components discussed in Lecture 4.
Make sure all your postminimum of 150 words. APA formatting is required along with scholarly sources.

2) Journal
January 30, 2015: Tablets just got a lot more useful after Microsoft released the final versions of Office for Android, which followed a similar release on the iPad. http://www.informationweek.com/software/productivity-collaboration-apps/microsoft-outlook-office-on-ios-and-android-first-look/d/d-id/1318881. Ask students to read the short post and answer the following:
(1) Could tablets change how people do their work?
(2) Think of a specific job that would be changed to a large degree by using Office on the tablet rather than a laptop. How would that job be changed?
(3) Would a tablet provide an excellent tool for reengineering that job?
(4) Outline a possible new workflow that would be enabled to help make the job easier or more productive.