The information revolution and the Internet have done very bad things to the trade unions in the world and to the workers they represent, according to Dr. Aviad Bar Haim, from the Department of Management and Economics of the Open University, who participated in a seminar on "Real Money in the Virtual World".
Yehuda Comforts, DailyMaily system, people and computers
The information and internet revolution has greatly influenced the culture and lifestyle in the western world. One of the most interesting questions is how the information revolution is perceived by the trade unions in the world, those unions whose role is traditionally to maintain the status of the salaried employee and to make sure that his working conditions, salary and source of livelihood are not harmed because of these or other technological innovations. In the last century as well as in the current century, there are quite a few stories about power struggles that large labor organizations try to prevent the entry of new equipment.
In the opinion of Dr. Aviad Bar-Haim, from the Department of Management and Economics of the Open University, the information revolution and the Internet are bad news for the trade unions, and they did bad things to them in the age of competition and globalization, when they caused the collapse of collective labor relations, which are one of the main instruments of the trade unions in 150 years of struggle. In most of the world there is a decrease of tens of percent in the number of members in professional unions.
Dr. Bar-Chaim participated in a unique conference on "Real Money in the Virtual World" held last week at the Open University. The conference was organized by the Chase Center and the Center for the Integration of Distance Learning, in collaboration with the Department of Management and Economics at the Open University. Dr. Bar-Haim pointed out that the era of computing has allowed employers to become stronger, "work is becoming a commodity. In addition, temporary work is multiplying, in the absence of rights and conditions beyond the minimum in the law."
fell asleep on guard?
But contrary to what one might think, Dr. Bar-Haim does not place the responsibility on one side, on the employers, but comes to a rather sharp reckoning with the trade unions in the world, or rather with those who lead them. By and large, the trade unions react late to technological revolutions and actually miss the train that has already started, he points out. Later in his speech, Dr. Bar-Haim explained that this should not be surprising since this is not the first time that unions in the West are not vigilant enough.
"This was also the case in the first industrial revolution," said Dr. Bar-Haim, "at the beginning of the 20th century, the unions reacted late to the managerial revolution with the methods that exist to this day, and in the middle of the 20th century they reacted late to the discovery of the human factor at work, a concept used by the managers and the employers, not the unions. After the Second World War, the unions became institutionalized, and dominated a regime of collective labor relations. Once again, they fell asleep on guard, they didn't pay attention to the high-tech revolution, and the suspicion of technology continued as it steals a living."
"The world entered the information revolution and globalization, and the trade unions continued to rest on the laurels of the institutionalized labor relations patterns," warned Dr. Bar-Haim. "They did not notice the change in the workforce: younger and more educated, many migrant workers, multicultural, lacking in social and political awareness, mobile and completely unprotected. A whole branch of services has been created, of which information services are only a part."
The big miss
The loss is doubly great because it is clear that a technological revolution does not require the dismissal of workers, and in most cases in most factories it led to an upgrade of the workers' status and a change in the quality of their lives in the work environment, but not only that. Dr. Bar-Haim believes that the workers represented by the trade unions can harness the information revolution to their advantage.
“Do they do that? Not sure," said Dr. Bar-Haim, who presented several types of professional unions in relation to information technology "wandering aimlessly in the digital desert." Heard about internet and information technology. They buy hardware, software and communication networks, but don't know what to do with it. The practical - use computers and information for current needs, but without a future vision. Reactors and not initiators. The most interesting point is how the trade unions will look in 20-30 years. He is convinced that there is no escape from the Cyber Union model, which is in its infancy, and should provide a vision for the future, innovations, services, and tradition.
The era of the Cyber Union
""As long as trade unions do not understand that they need to turn the information industry into a political tool, it will be in the hands of the employers and used by them," said Dr. Bar-Haim, who pointed out that in view of the lag throughout the stages in history, and the fact that the unions nevertheless closed each time the gap and achieve; After all, one should expect a delayed response, but perhaps no less effective, in the adoption of these technologies for the regular tasks of their members. For the information of MK Amir Peretz.
Aria Scoop
The recipe for proper management of people
The conference at the Open University also hosted Professor Aryeh Scoop, former CEO and Chairman of Microsoft Israel, which is the first time he lectured under his new career at Shenkar College, with an honorary degree. Scope's main conclusion, based on many years of experience in management, is: "People are the raw material of high-tech, so we invest in high-tech in people management. Whoever does not know how to manage people, his success as CEO is questionable," said Scoop. "To be successful, a company needs an exceptional product, customer familiarity, and operational excellence. In high-tech, 'operation' means operating people. The most important part of managing people is creating an organizational culture. It's hard to define what it is, but you recognize it when you enter the organization," said Scoop. "It is important that a corporate culture is created in the first days of a company, because it is difficult to change it later. Part of an organizational culture is the creation of a vision and values".
Scope said that the manager is the one who manages the people in the organization, and HR provides services to them. "The difference between them is not always clear, and in many cases it prevents human resources from producing something unusual, so as not to "break the precedent". Referring to the values of high-tech companies, Scoop said that they focus on several main points: honesty, reliability, passion for working with customers, partners and technology, self-criticism, commitment to excellence and self-improvement. And finally he provided a scoop tip for the beginning manager: "Each year, fire 5% of the employees who are at the bottom of the list in terms of efficiency and contribution. Everyone knew that at the end of the year a certain number of employees would go home and then there is always the tension of not wanting to be on this list. Scoop, who said that he did not invent this method, but learned it from Jack Walsh of General Electric, who used to fire 10% of the employees, noted: The firings should also be done with care and caution. . I explained to him that this position does not suit him and that is perfectly fine and there may be other positions in other places that suit him and he should not feel a certain flaw", said Scope.
Another speaker at the conference, Dr. Aryeh Nahmias, head of the Department of Management and Economics at the OP, said that while technological development has expanded the capabilities of the individual, the true professional knowledge of financial issues should still be the true basis for decision-making. Dr. Nachmias pointed out that we live in an era of virtual and completely online commerce, and the best example is the stock exchange. According to him, internet banking sites have developed a lot, both at the level of the individual updating his accounts, performing operations, payments, deposits, investing in funds, receiving financial information and more. He noted that internet banking continues to be one of the areas of the internet with the largest growth rate.
"Internet activity led to a decrease in the expenses of banking activities and profit, while providing preferential interest rates, reduced fees, relief in the matter of standing in line for customers, and online banking information that allows comparing services and rates."
Dr. Nahmias also spoke about the dimension of risk in the use of technologies, and presented the illusion of knowledge: "The abundance of information and tremendous wealth, may lead to overconfidence and a situation of the trap of the illusion of knowledge, when the individual may change a decision criterion with the feeling that he has the ability to choose between one security and another, Although it is not so. The result: more speculative action, more risks, damage to personal benefit and increased volatility in the capital market." The conference at the Open University was opened by Dr. Nitza Geri, Department of Management and Economics and the Chase Center, who spoke about the attention economy, a fascinating subject in itself. We will expand on it in one of the following sections.
