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New Workplace Dynamics and Job Trends |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Wednesday, 18 May 2005 |
The world of work has changed unrecognisably in just the past
thirty years. Just about every aspect of the so-called ‘full
employment’ era of the 1950s and 1960s was undermined in the latter
years of the 20th century. Work has gone from being
what adult males did for 40 years from Monday to Friday to provide for
their families; to being a 24 hour a day global phenomenon attracting
men and women in equal numbers, creating huge wealth for some and along
the way causing a significant re-definition of what it means to be a
family.
It is increasingly difficult, even for democratic
governments let alone individual companies, to control the way work is
done inside their borders. Work has come to mean the prime way in
which everyone earns the money necessary to participate in an
increasingly consumer focused world.
In fact, one of the most profound global challenges facing the world as we enter the 21st century is matching the way people would like to work with the ways economies and markets would like people to work.
The
first part of this presentation explores the many and varied ways in
which work has changed in one lifetime, and the second examines some of
the strategies used by successful companies to deal with these changes
and remain employers of choice. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 June 2005 )
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A Wellbeing Manifesto for the future |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
Many Australians feel that the political system has let them down, and
that governments are not responding to their real concerns.
“We
seem to have lost sight of a vision for a better society and entrusted
our future to wherever the market takes us,” says Clive Hamilton,
director of The Australia Institute, a respected Canberra
thinktank. That’s why the Institute has developed a “manifesto
for wellbeing”, which it is offering to the Australian public for
consideration and discussion.
“We take as our starting point the
belief that governments in Australia should be devoted to improving our
individual and social wellbeing,” said Dr Hamilton, who for years has
researched the nature and directions of change of perceived wellbeing
in Australia.”We now know a great deal about the factors that enhance
our wellbeing and those that diminish it. Increasingly the
negatives seem to outweigh the positives, despite our
affluence. The Manifesto we have developed is a blueprint
for true progress in Australia.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 May 2005 )
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
China is predicted to have an impact on Australia 10 times greater than
that of Japan 40 years ago. So it is hardly surprising the Future
Summit 2005 organised by the Australia Davos Connection in
Melbourne this month (May) focused heavily on Australia/Asia engagement
and how to achieve sustainable prosperity in this new environment,
reports Futures Foundation member Margot Brodie.
The opening address given by Jonathon West, an Australian associate
professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business
Administration, highlighted the perils of Australians not fully
grasping the shift in business dynamics in this new Asia.
“Yes,
there are great opportunities [for Australia] to sell to China.
But China is also emerging as a strong competitor in the things we want
to sell to the world,” he said. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 June 2005 )
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How long do you want to live? |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
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Scientists at Cambridge University talk of an average human life span of 5000 years, at some time in the future – as soon as someone can solve the awkward problem of rejuvenating two-year-old mice. Meanwhile, an Australian researcher argues that love, in all its forms, may be able to slow the biological clock. Should they be talking to each other?
Setting aside for the moment (with great reluctance) the physical, social and ethical issues that arise from our curious fear of death – how many people can the planet stand, for heaven’s sake? and why should they all be old? – it does seem that Aubrey de Grey of Cambridge could well have a word with Mark Cohen at RMIT in Melbourne.
Scientists at Cambridge University talk of an average human life span of 5000 years, at some time in the future – as soon as someone can solve the awkward problem of rejuvenating two-year-old mice. Meanwhile, an Australian researcher argues that love, in all its forms, may be able to slow the biological clock. Should they be talking to each other?
Setting aside for the moment (with great reluctance) the physical, social and ethical issues that arise from our curious fear of death – how many people can the planet stand, for heaven’s sake? – it does seem that Aubrey de Grey of Cambridge could well have a word with Mark Cohen at RMIT in Melbourne.
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US schools trapped in legal web |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Tuesday, 03 May 2005 |
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Almost 100 legal steps and considerations are required to organize an athletic event at a US school. In the classroom, suspending a disruptive student can take months of mandatory legal process. Firing a patently incompetent teacher takes years of preparation and legal hearings. With a growing trend towards litigation, will Australia find itself heading down the same path? Or can we make a more useful shift toward the kind of distributed intelligence we see in living networks?
Philip K. Howard, lawyer and author of The Collapse of the Common Good, argues that fixing America’s schools somehow seems “beyond our grasp”. Certainly law is ill-suited as a management system, he says. It has killed the human instinct and judgement needed to run a school. Teachers and principals spend the day tied in legal knots: “the legal load is so great as to be comedic”.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 May 2005 )
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