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This assignment was locked 23 Dec 2020 at 23:59

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This assignment was locked 23 Dec 2020 at 23:59.

1. All students, please read chapters 10 and 11 and then review the audio and video clips below.

• www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/ (Links to an external site.)

•  www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4600258 (Links to an external site.)

2. Then, before 11:59p on Fri, for those students in Group 2, upon viewing Group 1’s LLR PPP (under the “discussions” tab), provide 2 peer comments--in that discussion area--about their PPP that links a T/C from chapter 10 and chapter 11 (2 TOTAL). Keep EACH peer comment in the 50-70 word range. 

NOTES: Group 1 students, please see the "discussions" area. Your written assignment this week is to ensure that ALL of Group 2's peer comments are properly addressed before 11:59p this Sat. If so, points will be provided in this area and the discussions area.

1. Group 2 students: Post your 2 peer comments in this assignment area and then copy & paste them into the Week 7 discussions area before 11:59p this Fri.

2. Group 1 students: Upon making your peer responses to Group 2's peer comments in the discussions area, copy & paste ALL of those back into this assignment area before 11:59p this Sat.

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Issues to consider...

Chapter 10:

It is often said that the only person who likes change is a baby with a dirty diaper. Systems, like labor relations, are put into place to establish rules of engagement and some sense of stability. Therefore, there is this tension between maintaining order and moving forward (i.e., taking advantage of unforeseen needs/opportunities). As we have seen, in order to compete in today’s competitive environment, one must be able to adapt and adopt or be left behind. People tend to fear change due to the unknown. Once again, building a trusting relationship is vital to the life of any organization. Accordingly, both labor and management must jointly find ways to survive.

 

“The aspect of workplace transformation that has probably received the greatest attention in recent years, and raised the greatest hopes and expectations for achieving productivity breakthroughs, is the field of industrial relations. Scholars, management specialists, and business leaders have trumpeted the virtues, real and imagined, of the introduction of such organizational innovations such as teams, pay-for-performance bonuses, worker ownership, profit-sharing, and the like.”                  

                                                    -Barry Bluestone & Bennett Harrison

Chapter 11:

As democracy and/or capitalism flourishes across the globe, American workers are pressured into dealing with related unintended consequences.  Falling prices due to this global competition is certain to impact current US jobs and in what part of the world these jobs will be performed. What protections are in place that can assist workers while they adjust to this new reality? In the spirit of a true free market, should any of these protections exist? For that matter, even Henry Ford (despite his disdain for unions) understood that in order to create a viable market, workers’ wages must be loosely related to the products available.  

 

“The demand for labor has shifted toward highly skilled “superstars” and away from ordinary workers, exacerbating inequality. Most important, globalization is creating a single world labor market in which multinational firms shift jobs from Americans to low-wage workers in developing countries, creating insecurity and uncertainty in the United States about the economic future.”