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An Ethical Issue: Pushing the Automation Boundary Destroys Jobs One of the key justications for system projects is to increase efciency. This implies reducing employee
An Ethical Issue: Pushing the Automation Boundary Destroys Jobs One of the key justications for system projects is to increase efciency. This implies reducing employee headcount as the automation boundary moves into activities previously performed by human beings. Put another way, to generate business benets in the form of increased efciencies, the implication is that the new system capabilities must reduce the amount of labor hours expended in return for a given amount of business revenue. Additionally, increasing automation and the consistency of business process execution that may come with that automation suggests that in many such circumstances, the remaining work may not require staff to be as experienced or skilled, enabling the remaining work to be performed by less-skilled, more junior staff. This \"deskilling\" of work means that older, more experienced workers may be displaced by younger, more junior staff. Given this, a business analyst frequently nds herself interviewing employees whose jobs may be under threat of being automated, in whole or in pa rt, by the new software. Expressed in more human terms, these business staff members ultimately may be downsized if the software project is successful. There is a widelyheld concept in economics called \"creative destruction," often attributed to economist Joseph Schumpeter. Creative destruction argues that, for example, the replacement of inefcient activities such as manual, humand riven calculations with automated, softwared riven calculations frees up human resources to be re-employed in more creative, higher-value activities. More concretely, increasing efciencies in this way across many businesses (and business processes) increases the size of the overall economic pie, ultimately increasing overall human incomes in the overall economy. This was expressed in an old IBM slogan: "Machines should work; people should think." However, in the short term, creative destruction may hurt the specic employees displaced by software automation. First, such employees obviously lose theirjobs. Second, if software automation for a certain type of task is widespread, an employee with that skill set may see her longerterm earnings fall, unless she can retrain with new, more indemand skill sets. Not surprisingly, such affected employees may view software automation negatively and may even try to sabotage a system project. Given these ideas, as an IT professional engaged in systems analysis and design, respond to the following ethics questions: o How do you view the idea of creative destruction? 0 How should the employees impacted by software automation be treated? By the company? By the government? 0 How would you handle negative reactions to your work by affected employees? o Suggest how employees can be best supported by softwaredriven changes and disruption. (
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