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Pages:
3 pages/β‰ˆ825 words
Sources:
3 Sources
Style:
APA
Subject:
Literature & Language
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 10.8
Topic:

High-Tech Employee Activism and Recommendations

Essay Instructions:

Background

 

You are an intern at a technology-based company. You’ve been asked by your supervisor to provide your thoughts on the following situation.

 

An article published in the Los Angeles Times describes the internal organizing activities of engineers at several well-known companies, including Slack, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook to raise concerns about these company’s use of its technologies, contracts with other organizations and overall policies.  Most recently, Amazon employees have raised concerns about unsafe working conditions for warehouse workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

Your company wants to understand the issues surrounding this trend and is asking everyone from VPs to lawyers to interns to offer their thoughts.  Your supervisor has identified you to participate by providing a 2-page memo that reviews the emergence of employee activism in the tech world and provides recommendations for the company. 

 

What are the best strategies for a company to both support the societal concerns of its workforce while at the same time, pursuing business opportunities? Do your best to avoid generic thoughts when exploring this tension. Note: you are not writing to either advocate or criticize this trend.  Rather you are an observer, providing relevant description and recommendations.   

 

Overview

 

Write a 750-1,000 word memo. This is about 2 pages, single spaced with headings.  Here’s a suggested structure for your memo:

 

  • Brief overview of high-tech employee activism

 

  • Analysis supported by specific discussion of employee activism at Amazon.   A few articles are in the D2L supplementary resources folder for background. (One article describes recent developments at Amazon where shareholders voted down proposals submitted by employees.  The second article details the activities of employees who decided to defy Amazon’s external communication policy).

 

  • Brief recommendations for your company.  What do they need to understand and monitor to stay informed about this trend?  How best can the company support open discussion between employees and executives about their tech developments and clients?  

 

Citations and Source Material

 

Although this is an internal document, not an academic research paper you need to use credible source material that is properly referenced (at least 3 standard publications: newspapers, magazine, books that are not the articles in the D2L supplementary materials folder. Do not cite blogs, websites or non-credible sources such as Wikipedia). 

 

Citations should be included in the paper and listed at the end in a bibliography.  You may use any standard system for citing material: APA, MLA, IEEE, etc.  Look up one of these formats online to see the proper forms for citing your reference material. 

 

Specifications

 

  • Opening includes overview of memo
  • Concise overview, analysis and recommendations
  • Thoughtful discussion of the issue, useful recommendations
  • Audience-appropriate tone (professional, not overly informal)
  • Proper citing of materials (at least 3 references)
  • Formatting: single-spaced short paragraphs, double space between paragraphs, use informative headings

 

Contact your grading consultant if you have an issue turning in your memo on time and need to request an extension

Essay Sample Content Preview:
RE: High-Tech Employee Activism and Recommendations to Improve Employee Satisfaction
Numerous high-tech corporations, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and YouTube, employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. These personnel are required to carry out orders without question, even though their subordinates may occasionally ask why. All of these employees lead everyday social lives as well. Therefore, they too require protection at work. These workers' rights have been abused in some cases. Thus like any other activist, they defend their coworkers' rights within the high-tech corporation they are employed by, earning them the moniker high-tech employee activist.
In recent years, major digital businesses have ignored employee mistreatment and, more crucially, their use of waste materials that contribute to pollution. Employees with differing morals find it uncommon for them to rebel against the firm they work for, even if it feels terrible. The employees who are instructed to engage in such wasteful behavior have nothing to do with it because they are simply advised to do so. It is therefore considered that these high-tech activists are exclusively focusing on the company they work for and its practices and policies.
Depending on the size of the organization, these types of employees can accumulate and eventually speak their thoughts. Some of them may even go so far as to abuse the company's confidential information to get their point across to superiors. Like in Amazon, employees retaliate for exercising their right to criticize the company's environmentally harmful business practices. Because they have received a high level of education and are well-trained, the people who work for this type of company won't remain silent for very long. In an article written by BBC.com, they say this "Amazon takes too much and gives back too little,"
Using Amazon employees as an example, they have protested the company's carbon footprints and their oil and gas partners, and they have run the danger of being fired to stand up for what they believe is right. However, if an employer doesn't care about the environment and it is the correct thing to do as an employee, they should have hired someone who does. If this were to occur frequently at our organization, it would be expensive and difficult to quickly replace people who wanted to change the corporate policy.
Large computer and internet companies have historically attracted employees who rank highly on measures of job satisfaction and loyalty because of the high pay, excellent perks, and potential to change...
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