What Are You Calling On The Workers Of The World To Do?

Manifesto
Name
Institution
Due Date
Manifesto
What are you calling on the workers of the world to do?
Technology is here to stay. Well, some people may not want to hear this but it is the truth. Adoptions and integrations of various technological innovations by organizations have helped to increase efficiency and improve the productivity of workers. Quite a number have helped organizations to reduce their operational cost and maximize their profits. However, there are a number that have made the improvements that they have at the expense of the employees. Those are the ones that I have a problem with. Workers are the most important resource in any organization. Every organization in the world owes it to the workers and this is regardless of how much improvement technology brings.
However, there is the notion that certain technological innovations will help enhance productivity and efficiency of the workers. One such innovation is big data which enhances people analytics to a great extent. Waber (2013) described people analytics as “when we use data to uncover the workplace behaviors that make people effective, happy, creative, experts, leaders, followers, early adopters, and son, we are using ‘people analytics.” Well, but what is big data you may ask. SAS (2018) defines it as “a term that describes the large volume of data – both structured and unstructured – that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis.” Currently, every company makes it a point of collecting and analyzing this data hoping that it will help to enhance its business. There have been several success stories, for example, the Bank of America which made use of big data and people analytics and in the end managed to improve inter-office collaboration and improve the office culture.
My problem and one that I believe all of you should be worried about is when big data and people analytics leads to data discrimination. Subtle examples are there today and a majority of you have already experienced them. For example, the use of credit scoring to determine whether a person is credit-worthy or not. This is an example of how big data can condemn people to poverty and ensure the world remains as it is for some classes of people as it flourishes for others. Currently, the modern employee is being forced to enter a ring with his/her colleagues and compete for ever-shrinking salaries. Regardless of one’s contribution to an organization or history, nothing seems to change as the higher class continues to enjoy more as the workers continue to fight for the crumbs. Introduction of big data makes data discrimination a probable problem in this era because there are numerous ways that it can be used to enhance prejudice and bias.
What do you hope to accomplish?
What I hope to accomplish with my manifesto is to make it as obvious as possible that while big data can be a great addition to organizations, it can also be used to enhance certain social prejudices which will further condemn the workers to their current positions. The Bank of America is not the only success story. But this is only the positive aspect of big data and people analytics. While assessing the downside or the negative aspect of people analytics...