---HRM Assignment # 6---


It is my understanding that in the past 200 years, technology has advanced at an astonishing rate. Man’s advances in modern science have led to several cures for once common fatal diseases. I believe fundamentally, as humans, we have a desire to live eternally. In part, technology exists for that reason. Also, technology exists to “better our lives”. Just how much “better” our lives have become over the centuries could be argued? I see two sides to this issue. One train of thought says that technology has brought us leisure, comfort and knowledge. Another train of thought proclaims that we have become slaves to our jobs and the dependence of technology. Cogs in a great combine.

The technology which surrounds almost everyone in the modern society, affects both work and leisure activities. Technology contains information that many would rather it did not have. It influences minds in good and bad ways, and it allows people to share information which they would otherwise not be able to attain. Even if a person does not own a computer or have credit cards, there is information on a computer somewhere about everyone. The technology which is just now beginning to be manipulated and harnessed is affecting the minds of small children and adolescents in ways that could be harmful. It is affecting our immediate future. It also gives another form of communication and exchange of information which was not available before, information that is both good and bad. Technology is one of the principal driving forces of the future; it is transforming our lives and shaping our future at rates unprecedented in history, with profound implications which we can't even begin to see or understand.

Many different elements affect how satisfied we are with our lives. The impact of technology on these elements can change how safe, healthy and happy people feel. Throughout history, people have looked for better ways to meet their needs and to satisfy their expectations. Technology has improved the way people feed, clothe and shelter themselves. Technology has also changed other aspects of everyday life, such as health care, education, job satisfaction, and leisure time activities. People have used technology since them first chipped stone blades to improve their hunting. Yet some people call the current age the Technological Age because of society's dependence on technology. For the first time in human history, almost all the goods and services people use depend on technology.

The products of technology are available to almost everyone in society. The economy of a country influences how the people of the county live. Technology is often considered the key to a nation's economic growth. Most economists would say that it is one of the factors in economic growth, but they would probably disagree about its importance. Many economists think that if technology sparks growth in one sector of the economy in the form of increased productivity, growth will also occur in other sectors of the economy. Jobs may be lost in one industry, such as agriculture but new jobs may emerge in other sectors of the economy. There may be more jobs or, in some case, completely new kinds of jobs. Technology may also be used to solve urgent problems.

Our growing population is using up infinite supplies of natural resources. Innovations in technology can allow for more efficient use of limited or scarce resources. More products might be made from the same amount of raw material using new techniques. Technology can increase productivity to help countries compete with other countries in selling goods and services. Some say that without technological improvements, the economy would grow slowly or not at all.

What is Corporation?

Corporations exist as a product of corporate law, and their rules balance the interests of the management who operate the corporation; creditors who loan it goods, services or money; shareholders that invest their capital and the employees who contribute their labor. People work together in corporations to produce value and generate income. In modern times, corporations have become an increasingly dominant part of economic life. People rely on corporations for employment, for their goods and services, for the value of the pensions, for economic growth and social development.

The defining feature of a corporation is its legal independence from the people who create it. If a corporation fails, shareholders normally only stand to lose their investment and employees will lose their jobs, but neither will be further liable for debts that remain owing to the corporation's creditors unless they have separately varied this, e.g. with personal guarantees. This rule is called limited liability, and it is why the names of corporations in the UK end with "Ltd.".

The Great Transformation
Sparked by new technologies, particularly the Internet, the corporation is undergoing a radical transformation that is nothing less than a new Industrial Revolution. This time around, the revolution is reaching every corner of the globe and in the process, rewriting the rules laid down by Sloan, Henry Ford, and other Industrial Age giants. The 21st century corporation that emerges will in many ways be the polar opposite of the organizations they helped shape.

The New Leadership
In recent years, top corporate executives have reaped a pay bonanza without precedent in the long and sweaty history of working for a living. Is today's boss overpaid? Probably, but to whom much has been given, even more will be expected. The job of leading a company has never been more demanding, and it will only get tougher in the 21st century.

The Enduring Corporation
Government also expects much more from the corporation than it did a generation ago. For some time now, corporations have been America's largest distributors of health care and private pension benefits. In recent years government also has increasingly looked to business to regulate employee behavior in the workplace in new ways, giving rise to the so-called nanny corporation.

The Ecosystem
The corporate ecosystem of the 21st century will be characterized by a blurring of once-distinct boundaries: between public and private, foreign and domestic, insider and outsider, friend and foe. The effect will be liberating in many ways. Corporations will be freer to pursue opportunity wherever in the world they find it, and to exploit it according to the requirements of circumstance, not the blind dictates of tradition. Outsourcing will become ever more prevalent, transforming many corporations into superefficient, virtual facsimiles of their old selves. But success will not come easy in this brave new world.

Designs for the Future
Few institutions embody their era as strikingly as the corporation. In form and function, it reflects the defining technologies and social organization of its time. This is as true of the physical manifestation as internal configuration, which is why corporations have captured the imagination of so many visionaries, especially architects.

Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_35/b3696001.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Century



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