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01.12
Good Jobs: A
National Imperative
By Terrance Malkinson
If you thought that you were on
a fast-moving roller-coaster in 2011; tighten up
your seatbelt as all indications are that
change, uncertainty and unpredictable events
will continue through 2012 and well beyond. With
an increasingly interconnected world, no nation
and few individuals remain unaffected by events
globally that they have little, if any, control
over. Massive national debts threaten the
stabilities of key economies world-wide.
Economic restructuring to solve the fundamental
problem will require vital action by courageous
visionaries who look at the collective good of
humanity. New ways of thinking about how
business operates are needed. 2012 will also be
a year of elections where an estimated 59
countries comprising 53 percent of the world’s
population representing half of the world's GDP
will be voting.
 Paul
Osterman a professor at the MIT Sloan School of
Management along with co-author Beth Shulman
recently published their 200-page book
Good Jobs America:
Making Work Better for Everyone
[Russell Sage Foundation, 1 September 2011)
ISBN-10: 0871546639]. The authors address
fundamental problems of not enough jobs and the
growth of low-paying jobs in the United States.
They discuss the reasons for the growth of
low-wage jobs and evaluate actions that are
needed to transform bad jobs into good jobs. The
authors believe that a transformation is
possible if we are committed to making it
happen. President Obama has spoken many times on
the inequity that is considered by many to be an
economic crisis for the middle class. This is
also an economic crisis for the nation as
citizens who do not have the expectation of a
“good job” are reluctant to purchase goods and
services, enter into mortgages, experience
stress related illness, have marital breakdowns,
and are increasingly unable to help support
their children to obtain a college education.
The history of America from its
original natives, European colonists and with
the Declaration of Independence has had many
visionary leaders who successfully tackled
seemingly insurmountable problems. These efforts
were based on the vision of a fair and equitable
American society for all. The unfortunate
reality is that most people do not participate
in finding and implementing solutions. They
devalue those who have the courage to state
their ideas and they give up themselves because
the world will give you thousands of reasons for
not chasing even one of your big ideas.
Fortunately many examples of the success of
ordinary Americans to bring about and achieve
change proves to us that the reason to try
surmounts all of the reasons not to try. What is
important is courage, passion, conviction and a
belief that you as an individual can make a
difference as an intelligent agent of change.
2012 is an election year. Exercise your right as
a citizen to become involved, question the
candidates on their opinions on matters
important to you. Become informed on science and
technology
public policy priority
issues important to IEEE-USA.
Perhaps even place your name on
the ballot for election to political office.
Democracy is a right that many generations of
Americans have fought and died for.
Other Bytes
Here are some of the things
going on in and around the community:
-
The editors of The
Futurist provide their assessment of
what are some of the best predictions for
the world's future [The
Futurist, 46(1):28-39,
January-February 2011]. Predictions for
technology, energy, humanity, cities and
transportation, commerce, the earth,
government, and health are provided. Savvy
individuals take the time to scan their
environment seeking out sources of
futuristic information.
-
“The Power of Collective
Ambition” [Harvard
Business Review,
89(12):94-102, December 2011]. Douglas Ready
and Emily Truelove discuss how some
companies have not only been able to survive
the economic storm but have emerged stronger
because their employees defined a collective
ambition and became sustainably profitable.
The central element of collective ambition
is purpose ― a company’s reason for
existence which then gives the employees a
sense on how they can best contribute to it.
-
The editors of Scientific
American provide their list of simple
but revolutionary ideas that are waiting for
‘the right moment to make it big’ in “World
Changing Ideas: 10 New Technologies That
Will Make a Difference” [Scientific
American, 305(6):41-51,
December 2011]. Some of these ideas include
smartphones that monitor your health, neural
computers that think like the brain, and
year-round agricultural crops.
-
In another article in the
same issue of
Scientific American
[“Hidden Switches in the Mind,” pp.77-83],
Eric Nestler discusses how neuroscientists
are investigating an array of molecular
mechanisms that allow the environment to
alter how genes behave without changing the
information they contain. These “epigenetic”
changes can in some cases last a lifetime.
An example might be that “epigenetic”
changes resulting from chronic stress can
change the way the brain responds, causing
an individual to react with resilience or
succumb to psychiatric disorders. This work
provides insights into how our environment
and experiences can cause changes in our
mentality and has important implications for
behavioral science and the treatment of
disease.
-
David Carr reports on the
growth of the air transport industry and its
sustainability in “Storm on the Horizon” [Wings
Magazine, 52(6):22-24
November/December 2011]. The predictions are
that world airline transport will grow
rapidly requiring new, efficient, and larger
airplanes as well as more and larger airport
terminals and a more functional global air
traffic control system that will increase
operating efficiency.
-
The December 2011 issue of
Harvard Business
Review [89(12)]
spotlights the topic of “Reinventing Retail”
through three articles “The Future of
Shopping” [Darrell Rigby, pp.64-77]; “Retail
Isn't Broken. Stores Are” [Gardiner Morse,
pp. 78-83]; and “Know What Your Customers
Want Before They Do” [Thomas Davenport,
Leandro Dalle Mule, and John Lucker,
pp.84-92].
-
The state of smart building
technology is the topic of a special report
in
Buildings
[Volume 11, November 2011]. The article by
Chris Olson discusses smart commercial
building technology and summarizes the
results of a survey of energy practices. A
link in the article is provided to the full
report.
Terrance Malkinson is a
communications specialist, business analyst and
futurist. He is currently an international
correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer, an
associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a
member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE
The Institute. He was Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA
Communications Committee (2004-2010), and
editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer
Digest (2004-2008). He was an elected Senator of
the University of Calgary and an elected
Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management
Society as well as an elected Administrative
Committee member of the IEEE Professional
Communication Society. He has been the editor of
several IEEE conference proceedings, and past
editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the
author of more than 420 publications, and is an
accomplished triathlete. His career path
includes being an accomplished technical
supervisor and medical researcher at the
University of Calgary a business proposal
manager for the General Electric Company, an
associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research
administrator with the School of Health and
Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation
Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.
The author is grateful to the
professional support of the Haskayne School of
Business Library at the University of Calgary.
He can be reached at
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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