Technological Unemployment's Impact On SBM Group - An Essay.

1.Establish the scenario for your report by selecting an organisation of any type, sector and size to focus your report on. Describe:
a) Which organisation is it? (type, sector and size)
b) What are the main products and/or services provided by the organisation?
c) Who are the main customers?

2.Prepare a literature review, charting the development of the concept of Technological Unemployment from its inception until the present day.

Ensure that you include references to at least 10 peer-reviewed articles, including the 2016 paper by Frey and Osborne that has been supplied. You may also find relevant reviews in the trade press and from other authoritative sources.

3.Apply Frey and Osborne’s findings (see Appendix A in the Supporting Materials) in the context of your chosen company.

Consider a low impact scenario, when only jobs at high risk (> 70%) are replaced  by technology. How will the company change?

Introduction of technology and technological unemployment

Introduction of technology has brought about technological unemployment because human labor has been replaced by machines. Technological unemployment is whereby employees lose their jobs due to technological change (Garry 2010, p.52). SBM group, a Mauritius banking company is one of the companies which has introduced technology to improve its services as well as increase the market share. SBM group is one of the biggest banks in Mauritius with over 1500 employees serving in its headquarters and subsidiaries. The services offered at SBM group are opening of bank accounts, money savings and wealth management. The bank also offers insurance services whereby individual pay some amounts monthly to secure their properties in case of any danger. Also, the SBM group offer digital banking services like online banking and bill payments, text alerts and e-statements. The main customers of the SBM group are individuals or a group of people in business who would like their wealth to be managed by banks.

In recent days, there was a discussion on the development of technological unemployment concept and its effects on the operations of an organization. Technology first appeared in the 17^th century with a few organizations familiar with it (Ghani 2012, p.23). By mid of the 20^th century, the term embraced a growing range in ideas, processes, and means in addition to tools and machines. This idea continued growing and by the end of the century, most organizations used it as a means of changing their business environment. Although this came as an advantage to many organizations, most companies feared to embrace the change because they thought it would bring extra expenses to them (Jamie 2016, p.101) Since the 17^th century, technology has grown into phases with new ideas and processes in each phase. Today, technology runs most organizations and people cannot do without them. The evolvement of technology has therefore brought some positive and negative impacts on the organization.

 Satchidananda (2013, p. 124) affirms that as the technology advances, the demand for the human workforce is diminishing since the works requiring them are rare in most sectors. The idea of technological unemployment came out these days because there were fears that employees would be substituted with machines. Tom (2016, p.73) argues that in one or two decades to come many job opportunities would be wiped away by the technology because of new production possibilities. He added that many organizations adopt technology to reduce labor which in turn leads to unemployment. They also do that to reduce product prices hence increase in profits. since then, technology has taken its roots to most organizations and nearly all companies have adopted this. According to Lisa (2014, p.57), organizations engage in technological changes due to competition. Since every company wants to outdo the other in terms of market share and quality products, they introduce technology because it helps assists in gaining these advantages.

SBM Group: Services offered and main customers

For the SBM group, technological unemployment has brought some impacts for both the bank and the employees. For example, the bank has adopted the use of mobile banking whereby customers can withdraw and deposit money using their cellphones and this has helped the company in reducing the long queues in the bank. Mobile banking has led to an increase in productivity because unlike in the past where people used to queue to be served, technology assists in serving many customers at once (Peter 2011, p.85). However, the introduction of mobile banking has reduced the levels of interactions between employees and customers because they used this time to understand other people’s social backgrounds.

For any company wishing to gain a competitive market, it should consider implementing technology in its operations (David 2011, p.50). In this case, technology has helped SBM group in increasing on its market share. Introduction of digital banking, mobile banking are some of the factors which have contributed to this increase. Most people are lazy and they find it hard to visit the banks for some services and since SBM as made them available in their phones, they find it hard in shifting to other banks. However, the use of social media has made many employees to lose jobs because most of these advertisements were done by them (massomeh & Farhang, 2018, p.122). Though the use of social media has enabled SBM group increase on its market share, it has affected the lives of many employees due to loss of jobs.

Lastly, automation has brought advantage to the SBM group in terms of profits increase. For example, the presence of many employees in the bank brings union and the legal role of these unions mostly engage in discussions on how to demand an increase in wages and better working conditions (Judy and Lance 2012, p. 78). This is an extra cost to the company because most of its profits would be focused on increasing wages and ensuring better working conditions for the employees. Also, unlike machines, employees engage in activities which can lead to low productivity (Jasim 2014, p.79). For example, some of the employees develop behaviors which can bring about poor work relationship between the workers. A poor work relationship is one of the major cause of low productivity.

Frey and Osborne (2016, P. 258) discussed some of the impacts of technological unemployment in the company. They argued that it is hard to talk against automation because it is clearly shown in most companies that replacing jobs with technology has led to an increase in productivity. Replacing the jobs at high risks has enabled SBM group to improve its ways of communication. For example, the bank is able to communicate of the new services to its customers in a more simple and fast way. Communication, in this case, is done through Facebook, Twitter and any other form of social media. The bank does not incur costs of making brochures. The managers would also be able to get feedback from the customers about their services. They use these opinions in their planning process to improve the quality of services hence meeting the customers’ requirements.

Positive and negative impacts of technology on the organization

Also, SBM group managers use social media platforms to communicate with their employees about their roles in the company. They mostly use emails and websites to communicate the important issues within the company (Frey and Obsorne 2016 P. 257). This has reduced the time set for meetings which they use it in doing other important things necessary for the company progress. They also use these social media platforms to warn employees of their negative behaviors which can make them not perform well (Peter 2011, p.90). This is mostly done through employee’s personal emails and it is important because once an employee receives a warning in front of others for misconduct, they may develop negative attitudes towards him or her hence creating poor work relationship.

Introduction of technology has assisted SBM group to reduce some of its costs hence increasing it some of these costs profits. These costs include advertising and marketing expenses. Before the introduction of online marketing, the bank mostly did most of its advertisement through seminars, campaigns, and the use brochures. These methods are tiresome, costly and target a small number of people (David 2011, p.45). Since everyone is addicted to the use of technology, SBM took that advantage of this enabled the company to open more branches in Madagascar. The time used by these marketers to go for seminars now use it in doing important things necessary for the growth of the company.

Moreover, replacing the high-risk jobs has enabled SBM group to increase on its business. Technology has the ability to reach a great number of people across the world and this has helped the company attract both local and international customers (Jacques & Christo 2014, p.45). Customers also have 24/7 access to the services and can make transactions whenever they feel like. Also, technology has also helped SBM group change its ways of doing businesses. Technology has allowed them to outsource business functions to others in the national and international business environment. This has helped the company in cutting costs and focusing on the business functions which they do best (Frey and Obsorne 2016 P. 256). Companies outsource in areas in which they think they do not have proper facilities. Technology, therefore, has helped SBM to outsource to the cheapest areas possible including international companies.

Technology has also increased ease in which SBM group stays in touch with its stakeholders. For the customers, the bank keeps updating them on the changes made on their services or existence of a new form of services. Also, if the customers are facing any kind of dissatisfaction they keep updating the management to make the right thing. Moreover, employees can sort for an assistance from their college even if they are out of their reach (Amber 2018, p.100). This can be done through text message or a video chat. Technology has literally changed on how business operates and never before in history has that change occurred so fast. It is therefore concluded that any business aspiring to grow it should introduce technology in its operations.

References.

Amber, w 2018, Decrypting the Role of Distributed Ledger Technology in Payments Processes, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Vol. 81, No. 5, pp. 90-170

David, CW 2011, Banking Industry Consolidation and Market Structure: Impact of the Financial Crisis and Recession,  Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, Vol. 93, No. 6, pp. 45-69

Frey, CB and Obsorne, MA 2016, Technological Forecasting & Social Change

Gary, S 2010, Fewer, Leaner, and More Engaging: Mergers, Cost Reduction, Technology Have an Impact, but the Channel Remains Vital,  ABA Banking Journal, Vol. 102, No. 8, PP. 50-60

Ghani, AA 2012, Adaptation of the Internal Control Systems with the Use of Information Technology and Its Effects on the Financial Statements Reliability: An Applied Study on Commercial Banks,  International Management Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 20-29

Jacques, N & Christo, B 2014, The Impact of Cross-Channel Cognitive Evaluations on the Continued Use Intentions of Mobile Banking,   Management Dynamics, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp.40-70

Jamie, R 2016, Sharing Suspicions: How Automated Collaboration among Financial Institutions Can Help Banks, and Law Enforcement, Fight Financial Crime More Efficiently and Effectively, ABA Banking Journal, Vol. 108, No. 6, pp. 100-120

Jasim, MA 2014,  Adaptation of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to the Use of Mobile Banking Services, International Review of Management and Business Research, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 70-99

Judy, M, and Lance, G 2012, Stereotypes and Older Workers: The New Zealand Experience, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, pp. 67-80

Lisa, V 2014, Building a Deep Bench: How Forward-Thinking Banks and Their Trade Associations Are Finding and Shaping Future Bank Leaders, ABA Banking Journal, Vol. 106, No. 7, pp.56-79

Massomeh, H & Farhang, N 2018, The Impact of Interest Rate Volatility on Financial Market Inclusion: Evidence from Emerging Markets,  Journal of Economics and Finance, Vol. 42, No.2, pp. 120-140

Peter, G 2011, Need It Now! Banks Are Getting Serious about Business Intelligence. They Have to, in Order to Cope with Market and Regulatory Demands, ABA Banking Journal, Vol. 103, No. 6, pp. 80-100

Satchidananda, SS 2013,  Risk-Differentiated Approach to Technology Risk Management of Banks,  ASBM Journal of Management, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 123-150

The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs

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