Critical Review: Analyzing Key Issues in Today's Business World

This report provides a critical review of several key topics relevant to today's business environment. It examines the constant nature of technological change and its impact on organizations, using Amazon's use of big data as an example. The report also differentiates between diversity management and equal opportunity, highlighting the importance of managing diversity effectively in globalized workplaces. Furthermore, it analyzes relational and transactional psychological contracts and their application to specialist skills shortages and precarious employment. Lastly, the report discusses the potential difficulties of working from home, especially for women, and suggests ways HR can support remote staff, including fostering employee engagement and providing fair reimbursement. The report concludes that understanding these issues is crucial for organizational success and employee well-being. Desklib offers a variety of solved assignments and past papers for students seeking further assistance.

Critical review

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
TOPIC 1: Technological change is a constant feature of the organisational context............3
TOPIC 2: Differences between diversity management and equal opportunity......................4
TOPIC 3: Analyse both types of psychological contract and discuss their application to the
following two current trends in employment; specialist skills shortages and precarious
employment............................................................................................................................5
TOPIC 4: Discuss the potential difficulties of working from home and why home working
may be disadvantageous for women’s career. Analyse the ways in which HR can support
staff who work from home.....................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals:...............................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Today’s business environment is becoming very complex and dynamic in nature and
that’s why it is becoming very important for employees and employers to understand the
important concept. This report aims to analyse important topic which are necessary to discuss
in current business world. This report will cover technological change which becomes
essential for organisation as it is a constant feature. It will discuss differences of diversity
management and equal opportunity. In addition to this, it will discuss types of psychological
contract and their application on trends in employment. It will also cover potential difficulties
of working from home for women. These all are important topic which will be covered in this
report with the correct use of sources and examples.
MAIN BODY
TOPIC 1: Technological change is a constant feature of the organisational context
The business landscape of 21st century is found that it has ever changing trends and
events. This is the reason that business leaders of an organisation is found to be surprised pita
rapidity of changes in organisation. Changes in organisation of found to be constant in nature.
In this context, technological change is identified as an important change which becomes
very essential for the success of organisation. Organisational success is depending on the way
of treating technological change. It is important to note that everyday there is found changes
in technologies which becomes very important for organisations to accept. Technological
changes are found to be crucial for organisation to accept as it provided a great impact on the
productivity as well as employment. One important technological change is identified in
Amazon is use of big data. In today's technical environment, it is identified that the use of big
data is becoming very important for every type of organisation. This concept is better
understand with the analysis that how Amazon is using big data in organisation. Big data is
considered as a technology which is really helpful in order to manage large amounts of data.
It is identified in current times that everything has become digital and because of that data
collection is also become digitalised. Data is refers to crucial information that possess by
company about its market insights, competitors marketing strategy and customers. This is the
main reason that companies are accepting the technological change which is big data. They
are focusing on using big data technology which helps Amazon to enhance their procedure in

order to convince their consumers towards purchasing of products and services. For that
purpose, it is identified that Amazon is collecting individual data of its customers with the use
of their websites. In addition to this, it is also found at Amazon is keeping track on customers
that what items they were viewed. They also track shipping address of users and the reviews
which are left by customers. They are using big data by many ways such as Alexa voice
recordings, personalised recommendation system, one click ordering, and anticipatory
shipping model and book recommendations from Kindle (How Amazon uses Big Data?,
2021). It provided a great impact on productivity as Amazon is able to manage their data in
an effective way. In addition to the this, it is also identified that technological changes and
innovations may be result in improved lifestyles as it increases productivity which results in
reducing the burden on workers. It also identified that consumerism is increased with the help
of technological innovations which results in more employment opportunities. This is the
main reason that technological changes necessary for organisation as well as for people.
TOPIC 2: Differences between diversity management and equal opportunity
In business environment, it becomes very important for organisations to manage
diversity in workplaces. It is defined as the organisational actions which aim to promote
greater inclusion employees from different kind of backgrounds. It is identified in the
organisation that everyday diversity in workplace is increasing and it becomes very important
for companies to manage the diversity in an effective way. According to the Equality Act
2010, it is necessary for organisation that they should treat equal behaviour with each and
every employee. It is the law which protects employees from discrimination. Discrimination
can be done on the basis of many grounds such as age, disability, marriage, gender
reassignment, religion, pregnancy, maternity, race, etc. It is important for organisation that
day needs to manage diversity which helps in order to achieve the goals and objectives. It is
also found that managing diversity enhances food management practices with the help of
preventing discrimination and promoting inclusiveness. In organisation, managers are
focusing on managing diversity. They are performing actions which help to utilise skills and
knowledge of each and every employee and provide motive to stay in organisation with
different background of employees. It is identified that because of diversity in workplace,
there are many kinds of issues will be occurred in the organisation which includes conflicts
among employees, not accepting the behaviour of other people, etc. In order to manage
diversity, it is become very important for organisations that they need to provide equal
opportunity to each and every employee so that they cannot feel any problems. The main

reason of increasing diversity in organisation is globalisation. It is identified that
globalisation is leading to allow all types of businesses to trade on a common platform that
comes from different countries. Equal opportunity is found to be a state of fairness in which
individuals are treated similarly. There is a difference between managing diversity and equal
opportunity. The different is found in its implementation process because equal opportunity is
initiated externally and driven by legislation which includes fairness, group parity, justice and
human right. On the other hand, it is identified that managing diversity is initiated internally
and driven by business needs. In this case, organisations are focusing on increasing
effectiveness with the help of utilisation of employees’ potential and skills.
TOPIC 3: Analyse both types of psychological contract and discuss their application to the
following two current trends in employment; specialist skills shortages and precarious
employment
In these days, the relevancy of psychological contract is increasing in workplace
relationships and human behaviour. Psychological contracts are defined as a relationship
between employee and employer in which they are concerned about mutual expectations of
outcomes and inputs. It is representing rights, obligations, rewards, etc. In which employees
believe that they are owed by employer and because of that in return they get some
compensation for their loyalty and work.
Two important types of contracts are found which depend on the nature of relationship
between employer and employee. It includes relational psychological contracts and
transactional psychological contract. Relational psychological contract is focusing on
interdependence of organisation and also include level of social exchange and this is the main

reason that they tend to be longer term. On the other hand, transactional psychological
contract are focusing on explicit elements of contract without any intrinsic motivation of
workers. These types of contracts are very common in organisation where they have
authoritative management styles. It is also identified that transactional psychological
contracts are also found in the organisation which have a hierarchical control. It is necessary
to apply in the organisation where it needs. In the current trend of employment it is identified
that companies are facing a problem of specialist skills shortages. Psychological contract are
also required in precarious employment where it is found that employees are not getting
enough payment and they feel insecure and unprotected. In these situations, companies need
to apply psychological contracts.
TOPIC 4: Discuss the potential difficulties of working from home and why home working
may be disadvantageous for women’s career. Analyse the ways in which HR can support
staff who work from home
Due to pandemic, it is identified that now employees are getting work from home.
Part it is necessary to understand that there are many difficulties found in working from home
and especially for women. People or not so much technological upgrade this is the main
reason that they are facing difficulty in work from home. In addition to this, one important
reason for difficulties is employees are not able to balance their work life as it can be mix
with personal life of people due to work from home. Generally, when people are doing work
from office then they know that they have fixed office hours. But in the case of work from
home, employers and employees both are facing a problem as employees makes a pressure on
employees to give their additional hours. This leads to stress and pressure on employees. It is
identified that women in corporate or even more burned out as compared to men. Women
careers found to be not growing due to work from home as they have many types of
responsibilities which they need to perform. It is important to note that work from home
provided many barriers in the career of women and it becomes crucial for human resource
department of an organisation to support staffs that are doing work from home. There are
many ways which are identified in order to support staff who work from home such as foster
employee engagement, remain adaptable, scheduling virtual events, create suitable
benchmarks, fairly reimburse employees, etc (7 Ways HR Can Support Remote Workers,
2020). These are the important ways which helps in organisation to do something for
employees especially for them who are doing work from home.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that business environment has filled
with full complexities. There are many important topics covered in this report which found to
be important for organisational context. It included technological change which is found to be
important for the success and growth of an organisation. It covered diversity management and
equal opportunity which shows that it is crucial for companies to understand the importance
of diversity management and also needs to focus on providing equal opportunities to both
male and female. It also covered the problems which identified in work from home for
women as it provided a great impact on their career. The last topic which is also important in
employment as it included current trends in employment. It is crucial for organisation to
analyse types of psychological contracts.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Ortiz-Bobea, A., Knippenberg, E. and Chambers, R.G., 2018. Growing climatic sensitivity of
US agriculture linked to technological change and regional specialization. Science
advances, 4(12)
Hyde, C.K., 2019. Technological change and the British iron industry, 1700-1870. Princeton
University Press.
Munch, J., Olsen, M., Smeets, V. and Warzynski, F., 2018. Technological Change and Its
Implications for the Labor Market, Productivity and the Nature of Work. Mimeo.
Dobbin, F. and Kalev, A., 2018. Why doesn't diversity training work? The challenge for
industry and academia. Anthropology Now, 10(2), pp.48-55.
Thym, A., 2020. Gender equality through assimilation or recognition of plurality? Reflections
on gender equality, equal opportunity and diversity policies at Swiss universities.
Coyle-Shapiro, J.A.M., Pereira Costa, S., Doden, W. and Chang, C., 2019. Psychological
contracts: Past, present, and future. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and
Organizational Behavior, 6, pp.145-169.
Baruch, Y. and Rousseau, D.M., 2019. Integrating psychological contracts and ecosystems in
career studies and management. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), pp.84-111.
Watson, S., 2018. The restructuring of work and home: productive and reproductive relations.
In Housing and Labour Markets (pp. 136-154). Routledge.
Del Boca, D., Oggero, N., Profeta, P. and Rossi, M., 2020. Women’s and men’s work,
housework and childcare, before and during COVID-19. Review of Economics of the
Household, 18(4), pp.1001-1017.
Online:
How Amazon uses Big Data?, 2021. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/how-amazon-uses-big-data>
7 Ways HR Can Support Remote Workers, 2020. [Online] Available through: <
https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/7-ways-hr-can-support-remote-workers/>