Human Relations Approach to Technology Essay

Organizational communication technology is seen as a tool that can free workers from mundane tasks and allow them to engage in activities that satisfy higher- order needs. Emphasis is placed on technological impacts on worker attitudes. (1) This approach has helped people learn to be more of a multitasker. This approach also helps people be able to have more one on one time with people face to face because it frees them up more so than they were once able to do. This approach also changes the world. Another side to this is that technology has done more and faster production than humans can. Technology has taken over many people’s job. What used to be an assembly line of people working to put metal together for chairs or anything else has become a one person job making sure that the robots had put the metal together like it was supposed to be. There is a plant in Hopkinsville, KY that mig welds and repairs parts and pieces of appliances. With this plant there are people only getting hired who has welding experience so that they can check what the machines do, when the machines mess up it is up to that person to fix it. The people working there are always getting laid off due to them over hiring at times. They don’t need as many people as they once did because they have technology and it has stepped up and taken over the jobs of those people who got laid off. In the medical field, there are advancements being made every day. There are always creations of different instruments like the robot advancement that allows the doctor to be able to see better and more precise cuts and less people who need to be in the person’s body at one time. Now there isn’t a whole table of nurses and doctors working there is only one nurse and a doctor who is controlling the robot. The nurse is who puts the instruments in the robot and the doctor moves the robot. Yes this robot is great with being more precise but it is also cutting more people out of their jobs. These medical advancements are being made to make things faster, easier, and more reliable than some older doctor whose hands shake from time to time. There is also the computers advancement that is being made every day. With this computer advancement it is giving me the opportunity to stay at home and work. I get to use the internet to do my job and anything else that I need to do than I simply use my phone. With out all of the advancements that are being made with technology in computers than I would not be able to do this job from home. The only form of human relations that will be from me in this job is the occasional times that I get on the camera and of course all of the times I talk to people on the phone. This does stop the face to face effect that was once a big role in life. Human relations approach to technology plays a major impact no matter which side you want to look at. It plays a role in both ways where it helps humans but it also hurts humans. I feel that to an older person looking at this would think that technology is taking away their livelihood because they are older and it is harder for them to find a different job. (2.) Somebody my age like me, I love the technology and how it plays out according to human relations. I feel that everyday I should learn something new so it doesn’t bother me if I don’t know how to do something. I feel that learning to use technology makes my life easier and faster. References (1.) Miller, K. (2012). Organizational communication: approaches and processes (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. (2.) Subject. (n.d.). JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. Retrieved February 19, 2013, from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20023443?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21101834177857