Amy Gade

IDS 803: Origins and Implications of the Knowledge Society

Reading Response #2: MINDLESS: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans
Reading Response 2 Writing Prompt
Working from discrete sections of Head's text as a whole, detail how computer information
systems are increasingly being used to replace worker experience and rob workers of autonomy,
power, and pay in the workplace.
The book MINDLESS: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans, by Simon
Head (2014), details how computer information systems are increasingly being used to replace
worker experience and rob workers of autonomy, power, and pay in the workplace. In the
required readings from this text for IDS 803: Origins and Implications of the Knowledge Society
at Fort Hays State University, several examples were given as to how computer information
systems have been utilized to automate more processes within the workplace. In doing so,
managers have seen some success in improved production rates. This improvement has lead
management teams to become reliant on these systems to help make decisions regarding
production processes and quotas. Because production drives revenue, these managers will stop at
almost nothing in order to become as profitable as possible, including sacrificing worker
autonomy, power, and pay, among others. This paper serves to address various examples of what
computer information systems are doing to the worker experience, as noted in Heads (2014)
text.
Head (2014) began his text by explaining that an overreliance on computer information
systems has already began to remove some of the human element from management; he said,
The objects of management are no longer flesh-and-blood humans but their electronic
representation (p. 16). By viewing staff as electronic images and not actual people with
thoughts, feelings, and emotions, management teams are able to focus solely on at the bottom
line, improving productivity, and remove any concern as to how changes might affect their

people. Overreliance on these systems have not only lead to changes in how management views
their employees, but also how they interact with their employees. While management used to be
heavy on verbalizations of tasks procedures, and policies, use of these systems has altered the
way in which employees report, learn, and are evaluated, most of which is now done via
computer screen.
One of the major issues with these software programs is that they do not account for
human interaction or error acceptable in many situations and instead makes employees objects of
speed and efficiency only. Softwares that were once designed to assist with production by
monitoring the physical movement of workers within an assembly line are now being used to
simply monitor all aspects of an employees day. Head (2014) explains how this has changed the
workforce by stating, But in the contemporary service economy, dominated by CBSs (Computer
Business Systems), the targets that matter most are the judgements, human interactions, and even
the speech of employees, and the agents of control are these networked computers empowered
with workflow and monitoring software, with expert systems attached (p. 28).
Likely one the most challenging examples in Heads (2014) text of just how far these
expert systems can go in terms of managing all aspects of an employee is that of Amazon.com.
Head (2014) claimed, "Amazon's system of employee monitoring is the most oppressive I have
ever come across and combines state-of-the-art surveillance technology with the system of
'functional foreman'..." (p. 39). Examples of this surveillance include personal satellite
navigation computers tagged to each employee that details programmed routes they must travel
for stocking and picking within the companys warehouses, as well as tracked target times for
completing tasks. Amazon management members are privy to data which tells them if employees
are not following these routes and/or failing to meet target times, in which case they are sent a

text message warning of possible reprimands. Because Amazon also employs Fredrick Taylors
concept of the functional foremen, additional middle managers are constantly watching
employees. These foremen are responsible for ensuring processes run smoothly, imposing
improvements, and reprimanding staff for situations that may include conversing with other
employees, not using the nearest restroom, or taking a minute to catch their breath. These
foremen can raise production expectations without notice or reason and those that do not or
cannot meet these new expectations are fired without hesitation. Ruthless is probably the best
word to use in describing Amazon's labor practices. So what does it gain them? Head (2014)
explained about Amazons business model, the workplace practices that raise employee
productivity to very high levels also keep employees off balance and thus ill placed to secure
wage increases that match their increased output (p. 44).
While these practices are extreme and, at this point, not necessarily commonplace among
U.S. companies, another country prominent in the industrial and economical world scene, China,
is beginning to see some alarming benefits of computer information systems in the workplace.
Predicted to overtake the United States as the worlds largest economy in the coming year, China
has followed our use of computer information systems in their industrial plants to improve
productivity. In fact, Head (2014) claims, These plants are also operating in a political and
social context that subjects their labor force to a degree of workplace pressure and control that
goes beyond anything to be found in the United States or Europe, though the regimes now in
place at Walmart and Amazon get uncomfortably close (p. 166). By use of U.S. consulting
firms, many Chinese industries have implemented control regimes, like computer information
systems, that largely benefit top management.

In a time in which Chinas industrialization is being driven at a rate not seen since the
Industrial Revolution, both off shore economies and a mass migration of workers from Chinese
villages are helping China rise to new economic power. While off shore economies like that of
greater China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are impactful, China's industrial sector is largely
comprised of these migrant workers. Because China still enforces a household registration
process, these workers must register to their home villages and apply for a permit to live and
work in the city. These workers are considered temporary residents of the city and therefore only
temporary employees. Called "dispatch workers," these employees receive little in the way of
status and bargaining power and are often at the mercy of hiring companies, which send them "to
manufacturers in need of highly flexible and highly exploitable workers" (Head, 2014, p. 176).
These employees can be hired and fired to fit any fluctuation in the demand for work within the
company. With the validity of their temporary permit being tied to their employment, if they are
terminated at any point and cannot find work, they must return to their villages. Because there is
little for work within their villages, migrant workers will endure whatever they can to retain their
job and their pay.
In order to meet the demand for continued growth, Chinese industries rely heavily on
temporary employees of which they have no loyalties to and are able to utilize for maximum
productivity for minimum pay. Because employees in China are dispensable, industries put
extreme pressures on their employees to fulfill production needs. With stories of successful and
attempted suicides among workers at FOXCONN and mental breakdowns and hospitalization of
seven young women on a production line, Chinese labor policies have been at the attention of
many more recently. This added attention has led to some alarming revelations. Head (2014)
revealed a FOXCONN practice in which, if workers finish their quota the target will be

increased until the capacity of the workers is maximized (p. 174). Once a workers maximum
productivity level is reached, they are likely replaced with someone new they can use, abuse, and
dismiss just as easily. FOXCONN CEO Terry Gous cruel perspective is even noted in his
language, hes been quoted as saying, Hungry people have especially clear minds or A harsh
environment is a good thing (Head, 2014, p. 175).
While Chinese industries and U.S. companies, such as Amazon, report productivity
benefits from the use of computer information systems in the workplace, at what cost to their
employees? With examples of monitored restroom breaks, reprimands for talking with ones
colleagues, text message warnings, and firings for no apparent reason in the U.S. and even more
alarming, mental breakdowns, hospitalizations, and even suicides in China, it is clear use of
computer information systems has changed an employees work experience. Reliance on these
systems to inform and make decisions has led to the removal of the human element in
management. Unfortunately, when cash does the talking and productivity means more of it,
computer information systems will likely to remain a key aspect of management into the future.
Employee autonomy, power, and pay are probably just small casualties of an even uglier war to
come.
Works Cited
Head, S. (2014). MINDLESS: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans. New York,
NY: Basic Books.