Reference no: EM13836494

Assessment Details

Word Limit: 2500 - 3500 words.

Objectives

This assignment is designed to stimulate critical thinking outside of the classroom by requiring students to write a formal academic report. You will need to follow the ARE process described in chapters 2 and 3 of Your Business Degree 2 to analyse the assessment task, research relevant information, evaluate the information you find and to write an academic report in which you present your findings or outcomes and make recommendations for future practice. This assessment task will assess your skills in critical thinking, researching information, forming an opinion, academic writing, logical ordering of ideas and your ability to support your arguments with quotes from literature. These objectives will be measured by the ‘closeness of fit' to meeting the assessment task, assessment requirements and assessment criteria listed below.

Please note that there is a wealth of material available on the Libguide website for this course that you should use to help you gather and evaluate relevant information for writing your report (https://libguides.library.cqu.edu.au/coit20233).

Assessment task

Students are required to write an academic report as per the format outlined in chapter 5 of the textbook. The report must follow Harvard citation and referencing guidelines. Please note that the prescribed textbook uses APA referencing guidelines. See also the Referencing Style subsection below.

The report is to be based on the following case study scenario about the effects of the increased automation of white-collar jobs.
Last year the Australian Financial Review wrote an article about a report published by the Australian Government's Department of Industry entitled Australian Industry Report 2014. They argued that "as many as half a million accountants, supermarket cashiers, secretaries, typists and bank tellers in what are largely white-collar jobs are threatened by automation" according to modelling by the Department of Industry (Greber, 2014, para. 1).

However, the Department of Industry's chief economist, Mark Cully, said that "growing fears that robots and artificial intelligence could cast millions from the middle-class into unemployment and poverty are overblown" and that a "large range of relatively high-skilled jobs likely to be lost only supported the need for Australians and governments to embrace structural change that guarantees economic growth and prosperity" (Greber, 2014, para. 2-3).

The Australian Industry Report 2014 provides an Australian perspective to a world-wide debate over the question of whether automation and advances in computer software are starting to displace white-collar, middle-class jobs in increasing numbers. There is no doubt that improvements to existing technologies and the creation of technological innovations will have a negative impact on the demand for some skilled workers. Conversely there are opportunities for a positive impact on the demand for people trained in ICT. Automation will likely be a catalyst for new technologies to develop and have the potential to support the ability of ICT workers to utilise their skills for jobs that have not yet been invented.

You are the ICT manager of a large recruitment organisation based in Brisbane. Your supervisor has asked you to research how best to protect and/or create jobs for your clients. You are to write a report to be presented at the next executive meeting. The report should explore:

1. The impact automation (for example, professional networking and recruitment through social media sites such as LinkedIn, use of robots and artificial intelligence) has had on white-collar jobs in Australia over the last five years.

2. Discuss at least three new jobs that have emerged as a result of technological advances in the last five years. For example, what job opportunities have emerged from recent advances in social media technologies.

3. The opportunities to be employed on the cutting edge of technology. Examine the potential for new jobs to emerge for people who wish to improve their ICT skills. Describe two new jobs that could possibly emerge in the next five years.
Your report should include recommendations that provide guidelines for the organisation with respect to training in knowledge and skills so that your clients can improve their employability in the ICT industry.

Please note that you will need to make some assumptions about your organisation in order to write this report. These assumptions should be incorporated in the introduction to your report when you describe the organisation and outline the problem to be solved.

Reference: Greber, J 2014, ‘Up to 500,000 jobs threatened by rise of robots, artificial intelligence: report', Australian Financial Review, 10 December, viewed 16 February 2015, https://www.afr.com/p/national/report_to_jobs_threatened_by_rise_mr0g5CI1rEbvRKMcBFTzJJ
Specifically your report should include the following:

1. Title page: student name, student number, email address, course code, assignment number, assignment due date, campus lecturer/tutor, and course coordinator (not counted in the word count).

2. Executive summary: should include the purpose of the report, the problem and how it was investigated, your findings and your recommendations (approximately 300 words).

3. Table of Contents: should list the report topics using decimal notation. Needs to include the main headings and subheadings with corresponding page numbers, using a format that makes the hierarchy of topics clear (not counted in the word count).

4. Introduction: provide a brief description of the organisation, a concise overview of the problem you have been asked to research, the objectives to be achieved by writing the report and how you investigated the problem. Provide an outline of the sections of the report. Note that you will have to make assumptions about what type of organisation you are working for in this case study (approximately 400 words).

5. Body of the report (use appropriate headings in the body of the report.): Define key terms you will use in your report, such as what is meant by ‘White-collar jobs'. Present your ideas on the topic and discuss the information you found in your research that was relevant to the report's objectives. Provide an analysis of the information that you gathered. Ensure that you explore the three points listed in the scenario above. You also need to discuss the ethical, social and legal aspects surrounding this issue. In your discussion, examine the issues from a global perspective as well as from the local perspective (of the fictional organisation that is the centre of this report).

Please do NOT use ‘Body of the Report' as a heading. Create meaningful headings that reflect the content of your report (approximately 1200 words).

6. Conclusion: based on your research and analysis. Explain the significance of your findings and your discussion. State if your report has achieved its objectives (approximately 550 words).

7. Recommendations: (based on your findings) what would your recommendations be to your supervisor in this situation? Provide some guidelines for the organisation with respect to training for your clients to take advantage of jobs that are emerging from technological advances (approximately 550 words).

8. Reference list (not counted in the word count).

9. Appendices if necessary (not counted in the word count).

Note: Additional information regarding this assignment may be placed on the course website as required. Check the course website at least once a week for further information relating to the report. Regular access to the course website is a requirement of this course.

Assessment Requirements

Your response should be structured as a report (chapter 5 of textbook), written in accordance with standard academic writing principles (chapter 4 of textbook). The report must be written using your own words with any in text citations clearly marked (see Referencing Style subsection below). You may discuss the assessment task with other students and the lecturing staff but you must WRITE the report YOURSELF in your own words.

You will need to conduct research to support your arguments using AT LEAST NINE references in addition to your set textbook (that is, a minimum of ten (10) references in your reference list). At least six (6) of these references should be from refereed academic journals and books. All sources should be current i.e. 2010 onwards.

The assignment should demonstrate a logical flow of discussion, be grammatically correct and free from typographical, spelling and grammatical errors. It should be prepared in MS-Word (or equivalent) using 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing and margins of 2.54 cm.
It is highly recommended that you submit your assignment to the Academic Learning Centre AT LEAST ONE WEEK before the due date so that it can be checked for spelling and grammatical errors.