The impact of technology in the twenty-first century is increasingly being seen in jobs that were considered standard positions that required an office; for example, an airline booking office where the traditional call centre undertaking standardised calls would be the norm. However, through technology the way jobs and work are designed has fundamentally changed. As JetBlue have found, not only can they save on cost by redesigning work but they have increased retention and productivity. JetBlue is a US-based airline carrier that employs 800 reservation agents - nothing special in that except where they work. All of the agents work from home, and there is no physical booking office. Employees log on from home.to undertake their work. The original reasons for this were to reduce turnover associated with commuting to work and then working in a call centre-type environment. Not only has this change in time, place, and space of work reduced turnover, it has increased productivity by 25 per cent. The reason behind this success is a change in mind-set in terms of the way the organisation views how it designs work and jobs.

Questions

1 Consider your workplace or university class. How could work and job design be used to increase your productivity?