Analysis

Jo Cox: Proud Yorkshire lass who became local MP

Jo Cox was the Labour MP for Batley and Spen She was a self-proclaimed “proud Yorkshire lass” whose work for charity took her around the world and whose political success led her to Westminster. Jo Cox MP, who has died after being shot and stabbed in her constituency in Birstall, West Yorkshire, was elected as MP for Batley and Spen in the 2015 General Election. The 41-year-old mother-of-two increased Labour’s majority to 6,051. Prime Minister David Cameron led the many tributes to her on Thursday. He described her as a “bright star”. Helen Joanne Cox first worked in politics after graduating from Cambridge University in 1995, but then built a career working for charities including Oxfam, Save the Children and the NSPCC. She went to Heckmondwike Grammar School and then became the first person in her family to go to university – reading social and political studies at Cambridge. After graduating, she worked as an adviser for the Labour MP Joan Walley and then Glenys (now Baroness) Kinnock. By the end of the 1990s she was head of campaigns for the pro-European pressure group Britain in Europe. She also took on further study at the London School of Economics. It’s an over used word these days, but Jo was a star. She was brave, funny, and clever. In Westminster she was one of those rare people that whatever was going on in politics that day, however much backbiting there was, however many insults were being thrown around, the day was always improved if you bumped into her for a chat, a cup of tea, or heard her speak fearlessly and with compassion in the Commons. But a conversation with her was just as likely to turn to her young kids, or the family’s houseboat on the Thames, as it was […]

The paradox of meritocracy

Blind spot? Managers in meritocratic organizations fail to recognise their own bias. From founders to funders, Silicon Valley prides itself on its meritocratic ethos; however, new research from MIT finds that organizations with meritocratic values are often the worst offenders of bias, specifically as it relates to gender. Authors Emilio Castilla and Stephen Bernard found that organizations with meritocratic principles favor men over “equally performing women” via higher bonuses and favorable career outcomes. Conversely, when the authors stressed organizational values that emphasized individual autonomy (and not meritocratic principles), they found no statistical significance in the difference of bonus amount awarded by gender. Their work supports previous research, which finds women and minorities are paid less than white male peers – even when they have the same job, supervisor, human capital and performance evaluation score. Castilla and Bernard conclude, “Merit-based pay practices in particular may fail to achieve race or gender neutral outcomes.” Why does this happen? It appears that when managers work for meritocratic organizations, they believe they are more impartial, and thus (unknowingly) give themselves permission to act on their biases. And when people view themselves as unbiased, they are less likely to self-scrutinize. Castilla calls this, “the paradox of meritocracy”. Biases from beginning to end We all have biases, and they’re revealed beyond bonus times. In fact, they creep in throughout an employee’s entire career – in hiring, retention, promotion and attrition. When reviewing resumés during hiring, our unconscious biases – or the bias we are unaware of that allows us to gather information quickly – often finds that we prefer male to female candidates and “white” sounding names (like Emily and Greg) to more ethnic sounding names (like Lakisha and Jamal). In fact, both men and women will prefer to hire a male applicant – even when […]

Factory replacing robots with humans

Personal touch … Mercedes-Benz has found some jobs can only be done by humans Mercedes-Benz is firing robots and bringing in humans to do the job instead. Robots can’t keep up with the changing pace and adaptation required by the luxury car-maker; instead the flexibility and dexterity of human workers is required. “We’re moving away from trying to maximize automation, with people taking a bigger part in industrial processes again,” said Markus Schaefer, head of production at the company. This change comes as many car manufacturers are moving towards an age of individualization, offering more options to consumers. Mercedes’s S-Class sedan, for example, comes with an array of options, from carbon-fibre trim, heated and cooled cup-holders and four types of caps for the tyre valves. “Robots can’t deal with the degree of individualization and the many variants that we have today,” Schaefer explains. Customizing on this scale proves difficult for robots, which aren’t programmed for adaptations. The variations have proved too much for the machines, with robots requiring to be reprogrammed and assembly patterns to be adapted. The chart below shows how luxury car-makers are expanding their ranges, jumping from less than 15 options in 2000 to more than 35 for Mercedes Benz in 2015. The automotive industry is the largest user of industrial robots. According to the International Federation of Robotics, nearly 1.3 million industrial robots are expected to come into use by 2018, with the automotive industry expected to maintain its prominence in using robotics. Mercedes isn’t going completely robot-free, though; they’ll be using smaller and more flexible robots in conjunction with skilled human workers. This “robot farming”, as Mercedes has dubbed it, will equip workers with smaller machines they can work with, rather than separating machines and workers.

Disruptive technologies – where to from here?

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Who’s with Tony (Blair)?

Tony Abbott went to London and at a dinner suggested that Europe stop the refugees coming in. But more of that later. Tony Blair held a press conference before the release of the Chilcot Report so he wouldn’t appear to be such a bad guy over the disintegration of the Middle East. He is a war criminal waiting to happen and George W Bush and maybe John Howard won’t be far behind. Even The Donald, one of the most pompous and awe-deflating Republican presidential candidates the world has ever seen, gets it. He said recently that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi ought to be still alive and we wouldn’t be in such a mess. The Donald said what we are all thinking and not expressing enough. The USA and its allies have made a pretty big mess and don’t know how to get out of it. Vladimir Putin is becoming a folk hero in Syria as he goes about his business of getting rid of Isis in a steady, let’s bomb them now kind of a way. And Isis…well they wouldn’t be about if the west had left the Middle East alone all those years ago. It’s a big mess and it’s going to be awfully hard to fix it. War creates pain and right now thousands and thousands of refugees are trying to find some peace in faraway fields in Europe. Back to Tony Blair…in the UK officials want him to stand trial for his role in all this. Anger abounds and the Chilcot Report may well be the mechanism to make this happen. Tony Abbott is telling Europe to do what Australia did…turn the people back…protect your borders and let Assad and all his mates look after their own people. –The Elephant in the Conversation

Caution urged to resolve food crisis

The world has faced food crises twice since the latter half of the 20th century. The first one took place in 1973. The world end of term grain stock ratio, which had been on the decline for some years because of the worldwide grain failure, sank to a record-low of 15.4% in 1972. In the same year, the Soviet Union became a net-importer of grain due to the increase of livestock products consumed by the Soviet people. The 1973 crisis was caused by factors such as the bulk purchase of grain by the Soviet Union under the circumstances of poor harvest, and the U.S. placed an embargo on soybeans, albeit for a short period of time. The impact was so enormous that they named it the Reappearance of the Ghost of Malthus, and grain was referred to as the third strategic material behind nuclear weapons and oil. After that, however, countries including the European Community (EC) steered toward the enhancement of agricultural production, which considerably alleviated the condition of grain supply and demand. While protecting national borders by levying import surtaxes under the Common Agricultural Policy, the EC protected intraregional agriculture through generous support for farm product prices. As a result, they were plagued by excess produce in the 1980s. The EC implemented the raw milk quota system in 1984, and the U.S. also undertook the set-aside. The world grain market substantially shifted to the tone of excesses. The EC, which had failed to eliminate such excess, exported excess agricultural products to developing countries with export subsidies, and the U.S. used the said subsidies in defiance, causing a dumping battle with financial burdens. The agricultural negotiations in the Uruguay Round of GATT started in 1986 under the theme of removing the market distortion through agricultural protection by such developed countries, […]

What Volkswagen, Tesco and BP have in common

Over the past few years global corporations have been hit by scandals, and it mostly boils down to culture – or the lack thereof. Recently German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Not two weeks after having been declared “Industry Leader” in the 2015 DJSI Annual review, they were found to have installed software in vehicles allowing them to cheat on US emissions testing. Not only is this unethical, it is of course hugely illegal. There’s been an abundance of writing published since on the issue, but I’d like to ask a slightly different question: how does a leading global brand allow such behaviour to take place? By looking at this instance in the context of other high-profile scandals – specifically those involving BP and Tesco– perhaps we can find some answers. In all cases of wrongdoing, the actions of certain individuals will be the cause. However, it’d be naive to think that one or a collection of individuals were and are the sole cause at the root of the issue. It all comes back to culture, or more specifically, the lack of an ethical/responsible culture. There’s much academic writing that suggests individuals’ actions are the result of an organisation’s culture, not it’s values or even the individual’s beliefs. For multinational companies as large as Volkswagen, BP and Tesco are, it’s fair to assume that nearly all of their staff have and will act in a responsible and ethical manner. However, company or department cultures caused certain individuals to act in unethical ways. Below are four potential catalysts for an unethical culture: Inappropriate goals – Chasing sales targets, acquiring market share, obtaining new contracts are just a few goals that could create the pressure to act unethically Inappropriate reward system – Similar to goals, companies that […]

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