The industrial revolution unleashed the full power of humanity mentally and physically, yet it also seems to frighten our sense of purpose in life. Handmade products were once a source of great pride in craftsmanship, and the trades or guilds were a powerful source of fellowship and community, whereas now work is about abstractions of efficiency and profits, with a very anti-social sterility. There is another change: work used to be primarily something that drained the body, but modern work drains the mind as well as the body. Discuss the efforts of early management practitioners and theorists that led to this modern world of extremes, and mention any steps (if any) taken to keep the workplace humane and dignified.

Who is better at multi-tasking? in business, employees are often asked to perform a complex task when their atten-tion is divided (i.e., multi-tasking). human factors (may 2014) published a study designed to determine whether video game players are better than non–video game play-ers at multi-tasking. each in a sample of 60 college stu-dents was classified as a video game player or a non-player. participants entered a street crossing simulator and were asked to cross a busy street at an unsigned intersec-tion. the simulator was designed to have cars traveling at various high rates of speed in both directions. during the crossing, the students also performed a memory task as a distraction. two variables were measured for each student: (1) a street crossing performance score (measured out of 100 points) and (2) a memory task score (measured out of 20 points). the researchers found no differences in either the street crossing performance or memory task score of video game players and non-gamers. “these results,” say the researchers, “suggest that action video game players [and non-gamers] are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task”

In return for their with optimizing his painting project, the castle servant informed poly and digit that he saw someone dressed as the king leaving behind a trail of crumbs as he walked into the jester's room late last night. poly and digit have finally found the crisp-collecting culprit — it turns out the jester's shoe size and hair color match the clues that were found! in gratitude, poly and digit agree to the servant with his current task of replacing all of the tables and chairs in the castle. his goal is to determine which furniture company should produce the new furniture. he receives information from a company that customizes elegant furniture, and he wants to analyze the company's production process in order to calculate some problems about cost and availability. read the following scenario, and assist poly and digit as they the servant with his calculations. the fit for a king furniture company requires 2020 hours of labor to produce a standard table, and a chair requires 1212 hours of labor. the labor available is 565565 hours per week. the company can produce at most 3535 chairs per week.

Jennifer purchased a house in a brand new development in the outskirts of town. when her house was built, the nearest fire department was nearly 20 miles away. as her neighborhood developed, the density of the community called for a new fire department 1.5 miles away. what effect will the new fire station have on her homeowners insurance premium? a. a new fire department will be more demanding on local taxes. her annual premium will go up. b. the location of a fire department has no bearing on the value of her house. her annual premium will stay the same. c. the new fire department will reduce the risk of financial loss in her home. her annual premium should decrease. d. with a fire department so close (less than 5 miles), financial risk on jennifer’s home practically disappears. she will not need to pay insurance anymore.