Technology: Stress Remedy or Causation Abstract Is technology the savior of business people or the bane of their existence? Stress in business is as old as business itself. In modern times, a number of technological devices have appeared to make business more efficient and more productive. These devices include computers, cell phones, and Blackberries. Each device helps organized data, maintain communications, and facilitate business functions. In theory, this should reduce stress in the workplace but in reality, these devices have created new or different workplace stress factors. This is a trend in business that is not likely to change. Technology: Stress Remedy or Causation Stress in the workplace is nothing new. Previous generations of workers faced 12-hour workdays, six days a week. These people labored often in dangerous conditions without healthcare, they had no workers compensation to fall back on in the event of lay-offs, and competition was just as real then as it is today. Facing intensely dangerous factory conditions many feared for their lives or those of loved-ones (Hymowitz & Silverman, 2001). Today's employees function in workplaces that are not perfect but are far better than those of by-gone times. Yet, today's typical employee has difficulty dealing with stress of the modern workplace. Many of the same stress factors that drove our ancestors into alcoholism can still be seen today; however, some of the remedies to job-related stress have intensified or redirected those stresses. Computers, cell phones, e-mail, voice-mail, blackberries, conference calling, and the like overcome business obstacles but in their wake are new or different types of stress. The question posed here is simply, does technology relieve or promote stress? There are few if any people in Western Civilization who could imagine throwing out all those irritating devices and returning to a simpler and slower lifestyle. Rather everyone imagines that there is a device coming soon that will help deal with all the clutter and piles of information clamoring for attention. As expectations for performance grow greater and greater, technological solutions are expected and even demanded. This is the source of nearly all workplace technology. There is a need and innovative engineers find a way to meet that need. Nevertheless, Ben Franklin's admonition, "If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles," has proven true (Grothe, 2004).
whose reach spans the globe, utilizing its powers of societal influence to maintain a dominance over human-kind and to bring about further evolution of modern technology and technique. Humans, through development over time, have given a breath of life to technology, allowing it to be looked at in the light of being its own living system. Technology as a system, as compared to the characteristics of life; has different levels of organization, uses energy for maintenance and growth, responds to a given
INTRODUCTION Poverty and human deprivation have been recognized as the most central challenges to the development of human society ever since the dawn of history. Alongside them is the issue of wealth, its creation, possession, distribution and our attitude towards it. Poverty is considered a major constraint to any form of development of human beings. The ways and means of eradicating it are now intensely studied and researched in several academic disciplines like economics, politics,