Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
UK retailer Marks & Spencer has announced a worldwide reorganisation plan that will lead to close 53 shops in several countries, mainly in UK (30 closures), China (10 closures), France (7 closures), Belgium, Hungary and six other EU countries. The plan will lead to 2,100 jobs losses on a total workforce of 82,204 employees. Since taking over as the new chief executive in April 2016, Steve Rowe has embarked on a program of simplifying the retailer’s structure. Earlier this year, he announced 525 job cuts at the group’s head office in London and a plan to shift another 400 jobs out of the capital. In the UK the group is shutting 30 stores and converting 45 more into food-only shops as part of a major business overhaul that will slash the amount of floor space devoted to its ailing clothing ranges. The retailer intends to put clothing and food on an equal footing with same amount of selling space devoted to both sides of the business. Currently two-thirds of its floor space is dedicated to clothing racks, which puts the British company in sharp competition with low-cost international fashion rivals such as H&M and Zara.
Eurofound (2016), Marks and Spencer, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 89074, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/89074.