The use of smartphones became increasingly popular, according to the 29th edition of the Annual Survey of the Use of IT, from the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, and coordinated by Prof. Fernando S. Meirelles, the number of smartphones in use in Brazil reached 220 million in May 2018. In addition to the obvious communication facilities, this also brings an alert situation for Organizations, due to possible indiscriminate uses by some people, such as, diversion of attention during meetings, or distractions during working hours caused by unproductive browsing, in addition, of course, to information security problems, arising from the incredible ease of filming and photographing.

Interested and curious about the subject, I searched for some research on smartphone usage policies in Organizations. As I didn’t find them, I decided to do a search myself through the Brazilian plant management portal GestaoIndustrial.com. Responses were obtained from 18/04/2018 to 01/06/2018, totaling 164 respondents. See the following results. Continue reading “Policy for the Use of Smartphones in Organizations”

Albert Camus, French philosopher and writer, said that a man without ethics is like a wild animal loose in the world. In Organizations, there is a growing concern about the ethical stance of its employees (and it must be), because the damage caused by the lack of ethics in business can simply destroy a company’s reputation, and even close its doors. Continue reading “The Importance of Ethics in Organizations”

“Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”

George Orwell – British writer, best known for his book “1984”.

Defining Periods

When it comes to defining the period of generations, there is no absolute consensus. For example, the Merrriam-Webster dictionary defines generation Y somewhat loosely, as that of those born between the 1980s and 1990s. The Gallup research institute defines generation Y as that of those born between 1980 and 1996 (reference: Millennial Banking Customers: Two Myths, One Fact), while the global consultancy EY defines the period from 1981 to 1996 (reference: Americas retail report: Redefining loyalty for retail), which is the same period adopted by the Pew Research Center (reference: Defining generations: Where Millennials end and post-Millennials begin). However, another great social and market research consultancy, Australian McCrindle, defined Generation Y as being born between the years 1980 and 1994 (reference: Generations Defined), this period being the one we adopted here, as it represents better the next generation (Z), who was born in the personal computer environment. Continue reading “Generations Over Time”