This is an analysis of Roger Martin’s article entitled, “ The U. S. Needs to Make More Jobs More Creative.” The article is dated 27 February 2012. It examines the creativity in the American workforce, and claims that if increased it will improve its competitiveness. Although America is progressing towards achieving the higher level of creativity, it requires increasing the speed of the process. Michael Porter has shown that a successful workforce improves productivity of any given enterprise. Eventually, the entire economy benefits from it.
The article’s central position is based on Porter’s economic views and investigates wage patterns by the content of job throughout clustered as well as dispersed industries (Martin). All the jobs analyzed are classified as creativity-oriented or routine-oriented. Within the latter, three unique types were classified, namely routine-physical, service, and resource. The biggest part of population in America is occupied with the routine-service jobs. The article reveals that building strong clusters is important because they stipulate high wages for creativity and routine-oriented jobs. However, the problem is the issue of dispersed industries for routine-oriented employments (Martin).
Currently, there is no possible way to fix the problem fast, although involving workers in judgment as well as decision-making would improve the yield in terms of performance, productivity, and wages. America is able to improve creativity in jobs, especially in creativity-oriented professions, but it will be more difficult to achieve for other types of jobs.
This is an academic and scholarly article since it is a Harvard business review, which makes it appropriate for a business paper. The subject matter is relevant as well as pertinent to the topic. The article’s title corresponds and relates well with the content. The title concerns the need for the United States to increase creativity in more employments. On the other hand, the content of the article concerns the types of employments and the possibility of making all of them more creative. Therefore, the title is appropriate for the article. The author treats all the readers equally and does not talk down to the reader (Martin).
The actual content of the article is properly organized as well as coherent (UNSW). The author uses illustrations, however, he uses graphs to show and elaborate the content. This makes the content more understandable and promotes organization. Graphs in this article are functional and attract the attention of the reader, help in memorizing, and complement the content. They help to organize data, which would otherwise make the article appear confusing and jumbled. The author uses a line and a bar graph to make visual presentations. These visuals give a clear picture of the actual situation and one can see the high and low points presented in the bar graph whereas the line graph reveals the concept of correlation (Ucar).
The author makes good points, for instance Porter’s explaining of how working conditions affect the production of any given organization. Similarly, the author proves that creativity is lacking and hard to achieve in many types of jobs. This is the main issue in the article, and by presenting substantive evidence the author is able to convince the reader that America should put more effort to increase creativity. More important, the article reveals the three types of jobs, which enhance the understanding of the difficulty of achieving creativity. Furthermore, the article shows that the creativity if achieved would improve the productivity, which is preferable for most of the jobs. Additionally, the article reveals that nevertheless it is hard to achieve creativity in jobs, but with the involvement of employees in judgment and decision-making, it can be attained (Martin). Thus, the article drives the point home that America should increase creativity and this is possible. The article includes essential points such as business conccepts that make the article reliable and valid.
Some of the business concepts include Michael Porter analysis of the modern economies in relation to the article’s topic. Another important concept is the concept of wage patterns, which help to reveal how jobs are different. The issue of decision-making is central to any business discussion because an organization is founded on decisions, which are essential for the business to run smoothly. Industrial conditions also depict business-related matters, especially categories like dispersed and clustered industries. Other concepts include unemployment, correlation, and income inequality among others (Martin).
I have learnt that creativity is very important for the success of any organization. Although hard to achieve, it is possible through involving employees in the running of the business. If creativity is achieved, the poor waged jobs can become more profitable and improve the working conditions. The creativity-oriented job is the most appropriate job although it is limited due to clustering in the industries. The employees here enjoy security in contrast to those having routine jobs in dispersed industries, where they are downsized and laid off. From this, it is clear how creativity plays an important role in employment and makes the difference between different types of jobs. It is important for United States to increase creativity because it brings the benefit to the economy of entire country.
In conclusion, the article achieves its purpose because it has successfully shown why and how the United States can increase creativity in employments. Although the process is hard to achieve, it is possible through engaging employees directly in decision-making and allowing them to use a big part of their brain. Similarly, by encouraging employees and giving them some space to innovate rather than leaving all the responsibility and important decisions to the managers. Creativity, when achieved in employments, benefits the entire economy.
