The role of organizations, individuals and managers in the new workplace

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Introduction
  3. The role of organizations
  4. The role of individual workers
  5. The role of managers
  6. Acclimating to the new world of work
  7. Selected bibliography
  8. About Larry Hawes

1. Summary

The world of work has slowly but steadily changed over the past two decades, to the point where the word “work” itself has shifted from a noun denoting the place we went to do our job to a verb that describes the act of performing tasks. The phrase “I’m going to work” is now more likely to mean entering a state of activity than a physical place.

Nearly every aspect of work has been disrupted by powerful, macro forces, including technology, globalization, demographics, economic abundance and environmental sustainability. These shifts are affecting how work is designed, assigned and completed. Key to that are the roles of the organizations, managers and individual workers. This research note examines how those groups are evolving and what they should do to better align with the new realities of work.

Companies mentioned in this research note include Eli Lilly, Li & Fung, LinkedIn and Zappos.

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