Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Marina Gorbis on "Organizational Change Coming Soon" for Roll Call News, May 18 Issue
Corporatism has permeated almost all levels of culture, including language, schools, and media. We almost cannot conceive of a world without the hierarchical organizational charts, mission statements, and rules that dictate our working life. But the next decade will see a change in the organization of our culture. The beginnings of new organizational shapes are already abound—from the user-generated Wikipedia to volunteers taking over customer-support services for organizations.
We can already see signs pointing to big shifts in how we will organize and think about work:
- The emergence of ecological/epidemiological view of markets and behaviors.
- The rise of amplified individuals.
- A new focus on engagement.
We discussed may of these themes in our 2007 Technology Horizons Future of Work Perspectives, now available for public consumption.
From the article:
In the past century we have mastered the art of corporate organization — the art of organizing people and resources for the ultimate goal of maximizing shareholder profits. Along the way, we developed a host of management theories and practices that have become bibles to generations of working men and women.
The corporate culture we created spread well beyond the business realm. In his forthcoming book “Life Inc.,” media expert Douglas Rushkoff points out that corporatism has permeated our culture, language, philanthropic organizations, schools and media. It is how we’ve come to think about getting things done. We almost cannot conceive of a world without hierarchical organizational charts, mission statements, bounded departments, and clear sets of corporate rules and incentives.
All of this is about to change. You can think of the next decade as a decade of experimentation with new ways of organizing our society, including our economic and business activities. Beginnings of new organizational shapes already abound — from Wikipedia to volunteers taking over customer-support services for organizations. Turns out that being helpful to others can be its own reward.
Read the rest of the article here at Roll Call.