Change consultant William Bridges asserts that conventional jobs aren t the most effective way to get work done, and that productivity results from empowered intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs. He feels spiritual awakening will help people find greater job and life satisfaction and sees a more caring workplace where respect for the importance of spiritual values, commitment to empowering people s creativity and passion, and recognition of the social responsibility of business will be a positive force for change in the world. Here s a workplace that is progressive, caring and develops human capital as a primary asset, transformed by the workers themselves. A third theory is that the location of workplaces will change from the assembly line to the workstation, to the office, to the home office or mobile office. Knowledge workers are free to live and work where they want, real time and real place are largely irrelevant.
Every place can be a workplace in the future.
A fourth theory puts the workplace of the future in cyberspace, where synergy and higher order creativity are made possible through interconnectedness and interdependence. Kevin Kelly, a technology expert, writes about the emerging network-based economy. The cyberworkplace is characterized by distributed cores, adaptive technology, flex manufacturing, mass customization, industrial ecology, global accounting, co-evolved customers, free bandwith, increasing returns, digital money and underwire economics. But, cyberjobs will be everywhere. Think about the worker in the future.