Chapter 14 - The Online Workplace

Chapter Summary

Organisations today: the online workplace

Where we have come from

• Traditional manufacturing organisations have been compared by Drucker (1988) to a hospital or symphony orchestra. The traditional organisation was housed in a building.
• In the past organisations employed thousands of skilled workers. Heavy industry was the life-blood of towns and cities.
• Traditional organisations had clear boundaries with layers of management. There were clear boundaries between functional units.
• These organisations were often slow to change to the needs of the market economy due to their size. Change was slow.

What about today?

• Organisations are smaller and flatter. There are fewer managerial layers.
• New organisations have a Web presence as well as a building.
• A building is often not necessary as business can be conducted online.
• People’s purchasing behaviour has changed – people buy online.
• Mobile technologies have enabled products such as e-readers and these have revolutionised how we read and how books are purchased.
• The modern workplace and workers are adaptable and flexible.
• Social networking has changed how we work as well as our social lives.

The challenges technology poses for today’s workplaces

The challenge of change

• Today’s fast-paced technological environments demand that companies are interconnected and respond to change rapidly.
• Technology is driving change and in a fast-paced economy change needs to happen quickly.
• Companies are willing to make mistakes and learn from them. They move on and develop new products with the feedback from failures. Google Wave is an example of this.
• There are concerns around management of staff in the virtual workplace. A new style of management is emerging that is results orientated and possesses excellent communication skills for the diverse nature of the organisations.

It’s a new world: the virtual environment

The virtual organisation

• Virtual organisations are flexible networks of independent entities that are linked together with information technology. They share skills, knowledge and expertise. Collaboration is essential.
• The traditional boundaries of organisations have been broken and today we have ‘boundaryless’ organisations which have a global scope.

Virtual teams

• Virtual teams operate with the virtual organisations. These teams are similar to traditional teams in that they are goal and performance orientated. However, the team may not be situated in the one building or country and IT is used for collaboration. Virtual teams may be disbanded once a project has been completed.
• The environment is complex and organisations are continually striving for a competitive edge.
• An example of a successful virtual team is NASA.
• There are challenges to working in virtual teams, including lack of physical interaction and the lack of non-verbal cues. The clarification of team roles also need clarification. Cross- cultural issues need to be understood by team members.

The challenges that technology poses for modern man and woman

Career planning

• Career planning is different from what it was in the past. The world appears smaller and travel and education is less expensive. This offers improved career choices.
• Workers must take responsibility for managing their own careers and there is the emergence of the ‘boundaryless mind-set’.
• Careers are more flexible and workers can create and re-create their careers.

The darker side of technology

• Technology can have some unwelcome challenges.
• Issues of ‘cyberslacking’, ‘cyberdevient behaviour’ and cyberbullying can be problematic.
• Piotrowski (2012) argues that administrators and organisational leaders do not appreciate the full impact of cyber abuse.
• Robust policies and social and organisational support is needed to support victims.

The challenges for the future of work

Future scope

• Change is disruptive and disruptive technological innovations will create the jobs of the future.
• The PCW Reports offers interesting insights into how the future may be shaped.
• New organisational structures will emerge in the future. Many of these will be small and environmentally friendly. There will still be space for the global corporations.

Back to the future?

• Before the Industrial Revolution, the workforce was made up of artisans and agricultural workers. The Industrial Revolution introduced huge manufacturing companies and technological change.
• Today, there seems to be a number of organisations that are smaller and specialised, but interconnected by technology.