A Vision on the Workspace
Bit by bit, the world of work has changed. Although Information and Communications Technology has been absolutely central to this change, the scale of the shift is greater than the sum of its parts. We need to look further than the adrofessional roleoption and effect of individual technologies and think about cultural, economic and generational change in the world around us. Globalisation has had a massive effect on the way we design, manufacture and distribute goods.
The perimeter of the individual organization is no longer a hard divide. The extended enterprise softens the separation between an organization and its suppliers, partners, clients and even competitors. This is also thanks in part to the ease with which available technologies help us to work outside previous organizational structure: mobile computing, social networking and web-based delivery models all break the divide further.
In this new world, the nature of the information worker has changed too. Just a few years ago, we saw information workers as being those who worked at the smarter end of business Today, we see the characteristics of information working becoming an intrinsic part of a wider range of jobs and work-styles.
This growth in information work is clearly reflected in attitudes to homeworking and mobile working -both in terms of flexible contracts and of connectivity and access to information but work becomes something you do and not a place you go to. The New Way of Working affects the entire organization and requires concerted cooperation of Management, HR, Facilities, Finance and ICT.