Vision for the future of work - part 6

After a few lovely days away, enjoying Spanish sunshine, culture, and gastronomy I continue my #futureofwork journey!

As I enjoyed some Tapas and some Goya… I also realised that the impact of the future of work on #jobdesign and the employment relationship (see part 1), will significantly depend on-, and be influenced by culture.

I discussed how the organisation will flatten; how decisions (with the help of AI) will be made throughout the #networkorganisation, rather than exclusively at the “top of the pyramid”. I explained how I see work evolving into a community with a collective brain, rather than a single brain at the “top” and the rest of the employees being executers and followers. Some cultures may already be very collaborative, whereas others are more deeply enshrined into authority and hierarchy.

In the future of work, young people who are born into the digital age, have valuable competencies and ideas, that older generations often lack, especially when it comes to applying, integrating, and using AI. If the local culture is hierarchical, people of different ages may not have the same voice and influence. “You are not here to think, but to do as I tell you. When you have the years of experience I have, you get the right to think”. This may sound completely foreign to some, whilst pretty familiar to others.

Taking this to some practical areas of HR, what about reward? In the future, how do we #reward people in a network organisation? How will reward be defined, who gets rewarded and for what? How do competencies, impact, responsibility and tenure, impact individual reward when we move away from a top-down hierarchy?