Saturday, April 23, 2011
The facebook Generation
In his article "The Facebook Generation Vs. the Fortune 500," Gary Hamel explains how the environment in the workplace will change as a result of the online presence of the latest generation of high-school and college grads. I think that the online presence changes the way people interact with each other and the fundamental structure of relationships within a company. There is not as much need to interact with others in a direct manner, and the collective group and the information harnessed there in is of the up most importance. I feel that this can be positive, but I am not too keen on the changes. When Hamel talks about self-defining organizations and inherently equal footing for all members of the community, business or otherwise, it seems good. But, I feel that this can lead to a lack of clarity or direction. I do not honestly know what the workplace will be like for me when I am out of school, but I have hope for the future.
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I understand how the idea of equal footing for all members could lead to lack of clarity or direction. There will always be a need for a point person to make the final decision or be the representative. In contrast, having peoples' involvement in the decision process can bring out more and better ideas if we are not afraid of losing our station or status.
ReplyDelete"lack of clarity or direction", yes, we cannot run a company totally democratically, yet not only decision making but creative problem solving is often much better without a hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteDirect communications is definitely turning into a concept of the past. I know where I work we just had everyone install Google Talk and even if we are sitting next to each other we tend to do it instead of just talking out loud. Change is a good thing but I am not sure that such a drastic change is going to be good for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI took a class last semester where we discussed organizational development, and one of the topics was "vertical" organization vs. "horizontal" organization. One of the biggest takeaways for me was that even if the organization is very democratic and "horizontal", there must be a final decision maker in order to be effective.
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