The Future Of Work

THE FUTURE OF WORK
How the New Order of Business
Will Shape Your Organization,
Your Management Style, and Your Life
by Thomas W. Malone (nonfiction)

Published by Harvard Business School Press
ISBN: 1591391253
Copyright (c) 2004 Thomas W. Malone

In "The Future of the Work"renowned organizational theorist Thomas W. Malone, codirector of MIT’s landmark initiative “Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century,” shows where these things are already happening today and how—if we choose—they can happen much more in the future. Malone argues that a convergence of technological and economic factors—particularly the rapidly falling cost of communication—is enabling a change in business organizations as profound as the shift to democracy in governments. For the first time in history, says Malone, it will be possible to have the best of both worlds—the economic and scale efficiencies of large organizations, and the human benefits of small ones: freedom, motivation, and flexibility.

I have read parts of this book in an email book club. The book is about new ways of organizing work and how technology is making it possible. Mr. Malone talks about a business revolution that is taking place now. The new revolution promises to lead to a
further transformation in our thinking about control: Where does
power come from? Who should wield it? Who is responsible? Once
again, the result will be a world in which people have more freedom.
A world in which power and control in business are spread more
widely than our industrial-age ancestors would have ever thought
possible. A world in which more and more people are at the center of
their own organizations.

Imagine organizations in which bosses give employees
enormous freedom to decide what to do and when to do it.
Imagine electing your own bosses and voting directly on
important company decisions. Imagine organizations in
which most workers aren't employees at all, but
electronically connected freelancers living wherever they
want to. And imagine that all this freedom in business
lets people get more of whatever they really want in
life--money, interesting work, the chance to help others,
or time with their families.

This is a very interesting book worth exploring in greater detail.