Demand driven to customer driven

Planned, Controlled, and Disciplined to Unpredictable and  Volatile

Homogeneous employees to a multicultural, multi gendered workforce

Valuing security, diligence, and obedience to valuing  imagination, flexibility, and results

Local to Global

Simple to High Tech

• Cottage industries have been replaced by businesses outside of the home
• Technology advances have changed the way businesses do everything, from bookkeeping to communication to production, to sales. Speed has been raised to a whole new level.
• Demand does not exceed supply anymore, serve the customer or lose business
• Global markets have increased competition

• Changing technology requires new space, "wired" buildings, and more energy
• Telecommuting and business travel have changed how much and when people use the office
• Different ways of working need different settings (team rooms, video conference rooms, hotelling offices)
• Top employees demand amenities (fitness centers, daycare, gourmet food, healthy environments)
• Changing hierarchies mean changing offices (non territorial, universal plan, open offices)

Literature Review

Forty, A. (1986) Objects of Desire. New York: Pantheon Books, p 120-155.

     This reading is a fascinating and informative overview of the evolution of office design  in the 20th Century, including various furniture pieces, from typists chairs to executive desks, and technological inventions from the time clock to the typewriter.  The author links these objects and their uses to such issues as labor supply, status, women entering the workplace, industrialism, and efficiency.  The chapter contains many interesting anecdotes and pictures of early technological inventions and furniture.  The role of the clerical worker is closely followed since some of the most significant changes occurred at this level.  I recommend it.

Hammer, M. "The Soul of the New Organization" (1990). In Hesselbein, F., Goldsmith, M. and Beckard, R. (Eds.), The Organization of the Future, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 25-32.

    Michael Hammer give a brief explanation of the changing culture of organizations.  He shows how yesterday's workplace ideas of "caution and plodding" came to be and why they have changed to "responsibility, autonomy, risk, and uncertainty" now.  I would have like to have seen him include more examples and anecdotal evidence of the ideas he discusses, but,  considering that this is and edited excerpt from a larger work, he may have included them elsewhere.  Overall, it is a comprehensive description of the evolution companies and corporations.

Prahalad, C.K., "The Work of New Age Managers in the Emerging Competitive Landscape". (1990) In Hesselbein, F., Goldsmith, M., and
R. Beckhard  (Eds.),  The Organization of the Future.    San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    This excerpt is much like Hammer's piece and sets out to basically describe the same thing: how companies have changed.  He takes it one step further, however, and makes a comprehensive list of key changes, including examples of companies and organizations to look at.  He also includes additional lists of particular capabilities  people must have to succeed  and of the type of work managers will have to deal with in today's workplace. Hammer's and Prahalas pieces compliment each other and it is easy to see how they come from the same book.

Kwolek-Foland, A. (1994) Engendering Business: Men and Women in the Corporate Office, 1870-1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, pp 94-128.

    One of the most interesting readings, this chapter discusses the emergence of gendered workplaces, buildings as status symbols, and the ways space was developed and used in reaction to these concepts.  It is an excellent historical look at the evolution of buildings, cities, work ethics, status, company organization, and value systems in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.  This chapter is and excellent read especially for those interested in gender issues.  It makes you realize how much some values and beliefs about the status and roles of women have changed and how much some of them are still unchanged today.

Thanks to Barry's Clip Art Server
and  Michelle Marut

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