The new workplace

In this post I try to summarize some of the most important research published lately on the new dynamics of work and the emergence of a new workplace.

An old topic that was fancy in the late 90's is comign to the spotlight again. Judging by the number and quality of articles and research being published, for example by McKinsey Quarterly Journal and recently The Economist, one would argue that the workplace discussion is hot again.

The reasons are quite strong and they tell us that the debate is a very profound one with big implications for modern organizations.

The new interactions described by McKinsey essentially prove that we've entered a different type of economy. The article distinguishes between three types of interactions:
- Transformational- extracting raw materials or converting them into finished goods
- Transactional- Interactions that unfold in a generally rule-based manner and thus can be scripted or automated
- Tacit- More complex interactions requiring a higher level of judgement, involving ambiguity and drawing on tacit, or experiential, knowledge.
The facts are that 70% of jobs created in the US since 1998 are tacit jobs. And these jobs today count for 41% of labor market in the US.

One of the most important implications of this nature of jobs being created today is the difference in the productivity achieved by firms where the majority of the interactions are tacit. Another McKinsey research shows that "...the variability of company-level performance is more than 50 percent greater in tacit-based sectors than in manufacturing-based ones. Tacit activities are now a green pasture for improvement."

The latest contribution has come from The Economist. In it's recently published survey "The battle for brainpower" analyses in detail the new battles to build the "Empires of the Mind"