Flat orgs and LO LO5196

cole joan (jcole@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu)
Mon, 29 Jan 1996 07:31:25 -0600 (CST)

Replying to LO5172 --

David Reed wrote...
> My concerns stem from work I am currently engaged in which is to develop
> people strategies that provide direction toward an end- state 20 years
> from now. To develop this strategy, we are defining our desired end state
> which is becoming quite an eye-opener. We see people having greater
> movement in and out of companies, the half-life of skills being 3 years,
> and the processes of learning organizations being influenced by constant
> change. ...
>
> Keeping this in mind, what will make people bring their hearts and hearts
> and their minds to work each day instead of just their skills? What are
> the attributes desired by business? Will people (20 years from now)
> continue to look toward a single corporation, a single career, a single
> job, as their means for lifestyle support? Or will people be motivated to
> move between businesses, careers, jobs, while continuously learning and
> adapting? What becomes of the company - employee contract? Any thoughts?

Maybe I'm just a typical Generation X-er (born 1965), but the concept
TODAY of people looking toward a single corporation, a single career, a
single job is just incredibly foreign to me. I am racking my brains
trying to think of an age-peer in my circle of acquaintance who has stayed
with the same organization since graduating from college. Maybe one will
come to me, but at least in my experience this is really uncommon. What
*becomes* of the company - employee contract? Maybe the question should
really be: What *has become* of the company - employee contract? I'm in a
field where my knowledge base has to be almost completely replaced every
few years. So one of my criteria when evaluating a potential employer is
whether they will *enable* me to stay current, or if I have to do all of
it on my leisure time. Even before getting into the "real world" workforce
of non-student jobs I watched the massive layoffs happening in the general
economy. Direct family members from the older generation who *had* stayed
with one company their whole working life were thrown away like so much
trash by our economy. I and my peers are VERY SCEPTICAL.

The damage may not be permanent, but it is not short-lived. I do yearn
for a working environment that has the qualities that seem to be
associated with the learning organization concept. I will work like a
demon for my current employer to try to bring it about from where I am in
the food chain, but I also have to maintain my economic survivability. We
have to keep one eye on the present while we aim for a better future.

Please don't forget our experiences when you lay out these models and your
plans for achieving them. Mine is the next generation to inherit the
workplace as the generations ahead of us retire and start thinking about
retirement. Our experiences at this stage in our collective careers will
have a huge impact on the models we have the experience to draw upon 15
years from now.

Joan Schraith Cole

--
cole joan <jcole@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>