The future of work according to IBM

Do you want to know how IBM view the future of work? Well, J. Randall MacDonald (IBM Senior Vice President for Human Resource) and Eric L. Lesser (Human Capital Management Leader, IBM Business Consulting Services) are interviewed for a podcast on this very subject. The theme of the podcast is:

Changing technology, demographics and business models are affecting patterns of work in developed and developing countries, and the emerging skills of the future.

As work evolves, companies and employees will have to deal with the blurring of traditional boundaries between work and family life, between offices and remote locations, between manager and employee, and between nationalities and cultures in the global economy.

It's an interesting listen, but as expected it's also punctuated by lots of managerialist and globilisation rhetoric. However, if you like rhetoric then visit IBM and the Future of Work (IBM) to download the MP3 file. Thanks to The Future of Work Weblog for alerting me to the podcast story.

2 comments:

B O B said...

Sounds very interesting, and like you I am sure I could do without the rhetoric, but I will take a look see anyway.

B O B said...

Thanks for the referral. It was interesting. It reminds me of our blog we nearly have a dozen people who work on it.

Personally, I have only met one of the current members and all our efforts are coordinated online. We have a central Yahoo group that we work from, where we discuss roles, objectives, and work on projects together and sometimes apart.

It is amazing how well this works, we could be scattered all over the world and achieve the same kind of results.

One project of ours, you are familiar with its called batback. While, this is a project of one of our members, all of us are pitching in one form of another. And as we do we see how this is growing from a flicker of an idea, to what is going to happen when it is taken to the next level.

I found you here through batback, from the title bar. Soon, in the next step for those who have implemented the add on, it will provide links to other blog story titles right on the main page of other blogs in the side bar.
This can be only good.

The point is, with coordination, networking works well, from the quality that we have achieved on our blog, to the potential to provide a network around world.

In the IBM podcast it talks about how different cultures can work together. It makes me think of the three years I spend in Scotland, not to far from you. When I picture you, I can feel the brisk weather, the cold rains, and the beauty of the Northern lights. And it reminds me of the strength of the Scottish and the admiration I had for them.

Others would not have that same feel, yet today you may be working with anyone in collaboration on work or other projects and it can only help to bring all of humanity closer together.