1)Armstrong�s (2003) chapters on the employment relationship and �psychological contract�
2)The article by Gratton (2011) on the future workplace
3)The articles by Boudreau and Ziskin (2012), Sahoo et al. (2011) and Sheehan and Sparrow (2012)
Then answer the following questions:
1)Reflect on what you have read about changes in today�s work environments and the extent to which
you have observed these changes in your own experience.
2)Think of one or two organisations you can use as examples in an analysis of the changing nature of
work and work environments.
3)What changes in work and work environments have you observed in your personal or professional life?
4)What evidence, if any, do you see of the changes discussed in your Learning Resources for this week?
5)What implications do these changes have for organisations and their staffs? For HR leaders in
organisations?
Introduction
- The changes in today’s work environment are hinged on efficiency and effectiveness of job
performance and productivity. More emphasis is on quality training and production standards.
Employers are demanding higher levels of productivity per employee and most organizations
have gone through a lot of hard moments trying to restructure their organizations in order to
capitalize on a lean and effective workforce where production and quality standards are very
high (Boudreau and Ziskin, 2011).
In my work place I have to go through rigorous assessment every month to determine and
optimize my performance in various competencies and production requirements. Downsizing
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and application of modern technology in various departments have led to massive layoffs and
even the closures of full departments that are deemed to be irrelevant and non-strategic.
- Apple Inc is one of the multinational corporations that decided to embrace changes in an effort
to incorporate the modern working trends in its organizational procedures (Boudreau and Ziskin,
2011). Apple Inc incorporated most of its employee’s personal innovations to the workplace by
allowing them to work on their personal projects for a few hours every day and also a share of
profits from the sales of their innovations. It’s during this period when Steve Jobs, the founder of
Apple Inc introduced these changes that saw the organization emerge as the leading
multinational company in digital technology. - The major changes I have witnessed in my workplace are the introduction of modern
technology in improving efficiency and production levels. Most operations are managed by a
handful of trained staff that manage and operates advance machines that have replaced hundreds
of workers. The compensation rates have also gone high and other forms of incentives have also
been introduced to encourage more production and efficiency. The production and efficiency
expectation from the management is very high such that most employees continue working under
pressure to perform and achieve the stated targets (Gratton, 2011). - According to Gratton (2011) most of the traditional ways of working from offices between 9
and 5pm, spending weekends with family members plus other benefits are quickly disappearing
and new forms of working styles like online working from homes or flexible work schedules are
taking precedence over the strict 9 to 5pm work schedules.
Different forms of organization structures like hierarchal organizations are also giving way to
modern forms of dynamic and multilevel hero management styles that involve roundtable
discussions and other effective management styles that may also involve modern technology like
social networking (Boudreau and Ziskin, 2011). - Organizations have to adapt to the new changes that are sweeping across the globe and the
employees also have to change with the contemporary world. The HR department has to adopt
dynamic management styles like that capitalizes on modern trends of technology like cloud
connectivity and the outsourcing of company operations to the most efficient and cost effective
companies globally. Diversity at the workplace and employment of innovative staff are the major
challenges that face the HR department (Gratton, 2011).
Finally to conclude, most organizations have to retrain their staffs on modern trends of
technology and new methods of management styles. Globalization has brought its own
challenges on diversity and innovations that have made the world to be closely connected and
more competitive.
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Reference
Boudreau, J.W. and Ziskin, I., 2011, The Future of HR and Effective Organizations, Elsevier,
ScienceDirect and Organizational Dynamics, 40, 255- 266,
Gratton, L., 2011, Workplace 2025 – What it will look like? Elsevier, ScienceDirect and
Organizational Dynamics, 40, 246- 254,
