The End of the Job LO19123

Roxanne Abbas (rabbas@comp-web.com)
Tue, 8 Sep 1998 15:34:42 -0500

In 1994 William Bridges wrote a book titled Jobshift in which he explained
that the social conditions which created the artifact we refer to as a
"job" 200 years ago - mass production and the large organization - are
disappearing. He maintained that today's organizations are rapidly being
transformed from a structure built out of jobs into a field of work
needing to be done. He predicted that in the post-job organization people
no longer will take their cues from a job description or a supervisor's
instructions, but instead from the changing demands of the several
projects that make up their current assignment.

I agree with Bridges that the job as a tool to organize work has outlived
its usefulness and although young emerging growth companies seem to
understand this intuitively, I haven't seen many older, larger
organizations making a conscious shift from the old rigid structure.

My questions for you:

Are you seeing organizations move from a static job structure to a fluid
system where people understand what needs to be done and do it? Is there
a new language emerging for this new work environment? How do Bridges'
theories mesh with Simon's Un-organization ideas? Who else is working
with these concepts and what do they call them?

Best regards,

Roxanne

Roxanne Abbas
mailto:rabbas@comp-web.com
http://www.comp-web.com

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