The Workscape Renaissance

By Steven M. Price

The Renaissance was indeed a curious historical phenomenon. Scholarly works dedicated to the subject romanticize the rebirth of European civilization following the dark and dire Middle Ages. The Renaissance was the bridge into the modern era.

During this same period, the discovery of novi orbis, the New World, was a magnificent feat of navigation made possible by human ingenuity and the early mapmakers. Interestingly the intellectual awakening and curiosity drove a critical part of civilization into a new era.

Today another Renaissance is creating a bridge into a new era. Moreover, like its historical antecedents, we are in need of new insight and new maps to guide us through a world - a new world if you will of transition and transformation.

The transition and transformation is occurring in the concourse of work, our workforce, and the workplace – the so-called workscape. Arguably, the workscape is becoming more collaborative, contentious, and chaotic. The result is signaling some concern over the direction and speed at which change is occurring and what transformations will be required.

The genesis of a workscape Renaissance is still a groundswell of trends and subtle changes, but the effects are becoming more overt and obvious. There are several change agents, factors if you will, operating in the background. Likewise, there are a host of precipitating factors and catalysts bringing dramatic changes to our doorstep.

The outfall of these agents of change has been the trend toward more efficient, leaner workforces – doing more with less. These change agents have marginalized skills, changed markets, and most assuredly targeted aspects of the workforce for extinction. It has started an irreversible, dangerous trend.

This trend has shattered the model of the lifelong career at a single company and placed the larger burden of career planning and continuous education on the worker. Why is this important? It is important because your job, your career, and your ability to pursue your calling may be in jeopardy.

Workscape Renaissance examines eight fundamental transformations required for contemporary professional practice. The transformations ‘blends’ and ‘borrows’ unapologetically across disciplinary boundaries. Thus readers are encouraged to contemplate these vignettes and develop their own ‘blends’ and perspectives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven M. Price
• Release date: Jul 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370737635

Book preview

The Workscape Renaissance

Personal Transformations for Professional Practice

By

Steven M. Price

Copyright © 2016 Steven M. Price

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

PART I: THE GENESIS OF A WORKSCAPE RENAISSANCE

1. THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK

KNOWLEDGE WORK: MOVING FROM HAND TO HEAD

MIGRATION FROM MANUFACTURING TO SERVICES

THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

WAGE STAGNATION

THE BURDEN OF ENTITLEMENTS

THE MARCH OF TECHNOLOGY

JOB DESCRIPTIONS ARE PASSÉ

YES - WORK MATTERS

2. THE CONTEMPORARY WORKPLACE

THE OFFICE LANDSCAPE

THE POST-INDUSTRIAL SHIFT

THE GROWING CLOSENESS

THE INSTITUTIONAL MINDSET

THE PUBLIC PRIVATE DIVIDE

GEOGRAPHIC MISMATCHES

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

THE RELATIONAL DYNAMICS OF EMPLOYMENT

3. THE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE

THE DEMOGRAPHIC DILEMMA

THE MULTIGENERATIONAL WORKFORCE

THE AGING WORKFORCE

GENDER IN THE WORKFORCE

RACE AND ETHNICITY IN THE WORKFORCE

THE IMMIGRANT WORKFORCE

EDUCATED WORKFORCE

THE WORKFORCE CHURN

4. TALENT MANAGEMENT

MOVING PAST THE CONVENTIONAL

RECRUITING

ASSESSING TALENT AND PERFORMANCE

THE SPECTER OF OBSOLESCENCE

THE BLIGHT OF UNEMPLOYMENT

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE GAME HAVE CHANGED

PART II: THE TRANSFORMATION IMPERATIVE

5. THE CRISIS OF COMPLEXITY TRANSFORMATION

HOW WE PERCEIVE COMPLEXITY

THINKING CONTINUITY AND CYCLES

THE CYCLE OF DISTORTING COMPLEXITY

EVERYTHING IS A SYSTEM - REALLY

A PROBABLE NETWORK STRUCTURE

INTERACTIONAL DYNAMICS

DECISION MAKING

THE COUPLING CONNECTION

THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL

THE AURA OF PREDICTABILITY

6. ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS TRANSFORMATION

THE GRAND OVERVIEW

CHARACTERIZING THE PROBLEMATIC

THE LIMITS OF STRUCTURED INQUIRY

DIAGNOSING PROBLEM CAUSE

EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PROBLEM SOURCE

HYPOTHETICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND THE SEARCH FOR PROBLEM CONNECTION

THE CHALLENGE OF REPRESENTATION

DESCRIBING THE PROBLEM SITUATION

7. THINKING CRITICALLY TRANSFORMATION

THE MENTAL HIERARCHY

COGNITIVE STYLE AND INFORMATION PROCESSING

NEUROLINGUISTICS AND PROCESSING PREFERENCES

BRAIN DOMINANCE AND HEMISPHERIC PREDISPOSITIONS

METACOGNITION AS CORRECTIVE ACTION

MECHANISM PROMOTES A MACHINE CULTURE

THE LINEAR CONVENIENCE

DUALISM HAS A DOUBLE STANDARD

IS THERE REALLY EQUILIBRIUM?

PROCESS VERSUS SYSTEM THINKING

8. OUR PERSONAL EPISTEMOLOGY TRANSFORMATION

KNOWLEDGE IS PERISHABLE

THE KNOWLEDGE TRIANGLE

THE SOURCES OF ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

HOW CERTAIN IS MY KNOWLEDGE?

THE FALLACY OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

EXPERTISE AS PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

BEWARE THE WIKI-INTELLIGENTSIA

THE SELF INDULGENCE OF SPECIAL INTERESTS

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND THE CONSULTING QUAGMIRE

THE MEDIA AND ITS PUNDITS

9. A BALANCED WORLDVIEW TRANSFORMATION

WHAT MOTIVATES US?

VALUE SYSTEMS AT WORK

ETHICS AND ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR

THE ROLE OF ARGUMENTATION

THE DIMENSIONS OF POWER

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

REFLECTIVE THINKING

10. COLLABORATIVE DYNAMICS TRANSFORMATION

THE PATHOLOGY OF ORGANIZATION

THE SOURCE AND MANIFESTATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL PATHOLOGY

THE PATHOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

THE HEALTHY ORGANIZATION

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND GROUPTHINK

CULTURAL GROUPS

THE DOMINANT COALITION

OUR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

OUR PERSONALITY PRECEDES US

IT’S HOW IT’S SAID

WHAT ABOUT THE NONVERBAL?

WHY INTERVENTION FAILS

THE PRESUMPTION OF TEAMS

ORGANIZATIONS ARE CAS

11. THE DESIGNED SOLUTION TRANSFORMATION

DESIGN THINKING IS DIFFERENT

RETHINKING MISTAKES AS A START

DESIGNED SOLUTIONS ARE ABOUT CHANGE

THE FALSE ALTAR OF TECHNOLOGY

THE LIFECYCLE MENTALITY

TIME - THE SCARCEST RESOURCE

MANAGING RISK

ESTIMATING COST

A CLOSING DISCUSSION ON VARIABLES

12. THE TRANSDISCIPLINARITY TRANSFORMATION

THE INTRANSIGENCE OF DISCIPLINE

THE CURRICULAR NIGHTMARE

APPRECIATING APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

SCIENCE AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

ENGINEERING AND THE DESIGNED SOLUTION

RESEARCH DESIGN AND STRUCTURED INQUIRY

POLICY ANALYSIS AND THE PUBLIC GOOD

BREAKING THE BAD DISCIPLINE HABIT

THE REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER

CHANGING THE DIRECTION AND THE DIALOG

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

REFERENCES

Part I: The Genesis of a Workscape Renaissance

Not much was really invented during the Renaissance, if you don't count modern civilization.

P. J. O'Rourke

The Renaissance was indeed a curious historical phenomenon. Scholarly works dedicated to the subject romanticize the rebirth of European civilization following the dark and dire Middle Ages. The Renaissance was the bridge into the modern era.

During this same period, the discovery of novi orbis, the New World, was a magnificent feat of navigation made possible by human ingenuity and the early mapmakers. Interestingly the intellectual awakening and curiosity drove a critical part of civilization into a new era.

Today another Renaissance is creating a bridge into a new era. Moreover, like its historical antecedents, we are in need of new insight and new maps to guide us through a world - a new world if you will of transition and transformation.

The transition and transformation is occurring in the concourse of work, our workforce, and the workplace - the so-called workscape. Arguably, the workscape is becoming more collaborative, contentious, and chaotic. The result is signaling some concern over the direction and speed at which change is occurring and what transformations will be required.

The genesis of a workscape Renaissance is still a groundswell of trends and subtle changes, but the effects are becoming more overt and obvious. There are several change agents, factors if you will, operating in the background. Likewise, there are a host of precipitating factors and catalysts bringing dramatic changes to our doorstep.

The outfall of these agents of change has been the trend toward more efficient, leaner workforces - doing more with less. These change agents have marginalized skills, changed markets, and most assuredly targeted aspects of the workforce for extinction. It has started an irreversible, dangerous trend.

This trend has shattered the model of the lifelong career at a single company and placed the larger burden of career planning and continuous education on the worker. Why is this important? It is important because your job, your career, and your ability to pursue your calling may be in jeopardy.

Part I explores a series of topics that are affecting the workscape. Taken individually, these topics may seem banal and inconsequential, but collectively they portend a massive undercurrent of change. Readers are encouraged to relate their own experiences and observations to those presented.

1. The Changing Nature of Work

Adam Smith said, Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. This quote is part of a larger treatise arguing that our labor created the original wealth of the world. It was our labor, our hard work, not gold and silver that became the original commodity of exchange.

The old adage, Live to work, or work to live has some traction when thinking about us at work. The notion of work often seems too small to us. We do not simply want a job we want a calling a pathway that leads us to our true potential and value to society. Our work is important and what we do for a living matters.

The concept of work ranges from Aristotle’s notion of work as a path to happiness to Karl Marx’s contention that work alienates the worker from the product of their labor. The fabric of society has work woven into its threads. Whether our work is a career, a calling, our livelihood, or a necessary evil each of us has some opinion on what work means.

There are multiple ways to discuss the contemporary workscape. Clearly, the nature of our work and the multitude of changes occurring due to marketplace shifts, consumer demands, and a host of extraneous variables, is complex. Overall, we find that the subject of ‘work’ unfolds differently for each of us thus requiring an individual treatment or interpretation.

Knowledge Work: Moving From Hand to Head

Work has clearly migrated from the ‘hands on’ manufacturing base where knowledge was applied to tools and tasks toward leveraging the knowledge lifecycle to create value through the creation, application, management, and distribution of knowledge as the primary means of work tasks. Essentially knowledge workers identify, solve, and broker problems[1].

Complex systems and complex systems problems are not new. However, the recognition of problem complexity and the increased focus upon these problems as a workscape driver is important.

Increasingly professional have exposure to a wider array of complex problems that require faster solutions, demand higher accuracy, and have a decreasing tolerance for failures. The resulting challenge requires a closer look at our work and the dynamics of the workplace. It will require uncommon insight and advanced understanding.

Knowledge-based work is becoming a major element for the 21st century workforce. The premium placed upon specialized knowledge or expertise amplifies the shift toward providing services. This work tends to be an interactive and integrative process. Knowledge workers engage in predominantly non-routine, self-organizing, and collaborative assignments within complex social and technological networks.

The changing nature of work became evident in a Post-Industrial society that created value by thinking rather than doing or by ‘working smarter rather than harder’. Consequently, value creation is less dependent on controlling of resources and more dependent on managing specialized knowledge and organizational competencies[2].

The changing nature of work is yet another trend or symptom of a workscape Renaissance. We can see that the workscape is changing often due to many factors and circumstances. The important take away is to realize that the fundamentals of the game are changing - what was once sanctified and important fundamentals are being challenged.

Migration From Manufacturing to Services

The ascent of knowledge work is a natural condition of a service-based economy. The argument essentially suggests using our head over using our hands. Indeed knowledge work is fundamentally about inquiry and design and depends on peer-to-peer knowledge networking.

Coinciding with the shift to a Post-Industrial society has been one of the greatest shifts in history. This shift has been the clear demarcation between a manufacturing-based economy and a service-based economy[3].

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking labor participation by industrial sector just prior to WWII the ratio of service to manufacturing industry participation was approximately 2:1. Obviously, the war effort provided a temporary spike to manufacturing which subsided after the post-war recovery.

In today’s terms, the labor participation segregates into goods producing and services providing. The split is roughly 80% for services and 12% for manufacturing. The difference is attributable to agriculture and the self-employed.

The shift from making to taking is really the critical point. Our massive economic shift has literally taken us from facing the product to manufacture it to facing the customer that is placing the order for the product that was likely made in another country.

The changing nature of work has disrupted the economic focus hence the perceived value of work. The service (knowledge) economy has replaced the once sanctified notion of land, labor, and capital with ‘knowledge assets’ or ‘intellectual capital’. That is substantial.

The interesting correlate to this comes from accounting practices whose long history of focusing on the tangible assets of the organization namely the property, plant, and equipment of the organization. Now intangible assets such as goodwill, patents, copyrights, and trademarks are not physical in nature, have become extremely valuable.

The changing nature of work has started an economic avalanche for the coveted, specialized skills required for knowledge work. As the premium jobs become more cognitive and collaborative, the lesser skills began to fade. Eventually there will be a caste system of skills and jobs.

The Knowledge Economy

HR Professionals have struggled with how to characterize our most valuable organizational and institutional asset - our employees. Ascribing employees to assets is common practice especially when we want to imply the unique value contribution each employee makes to the organization.

Assets in the knowledge economy, in the accounting sense, require a new focus. Accounting practices have routinely focused on the tangible assets (e.g. property, plant, and equipment) and less so on the intangible assets. Now intellectual assets such as patents and copyrights dominate the balance sheet. So the notion of what constitutes an asset moves slightly from the concrete to the cognitive.

The emergence of knowledge work has challenged the economic notion of assets as tangible (i.e. hand held) into something that is harder to quantify (i.e. within the head). Thus, we find our ‘intellectual capital (assets)’ can produce a high-valued asset. In loosely defined accounting terms, intellectual capital is the gap between the market value and book value of a company’s shares.

Conceptualizing people as an asset becomes easier when based upon their intellectual contribution. Oddly being an asset does not necessarily translate to talent - or does it? Part of the Talent Management argument centers around how to assess individuals and their overall contribution. It is common to characterize individuals, as an ‘asset’ but rarely is the notion of asset management invoked to describe personnel.

Wage Stagnation

The economics of work also tells us something about how wages have stagnated. The marketplace is a horrible arbiter of wages. Over the past thirty years, worker productivity has steadily increased yet wages have stagnated far below the productivity gains. It seems being asked to do more with less is working. We do more and we make less.

According to the Economic Policy Institute between 1973 and 2011, worker productivity grew 80% while compensation grew just one-eighth of that amount. Oddly, from 2000 to 2011 the median income for households dropped 12.4%[4].

The net effect of this trend for wages to keep track with productivity gains has been an increase in the family income stagnation and income inequality. There is an argument that not just wages but overall compensation including health and retirement benefits are considered. Agreed; however, there is no escaping that shedding jobs has fattened the corporate bottom line while keeping wages in check.

There are several explanations for this dismal economic news. Each in their own way is a controversial jab at the economy vulnerabilities and systemic dysfunction. Here are some prevalent thoughts[5] that eventually impact Talent Management:

Consumption: lower wages mean less buying power that constrained investment and increased more credit instruments; this increased debt and fueled speculation. The struggle to maintain economic status created more debt and longer working hours to maintain previous levels.

Employment: the abandonment of full employment as a main objective of economic policymaking has created several unintended consequences. The long-term unemployed and overall workforce participation rates continue to suggest a growing acceptance of idleness.

Unions: the decline in union power and participation has resulted in less bargaining power to increase wages thus exposing susceptible low-wage earners. This trend in addition to outsourcing and automation has reduced the influence of unions.

Greed: arguably income disparity has been caused by intentional policy choices made on behalf of those with the most income, wealth, and political power.As the rich took larger shares of income and wealth their influence increased thus being able to leverage favorable economic and political opportunities.

There are so many factors that impact and influence wages that we must become aware of the political, social, and economic realities that operate in the marketplace. Arguably, wages are, and will continue to be, a major topic of discussion.

The Burden of Entitlements

There is also a large and looming encumbrance on the horizon with entitlements. This has a hugh impact on labor ecomics. In case you have not noticed workers’ wages, through payroll taxes, provide 85.5% of the funding for our entitlements of Social Security and Medicare. This specifically excludes means-tested welfare that does not include Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, or worker’s compensation.

The alarming aspect of this simple fact is an aging workforce, coupled with shifting demographics, is threatening the primary source of funds for two of the largest ‘benefits’ provided to citizens.

In 2013 there were 2.8 workers paying Social Security taxes to each person collecting benefits. That is an alarming ratio given the acceleration of Baby Boomer’s eligible of entitlements, longer lifespans which exceed the old projections, and lack of meaningful reforms to mitigate insolvency.

How do we know it is a problem? In 2010, tax and other noninterest income did not fully cover program cost, and the 2014 Trustees Report[6] projects that this pattern will continue for at least 75 years if no program changes are made. Wait is gets better - the worker-to-benefit collector ratio is projected to fall to 2.1 in 2032 if not sooner and more dramatic.

Thus, we have two workers, trying to get ahead, sharing the burden of carrying one entitlement collector as a team effort - exhausting. What happens when each of us in the workforce is trying to get ahead and carry one other as a 1:1? Could this alarming statistic be the reason there are so many advocates for immigration; in effect to prolong the ratio decline by insuring more working bodies produce more tax dollars?

A study that evaluated a ten-year growth pattern of US jobs indicated that most job growth in mature economies involves complex interactions, not routine production, or transaction work[7]. Within the study, the trend is clear that automating routine transactional jobs or production jobs that convert physical materials into finished goods are declining precipitously.

Thus, we can see that labor participation growth meets with labor skill shortages and no jobs for those newly emerged into the workforce with low to minimal skills. For those in these crosshairs pay attention.

The March of Technology

Technology is more than computers. Technology refers to the physical and intellectual or knowledge processes by which materials in some form transform into outputs[8]. Understandably then a technical system is a specific combination of machine and methods employed to produce a desired outcome[9].

The technology and the technology system comprise a technology innovation[10] that is knowledge-derived tools, artifacts, and devices (that help people) extend their environment. Technology talent presents in multiple ways; most often to improve process, extend cognitive activities, and innovate.

Technology is insidious and omnipresent. In contemporary society, one cannot escape the reach and influence of technology. We hold advanced technology in our hands via cell phones, surrounded by scanners and monitors as we move through the day, and travel to and from one technology arena to another. The reach of technology goes far beyond our visible borders.

The march of technology continues the push toward automation and the quest for artificial intelligence. Far too many people have placed too much confidence in software and systems that have been design by others. Perhaps we have inadvertently leaned too heavily upon technology to alleviate the boredom of repetition - perhaps going so far as to replace thought.

The push for automation was born of necessity. Initially the most redundant, predictable tasks would replace man with machine. The work that took multiple sets of hands (e.g. agriculture) was an easy target for replacement by machinery. It continues to this day with the same rationale. Why? The ‘human hand’ is the most expensive tool.

Thus, we find that technology is a contributing factor to our workscape Renaissance. Its march is endless and its influence immeasurable. The push to replace humans with technology will only gain momentum in the coming years.

Job Descriptions are Passé

Job descriptions explain the job to be done in terms of process and responsibilities. It also outlines the required skills and training the one should possess. Simple jobs have simple descriptions. When jobs become very complex and have a high cognitive demand, routine job descriptions are inadequate.

There are several problems with job descriptions such as identifying the skills required and describing them accurately. What about the nuances of characteristics and behaviors that plays into these complex roles? There is also the inability to differentiate many of the skills required immediately and those that can be acquired over time to fulfill the position potential.

Think about it - fixed job descriptions are pointless in the knowledge economy[11]. The convenience for describing the job also doubles as a discussion agenda for recruitment. After all what could be a better device to probe a potential candidate than the surrogate for them at work - the job description?

Yes - Work Matters

The brewing battle within the global workforce will be precipitated by a collision - a collision of ideas, needs, and policy decisions. These are all factors in a marketplace that transcends most others because it directly affects ‘us at work’.

When two objects collide, the resulting collision changes each object in some way. The reason for the collision is not as important as the collision itself. The slow motion collision is a metaphor for a myriad of factors that are impacting and influencing the labor marketplace and our work.

Within this marketplace, multiple factors are colliding and careening with increasing frequency. The net result has been growing uncertainty, heightened awareness of risk, and a host of questionable assessments and policy outcomes - these factors are challenging the 21st century workforce to be innovative and at the same time stay current on technologies and human skills.

This situation of action and reaction is a trend prediction brought about by a tremendous amount of robust workforce demographic and economic data and analysis. The data and assessments do not actually tell us of any specific challenge such as workforce obsolescence; they merely suggest its potential to occur.

In effect, all of this rigorous data and analysis is a surrogate for truly understanding how our work is changing our lives. This is because many of the (fixed) definitions created decades ago are for phenomena that no longer existing in its original form of yesteryear. We are simply not measuring many of the ways in which people’s economic lives are changing[12]

There is a change looming on the organizational horizon. The change is a growing competition for a highly skilled workforce. In addition, it’s not just any competition; it’s a global competition for talent. This is a change whose winds are causing turbulence and uncertainty across the global landscape. It will be particularly germane to the U.S. workforce - it will be the audition of a lifetime.

You see the challenge is no longer putting belly buttons in seats or placing names on the organizational chart; the challenge is synchronizing thought, purpose, and action of a knowledgeable workforce. The challenge is, plainly put, how to manage talent.

2. The Contemporary Workplace

The notion of emerging from the Renaissance conjures images of renewal and replenishment. In this sense our work represents the ‘before’ and ‘after’ we realize the