First thanks to everyone for the comments that are worthy of more thought
and research.
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An Introduction: My name is Deborah Middleton currently I am a graduate
sudent at York Univeristy in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.
In my previous life I have been an Interior Architect constructing
alternative work environments for corporations such as The Bank of
Montreal, Nortel (I was responsible for the alternative work environments
at the new HQ in Brampton). Over the past five years I have been mapping
the emergence of collaborative work and the role of the physical work
environment in enabling knowledge sharing, creativity and learning.
I am currently a member of a research groun working to understand the
emergence of these informal work practices that we are defining as
softwork.
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Perhaps sustainability is not the right word and perhaps another would be
better suited to the exercise of constructing a definition of the
individuals context in knowledge based industries. But sustainability
is where some of my ideas are at in this point of my work (word
smithing). Other suggestions are most welcome.
The application is to answer the following question in my research
proposal.
"What is the capacity for the individual within the knowledge based
corporation, to redirect and influence organizational change towards
sustainable business practices (social and environmental)?"
The demand for knowledge workers far out runs the supply, this I believe
has resulted in a shift in business focus on recruitment and retention of
employees. And thus a possible shift in power between the corporation and
the individual (freeagent), where the individual for the first time is in
a more powerful position to choose who to work for and under what
conditions and to what ends.
This is one of the driving reasons that workplaces are transforming to
become more comfortable and creative places (recruitment appeal). They
are also seen as providing comfort for the obsesive work that goes on in
places such as Microsoft. There is an interesting demographic and
cultural component at play also that is reconstructing acceptable norms of
social behavior.
The role of the values of the individual is also shaping their view on
work. I am finding that a backlash against the traditional corporation,
heirarchy, status and the conditions of white collar work is happening.
And not only within startup young entrepreneurial companies but in places
such as the Royal Bank of Canada (ie. The Royal Bank Growth Co.) Is this a
possible opportunity for the emergence of a movement to change how we
work. I believe that it is just this.
One just has to browse through FastCompany to find examples of the shifts
taking place.
Deborah
