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Big business lack of connectivity between staff and with customers,
suppliers and partners is being overcome by 'wiring the workplace'.
Increased
connectivity overcomes problems such as slow order processing,
slow complaint handling and lack of customer feedback.
Interconnected
systems also remove age-old barriers between sales and production
where delivering sales promises to customers created nightmares
for back office staff. Now, constantly in touch, nightmares
are history.
In the old ‘mushroom management’ business only executives
knew what was going. But in the wired workplace, better information
flow keeps everyone in the picture.
Supply
chains rely heavily on good information flows between the people
involved. Improving these flows makes supplying goods more cost-effective
and provides feedback along the whole process.
It's
a
virtual world
NextGen
staff embrace computer systems, just as OldGen embraced the
telephone. NextGen expect information at their fingertips (they’ve
surfed the web) and converse with people they’ve never
met physically (they’ve been in chat rooms).
A
workplace without these features is Dickensian.
Increasing transaction speeds and the difficulty of geographical
distance have spawned more virtual teams supported by technology.
Researchers
at Sheffield University’s Institute of Work Psychology
say building relationships in virtual teams brings together
expertise from different places and saves on travel.
But
they recognise the difficulties - for instance, establishing
team identity, unclear responsibilities and co-ordination. They
suggest clear goals and team roles are essential to overcome
these problems.
Virtual
teaming uses e-mail, video-conferencing, intranets and online
forums and is common in large global corporations such as Boeing
and BP.
Future
trends
Formway,
an Australasian office furniture design company, commissioned
a study of workplace trends:
-
Globalisation
– will demand structures in business and government
to balance the drive for global markets with local interests.
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Remote communication
– safety and travel costs will drive demands for remote
communication e.g. teleconferencing – from home, business
premises and hotels.
-
24/7 –
technology brings customers, suppliers, producers, governments
and individuals closer and highlights the need for business
to be done anytime anywhere.
-
Knowledge-literate generation
– routine online relationships will
mean virtual teams constantly form and dissolve.
-
Cult of the independent worker
– employers face the challenge of keeping nomadic, highly
valued independent ‘knowledge creators’ engaged.
Managing
in a virtual world
Managing
virtual teams needs skills that many managers don’t have,
and have never experienced. They didn’t grow up with the
web and are used to managing teams of direct reports who work
under the same roof.
Like
the move from the land to the factory, virtual working demands
a new attitude to work. Self motivation is particularly important
because cyber-life can be lonely.
‘Water
cooler conversations’ move to company intranets where
some thrive while others fade. And like the move from the land
to the factory, the move from real space to virtual space will
claim casualties who can’t adapt.
June
2006
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Feature Interconnected
business 
