Friday, March 27, 2009

The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500

From The WSJ

The experience of growing up online will profoundly shape the workplace expectations of “Generation F” — the Facebook Generation. At a minimum, they’ll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web, rather than as is currently the case, a mid-20th-century Weberian bureaucracy.

If your company (library) hopes to attract the most creative and energetic members of Gen F, it will need to understand these Internet-derived expectations, and then reinvent its management practices accordingly. Sure, it’s a buyer’s market for talent right now, but that won’t always be the case — and in the future, any company that lacks a vital core of Gen F employees will soon find itself stuck in the mud.

Here is an excerpt listing of “…12 work-relevant” and “post-bureaucratic realities that tomorrow’s employees [and everyone else] will use as yardsticks in determining whether your company is ‘with it’ or ‘past it’. Full list and expanded comment at the WSJ.

1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
10. Users can veto most policy decisions.
11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.
12. Hackers are heroes.

Found over at The Proverbial Lonewolf Librarian

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