The idea of limitless advancing of technology taking over simple human tasks is an inevitable problem only to be slowed down by external problems that are either out of humans’ reach or currently unsolvable by humans. The problem of technology advancing is only in the scope of future of work and cannot be solved completely; however, the productivity of traditional office places can be alleviated with some changes. The solution I propose includes the removal of the manager position, bringing the employees together as a team, and have more face-to-face conversations and interactions.
This idea of removing the traditional manager can be seen from the company called Buffer. Buffer is an online based application to consolidate all your social media needs and other RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds. While Buffer is a relatively new start-up company, they are a “self-managed, self-organized team.” They are a team that is working without a manager or a boss (they do have a CEO); hence, they all hold the same amount of power and their skills make up the company. Each and every employee is encouraged to work on his or her own project and gathered to work together when needed. The CEO, Joel Gascoigne, talks about the importance of sharing knowledge and releasing all the information to your team. According to Gascoigne, these new changes keep the team together, place trust in the team, and bring himself a part of the team.
This general idea still has four rules for the people to follow through: 1) how to make decisions, 2) how to give each other feedbacks and improve on them, 3) what is the compensation for work, and 4) what is the purpose of work? The idea of removing the manager allows the employees themselves to make the best decisions among themselves and try to make the best of it. Though the other three questions are still being tackled by this company, this is a general rule that can allow this idea to go through a final phase.
This idea of having a team without a manager allows for more human to human interaction – the idea of working together and giving each other feedbacks allow room for improvement. According to Susan Pinker, a psychologist, face-to-face interactions allow us to build strong relations through the release of oxytocin, the cuddle chemical – which bonds women and their babies while breastfeeding. Oxytocin is often released through handshakes, a pat on the back, and simple conversations and can promote feelings of trust which in turn cause greater collaboration among team members. There is also a study of 25,000 people which concluded that employees that had socialization with co-worker produced higher performance. While technology and social media exemplifies speed, cost, and convenience, employees are not getting the satisfaction, productivity, and joy they can with face-to-face interactions. Pinker also gives another example of face-to-face contact which exists in a very technical company, Google. Their environment is based on social interactions and has social rooms that encourage people to socialize which in turn caused higher productivity.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3040947/the-future-of-work/what-its-like-to-work-without-managers
The idea of a company without a manager sounds like an interesting and creative solution. But, why is it that the manager would be the cause of a lack of face to face interaction? What actual benefit comes out of removing the manager? Still, the idea of recognizing everyone’s power to be the same, that everyone is a leader, is very interesting and is bound to have some positive psychological consequences.