The Future of Work: Driven by People’s Values – Part 2

Education:

• Non-linear, parallel, multi-media learning
• Exploration and discovery, tailored to individual needs, intelligence and learning styles
• Approach to learning – learning how to learn
• Access to knowledge – requires universal access to human knowledge
• Education should be fun and interesting
• Educator should be a facilitator and guide
• Expect life-long learning.

Inner Directed-oriented Future of Work – Western.

• Changing, with both long-term and short-term interests, passions and needs, desire for more education, life stages, and commitments to family members…
• Flexible and adaptable, with technology facilitating time, location and performance
•  Some Inner Directeds are already “dropping off the grid.”  They are not luddites, although there may be times when they express anti-technology feelings.   It’s more likely that, with their need for introspection, there will be times when they want time to themselves, or have interactions in person.  I know young people at UMD and UMINN who no longer use social media at all, and some who use it only sporadically.  They prefer to get together in social settings and discuss subjects of interest and share ideas.
• Changing careers is likely as they will want new experiences, and do not fear the prospects of getting work because of age or lack of experience
• Since technology can replace many workers, these changes and moving in and out of the workplace should not pose too many problems for industry.

Outer Directed-oriented Future of Work – Western.

• Manufacturing industry is already being transformed by technology – everything from robotics and AI, to 3D printing, to new materials, forms of energy and so on.  The more efficient, effective and profitable it becomes, the more it will appeal to Outer Directed, who like “new and exciting,” who want plenty of money, status and opportunities.
• An ideal combination for rapid business development is Inner Directed brains and Outer Directed energy.

Future of Work – Developing countries (predominantly Outer Directed)

• Countries such as India, Indonesia and China are likely to take off even more rapidly than Western ones, as they have large young, eager, Outer Directed populations who want to make money, as well as having fun.
• They have copied Western technology and are good at imitating and adapting – not so inventive, but good at innovating.
• They have a more collective, rather than individual orientation, and are happy in large organizations rather than being entrepreneurial, with the exception of China.
• They are persistent, persevering and hard-working.
• The one constraint on their achievements is likely to be the problems of mega-cities, to which many ambitious young people are heading – overcrowding, lack of accommodation, inadequate infrastructure..,

 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions as they relate to Work:

There is one other factor that is important when thinking about the Future of Work.  As Geert Hofstede puts it, one challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children are socialized.  This dimension, generally called Indulgence is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called “Indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “Restraint”.  The US is a very Indulgent society, while China and India, for instance, are very Restrained cultures.  This means that the restrained cultures will do what it takes to achieve – persistent, persevering and hard-working – generally characteristics of Outer Directed, but to a much greater extent than most US Outer Directed.

Losers in the Future of Work:

Losers everywhere will be the semi-skilled and unskilled people – predominantly Sustenance driven – in populations around the world.  Agriculture is still likely to need manual workers, especially for harvesting delicate crops, but even in this area, automation is taking place. It is to offset the potential problems associated with this trend that some governments are considering a Universal Basic Income – but this could result in all kinds of other problems.  

Implications & Conclusions – Examples

Industries or business sectors that would be (most) affected by this development.

• Almost anything that can be automated will be – so most forms of manufacturing will be open to this trend – from cars to processed food to pharmaceuticals, electronics, electrical…and on and much of the automation will be designed by Inner Directeds
• The collaborative and crowd-sourced economy will continue to grow, offering opportunities for everyone, including Sustenance driven
• There is significant R&D taking place in fields such as new materials for specific applications.  Materials was a field that, until about 20 years ago, was considered finished.  Inner Directeds are always looking for new areas of interest and new, more effective solutions to problems, so R&D will take place in many areas.       The US is still leading the pack in absolute spending on R&D, although China could take the lead within the next 2 years.
• There will be much more R&D taking place in healthcare, neuroscience, pharmaceuticals, and related fields – for physical and mental problems and those associated with aging – all fueled by Inner Directeds.
• In the West, small businesses of all kinds – some highly specialized and technical, and many more personal services – will flourish.
• Collaborative ventures across business sectors will produce wide arrays of new everythings,  (In a collaborative project on the Home of the Future, there were 2,000 robust ideas for new products, services, materials and various technologies, 700 of which cut across business sectors.)
• A variation on this kind of collaboration would be organizations of both generalists and specialists that are like “temp firms” that offer services on a short-term basis.  This would appeal to most value groups, but especially Inner Directeds who like variety, who have many interests, and who are not interested in security.
• With young and eager populations in China and India (and other Asian countries) and with labor costs being cheaper, more (not-yet-automated) manufacturing could move to those areas – unless more and higher tariffs are imposed.

So we are in for an interesting time, with a lot of churn and change in employment and industry requirements. Those who adopt and adapt to life-long learning (in every field) will have a significant advantage.

[1] Maslow, Abraham, Motivation and Personality,  Harper Row, NY 1954, 1987, pp15-45

[2] Schwartz, Shalom; Melech, Gila; Lehmann, Arielle; Burgess, Steven; Harris, Mari; Owens, Vicki,  “Extending the Cross-Cultural Validity of the Theory of Basic Human Values with a Different Method of Measurement,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2001 Sep Vol 32(5).

[3]Hofstede, Geert, Cultures and Organizations, McGraw-Hill International  (UK) 1991

[4] Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1997

[5] Cultural Dynamics Strategy & Marketing, a sister company, has provided the values data.