HR Outsourcing Orangeville ON

When most entrepreneurs start out building their businesses, they rarely think about the design and its impact on competitiveness, ability to attract great talent and inspire innovation. Instead, the focus is on perfecting the product or service, hiring employees, and cash flow.

However, the traditional model of organization design, conceived in the Industrial Age as a command and control, top-down model is dead. The Industrial Age has given way to the Information Age, empowering millions with the opportunity to participate and influence almost everything.

Behold, the dawn of the Democratic Age.

What does this mean for entrepreneurs? The traditional model of business is now “old school” and the “new school” model – one based on collaboration, decentralization, transparency, accountability and trust – is the new normal. Welcome to the democratic organization.

For the past eleven years, I’ve tracked the trends and identified what I believe are seven making organizational democracy the business design of choice:

Trend One: The Internet

The Internet is making new modes of collaboration, such as open-sourcing and crowd-sourcing, the new way of working. It’s the age of the super-empowered individual, where everybody can be a “somebody” and power and information are highly transparent and decentralized. The effect of this trend: Expect employees to want to have a voice and influence in decisions that affect them at work.

Trend Two:
The Rise of Gen X & Y

Author: Traci Fenton

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