The Fifth Age of Work describes how a broad mix of shifts and trends are transforming work and the workplace.
The author, Drew Jones, is well suited to take on this subject.
He's a cultural anthropologist, partner in a coworking facility, business professor at Texas State and the co-author of one of the first books on coworking - I'm Outta Here.
The book's premise is changes and shifts in technology, social trends, economics and demographics are leading to a new age of work, which he describes as:
The Fifth Age of Work is an emerging world of work broadly defined by the rise of cloud-based technology such as remote computing, file storage and retrieval (e.g., Evernote, Dropbox), and communication channels (e.g., Skype, Google Hangout), as well as the decentralization and de-localization of work characterized by distributed teams, remote work, flex work and telecommuting, contract and project-based work, and the rapid growth of the coworking movement.
He goes on to say that a key driver of this shift is people want more "independence, trust and honesty in their working lives".
A lot of ground is covered in this book. It includes discussions on the importance of design and design thinking, activity based work, results oriented work environments (ROWE), coworking, innovation and various way companies and leaders can increase trust, openness and collaboration.
The Fifth Age of Work does a great job of covering all these trends and tying them back into a understandable framework. Anyone interested in the future of work - which is pretty much everyone reading this blog - would find value in reading this book.
And it's only $7.99 for the PDF or Kindle version. The paperback version is $15.95.
I do have one required disclosure since I just suggested you read this book. Several of our studies are referenced and cited included our New Artisan Economy report and Intuit 2020 report.
We are, of course, thrilled and honored to see this, but our recommendation would have been just as strong if we weren't cited.
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