Page 12 - Hacktivism

NOTES
1 Putnam R., “Bowling Alone”, 2000.
2 Bersin J., “New Research Shows Why Focus On Teams (...)”, on Forbes. com, 2016
3 Idem
4 Hu E., “Inside the Bossless Office, where the team takes charge”, on www.npr.org, 2013
5 “2016 Workforce Productivity Report”, WorkMarket + KRC Research, 2016
6 McDowell T. et al., “Organizational Design: the raise of teams”, Deloitte, 2016
7 “Workers are increasingly looking to “design” the perfect balance between their personal and professional lives - and having a boss who will support them is a differentiator in their employment choice” in “Kelly Global Workforce Index”, 2015
8 Boynton J., “How the voice of the People is driving CSR”, in Harvard Business Review, 2013
9 “In the future companies will survive only if they help solve big social problems “ in www.forbes.com, 2014
10 “The future of business citizenship”, www.mslgroup.com
Technology has a great role to play in this change, but companies mainly need a cultural change: they need to include employees in the process of defining and deciding the company’s goals, allowing them to share their day-to-day experience with the management and participating in the creation of a flatter and flatter organization. Employees need to develop new skills, too.
More freedom at work brings responsibilities and opportunities such as the chance to manage time in a better way or collaborate with other team members to achieve shared goals. By developing such skills, employees gain the power to "hack" their working lives to following their personal preferences7, to pursue personal goals, propose new ideas or volunteer in social projects.
Increasingly these projects are welcomed by companies because they represent new forms of civic participation or activism that creates a sense of community within employees. In many cases the companies themselves propose cultural or social programs in which everybody is free to participate. “When individuals feel strongly about a company’s performance on social or environmental issue, one small voice can quickly become a swarm, difficult for even the most shielded executive to ignore”, says Jen Boynton8.
Connecting social issues with the business is a visible sign of a company which embraces democratization, takes care of its employees and bravely face new challenges. “Today our social investments focus on providing access to medicines and building health care capacity for those most in need", said Caroline Roan, president of the Pfizer Foundation"9.
Making the world a better place” and “doing business” are no more seen as a different goals, as well as putting “the interests and priorities of the employees ahead of customers and shareholders” as millennials are largely entering in the workforce and the old fashion CSR mindset is transformed into “active business citizenship”10.
A paradigm shift based on the belief that higher profits and better products and services are generated by the links between business, community and actively engaged employees. A shift that transforms work from something in which employees do their best, to something in which they be their best.