From Iron Cages to Fishbowls: Welcome to the Future of Work

Abstract

The notion of a traditional long-term employment contract is being challenged by the emergence of short-term 'gigs' (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018; US Federal Reserve, 2020); and the growing proportions of workers engaging with platform work for portions of their total pay around the world (Pesole et al., 2018). As a result of these changes, traditional employment arrangements are transforming into those characterized by episodic work, virtuality in interactions, individualization of employment, and most profoundly - transformation of jobs through technology (Subramony et al., 2024a). In this presentation, Professor Subramony will examine the implications of these changes for employee- and customer-experience, with a specific focus on algorithmic management (Kadolkar et al., 2024), automation, and digital transformation (Subramony et al., 2024).

About the speaker

Mahesh Subramony, PhD is Presidential Research Professor and Professor of management at Northern Illinois University.His research examining the ongoing transformation of frontline service work and the strategic value of HRM systems hasappeared in leading business journals including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Academy of Management Journal, and the Journal of Service Research. Mahesh is on the editorial boards of prominent journals including Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, Journal of Organizational Behavior,and Journal of Business and Psychology; and has served as associate editor for Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, and the Journal of Service Research. He has won multiple teaching awards for undergraduate and MBA instruction and routinely provides advisory/consulting services in the domains of leadership development and change management.