Managers Letter
The Office of the Future
by Elaine Appelle
It's not every day that we are able to peek through the "window of the future" and get a firsthand look at what the office of the next century will be like. But experts can look at the trends and make some predictions. As Mary M. Ruprecht, a seasoned technology specialist and president of her own management consulting firm in Duluth, MN, reports:
"The year 2000 and beyond will need workers who know how to act independently and interdependently...who continually upgrade and broaden their skills and who are committed to continuous learning. Future-oriented leaders will treat people as assets, manage change with sensitivity and motivate workers to transform dreams into reality."
What skills will managers need? What tools will office professionals have to use? Will procedures become easier or more difficult? What lies ahead? Let's take a look...
Video teleconferencing will change the face of communication in the workplace.
Michael Bronner, professor of Business Education at New York University and a writer and keynote speaker on technology, training and education issues, sees the twenty-first-century office embodying a number of changes, not the least of which will be an increase in the use of video teleconferencing. As managers attempt to transmit information to employees operating in different parts of the world, video teleconferencing will be "on site and desk-specific," says Bronner. "Every computer will be a video conference center by itself so that the circle of evaluation -- called 360s -- will be enhanced."
Bronner predicts that video teleconferencing will tie into such areas as inventory control, marketing, sales and new product dissemination and demonstrations. With this technology, managers will be able to perform employee evaluations, analysis, hiring and face-to-face employee training without location-specific constraints. Employees will be trained wherever
they
are, rather than at specific job sites.
Bronner believes that the proliferation of video teleconferencing technology will give rise to JIT (just-in-time) learning and training that takes place "anywhere, anytime." This training method will sharpen managers' and employees' skills in learning new software systems and will use national recordkeeping centers as resources for employee evaluations.
With this type of technological transformation, managers will need to develop new skills in "distance supervision," or supervising employees who are not always close at hand. In addition, managers will need to provide appropriate training as job needs change.
"Managers should keep in mind that the more mature adult employee differs from the younger employee in a number of critical ways," says Bronner. "The more mature employee draws from a base of experience, whereas the younger person tends to operate more from pedagogical learning and whatever prior knowledge has been gained."
Bronner believes that future training mechanisms must be adaptable and flexible to address these specific differences. Employees who successfully master these new training programs may then be asked to write training modules for their peers, outlining their own experiences to help in the training of others.
Bronner stresses that basic computer literacy is critical for operating successfully in a contemporary office environment. Since on-line systems will be the focal point of the twenty-first-century office, managers must be "tremendously flexible and adaptive," he says.
CD-ROM technology will play a big part in interactive training.
In a recent article in
The New York Times
("CD-ROMs Are the Latest in Corporate Training," 16 November 1995, D5), Charles Bermant describes another important and new tool, the interactive training course: "CD-ROM corporate training software is catching on. The programs use video, audio and text to present material, letting students proceed at their own pace and measure their progress with frequent reviews and quizzes."
Since all the students' work is saved with such programs, it is a simple matter for a manager to evaluate whether or not an employee has mastered the material successfully. These programs, Bermant says, are the means by which organizations can ensure that their employees obtain new skills or reinforce previously gained knowledge. Many of the programs are short, running only 20 to 40 minutes, but they provide enough tools for employees to improve and broaden their skills.
Brandon Hall, editor and publisher of the
Multimedia Training
newsletter in Sunnyvale, CA, supports Bermant's assertion, saying that he believes interactive training will soon predominate over other types of training.
What advantages await the manager who uses this technology? Bermant cites the freeing up of time, allowing managers to concentrate on other areas such as budgets, scheduling and long-range projections. Interactive training also allows organizations to maximize use of the desktop computers they have already purchased.
Computers will be more intuitive in the future.
Hal Becker, Chairman of the Board of Integrated Circuit Engineering in Scottsdale, AZ, and president of Hal B. Becker & Associates, is a 37-year computer industry veteran who sees a number of emerging trends for the office of the next century. One of these is the proliferation of more intuitive computers. New users approaching a workstation today, he says, spend about 80% of their time learning to use the machine but only about 20% of their time learning their first application. Becker says that new technology will reverse those numbers.
After the turn of the century, he predicts, users will spend far less time learning how to use equipment and more time learning to use the software applications and how to apply them directly to their work. Becker believes this has not yet been achieved because the average company cannot yet purchase sufficiently powerful hardware at reasonable cost.
"The latest Pentium chip and the hottest personal computer you can buy aren't powerful enough, but the new machines are coming!" he says. "We are becoming increasingly computer literate and computers will become increasingly human literate."
In the year 2000, Becker believes, people will sit down at their workstations and be presented with simple icons on screen. These icons literally will be "watching" and reacting to how fast information is being assimilated by users.
"The information utility will become as simple to use and apply as purchasing a new toaster, plugging it in and dropping the bread into the slots."
--
Hal Becker
The more new information is supplied by the user, the more possibilities the application will provide. Software applications will become more functional as computers adapt their level of sophistication to the ability of the user rather than the other way around. Fascinating? Definitely!
Another development of twenty-first-century technology Becker sees is in the ease of use of computers. He predicts that the hardware will become "almost transparent," allowing users to maximize technology for office-specific applications. Employees will have increased access to graphic user interfaces -- images and icons, shading and color -- providing more functions and more choices. Screens will be more intuitive and easier to operate, minimizing the apprehension people feel as they approach computers and new applications.
And what about "people projections"? To achieve success in the twenty-first century, people will need to "recognize the strategic advances offered by effective information management resources," says Becker. "Since people gravitate to things that are easy to use, the information utility will become as simple to use and apply as purchasing a new toaster, plugging it in and dropping the bread into the slots." We're heading in that direction, he says, but we still have some way to go. One obstacle to user acceptance of new technology is the lack of a uniform, consistent interface.
Now that you've heard what the experts have to say, you can use this knowledge to adapt technology for direct, on-the-job use. Think more about how that new spreadsheet program can lighten your workload. Discuss new technology with your peers and see how they are using it to increase their productivity. Attend seminars and read
everything
you can to ensure that you are computer literate and ready for the office environment that is coming soon!
Elaine Appelle
is an Associate Professor in the Office Technology Department at Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY. To date, Professor Appelle has written more than 400 articles in the fields of administrative office management and office technology.
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Managers Letter
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