New forms of work organisation have come up in last 25 years which is known as modern work organisation. Many organisations have adopted these new forms and become more successful work organisation. Work has been restructured by new technologies; new looms that attempt to involve staff in improving product quality using less inventories. Employee’s involvement can provide employees with control over their operational lives or it can provide employees with the opportunity to mention on work organisation but leave the real authority relationships untouched.
The work organisation was changed a lot over the time from 19th century (traditional work organisation) to 21st century (modern work organisation). Traditional work organisational structure was layered with functional departments while Modern work organisational structure is more flat containing process teams. Traditional work organisations’ employees were controlled and did specified task only while modern work organisations’ employees are empowered and doing multi tasks. Managers and executives were supervisors and scorekeepers in traditional work organisation; they become coaches and leaders in the modern work organisation. Working system value was protective in traditional work organisation which is productive in modern work organisation. New job started with training in traditional organisation but in modern work organisation new job start with learning. Employee’s promotion was based on performance and activities in traditional work organisation while in modern work organisation employees’ promotional is based on their ability and outcomes of their their activities.
The changing nature of modern work organisations is due to globalization, more customer focused markets, change in telecommunication, fast spread of Information technology and worldwide competition. The Modern work organisation is like now more flexible and fundamentally changed from generally accepted management theories and techniques. Social, economical and legal factors have changed the concept of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and business morals. Modern work organisation’s philosophy is based on trust among employee, teamwork, individual responsibilities and personal development of staff. These changes can have a variety of results. Computers can create new and challenging jobs and they can also be used to make existing jobs more repetitive. There are ongoing debates on modern work organisation, how effective they are in making firms more productive and disagreement on whether they allow workers to work smarter or simply force them to work harder. At the same time many proposals that call for greater worker control are seen as being mismatched with the rights of management.