The Future of Work to 2020

PriceWaterhouseCoopers released a report entitled “Managing Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Work to 2020” that looks at the new challenges facing organizations and corporations. Such challenges include a lack of skilled workers, aging populations, and cultural changes from relocation. PWC came across a few key findings in their research including the following: the business model will undergo serious change, people management will bring a new challenge, and human resources will face a new role. In an effort to help explain and map these themes, the PWC researchers created three hypothetical scenarios that are possible in the year 2020.

• "The Blue World: Corporate is King" shows that corporations will become huge organizations confronted with individual and consumer preferences rather than social responsibility;
• "The Green World: Companies Care” takes an alternate approach and outlines the social responsibility of corporations with demographics and climate change becoming driving forces.
• “The Orange World: Small is Beautiful” focuses on the shift from big to small corporations that strive on specialization.

Can these three worlds coexist? If so, how are businesses going to manage and change by the year 2020? Let us know what you think.