ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the evolution of work, and explains the world of work and how it may challenge executives to accommodate how people expect their work environment to be structured. Before the Agricultural Revolution people “worked” by hunting wild animals and gathering seeds, fruits, and berries. This was labor-intensive and time-consuming work. A typical workday during the industrial revolution was a grim affair. With a large pool of people wanting to work, employers could set wages as low as they wanted. Most workers were unskilled and earned a subsistence wage at best. The chapter shows how self-management is the cornerstone of a new type of organization that is starting to capture the attention of workers and managers, although in different ways. There have been numerous “revolutionary” theories on what motivates people to work that have made their proponents rich and famous, and good for them.
