Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age - Book Report/Review Example

Running Head: BOOK REVIEW: A WHOLE NEW MIND. Book Review: A whole new mind. Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Name Institution Date Book Review: A whole new mind. Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. Book summary In the book A Whole New Mind by Pink, the author talks of the changes that are taking place in the work places. The start of the book is about four ages which are characterized by changes in the way people are engaging their brains. The first age is the agricultural age which consists of the farmers, then the industrial age which consists of the factory workers, information age made up of the knowledge workers and lastly the conceptual age composed of the creators and the empathizers. He says that the topography of the work place is once again experiencing changes and authority will move to those people who have strong and upright brain characteristics. In the fourth stage, Pink looks at the ways in people and businesses can achieve success. He identifies three trends leading to the future of businesses and the economy at large. These are abundance, Asia and automation. Abundance indicates that the consumers have a variety to choose from. Everything is in abundance. Asia means that everything needed can be outsourced and automation indicates the use of computers to perform most of the functions, use of robots and high technology in the processes involved. This trend raises three important questions for any business to succeed. These are whether computers can perform duties faster, whether what the firm is offering is required in the current age of abundance and whether any one abroad can do it at a lower cost. In the other part of the book, the author explains six senses that he identifies to be essential for a business to succeed in the current economic times. These are design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. Design means moving ahead to involve the sense, story is the narrative that is added to the products and services; symphony is the addition of creativity and big picture thinking. Empathy is going beyond reason and involving emotion and instincts, play is adding humour and cheerfulness to products and services and, meaning is the unimportant feelings and values of products. Pink argues that people need more of empathy and play in their lives since it makes one able to relax, have pleasure in life and involve the unused capacity of their brains. He insist that the society forces us to think in a certain way and to take life without the equipments that are needed to enjoy it so as to obtain the most out of it. He also says that people who do not care for their accurate brains may miss out, or find no place in the economy to come. This book has plenty of important tips and strategies on top of the call to action in a person’s life. The implications for HR practice For companies and businesses to stand the current economy competition, the human resource managers also need to tighten their practices in order to support the staff meet the requirements of the economic trends. The shift from the agricultural age to the conceptual age as described by Pink was characterized by total technological changes in all industries. To reach that far, companies had to engage a lot of training for the staff coupled with proper human resource management skills. There has been a change from the immobile communication devices to mobile means of communication, computerized operations and transaction. This has led to customers “any time, any place” demands for solutions to their problems. Such demands require that the companies create online response systems that will respond to the requirements of their clients instead of situations where the customers have to wait for manual responses. The build up of online response systems comes with the demand for expertise to operate the response equipments. This will call for recruitment of new employees by the human resource management department, or for training of the existing workers on how to work with the systems (Lengnick-Hal, 2003). Pink also raised the question of automation where there will be equipments that will offer automatic responses to the clients. This however will have negative implications on human resource department since it will lead to loss of jobs for some employees who used to do the duties being performed by the automation equipments. This therefore needs to be handled carefully by the human resource manager. The other implication of any time demands by the customers is that it poses challenges to the organizations since they will have to adapt to the human resource practices that will fit the fats moving working environment. Non flexible organizational environment cannot survive in the current economic times with high technological demands. The new economy demands also affect the way in which an enterprise organizes its working teams. In the past, companies used to face long term and stable customer demands and they could make working teams that could last a long duration. Pink explains that in the new economic terrain, organizations are facing immediate demand cycles with unpredictable customer demands. The organization must therefore be able to create and change the working teams rapidly according to the changes in customer requirements. The team members should also be able to change their team affiliations more often to accommodate new team members when projects change. Pink, in his book, talks of creativity which is becoming important in the current economic times. In this conceptual age, right directed thinking is required which represents reason and analytical thought. He says that creativity can be achieved through motivation. The workers must be motivated by the human resources manager and their thinking directed in the right way to encourage them to be creative. Pink also states that some industries such as the grocery chain and whole food industries have already made transition into the conceptual age. He explains that whole food has won premium prices by appealing to the customers by use of accurate brain sensibility of the wholeness of the food and the past stories of the products to differentiate it from other foods. Critical analysis A pink talk of six senses where he says that play is necessary to add humour and cheerfulness to products and services. However, the current economic times call for seriousness and not humour. The sense should be one that will portray seriousness of the products and services. Clients in the current economic times need seriousness and assurance of the product. They therefore need to be shown seriousness and not humour. Pink also talks of story as a narrative that is added to products and services. Services however require a narrative that is convincing and displaying intelligent. This is the reason why he says that the economic times calls for minds that are right directed. The short notice customer demand calls for convincing and time conscious information. The narrative of the products and services should consider customer’s demands (Beinhocker, 2007). The current trend in the economy is however creating opportunities for business developments and promoting economic growth. Organizations have installed equipments that will meet the current “any time, any place” demands of the customers, which have opened ways for organizational growth. With these equipments and increased knowledge, the organization has a wide pool of resources both in terms of knowledge and manpower that can increase their production capacity. Organizations can therefore produce in bulk and participate in the global markets rather that in the local markets only. These products can be used in all places of the world increasing the market range of the organization. The organization therefore gets an opportunity to enter in the global market. The workers in an organization also get an opportunity to learn. When new technology has to be implemented, the training gives the werkers an opportunity to learn and opens up a way for them to work in the global market. The current changes require that the human resource managers to adopt new measures that will make it possible to effect the requirements to meet customer demands. In the old economy, organizations were divided and staffed into units handling different functions. These were marketing departments which dealt with marketing issues, engineering departments and many others. In contrast, the new economy is being faced with complex demands for acquisition of knowledge and sharing of the acquired knowledge across the organizational boundaries. Projects teams can be found anywhere in the organization departments and from many different units in the organizations, or across organizations. The complexity in the new economy calls for complexity of knowledge in the organization units. All units need to be equipped with knowledge that can enable any of them to handle any arising issue (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2000). Human resource management has been faced with the greatest task in the new economy. They have to make sure that their organizations adapt to the required technology demands that will meet the customer requirements. It is the role of the human resource manager to mobilize the workers and the units in the organizations towards right minded direction. When an organization changes it direction towards the economic demands, there has to be many changes that will take place in the organization regarding the customer demands. The customer demands will therefore act as the driving force in the organizational changes. Pink states a necessary question in the new economy of whether the computers will finish the required job faster as the customer demands dictates. The human resource manager has to ensure that all the units in the organization have the required equipments and that they are in good order to perfume the required functions within the given time. Customer demands also change in terms of the type of products they require. Economic changes require that some of the products be replaced. The organizations therefore need to change their production trends in terms of the products and services they produce. Existing skills have to be emphasized by the human resource manager which meets the new requirements from the customers. This will involve training sessions in the organization that will update and upgrade the existing knowledge of the workers. Upgrading of the existing knowledge will also help in the aspect of Asia as Pink states. References Lengnick-Hal, M., (2003). Human resource management in the knowledge economy: new challenges, new roles, new capabilities. Boston: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Beinhocker, E. D. (2007). The origin of wealth: Evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics. NY: Random House. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (2000). A new economy: The changing role of innovation and information technology in growth. London: OECD Publishing. Read More