It's 7 p.m. in Toronto, and Monika Morrow is just about to dial in to a conference call.
Even though she's already put in a long day at work and the meeting time coincides with her dinner hour, Ms. Morrow isn't complaining. Her colleagues, after all, have it worse than she does - they're calling from Australia, where it's only 7 a.m.
"I'm part of a global task force at work and it's difficult for us to get together for a conference because we're in different time zones," says Ms. Morrow, who is vice-president and national practice leader of transition services for the Canadian operation of Right Management Inc., a human resources consulting firm and subsidiary of Wisconsin-based Manpower Inc.
Behold the global workplace in action.
As companies continue to expand their reach and operations across the globe, the workplace as we once knew it has morphed into something completely different.
And the transformation is far from over because the economy is likely to become even more globalized, say management and industrial experts. Multinational companies are going to cover more regions of the planet, while work will continue to be outsourced to operations on other continents.
Cross-border mergers and acquisitions have certainly soared in recent years, with worldwide activity hitting more than $716-billion (U.S.) in 2005, compared to about $300-billion in 2003.
"The global economy is increasingly becoming integrated," says Morris Kleiner, co-author of a published academic paper titled Governing the Global Workplace, and industrial relations professor at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
So what will a workplace shaped by the forces of globalization look like in the future?
Prem Benimadhu, vice-president of the Conference Board of Canada, a non-profit group in Ottawa that monitors economic trends, public policy and organizational performance, says the workplace of the future will have an international cohort of employees.
Even though they're working in Canada, employees won't think of themselves as part of the Canadian work force, he says.
"Talented employees will see themselves as members of a global work force," Mr. Benimadhu says. "And that will be challenging for companies in terms of employee retention, because they not only will have to compete with other employers in the country, they also have to worry about the company in Beijing or Australia who might poach their employees away from them."
Having a mobile and international work force will make companies smarter, says Mr. Kleiner. And that will inevitably translate to greater growth and productivity.
As companies continue to move operations such as call centres, data entry and manufacturing to countries like India, China and the Philippines, many Canadian workplaces could end up comprised of mainly white-collar workers, says Ms. Morrow.
At the same time, as more Canadian companies are swallowed up by larger companies in the United States or Europe, many workplaces in Canada could turn into mere branch offices.
"When that happens, the senior executive jobs will move to the head office in the U.S. or wherever the parent company is," Ms. Morrow says. "And what you end up losing is the opportunity to move up to senior ranks without relocating.
"So if you're not willing to be mobile, then there will be less and less opportunities for you, which is also a loss for the company because they won't be able to make full use of the talent they already have."
This need to be mobile enough to climb the corporate ladder will be particularly problematic for the younger generation of workers, says Ms. Morrow.
Unlike boomers and Gen-Xers, members of Generation Y are not so eager to travel for work, says Ms. Morrow. This group wants work-life balance and values time spent with family. And because many of them are used to taking trips abroad with their parents, they don't view travel as glamorous and something to aspire to in their careers.
This is where technology will come to the rescue, says Mr. Benimahdu.
Companies today are already using e-mail, and tele- and videoconferencing to connect their employees across the world. Advanced Web-meeting applications even allow workers to simultaneously view the same document and share control of the computer mouse.
"Technology is making it possible for companies to go global without necessarily being mobile," says Mr. Benimahdu.
That's the upside. The downside is that the same technologies will also continue to erode the demarcation between the working day and personal time.
"The nine-to-five concept will go the way of the dodo bird," says Mr. Benimahdu. "There's going to be even more blurring of work and life given the different time zones people will have to work with."
The ability to work remotely because of advanced technology will also present challenges for licensed or certified professionals whose credentials may not be recognized in the country for which they are providing remote services, he says.
To succeed in the workplace of the future, Canadian workers must be flexible and willing to travel, says Mr. Kleiner. They need to be open and sensitive to other cultures, and be comfortable with technology.
Ms. Morrow adds: "We need to be equipped with great change-management skills and the ability to reinvent ourselves."
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