Many people have jobs that are not meaningful to them, jobs that are pursued mostly for money. Because of the common disconnect of the industrial worker from the material product of her effort, it is understandable that the focus of work easily shifts to monetary compensation. Earnings become a symbol…

We have been struggling to make sense of the changes in our natural and digital environments. Many people claim that descriptions of the world can be expressed with data, and the future of work is thus algorithmic and data-driven. The belief is that our view of the world can be…

The way we view working life is influenced by the way we view the world. This view rests on the most fundamental assumptions we make about reality. …

Up to now, we have seen the world around us as systems that, we thought, could be described and understood by identifying rational causal links: if I choose X, then it will lead to Y. If, on the other hand, I choose A, it will lead to B. We are…

Firms following the mass-industrial logic have given us remarkable material well-being over the last few centuries, but are increasingly being criticized for not being suited to handling the needs of today. Firms need to excel at innovating a post-fossil future. …

People often need to act and make decisions in situations in which causality is poorly understood, where there is considerable uncertainty and people hold different beliefs and have personal biases. However, people very reluctantly acknowledge that they face ambiguity at work. Problems in organizations tend to get labeled as lack…

Charles Darwin wrote a less well-known book The Descent of Man after writing the famous On the Origin of Species. In the Descent of Man he made the revolutionary claim that evolution is not only about the survival of the fittest, but also the result of attraction and delight in…

We are used to thinking that what happens in organizations is the realization of the choices of powerful people. They are supposed to know what is going on as they make those choices. …

Our social interactions play a role in shaping our brain. We know that repeated experiences sculpt the synaptic connections and rewire our brain. Our relationships gradually frame the neural circuitry. Being chronically depressed by others or being emotionally nourished and enriched has lifelong impacts on us. …