Work Without Boundaries

'Work without boundaries' means work that is not restricted by traditional organizational rules like regular office hours, a single workplace, fixed procedures and limited responsibility. Drawing on more than a decade of research and bringing together organization theory and work psychology with scholarship from related fields including sociology, social psychology, cognition and psychobiology, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the available theories, concepts, data and research on new ways of organizing work. With organizations increasingly driven by market forces they have had to develop new levels of flexibility. This flexibility can be achieved via empowerment through deregulation, decentralization and delegation, or via standardization to make individuals and teams more replaceable. The two approaches are very different, but both involve a shift of power away from the organization to make individuals accountable for their own employability and work. Work Without Boundaries explores the human impact of this shift in four sections: the new work organization it implies; the skills required to thrive in it; the work-life balancing act involved; and the stress and health implications.