Highlights from our ongoing conversations about the future of work. The four-day work week or #996? A future of automation? Will the gender pay gap disappear? What is the future of unions? Management and leadership in the age of AI. Coworking and gig work. What is universal basic income?
We invite you to join us in important conversations.
Hear from the experts
What does automation, machine learning and AI mean for the future of mining, agriculture, cities, the future of jobs and the risks of a polarised society? Leading robotics scientist and the Chief former Scientific Adviser at the UK Ministry of Defence, now New South Wales Chief Scientist & Engineer, Hugh Durrant-Whyte considers the next 10-15 years.
At the same time that revelations of sexual harassment of women at work and the rise of the “me too” movement were making headlines, a team of researchers from The University of Sydney were investigating the working lives of women. In this podcast, we talk with Professor Rae Cooper (AO) about The University of Sydney’s landmark study into what women want at work.
Generational categories are popular but is there any truth to generational differences? We talk to Dr Steven Hitchcock about the myths surrounding generational categories and what organisations and leaders can and should be doing about it.
Professor Melissa Carsten studies what most of us are – followers. There can be no leaders without followers, so we ask her “what makes a good follower?”
Her research focuses on leadership and followership in organisations and the role that implicit followership theories play in leader-follower interactions.
Across the world still less than 15 percent of board seats are held by women. In Australia, pressure is now being applied by the ASX and by some investor organisations for companies to achieve a 40 percent female board member target. To explore board diversity and whether it really does matter, we talk to Dr Danika Wright.
Rachel Botsman is a best-selling author, her TED Talk views are in the millions, she lectures at Oxford University on the sharing economy, and her new book “Who can you trust?” seeks to change our perception of trust. Today we talk to Rachel about whether we are on the cusp of one of the biggest social transformations in human history.
Stupidity in business can lead to disasters. Yet a mindlessness and idiocy can, at least for a while help people do things more easily, can help people get along better and really just get on with it. This is the stupidity paradox. So how is stupidity impacting the way we do business? And should we do anything about it? We talk to Professor Mats Alvesson to find out.
Discussions on the future of work
Sandra Peter and Kai Riemer discuss the future of work, business, technology, the weird and the wonderful things that change the world.
- Superannuation and the future of work
- 996 work culture
- Women, automation and work
- The subtle sexism of open plan workspaces
- Can companies enforce an ideology?
- Demographics: trends in Australia and China’s demographic time bomb
- The four day work week
- The paradox of automating your own job
- Quantifying work patterns and the value of boredom
Read up on the latest
What’s one thing Milton Friedman, Richard Branson, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King Jnr, Eva Cox, Elon Musk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mark Zuckerberg have in common?
A universal basic income (UBI) is an unconditional regular income paid to all residents regardless of whether they are in work or not. Arguments for and against criss-cross political and philosophical lines. We distil these arguments into five schools of thought:
Feeling lonely (2018)
Being lonely can reduce a person’s life span to the same extent as someone who smokes 15 cigarettes a day. In terms of overall health and wellbeing, you are better off being obese than lonely.
Gig platforms’ claims over worker chat groups: fraught territory indeed (2018)
Could an employer or platform claim copyright in a chat group? We’d first have to accept that conversations in a chat group are protected by copyright.
People analytics: predictive algorithms are no better at telling the future than a crystal ball (2018)
Business managers often rely on predictive algorithms to make recruiting decisions that affect a company’s bottom line. But these kinds of algorithms aren’t really “predictive” at all.
The trend of “flat” organisations is catching on at some of the world’s biggest companies. It’s easy to see the appeal when you think of a utopia where everyone in an organisation has a say and can act autonomously.
We must equip millennials with the ability to think critically and to evaluate new situations, new information and new environments, in order to prepare them for tomorrow’s jobs.
The future of you (2019)
Your future is not yet written. Here are some ideas currently being tested that aim to put people at the centre of discussions about a better AI future.
Australian coworking spaces cater to a more diverse crowd than just young tech entrepreneurs (2017)
Rather than just catering to one stereotype of worker, people who use coworking spaces actually come from different backgrounds, professions and ages.
Coworking Spaces Australia report (2017 and 2018)
This report provides an introduction to the coworking phenomenon, an overview of the state of coworking in Australia.