Section 1 (People Matching) - Exercise 15

Reference

• Psychologist Craig Brod says people become accustomed to the patterns set by electronic tools—accelerated time and yes/no—and internalize these patterns. When they leave the office or go home, Brod says, ‘they need complete isolation to recover from the effects of the technology.’ Brod warns that over-reliance on electronic tools could also have serious repercussions on our ability to think creatively and develop new ideas. Because we don’t create in a vacuum, he points out, we need to avoid the temptation to replace informal gatherings for bouncing ideas off colleagues with electronic networking.
• Philosopher Daniel Dennett points out that modern technology eliminates the possibility of unavoidable ignorance. As the opportunity to amass information grows larger, the obligation to make accurate predictions—the ‘right’ decisions—becomes more onerous.
• Joseph Boyett and Henry Conn describe a future in which millions of people now charged with analysing information and making routine decisions will be replaced by less skilled workers using ‘intelligent’ software to make decisions for them. They predict that a cult of performance excellence will engulf most businesses.
• ‘I think people are going to feel an increased fragmentation of self. They won’t be able to hold the pieces together,’ human resources consultant Philip Nicholson says. ‘How do you keep a coherent space if you are going in and out of spaces that don’t exist?’ He likens the psychic numbing of electronic information overload to symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome (a mental disorder following a horrific event). ‘If we are to survive the challenges of information-driven, hardwired offices’, says Nicholson, ‘we need to provide psychological support systems’.

Questions