Rethinking the manager's role

Abstract

Constant improvements in robotics and machine learning, in conjunction with the automation of routine tasks, make management a more unclear practice. When technology enables many people to have more information about themselves and others, its easier to take a clear and more mature view of the workplace. Self-assessment tools, particularly those that enable people to diagnose what they do and how they do it, can help employees pinpoint their own productivity issues. They have less need for the watchful eyes of a manager. Technology-enabled social networking is capable of creating robust and realistic maps of influence and power. Rather than seeing the end of management, we seem to be witnessing the rise of a more skilled form of it.