Caring organizational cultures and the future of work

There is substantial evidence that workplaces of the future will be dominated by an increase in advanced technology. This trend might lead to the objectification and dehumanization of employees and other stakeholders who interact with organizations as impersonal operations and procedures become normative and employees are subordinated to technology. This also means that the needs of employees and other stakeholders will be changing and organizations must respond if they are to be effective and successful in the future. In this paper, we argue that in order to counteract the dehumanizing effects of technology, organizations of the future need to be more caring and this requires building a culture of care in which the organization places a high priority on the needs and well-being of employees, managers, customers, and the community in which it operates. We provide a multiple-stakeholder perspective of organizational care and explain how care and concern can move up, down, around, and outside organizations and the positive consequences of care for organizations and all stakeholders. The paper also offers suggestions for future research and practice on organizational care and caring organizational cultures.