**Management**

Case Study:

Meeting InviteZooming to WorkThe world has experienced fundamental shifts in how we think about coworkers, and meetings, and teams, and groups, and communitycollectives of all kinds, including the organizations we work for and volunteer with. Weve been forced to reevaluate fundamental assumptions about connectionsto our friends and coworkers, to the institutions we rely on and that we contribute to. The traditional nature and configuration of organizations in society has become unpredictable. From the way we intersect with retailers, reflected in what may be a sticky broad transition to on-line shopping, to the way we consume entertainment media, reflected in persistently downward movie-going trends, to the way we socialize, reflected in on-going concerns over dining out, to the way we go to the doctor, to the way we go to school, to the way we worship, to how we experience live music, and on and on, the shape and texture of how we live our lives has changed. The virtualization of our collective experiences has been pervasive.Shifts in how consumers, employees, and employers alike think about an organization or an employee or customer and what these stakeholders mean have been evolving at an incredible pace. In the unsteady intra-Covid era workplace ecosystem, a broad range of stakeholders have struggled for traction and clarity and confidence relating to work from anywhere arrangements. Decisions that employees are being forced to make, and remake, relating to where and how to work are on-going and in flux.Many of the operative models that have traditionally defined the ways that we think about being part of a work team, or being part of an organization, or participating in a community, or leading and managing others, have started to lose their value. Meeting virtually over a Zoom link to strategize with team members or get feedback and coaching from a supervisor or provide customers with insight into a possible solution is a fundamentally different experience than meeting with these same stakeholders face-to-face. Clicking on the meeting link, unmuting your microphone, clicking on your video stream, and watching everyone else get settled inaside from the lurkers who dont turn on their video, all from the comfort of your living room or home office means something very different than attending the same meeting in an on-site physical location at work.What does this new normal mean for businesses today for employees for you? How do they impact the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling central to the role played by managers? What are the implications for careers?The only real certainty we have is that we currently do not know what the future holds in terms of what organizations will look like, or whether any single dominant paradigm will emerge that most organizations will adopt. It is this pervasive uncertainty that currently defines conversations in this space. No one knows for certain whether Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and other virtual collaboration platforms are our future in personal life and at work, or whether their pre-eminence in the moment will fade with time. Will we be starting conversations with: Remember when we used to meet on Zoom ?! Or will we start with: Remember when we used to hang out in person ?! Whatever the case, the future remains uncertain and what we might call tech heavy. Openness to experience, tolerance for ambiguity, and a high Tech IQthese are all likely to going to be useful attributes moving forward into the virtual unknown that defines the future of work within modern organizations.

1. Discussion Are you excited about the possibility of taking a job out of college where you work from home and meet and interact with your new coworkers through a Zoom interface? Or, does the prospect of navigating a virtual job leave you less enthusiastic about your prospects? What are your needs and expectations in this regard? Can you see yourself not accepting a lucrative offer if it was fully virtual? How about an offer with hybrid work? What are the most important considerations as you move into post-graduation phases of your career while realizing that change will be unrelenting