Modes of organising have an indirect relationship with the new key
technologies as enablers of new forms of organisation. The effect is
two-fold: first the emergent technologies bring more efficiency to
traditional organising, while at the same time inspiring ideas about new
ways to approach the everyday life of organisations. Secondly, the
metaphors and models based on new technology are applied to building new
forms of organisational interaction. In this article we argue that the
metaphors that are currently beginning to affect organisations on a
larger scale are derived from networked communication technology. Pentti
Malaska, a Finnish Futures Researcher, based his theory of societal
change on the idea that societal forms build upon one another as a
succession of needs that remain unfulfilled by the previous stage of
development. He presents the next stage as society of intangible needs,
where the focus of human activities will move to interaction between
people. We present the results of an investigation of two case studies:
Finnish IT-consultancy firm Reaktor, and Buurtzorg, a Dutch home care
organisation. They both have adopted networked practices that question
the traditional command and control management structures, and replace
them with self-organisation, social control, and trust. In our research
we are focusing especially on how technology affects the way these
organisations approach their employees and clients. These empirical
findings are reflected against the theory of society of intangible needs
for contextualising the results, and drawing out their potential
implications for the organisations and working life in the coming
decades.