Over the next five years, 75% of all blue-chip organisations will have to face up to the need for major changes in their workplace policies and people management practices.

According to consultants the Gartner Group, three trends are rapidly converging for office-based enterprises – the shift to flatter management structures, the leveraging of intellectual capital and the "virtualisation" of the workplace. This is already beginning to result in a need for new approaches to providing and managing the workplace, as well as the workforce.

Gartner sees confirmation that significant change is underway in the launch of knowledge management initiatives and the take-up of e-business concepts. Hard evidence comes in the form of increasing investment in communication technologies, including the small but steady flow of reports of companies providing internet access for all their employees.

"The impact is on the workplace – the people and how they work – and the focus is on knowledge as the primary source of capability and competitive advantage," says Gartner VP Kathy Harris. Management practices have to adjust to this new environment, she adds.

Elliott Chase