At Work: Specialists vs Generalists?

Specialists vs Generalists?

I think there is a need for a mix of specialist and generalists.    But at least initially more of the specialist activity will be taken over by devices.     Alerts, Notifications, Assistants, smart contracts, sensors,  ... that will add to the skill and of the number  jobs taken up by generalists.  ....

A Case of the Navy: 

At Work, Expertise Is Falling Out of Favor   In the Atlantic

These days, it seems, just about all organizations are asking their employees to do more with less. Is that actually a good idea? .... 

 " .... Minimal manning—and with it, the replacement of specialized workers with problem-solving generalists—isn’t a particularly nautical concept. Indeed, it will sound familiar to anyone in an organization who’s been asked to “do more with less”—which, these days, seems to be just about everyone. Ten years from now, the Deloitte consultant Erica Volini projects, 70 to 90 percent of workers will be in so-called hybrid jobs or superjobs—that is, positions combining tasks once performed by people in two or more traditional roles. Visit SkyWest Airlines’ careers site, and you’ll see that the company is looking for “cross utilized agents” capable of ticketing, marshaling and servicing aircraft, and handling luggage. At the online shoe company Zappos, which famously did away with job titles a few years back, employees are encouraged to take on multiple roles by joining “circles” that tackle different responsibilities. If you ask Laszlo Bock, Google’s former culture chief and now the head of the HR start-up Humu, what he looks for in a new hire, he’ll tell you “mental agility.” “What companies are looking for,” says Mary Jo King, the president of the National Résumé Writers’ Association, “is someone who can be all, do all, and pivot on a dime to solve any problem.” .... "