MIT Sloan School of Business professor Thomas Malone says the information age has brought about a new phenomenon in the workplace.  Writing in the Harvard Business Review----with co-authors Robert J. Laubacher, and Tammy Johns--Malone calls the new dynamic "hyperspecialization."  With the ability to communicate across the world in real time, workers can collaborate like never before.  And that means that businesses no longer have to find generalists--people who can handle a wide variety of tasks.  Rather, specialists can team up on projects, with each worker's specific skills complementing those of others on the team. 

Of course, there are echoes of the early days of industrialization in this new collaborative workplace--and Malone refers to Adam Smith's prediction that the division of labor would come to define business structures.

Here is Malone discussing the impact of the division of labor in today's workplace on the way companies do business in Harvard Business Publishing's IdeaCast:

Read The Big Idea: The Age of Hyperspecialization here.