The Consumerization of IT Management: A Transformation You Can’t Ignore

There’s been plenty of talk about the consumerization of IT. This trend speaks to the shift in device procurement and use from the corporation to the individual user. Before this shift, employees didn’t think twice about exclusively using corporate-owned devices. But now, many workers are clamoring for the flexibility to use their device of choice at work.

Mark P. McDonald, a group vice president at Gartner, believes that management and managers are undergoing the same transformation in the workplace that devices are.

He outlines what this means in a post for the Gartner blog:

The consumerization of management calls for re-imaging and redistributing the work of management throughout an organization. Just as power, control and choice have shifted to the consumer, so too has the work, responsibility and commitments of management. Shifted not to another class of managers, but shifted to everyone as we recognize that we [are] both the producers and consumers of the outcome of effective management which is human achievement.

In short, the workplace is adopting a model that is more accommodating to choice and collaboration and stretches from the devices we use to the way we work with one another.

This means that companies need to be flexible, responsive and tuned in to the needs of their employees. The days of stonewalling between the manager and his employees are long gone. Consumerization has leveled the playing field.