“We used to urge our people to ‘think outside the box.’ Now we all seem to be racing to get back into the box again.”

As a senior human-resources professional said this, the other H.R. professionals and the world-class executive coaches gathered around the big conference table nodded their heads in gloomy agreement. The conversation had taken a turn that has become all too familiar. People were swapping tales of how their organizations have battened down the hatches in recent quarters, in response both to an uncertain economy and the pain and uncertainty wrought by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

Talk of stretching people, of nurturing creative juices, of helping employees find the intersection between their passion and their work has gone out of fashion in the companies these people served. “It seems like some of our executives are almost relieved,” one observed. “They think, well, the war for talent is over. Now we can stop coddling our people.” Another added morosely: “In our company, we’re even phasing out dress-down Fridays. Not that that’s such a big deal on its own, but the whole dress-down thing was about employee empowerment. It was about creativity and self-expression. Nobody wants to encourage that these days.”

Despite all the talk of retrenchment, however, the participants also spoke of a contradictory trend—an increased fixation among employees in their organizations upon finding meaning and value in their work. “At every level,” one executive coach said, “I’m finding that people today want to drill down and ask the big questions: Why am I here? What’s my purpose? How does my work reflect who I am? What do I want on my tombstone? Where’s the balance? Do I get to be a hero?”

Therein lies an interesting story, with big implications for all of us in the years ahead.

Of course, the events of Sept. 11 lent an urgency to questions about the meaning of work. The vast majority of those who died did so simply because they had come to work or were attending a business conference. If work might cost us our lives, we had better feel it’s worthwhile.

Yet such questions did not suddenly develop on the morning the Twin Towers went down in flames, and they won’t go away now that a certain calm seems to have returned to the world.

Throughout the 1990s, people had begun probing issues related to work and meaning. Words and phrases such as “ultimate purpose,” “true passion,” “alignment,” and “spirituality” (unheard of in business in the past) became almost buzzwords during the decade. Was it simply because, in a tight labor market, companies had to go the extra mile to attract and retain valuable employees? I don’t believe so. The last decade’s focus on empowerment and satisfaction has been far more than simply a reaction to a boom economy. Rather, the focus resulted from several changes in the very architecture of work. The reasons for this transformation include:

Work has become far more intense and demanding because of technologies that operate 24/7. This has created a squeeze on peoples’ time and peace of mind, leading them to question, “Is this worth it?”

Today’s powerful, portable, but also invasive technologies have broken down traditional barriers between work and home, public and private, men and women, boss and employee, teacher and student. This causes people to rethink the various roles they play in life, which opens them up to questions of meaning.

Companies are less stable in the global economy. People shift jobs and careers as the demand for products and services evolves. This makes them less dependent upon their organizations than people in the past, more dependent upon their individual portfolio of skills, as well as the strength and breadth of their relationships. This, in turn, forces people to be more conscious of what they have to offer, and thus of what they are best suited to do.

Organizations have grown less powerful vis-a-vis individuals because knowledge—not land, not capital, certainly not powerful machines (which grow cheaper by the month)—now determines the core value of every enterprise. In a knowledge economy, people can’t just bring their bodies to work, but must also bring their hearts and minds, which means they can’t be effective if they feel undervalued.

Change has become a constant. Thus innovation has emerged as the key to organizational survival. And innovation flourishes when people feel the sense of dedication, inspiration, and purpose that enables them to make creative breakthroughs.

Certainly these changes in the workplace were speeded up because of the hot economy in the 1990s, and the fierce competition for talented people that came from all those pesky dot-com start-ups. The rate of change may now slacken for a while as the pace of the economic growth decreases.

Still, ours has become the great “have it your way” society. We have become so accustomed to customization that, when we buy a pair of Gap jeans, we take for granted that we can choose from among relaxed, reverse, straight-legged, lean, or classic fit. Is it any wonder that talented people also have come to expect that their work should meet and reflect their needs? Or that their talents should be nurtured, recognized, developed? This trend is not about to reverse.

Organizations that focus solely on retrenchment—and executives who believe that tight markets mean they needn’t bother to help their employees bring a greater passion and find a deeper purpose in their work—are missing the fundamental transformations occurring in the workplace. To the extent that they’re trying to put their people “back into the box,” these executives are undermining their capacity to survive in a very altered future.

Helgesen is a writer, speaker, and consultant who focuses on the role of work and leadership in the knowledge economy. Her latest book, Thriving in 24/7: Six Strategies for Taming the New World of Work, was published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster in August 2001. She can be reached at sally@sallyhelgesen.com.