OVER THE PAST YEAR, David
Nordfors and I have organized
several invitationonly
seminars we call
“Innovation and Jobs.”
Our purpose has been to draw upon
many points of view from experts
in many fields to understand more
deeply how innovation relates to the
workplace. One of the first surprises,
for me at least, was the observation
that, once there is food on the table
and a roof over one’s head, everyone
is not necessarily looking for remunerative
work. What seemed very
important was meaningful work. As
this thread was teased out, we recognized
that a significant fraction
of some economies depends on
or benefits from a lot of volunteer
work. There are even websites devoted
to connecting volunteers with
work they find meaningful, such as
the very successful www.volunteermatch.
org. One wonders how much
of the world’s economy involves
this kind of non-remunerative work
and to what degree we are dependent
as a society on the gratifying
sense of having contributed to the
well-being of others or satisfying an
itch that happens to produce benefits
for others (think of volunteer docents
in museums, volunteer nature
walk guides, and people who volunteer
in hospitals).