Throughout human history, the concept of work has been shaped as a fundamental activity conducted by individuals and societies in order to survive, sustain their lives and increase their level of well-being. This activity, which was initially aimed only at meeting vital needs, has gained different dimensions over time with social, economic and cultural transformations. Production activities, first seen in agricultural societies, transformed the relationship between humans and nature; with the cultivation of the land, settled life was adopted, and this situation also radically affected the forms of economic and social organization. During the feudal period, work was shaped more around hierarchical relations and land ownership; the position of individuals in the production process was determined by class structures. With the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, work underwent a major transformation and became the center of mass production, and with the increase in mechanization, there was a transition from labor-intensive to capital-intensive production methods. In this process, developments such as the emergence of factories, the acceleration of urbanization and the determination of standard working hours laid the foundations of modern working life.

Today, working life has been reshaped by extraordinary developments such as rapidly developing technology, digitalization, globalization, environmental concerns, demographic changes and, most recently, the pandemic that has affected the whole world since the end of the 20th century. In this context, with the transition to the information society structure, knowledge, skills and digital competencies come to the fore; while classical working styles have begun to be replaced by flexible, remote and hybrid working models. However, the differentiation of expectations and values ​​of new generation employee profiles such as Generation Z has made it necessary for employers and organizations to reconsider the way they do business.

In the first part of the study, the evolution of the concept of “work” throughout the historical process was discussed; the transformations in working styles under the influence of social structure, economic systems and technological developments were examined in detail. It has been examined how organizational structures were shaped and the phases they went through in the transition from agricultural society to industrial society and from there to information and digital societies.

In the second part of our study, the reasons why businesses have to make structural changes to adapt to factors such as technological innovations, global competition, environmental sustainability, and different generations working together were investigated, and the effects of different reasons such as the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crises on organizational change were examined.