The changing world of work

1
The changing world of work

• Objectives
• To identify key environmental forces shaping the
  world of work
• To evaluate the impact of wider environmental
  factors on organisational practice, employment
  relations and attitudes to work
• To examine different patterns of work
  organisation
• To evaluate the concept and practice of
  flexibility in organisation and work design
• To discuss the concept of the psychological
  contract
• To debate future trends in work organisation and
  future HR scenarios

2
Influences on the organisation
3
The macro environment a PESTLE framework

• Economic
• Levels of employment
• Exchange rates
• Inflation rates
• Earnings

• Social
• Demographic trends
• Consumer patterns
• Attitudes to work
• Mobility

• Political
• Government orthodoxy
• Legislation
• International law
• Social policies

The organisation

• Technological
• Internet
• Communications
• Production processes

• Environmental
• Protection laws
• Re-cycling and waste
• Resources

• Legal
• Corporate law
• Employment law
• European law

4
The driving forces of change

• Think about the business environment your
  organisation (or an organisation you are familiar
  with) operates in
• what are the key trends?
• what are the main challenges?
• what are the implications for the management of
  people?

5
The impact of the environment

• The driving forces
• internationalisation
• competition
• technology
• How organisations are responding
• differentiated goods and services
• customer focus
• quicker response times
• lower costs
• flexibility from people and technology
• developing core competencies of people

• Impact on the way people are managed
• decentralisation and devolvement of
  decision-making
• slimmer, flatter management structures
• fewer specialists directly employed
• developing a flexible workforce
• more project-based and cross-functional
  initiatives and teamworking
• empowerment
• (CIPD Position Paper, People make the
  Difference)

6
The impact of the environment

• increased self-management of individuals and
  teams
• adding value - contributing to continuous
  improvement of products, processes, services
• commitment to personal training, development and
  adaptability
• (CIPD Position Paper, People make the Difference)

• What this means for managers
• facilitating, co-ordinating roles
• greater interpersonal, team leadership and
  motivational skills
• integrating flexible staff
• What this means for employees
• customer orientation to meet needs of internal
  and external customers

7
Its a tough environment out there...
Skills and talent shortage
Economic trends
PRESSURE
PRESSURE
Demographic change
Technology
Legislative change/political agenda
8
The economys looking good...
Banks set to announce record profits Sunday Times
Economy grows faster than expected BBC
Recovery gathers pace The Economist
Economic gloom is lifting The Times
Sun comes out for the Citys rainmakers Financial
Times
9
But skills shortages persist...
Strategies needed to prevent the flight of
talent Financial Times
Search for talent is top issue facing HR
Directors Personnel Today
Our Asian rivals are closing the skills gap
We need a fundamental change of culture so that
learning takes place in every workplace Gordon
Brown
Unemployment falls to 27-year low BBC
Staff shortages continue in social care People
Management
Public sector facing recruitment crisis Audit
Commission
The labour market remains tight People Management
10
Flexibility

• The ability of an organisation
• to respond to environmental
• and business pressures by
• adapting the size, composition,
• cost and responsiveness
• of human resources

11
Self-employed
First peripheral group Secondary workers Internal
labour market Numerical and functional flexibility
Core group Primary workers Internal labour
market Functional flexibility
Agency workers
Sub- contracting
Secondary peripheral group Secondary
workers External labour market Numerical
flexibility
Increased outsourcing
Atkinson 1984 The Flexible Firm
12
Types of flexibility

• Functional flexibility
• matching skills to needs, multi-skilling
• Numerical flexibility
• adjusting numbers employed to business needs
• Temporal flexibility
• variations in hours worked
• Financial flexibility
• matching pay to performance
• Behavioural flexibility
• encouraging adaptability and versatility

13
Flexibility and the flexible firm

• Review and compare your organisations working
  patterns. What forms of flexibility have been
  introduced in the past five years?
• Identify and discuss the advantages and
  disadvantages of flexibility
• for employers
• for employees

14
Flexible working

• Employee drivers
• work-life balance
• greater control
• increased job satisfaction and motivation

• Employer drivers
• resource to cover peak workloads
• recruitment and retention
• reduced absenteeism
• increased productivity
• reduction of overhead/ property costs
• elimination of overtime costs
• working time regulations
• ability to react to market conditions

15
Advantages of flexibility Barriers to
flexibility

• aids recruitment
• makes better use of resources
• affords greater flexibility for managers
• reduces costs
• builds morale
• gives greater choice for employees
• increases productivity
• allows customer- orientation

• management resistance
• administrative problems
• trade union resistance
• costs of introduction
• specific logistical problems
• perception of non-standard workers
• inappropriateness to certain industries/ tasks

16
The psychological contract

• A set of reciprocal expectations between
  employees and their employers about what both
  parties are expected to contribute to the
  employment
• relationship

17
The psychological contract
Causes Organisational characteristics Type of
organisation HR practices Individual
characteristics/ circumstances
Change Employment change Job change Organisatio
nal change Work-related change Change in
personnel policy
Content Fairness Trust Delivery of the
deal
Outcomes ATTITUDINAL Commitment,
satisfaction, work-life balance, security BEHAVI
OURAL Motivation, effort, citizenship, intention
to stay, performance
Guest and Conway 1999
18
The psychological contract

• What do you understand by the term the
  psychological contract?
• List the expectations you have of your
  organisation - and what you believe to be the
  expectations of the organisation from you.
• Do you think that nature of the psychological
  contract between employees and their
  organisations has changed? If it has, how and why
  has it?

19
Psychological contract typology

• Transactional contracts
• Transitional contracts
• Relational contracts
• Balanced contracts

20
The changing psychological contract
New Employability Flexible/unpredictable Variab
le Driven by market forces Value added Pay for
performance Making a difference Opportunities fo
r self-development Knowledge and skills
Old Security, long-term career Structured/predict
able Permanent Influenced by tradition Loyalty
and commit- ment Fair days pay for fair days
work Good performance in present job Stable
income Time and effort
Focus Format Duration Underlying
principle Intended output Employers
responsibility Employees responsibility Employe
rs input Employees input