The authors, Graton and Scott, of the book “The 100-year Life” suggest that the new generation entering the workforce will be working for a much longer period than generations before (2016). The authors state that life has changed over the past hundred years drastically. This means retirement will require a completely different setup and so will training and learning. According to them, up to now, society has separated life into three phases. The first phase being the educational phase, the second phase the working phase, and the third phase the retirement phase. The authors Graton and Scott argue that people will be moving in and out of these phases over the course of their life rather than having these phases consecutively after each other. This means that the new generation will be continuously changing their status. Be this working relationship from a self-employment type to an employee type or from a student or learning type to a teaching type. (Gratton & Scott, 2016)This suggests that the relationship an individual has with the employer will become more complex and multiple types and roles of life phases can co-exist. Thus, it is important for organisations to understand what types of life phases individuals are going through and to provide them with a flexible solution that caters for the needs of employees. This leads into the direction of the term New Work. There is a substantial philosophical debate about New Work and much of it is polarizing towards either extreme of positives or negatives resulting from this concept of introducing a new working environment and workplace to a changing workforce. The concept of New Work was introduced by Frithjof Bergmann in the 1970s to propose a new way of working in the global and digital age in which work can be found by everyone that is in balance with their own values, needs and beliefs (2019). The three great forces, that are delivering us to a New Work, according to Bergmann, are automation, globalization and farming of which the latter has been eradicated over the past decades. The current job system is inadequate to provide people with life-affirming needs and today’s work environments prevent such a pursuit. (Bergmann, 2019) An interesting insight from Kienbaum on a New Work survey on 120 organisations in Germany has highlighted what organisations are focusing on in order to provide New Work environments to employees. Just 17% of the organisations are considering a democratic organisation, 34% considering flatter hierarchy organisations but the vast majority consider New Work to assure physical needs. There are 47% considering New Work in form of open and free office space, 61% around mobile technologies and 70% in the form of home office possibilities. (Kienbaum, 2017) This shows that there is a need for organisations to provide a more flexible work location, but only a few consider that decentralization of workforce will also require new types for employees to collaborate with each other. The scholar Mukherjee finds employees engagement in a workplace is strongly correlated with their happiness which is elaborated in the following section (Mukherjee, 2017).
The concept of the happiness business model
Work-life balance appears as an especially good indicator of the happiness of individuals. The variables, according to a happiness report, include the number of jobs and the need to learn new skills, as well as the degree of internal freedom that the employee enjoys (Helliwell et al., 2018). In addition, Mukherjee suggests that career stability and social capital (which is the support received by peers) are both favourably linked with satisfaction. Jobs that include health and safety risks are typically associated with lower levels of well-being. As an employee will have control over the rate at which tasks are completed and how the tasks are performed, autonomy is seen as a key factor of satisfaction. The benefit to employees who have an influence on their work is that the workers can be more productive, get more done and advance the projects for which they are accountable. People not only search for support and information through social networks, but also for a sense of identity and a sense of what is needed of them. (Mukherjee, 2017) Employees who perceive to have an influence in their work and their work to have an impact on an organisations’ output are strongly engaged at and committed to their workplace (Mache et al., 2012). Social relationships improve satisfaction by providing help for the individual, according to the theory of social causation (Eger & Maridal, 2015). Better individual and work-related performances are correlated with strong interpersonal relationships. Developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships cultivates the happiness of staff (Reich & Hershcovis, 2011). Findings from Dachner indicate that workplace relationships may strengthen the enthusiasm and happiness of individual employees, job engagement, loyalty and commitment to the organisation (2011). Workplace relationships have positive effects, such as team stability and organisational engagement (Dachner, 2011). In a paper by Cullen and Calitz argue that employees are the most valuable members of organisations (2018). When individuals believe to be undervalued, they withdraw or even seek other opportunities. Employee orientation makes a substantial contribution to a company financial success and its effect, in this respect, is greater than that of orientation towards any other key stakeholder group. The assumption is that the variable Value has a positive effect on the dependent variable Happiness. The happiness of employees and the well-being of an organisation are influenced by the positive networks and support between employees and a positive expectation an employee receives from a workplace. A purpose of an organisation also has a strong influence on the happiness of employees and, thus, influence employees’ commitment to tasks and identification with an organisation. (Cullen & Calitz, 2018) According to theoretical research by Steger, employees have shown a positive link between intention and happiness (2009). Steger argues that researchers in the happiness field increasingly focus their attention on the role of purpose and hope. A purpose in life would allow individuals to endure challenging situations. Important work or purpose at work is seen as a means of bringing harmony and balance, by providing employees with well-being in the workplace and providing organisations with improved efficiency, success and commitment to the stressful tasks of the organisation. According to Steger, strengths remind people of the possible advantages of seeking ways to use their strengths in their work consciously and regularly. Personalization as indicated in Figure 4 below, applies both to the relationship between significant work and the central function of the work and the conduct of the organisation, as well as the theoretical value of finding personal work. Autonomy draws on comprehensive literature of well-being and the theoretical relevance of allowing an employee ample authority and independence to use skills, be involved in peer support, and several other personalization factors for their roles that enable individualization of a workplace. The threat embedded in granting workers autonomy is real, according to Steger, but he argues that changes will influence work performance, and there might be deviations that sometimes have a negative impact on output. However, the decentralization of accountability for solving challenges and enhancing organisational efficiency is a potentially rich source of ongoing innovation. There are countless ways within an organisation to change how tasks are done, and Steger suggests an involvement of employees to support future changes for such a change. Autonomy is important for workers to be able to relate with their employment, make the job their own and exert responsibility of creativity and problem-solving. (Steger, 2016)
Figure 4 is a summary by Steger to arrive at a more purpose-driven organisation. Steger provides one set of guidelines for employees to learn more about their value in an organisation and, thus, enhance their understanding of contribution towards an organisations’ purpose. The second set of guidelines is addressed towards organisations to enhance purpose-driven work for their employees. This sort of framework can be useful to organisations and crowds when developing a New Work Environment. Additionally, this framework can help to set the guidelines for an internal corporate crowdfunding environment, where an engagement of the crowd is essential as well as the support from the organisation.
Source: Steger, Creating Meaning and Purpose at Work. The Psychology of Positivity and Strengths-Based Approaches at Work
This guideline, provided by Steger, supports the understanding of scholar Amabile that when people have a good inner working life, they are satisfied, feel inspired by the job itself, feel respected and have positive views of their work and company and perform well (Amabile, 2011). A conclusion could be that employees participating in an internal crowdfunding system are intrinsically motivated, show signs of well-being and, thus, perform better in their work regardless of their proximity to the organisation. This interesting finding is important when considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has on the current workplace and well-being of employees.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workforce and workplace
Prior to the pandemic outbreak in late 2019 and early 2020, the possibility for employees to work from home has been largely dependent on the organisational set-up, industry and culture or employees’ position and type of work. An article of the IEE organisation and author Perry refers to research conducted by Blind which was identifying how remote work was valued by their employees in the months of the pandemic and government restrictions and lockdown (2020). Interestingly, according to the article, tech organisations and tech workers managed to switch to the home office and remote working much faster than others. And interesting feedback from the respondents was that although employees were comfortable working from home, they did miss interactions with colleagues, socialising and friendships. A few also missed the separation between home and work as well as confined work hours. Some few tech employees would consider relocating to more inexpensive housing areas if remote working would become more permanent. (Perry, 2020) Along this train of thought, the organisation Deloit conducted a survey with organisations in Austria by Kellner and Korunka. According to their findings, more than 80% of businesses are of the opinion that the number of people who frequently work from home will be greater after the Covid pandemic, as well as the average of hours spent in the home office, will increase. According to the study, conducted with 300 Austrian organisations, the study highlights that prior to the pandemic only 2% of organisations provided home office capabilities to all employees, while 43% provided home office not at all or only to a few limited employees. During the pandemic and while restrictions were in place, 58% of the organisations surveyed provided home office to all employees and only 4% offered home office to none or few employees only. The study indicates that responding organisations suggested current working practices, collaboration and leadership will need to be reconsidered and revamped. According to Deloit, it becomes important to further build a corporate culture in the direction of trust and outcome orientation when work is conducted partly from the office and from home. Thus, organisations need to focus on the lessons learned from the crisis, to deal with changing requirements in the office environment and face technological, logistical and operational challenges. A significant concern to organisations, as highlighted in the paper, could be that employee productivity and performance would suffer in a home office environment. However, the results of the study indicate that about 80%of respondents claim that in a home office environment it is easier to focus on tasks than in the office, indicating that office environments, such as open space offices and unplanned interruptions, provide for difficult settings to concentrate on work tasks. On the contrary, though, the study indicates that communication and teamwork are not necessarily easy in a virtual setting. Overall, the study indicates that in a virtual workplace there is more demand for advanced planning and fewer possibilities for ad hoc collaboration. (Kellner & Korunka, 2020) Why is working from home and crowdfunding or workplace of the future connected? Considering the factors which are favoured in a crowd work environment by workers, there are similarities in responses that are coming from home office workers.
The universal success formula for thriving businesse
The universal success formula is developed by Lex Sisney who argues that everything, regardless of its size, can be understood as a system that is a sum of individual components that work together (2012). Even these individual components can be seen as individual smaller systems. In order to measure the success of a system, the system needs to have a goal or aim to work towards, and the impact needs to be measured qualitatively or quantitatively. Sisney suggests that the cause for a system to succeed depends on the System Energy Management, which is how the energy is managed in a system. The basis of his university formula rests on the laws of thermodynamics. On the one side, a system has a finite amount of energy it can provide, and on the other side, every system consumes a certain amount of energy until it falls apart. Therefore, Sisney suggests organisations focus on two sides of the formula. There is the side of limiting the amount of energy being consumed by a system, referred to as entropy, and the other side of the formula, the increasing the amount of integration, which provides energy to a system. In an organisational context, if a business consumes a great amount of energy through a reorganisation, there is little energy or integration left to provide the system with sales or energy, for example. If the entropy is minimized, an organisation can utilize its integration and finite energy to arrive at a better success level. (Sisney, 2012)
Considering the success formula, organisations might consider the energy derived out of the integration of its employees further. Because as thermodynamics law states, any energy provided to the system will first flow towards sustaining its entropy and its system. Any remainder of energy will then be used towards generating success. Sisney suggests that if the same amount of energy is used to maintain a system as it is to build and develop a system. This would provide a warning for upholding a system before it perishes. But if a system uses less energy for its entropy than for building and developing, the system can withhold longer and deliver towards its predefined success. (Sisney, 2012)
Considering the advancement of automation and increased need for creativity at the workplace in correlation with the time employees spend in the home office on maintaining a system, then it could be argued that because in a virtual environment the alignment of employees consumes more time, the importance of this alignment among employees consumes more energy and this reduces the amount of integration available. If employees need to provide less energy towards maintaining a system, they have more energy left towards integration. This holds true for home office or remote work in general, if the home office and remote work consist of back-to-back virtual meetings, then much of the energy is consumed by fulfilling the entropy. It is important for organisations to consider a new way to increase the amount of integration while reducing the energy consumed by the entropy.