Research predominantly focuses on observing trends within the work environment indicating a paradigm shift towards a new world of work. According to the Zukunftsinstitut, which has published one of its megatrends to be the new world of work, some findings from its surveys can lead to a better understanding (2018). Based on feedback from opinion leaders of the Zukunftsinstitut the following top four trends in relation to work are:
- growing complexity of work performed,
- increasing speed of processes,
- growing customer demands,
- an increase of importance in knowhow and competency.
The Zukunftsinstitut envisions that people in future will not follow jobs, but jobs will follow people. With this, the Zukunftsinstitut means that individuals will be shaping through their contribution at work value towards an organisation, rather than an individual adapting his skills and capabilities towards a job description and tasks defined by the organisation. Thus, organisations will be looking for like-minded people and talents that represent their interests as well as their cultural traits towards customers and clients. And as work will become more creative, an individual’s output and result will become more important to an organisation. Therefore, exchanging one person for another will ultimately have a significant impact on the outcome of work, while the outcome is not necessarily worse but different. (Zukunftsinstitut, 2018) In summary, the research shows that the New Work consent taps into many different disciplines and many scholars look at the New Work from a different point of view. Maybe because of the broad and vast implications that a New Work has on our whole society, there is no simple and clearly described cause and effect, and, thus, it remains a complex system. The following two examples from the research will provide an insight into what the new world of work means to organisations. Accenture Technology Vision Paper points out that online work platforms will have a tremendous impact on traditional organisational management forms and that these platforms will reshape the development of the labour market further (Unkefer, 2017). The number of platforms emerging bring a further level of complexity towards New Work concepts by introducing different types of tasks and skill levels. Research performed by Huws and Joyce tries to understand the level of importance on the income of crowd work. They identified back in 2016 that the gig-economy was still predominantly used for altruistic reasons and used more as an occasional and additional income to a steady position. In 2016, less than 2% stated that their sole income was coming through a gig-economy type of work. Moreover, while 11% stated that it was close to half their income, two-thirds of the majority of respondents stated that their income from gig work was less than half of their current regular salary. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) has undertaken the task to categorize the future of our world of work into four different types of worlds (2018). This categorization helps to understand the implications on organisations and also what culture lies fundamentally in each of these worlds. The PWC study highlights the main focus of each world and what type of organisational culture is embraced by organisations. Although not implied in the PWC study, it can be assumed that any organisation will have a variation of all worlds represented but will lean towards or focus on one or the other type of new worlds. The PWC study provides a very thorough and holistic view of the future work environment and challenges that organisations and workers will face. Already today there are some resemblances with organisations leaning towards one of the other worlds. Interesting is that crowd work is essential to all worlds in some form or another. Organisations in future will receive a significant contribution from crowd work. Therefore, crowd work needs to be understood in more detail to evaluate their impact and significance towards value created for workers, customers and companies in a newly forming gig economy. (J. Brown et al., 2018)
The beginning of a gig-economy and how it is categorized
Although the amount of people employed on crowdsourcing sites is challenging to quantify, reports suggest rapid development. Studies reveal almost 5 million crowd staff in the United Kingdom, some 12% of Swedes work in the freelance economy and in Netherlands 18% have sought to find jobs across a web network. Huws regards any form of crowd work to be part of the gig-economy (2016). Because many new platforms are providing crowd work and a growing number of diverse areas, Huws offers a more diverse categorization of different types and forms of crowd work. Huws categorizes crowd work into four types of platforms where client requests are matched with paid labour from freelancers. The categorization rests on the skill level required to perform the work. Ranging from highly skilled tasks (creative, IT or project management related tasks), to lower skill work such as transportation and delivery tasks. Huws, though, indicates that as industries are adopting the gig-economy concept, many different shades of skill level are seen and services in the health, education and legal industries are driving the need for more platforms. (Huws et al., 2016)
In contrast to micro-tasks platforms and according to the scholar Corporaal, there has been a large increase in the acceptance of freelancing platforms due to availability of various skills and talents. Corporaal’s research suggests that enterprises are using platforms not only to reap the benefits of financial flexibility but also to gain access to workers with different skill sets and expertise. In his research, he points out that enterprises that have successfully adopted platforms in their operations have created an environment for experimentation and learning. Enterprises have opened up platforms to in-house teams in order for workers to collaborate freely in finding the best possible uses cases. For instance, a board of experts formed of freelancers are readily available when needed by an in-house team. In this context, Corporaal indicates that enterprises successfully using these platforms utilize freelancers in addition to regular employees and not instead of. An important finding from organisations utilizing platforms was that regular employees were essential to convey and carry the organisational identity and culture towards freelancers. Regular employees were also essential to support the integration of freelancers and externals into project teams. Finally, Corporaal indicates in his conclusion, that incorporating employees into a crowd platform also prevented resistance. (Corporaal, G.F., & Lehdonvirta, V., 2017)
Influencing factors of crowd work on the New Work concepts
In a recently published book, Cribb indicates that over the course of the next 10 years, there will be a reduction of routine and manual labour tasks and an increase in creative, problem-solving and relationship tasks (2019). Cribb indicates that problem-solving will be the majority of people’s skills sought after with dominant skills required in scientific work and minor skills in critical thinking and judgment. Thus, employers will be seeking traits rather than specific technical skills. Another interesting aspect Cribb points out, are security or flexibility received from a form of work performed. Where an employee receives a form of security and financial stability through a perceived permanent job, a self-employed person trades these advantages for flexibility and lifestyle. According to Cribb, some employers are already trying to merge the advantages of a flexible work style of self-employment with the security of an employment contract through introducing zero-hour or outsourced contracts. Uber is provided by Cribb as an example where the assets and skills remain on the contractor side leaving the company with only a few actual employees and assets but providing customers with a universal and global image and experience. (Cribb, 2019)
How can workers become more engaged? The need for more leaders and fewer managers becomes apparent. If organisations seek support from independent workers on a short-term based contract and by using a digital marketplace as a broker platform, gig refers to the resulting situation as a gig-economy (2019). Uber, Deliveroo and Fiverr are, according to Jabagi, a gig like organisations enjoying the benefits of an agile and flexible workforce as well as the benefits of reduced operating cost and liability towards customers. For the gig organisation, the challenges are that workers are not bound, and do not allow for traditional types of supervision. Therefore, gig organisations are forced to rely on workers delivering work in accordance with organisational goals and quality while also providing for certain self-organisation. Jabagi indicates that in most gig organisations, workers tend to have a strong organisation are, therefore, challenged to seek solutions how to empower and motivate their gig workers. customer-facing role. gig workers therefore can be seen and regarded as brand ambassadors. (Jabagi et al., 2019)
The importance of OID in a gig-economy
External workers that are brand ambassadors cannot be controlled or supervised as traditional employees. Organizations are, therefore, challenged to seek solutions on how to empower and motivate their gig workers. Failing to provide a positive experience and connection between organisations and workers will have a negative impact on the customer experience. While there are certain techniques and tools to increase the organisational identification (OID) leading to positive connection and experience for good workers, the difficulty seems to be developing a strong OID through the use of online platforms. Jabagi suggests that the development of the OID is the key to have a positive connection between gig organisations and gig workers. (Jabagi et al., 2018) There are, however, two aspects that impact the organisational identification among workers and organisations, those being distance and time. Developing an organisational identification among workers proves to be difficult because gig workers have flexibility towards the distance, and also in terms of contract length. Thus, Jabagi indicates that organisations are utilizing virtual solutions such as enterprise social media platforms to address both aspects of distance and time. Jabagi rests his strategy for the use of enterprise social media on the theories of self-determination by Deci and Ryan as well as on the social identity theory of Ashforth and Mael. Jabagi claims that OID can be fostered in a gig economy by intrinsic motivation and organisational prestige. Jabagi provides eight proposals to strengthen OID through the use of an enterprise social media system. (Jabagi et al., 2018)
Source: (Jabagi et al., 2018)
Time spatial flexibility in creating new types of employment frameworks
The concept of time spatial flexibility is a new approach in creating new types of employment frameworks for workers. The time spatial flexibility, as suggested by Wessels, is a strategy for employees to be productive and staying healthy (2019). However, research on the impact of time spatial flexibility has not been conclusive in the aspect of having only positive or only negative impact outcomes on well-being, performance or managing a work-life balance. Wessels argues that current time spatial flexibility and job crafting has been a task performed top-down, reducing the autonomy of employees and the workforce. Does time spatial flexibility in job crafting should be a bottom-up task, which not only provides the workforce on a daily level to adapt to current situations but also to the feeling of autonomy in making informed decisions about work performance and tasks. Wessels concludes that the formal time spatial flexibility that employers provide should be completely separated by the time spatial flexibility lived by employees on a daily basis. Thus, an organisation should provide the framework of a time-spacial flexibility to exist and draw up on the employees and workers to design and create their work contribution in accordance with the understanding of a time spatial flexibility of the organisation. Wessels concludes that the time spatial flexibility depends largely on how each individual uses the concept and which extent and individual can use and manage to optimize output and deliverables. Wessels indicates that employees seeking social job resources, such as feedback and developing skills, have led to a positive impact on an individual’s well-being. (Wessels et al., 2019)
But because there has been no conclusive evidence or research stating that time space or flexibility provides for better work life balance, time spatial flexibility should be regarded as a tool for which individuals need skills, knowledge and abilities in order to effectively use it. Wessels highlights three dependencies for time spatial job crafting to work. Firstly, the organisational culture needs to embrace time spatial job crafting as a foundation for employment. Secondly, leaders and co-workers need to provide instant feedback openly and freely to allow individuals to adopt and alter. Thirdly, autonomy, competence and social feedback are the needs that individuals seek, which in turn are the essential needs for time spatial job crafting framework. Wessels indicates that time special job crafting is a long-term undertaking and rests on the individual to become more proactive. Wessels argues that if used well the time spatial job crafting will lead to higher levels of organisational commitment. (Wessels et al., 2019)
Calculating a business case for New Work based on disengagement
The BBC has interviewed executives in organisations that have taken an unconventional path to attract and retain talents of the generation born between 1980 and 1999 (2016). This generation also referred to as Millennials, will be accounting for 75% of the workforce by 2025. The article indicates that this generation was born during the financial crisis and, thus, has developed different aspirations and demands for a workplace. According to the article, Millennials are more purpose-driven than other generations and believe good work and life balance to be an important factor. The article highlights different ways organisations, such as Virgin or Airbnb, are creating a workplace of the future. The majority of their initiatives play around flexibility in work time and more frequent communication on values and purpose of the organisation than otherwise. Sir Richard Branson indicates to the BBC that providing more flexibility to a workplace such as to work from home or part-time and take unpaid leave will attract and encourage a generation to contribute towards the purpose of an organisation. According to the HR expert China Gorman, interviewed by BBC, companies that will be able to transform in attracting the best talents will have a significant competitive advantage. On a similar train of thought, an executive from Airbnb indicates that they make an effort to communicate their values internally and externally and try to be true to them. Airbnb pays a lot of attention in regular but not frequent meetings where employees get together to discuss the most important points for the company. An annual 3-day meeting brings all employees together in order to share values across the organisation. The article concludes that organisations are trying to reduce hierarchies and are providing ways for individual teams to earn recognition rather than providing recognition via traditional management structures. (Tappin, 2016) According to a survey conducted by Deloitte and the resulting study, the most prominent cause for workers to quit a company in Austria is its organisation’s management (2019). Several other reasons indicated are a lack of career opportunities and insufficiently positive experiences for workers. In terms of age, 25 to 34-year-olds are the most vulnerable group of employees with a 64% likelihood of leaving the company. As an example, the disengagement of organisations costs businesses a total of € 80 to 105 billion Euro. Especially 70% of the workforce have no engagement with their employer and work by the book. Most employers leaving companies do this with little prior notice and 11% of these workers are identified by companies as key talents causing disruption. Deloitte estimates the cost resulting from fluctuations of workers for companies to average at € 14,9k Euro per worker and larger companies above 1k workers have a higher cost resulting from fluctuation. (Brence et al., 2019) A further study by Gallup Institute (also referred to in the context of the Business case calculation by Pfeiler) discovered that businesses with high engagement levels are 21% more profitable and 17% more successful than those with a low index (Adrian Boucek, 2017). In the calculation depicted in Figure 6 by Pfeiler, 88% of the workforce (no engagement + disengagement) are at risk of leaving their employer based on the age structure in Austria (Pfeiler, 2020).
Source: (Pfeiler, 2020)
Considering how the gig-economy is shaping the workforce of the future, the importance of organisational identification to workers, as well as the risk of fluctuation through more opportunities poses an immense threat to the sustainability of an organisation of the future.