New Work: not hype, but operational necessity
The latest Leadership Trendbarometer from IFIDZ shows that many companies are already intensively dealing with the topic of New Work and, from the point of view of their managers, have already implemented approaches to this in their organization.
The fact that so many companies are currently addressing the topic of New Work is not "fashionable hype" but an "operational necessity. This is the conclusion of the current Leadership Trend Barometer of the Institute for Leadership Culture in the Digital Age (IFIDZ). 177 executives took part in this online survey, which is conducted regularly by the Frankfurt-based institute. Of them, 75 percent were of the opinion that dealing with the topic of New Work was not a "nice to have" matter for companies, but a necessity due to the changed framework conditions. 62 percent also said that New Work was "primarily a cultural rather than a structural issue" for them, which is why for the majority of them (72 percent) the topic of New Work is also "inseparably" linked to the topic of New Leadership.
Operational necessity against the backdrop of digitization
This response behavior corresponds to the fact that only 14 percent of the executives see the companies' preoccupation with this topic primarily as a reaction to the changed expectations and needs of generations Y and Z. In their opinion, the causes are much more complex and profound. In their opinion, the causes are much more complex and profound. As in-depth interviews with around 15 percent of respondents show, they consider the main drivers of this process to be, for example, advancing digitization and the changes in the challenges facing companies in the VUKA world, which is characterized by rapid change and decreasing predictability; in addition, the increasingly noticeable shortage of specialists and managers. It is also forcing many companies to fundamentally rethink their HR policies.
New Work often already a reality
Against this backdrop, it is surprising for the initiators of the survey that 59 percent of the participants expressed that they already knew "what the term New Work entails and what aspects are associated with it". This is because, according to Barbara Liebermeister, the director of IFIDZ, this "largely contradicts the experience we gain in our day-to-day work in communicating with company executives". In it, IFIDZ still experiences companies and their executives largely as "seekers" and not as people or organizations that have already found the solution - "also because this change and transformation process is taking place in a dynamic environment."
However, according to IFIDZ, it is encouraging that 49 percent of respondents said that new work approaches are already being implemented in their company, division or team; moreover, only 12 percent of them said that there is a lot of talk about new work in their company, "but little is changing. According to Barbara Liebermeister, this shows that many companies are already seriously addressing the question of how, in addition to work, working and communication relationships in their organization should be structured and designed in the future, even if there are no definitive answers to these questions yet.
Source and further information: www.ifidz.de
