New Work Order - Orgatec

29What do thechanges mean forthe employees?New Work orderAccessibilityAs early as 2011,88% of employees wereaccessible by mobilephone or e-mail outsideof normal workinghours.(Bitkom 2011)Freedom of choice72% of employees wantto have the freedom tochoose how they performtheir work.(Dell Intel 2011)The answer: they will communicate more, think more freely, take more personal responsibilityfor their work and have more control over organising their time.Not all employees are able to easily come to terms with a more flexible working world.Some have difficulty due to their personal disposition, many others due to their workplacesocial skills and some because of their work environments. But the trend forknowledge workers is to take more personal responsibility, so it’s important to carefullyassess whether the impediments are due to personality, training, informal acquisition or externalinfluences. In 2009 the Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation, or IAO (institutefor work management and organisation) was already speaking of the inevitable change in corporateculture through self organisation.Self-management will be a lifelongresponsibility for modern knowledge workersToday we already work in ways that are more interdepartmental and less bound by location andtime. The blending of work and leisure time will be a central theme of managing everyday life.Thanks to global networking and the proliferation of laptops, smartphones and networks, workwill be less dependent on time and place, so it will become a factor in our private and mobile environments.Every “lifelong entrepreneur” will have to constantly negotiate with the people he or shehas a relationship with about how time will be used. Global networking requires time to be managedin a way that is tailored to partnerships and oriented to results based on performance. Trustingemployees to take personal responsibility and trusting their ability to organise themselves effectivelywill replace regular time-tracking over the long term—as it has done at Microsoft, forexample.Where boundaries are eliminated, Positionshave to be renegotiatedWhile a spearhead of knowledge workers greet the changes with open arms, many employees arenow developing new ways to defend themselves in order to prevent their work from invading theirprivate lives. Anxiety about losing control increases the longing for what is simple and familiar. Theclassic job application CV will become outdated, yet at the same time it will be a representation ofthe desire for security and continuity. The increase in the burnout phenomenon is one example ofthe negative aspects of the changes in the working world. Self-employed workers already suffer disproportionatelyfrom the stress of personal responsibility and the lack of boundaries. The “workstyle”determines the lifestyle. We have to continuously renegotiate our position with ourselves.More communication,more need forcoordination87% of the knowledgeworkers surveyed admitthat in their companiesthe need tocommunicate and coordinateis increasing.(Hays 2011)Social networking,is characterisedby transparentcontents,dynamic interlinkingand expressionsof appreciationforemployees. Thiscreates potentialfor companiesto bind resources,retainknowledge withinthe system andsucceed in globalcompetition.More work, more timerequiredIn 2011 every eighthfull-time employee(13%) admitted to workingmore than 48 hoursper week as a rule.(Destatis 2012)Not every employee is open to the idea of a highly flexible, individualisedworking world with a lot of autonomy in terms of time. Today there are many peoplewho are completely overwhelmed by this situation. They would prefer to work under an old-style managementthat has strict guidelines. This creates a situation in which the desires of employees and the newstyle of the management are not easily reconciled. The idea of allways beeing free and flexible doesn't appealto every employee. A person’s physical, emotional and energy resources are limited. An individualcan’t be forced to behave like an organisation or a market.Sonja Matthiesen, owner, bufc BERUF UND FAMILIE CONSULTING [career and family consulting]