Workplace flexibility

Citation

Nolan, S. (2010), "Workplace flexibility", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 9 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2010.37209baa.001

Workplace flexibility

Article Type: Editorial From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 9, Issue 2

This issue of Strategic HR Review is based on the theme of workplace flexibility and explores how organizations can gain advantage by showing agility. This means being agile in strategy formulation, as well as in supporting processes such as change programs, leadership, cultural programs, operational models and so on. The authors in this issue explore how to truly release potential through flexibility and agility, rather than dragging an organization through an expensive and ineffective process of change that leaves it in a worse situation than when it started. In short, it is about being flexible at a pace and in such a way as to make changes for the better.

“The importance of building a culture of innovation in a recession”, by Jaideep Prabhu, explores the theme of cultural change in relation to driving radical innovation. The author uses established research findings that compares drivers of innovation across different economies and finds that internal factors, such as attitudes, practices and behaviors of the people in a firm, are more important than the external factors relating to national policies when it comes to creating a forward looking, risk-taking culture in a recession. This puts HR at the core of the process of achieving the new product and service development that will help speed recovery during a recession – a time when HR professionals are also faced with reduced staff, more dispersed teams and the increased use of outside contractors. The author puts forward three attitudes and three related practices against which HR practitioners can benchmark organizational culture as a starting point to understanding how it currently relates to innovation and measuring the cultural factors that will lead to success in the post-recession marketplace.

“Successfully managing change during uncertain times”, by Evelyn Lewis, Don Romanaggi and Aimie Chapple, looks at the current unprecedented and multi-faceted levels of change that are placing new demands on business leaders. While resistance to change is real and can act as a barrier to achieving organizational goals, people’s response to change is predictable and therefore organizations can apply proven approaches, tactics and initiatives to move people toward new goals and new ways of performing. Change is no longer an event, but a way of life, and successful change management a differentiator for executives and their organizations. The authors use their experience of helping organizations through change to identify six keys to successful change management. In a practical approach, they explore the mindset required to understand each area, the skills required to deal with it and the associated initiatives that can support a change program.

Gordon Tinline and Kim Crowe explore change management from the perspective of the relationship between engagement and wellbeing in their case study feature, “Improving employee engagement and wellbeing in an NHS Trust”. They examine how a public sector health service provider in the UK that is undergoing significant change is working to engage employees in the process by basing leadership development on levels of engagement and wellbeing in the organization. In order to do this, they use a combination of assessment models to understand engagement levels and to demonstrate to leaders how they impact on those levels, and ultimately on the performance of the organization and its ability to manage change successfully. The assessment delves beyond levels of engagement to identify the drivers and to make correlations with leadership traits and, therefore, the means of achieving improvement.

The case study, “A change for the better”, by Judith Fraser and Catherine Hemmings, discusses the need for a new approach to change at Contour Housing Group and how this need was met by a bespoke training program for managers, delivered by Oakridge. The need was first identified by employees through an internal survey and the company was quick to react by bringing in an internal specialist and an external change management consultancy, running focus groups to better understand employees’ concerns and developing and delivering a learning strategy. The speed with which it tackled the issue – which meant slowing down from its journey of change and restructuring – prevented it from escalating and resulted in early signs of success as individuals report better approaches to the changes taking place in the organization. Communication remains key to this success.

In “Making telework work: leading people and leveraging technology for competitive advantage”, authors Evan Offstein, Jason Morwick and Larry Koskinen argue that telework is much more than a flexible working arrangement. While flexibility is one positive aspect, when executed properly they say that telework can provide an organization with a source of competitive advantage. In their paper they draw on research into telework to put together the best practices and activities to enable organizations to achieve its full potential. Crucial to this is their argument that it is leadership, and not technology, that is the critical variable in making telework work. In order to design successful telework programs, leaders must move away from traditional leadership thinking to embrace a creative and innovative leadership mentality. Virtual leadership requires a different set of skills and capabilities, as well as the ability to see the potential to work without the limitations of geography, time or physical presence

Sara NolanE-mail: shr@emeraldinsight.com