Creativity and innovation in labour relations.

Maarten van Riemsdijk

Stephan Corporaal

Janina Banis

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Outline

• Introduction and Context

• The Next Generation (Stephan)

• Pro-Activity as an asset (Janina)

• Discussion

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Differentiation in HRM

Unique

Strategic

CoreCommitment

ProductivePerformance

Spot marketCost

SpecialistTemp hire

Adapted from Lepak & Snell 2002

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New Labour Reality

• Need for flexibility increases in companies

• Labour policies are designed for more flexibility and longer working lives

• In Holland, demographic trends lead to predicted labour shortages

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New labour Relations

• Assumption: This leads to a labour reality that is:

• more prolonged

• more flexible

• more volatile

• more precarious and uncertain

• But offers new opportunities and challenges as well (for some).

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In it:

• Employees are more responsible for their own career biography and prolonged employability.

• Companies will be held accountable for employability in and outside of the organisation.

• Keeping up will be a joint interest of companies and employees alike.

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• Employees know their employment will be temporary; They will ask how the work enables them to develop and stay employed.

• Companies know work will be temporary, yet they need good quality people; What will they offer to attract them?

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Boundaryless careers ?

• “…..Boundaryless careers are the opposite of ‘organizational careers’ – careers conceived to unfold in a single employment setting”. (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996 p.5).

• Boundaryless career does not characterize any single career form, but, rather, a range of possible forms that defies traditional employment assumptions.

• The key concepts are flexibility, networking, marketable skills, and continuous learning, which workers exchange for performance in a career that unfolds across organizational boundaries (Sullivan and Arthur, 2006).

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In this reality

• We still need ‘core’ employees with high strategic value and unique contributions

• And plain highly productive employees.

• New recruits are essential: they have been labeled Gen Y: How to get them in, how to retain them….what do they want/need?

• Pro active people are what companies need, what are their characteristics?

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The New Employee: The Gen-Y Myth

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Challenge1.Doing tasks that are related to existing knowledge or education2.Learning new things3.Tasks with a clear impact (improving customer satisfaction or improving business results)Variety1. Variety in workplace2. Variety in social contacts3. Variety in type of tasksAutonomy1. Clarity about how to perform the job2. Freedom in method of work3. Receiving trust to perform a job independently

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Colleagues•Work atmosphere: humour, no slander, openness, honesty•Opportunities to develop friendships3. Social support from colleaguesManager1. Respect: dignity, openness, honesty2. Participative style: involvement in decision making process3. Attention for personnel lifeOpportunities for training/developmentPhysical workplace1. A clean, safe, tidy and well ventilated workplace2. Availability of materials and digital tools at workFlexibility1. opportunities to work from home2. Timely and fixed work schedules3. Flexibility in working days4. Flexibility in working times

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Thus

- We have wrong perceptions about Generation Y. They associate job and organizational charateristics with different aspects than other generation’s - Generation Y is not that different from other generations- Gen Y’ers are more conservative than they thought,

Pro-Activity as an asset

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Pro-Activity as an asset

• Our society is characterized by constant change

• In our ‘flat’ world, the nature of work has irrevocably changed, bringing challenges and opportunities…

• The global workforce's ability to get things done as it has been doing them "will no longer suffice" (Friedman, 2005, p, 361).

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From Satisfied Proactiveand Committed

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Proactive behaviour

In the modern boundaryless career individuals need to be in pursuit of ‘‘opportunities to obtain training, enhance their human capital, and remain marketable” (Cheramie, Sturman, & Walsh, 2007, p. 360).

This is exactly what proactive people do….

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Proactive behaviour

Influences:

•Creativity (Zhou & George, 2001)

•Network building (Thompson, 2005)

•Job search effectiveness (Brown, Cober, Kane, Levy & Shalhoop, 2006)

•Job performance (Crant, 1995)

•Leadership (Crant & Bateman, 2000)

•Organizational innovation (Parker, 1998)

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Proactive personality

Workers with an innate willingness to change are the driving force for success of individuals and competitive advantage of organizations

(Fuller Jr. & Marler, 2009)

The prototypic proactive personality is described as ‘‘one who is relatively unconstrained by situational forces, and who effects

environmental change” (Bateman & Crant, 1993, p. 105).

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Research

Predictive value of proactive personality for succes in honours programs and work…

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Discussion

• Organisations make Generation Y more happy with clarity and managerial trust than with autonomy!

• Focusing on a satisfied and committed workforce is no longer enough, we need a proactive workforce to gain competitive advantage!