Offering Flexibility: CG5
Review & Reorient
The groupings so far have focused on ensuring work gets done to deliver performance via employment. They have a self-contained self-sustaining quality
i.e.►
► Assessments-CG4 are handled
► on the basis of expectations and challenges-CG1
► following the exercise of authority-CG2 to assign work…
► so as to deliver results-CG3
► which then require more assessments-CG4
...and so on repetitively.
For management, the initial 4 groupings are about shaping the organization, and enabling employees to work effectively.
For employees, the initial 4 groupings are about doing your best at work for yourself, as well as to discharge your contractual obligations.
Now we must reorient our thinking: Assessments-CG4 point the way forward. Those management reports commonly demand change of some sort rather than «more of the same». However, such change is likely to be problematic. It certainly will be if it alters: ►
● responsibilities
● customs and practices
● relationships
● modes of working
● core technologies
● contractual matters (like titles, perks or working conditions)
● employee numbers (due to outsourcing, redundancies &c.)
A desire for change in the context of work (e.g. travel requirements, holiday plans) may also emanate from the employee. From wherever it comes, the inherent stresses force into prominence the social and personal aspects of employment. The final three groupings (CG5, CG6 & CG7) appear to be focused on those aspects. All require a degree of mutuality in terms of support and loyalty.
Change is hard: if not handled well, there will be resistance, problems, and even emotional explosions. So the key requirement here is flexibility.
Flexibility is a Two-Way Street
Flexibility must be willingly offered—it is never a given. Its function in employment is to maintain bonds of mutual involvement while enabling the necessary changes to proceed. Both the management and the employees should be prepared to be flexible.
Flexibility is the most immediate social context for all work. In the work environment, flexibility must accord with what is known to be relevant, objectively and subjectively. This is obtained by adding a 5th level of expectation or means of achieving to create Pentads with the quality of being «knowledgeable».
The Management Perspective
Management desires employee flexibility because producing change is part of the management brief. The management must, however:
► recognize the impact of any particular change
► view each employee as unique and requiring proper handling.
An organization may have certain inflexible employees, but all of us reach a point, objective &/or subjective, at which our capacity to be flexible is exceeded. So the organization itself must not be totally inflexible.
Management adaptation may be required as an ethical obligation if any staff or group would be harmed by organizational policies. It is certainly required pragmatically to retain good staff and avoid bad atmospheres. Mishandling may precipitate sabotage in the work-place and disparagement in the media.
The Employee Perspective
Employees desire management flexibility to handle alterations in their own circumstances and preferences, independently of organizational needs. Where personal disruption is a consequence of major management initiatives, you must:
► recognize that change in organizations is common and normal
► view change as an opportunity for personal and career development.
Everyone must learn how to handle work and social relationships at times of change. Sustaining a personal presence is necessary to be attuned to what is happening around you, to be alert to possibilities, to engage constructively with the relevant manager(s), and to learn. Personal «» is a natural component of working creatively: the assumption relevant to all THEE frameworks.
► Look now at the three core principles for flexibility.
Originally posted: 11-Nov-2011