Staff want their employers to disorganise

Companies should ëloosen upí to give employees more freedom to fit work around their personal values and aspirations, says new research

People want to work for organisations that donít feel too organised, according to a new survey of business leaders commissioned by Demos and Orange.

Employers will find themselves under increasing pressure to enable staff to align their working lives with their personal values and lifestyle aspirations. Increased requests for flexible working, more people asking to take part in CSR projects and significant preference for working in smaller rather than larger organisations are all part of this pressure for disorganisation.

The research is published in a new report called Disorganisation, which predicts changes in culture and management style in organisations of the future. The authors argue that future organisations will have to ëdisorganiseí in order to retain creative people who expect greater freedom and flexibility at work.

The business leader poll conducted by NOP for Demos and Orange reveals that most respondents (85%) thought that flexible working would increase job satisfaction. The majority (59%) of business leaders said that they would allow their staff to work more flexibly.

More employees are likely to want to be active citizens as well as paid employees during work hours. Over half of business leaders polled (56%) expected demand would increase from employees wanting to get involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects such as volunteering in the community.

ìOrganisations will have to loosen up so that they feel less like organisations to their employees,î say the authors of the report, Paul Miller and Paul Skidmore from Demos. ìThat is what we mean by ëdisorganisationí. People want to work in organisations that feel a bit more human, and offer greater flexibility and autonomy. They want to work for organisations that respect and reflect their values; they want to define their work rather than have work define their identity.î

The research indicates that many people want more flexibility and autonomy in their jobs. Business leaders expect to have to respond to this demand, and in numerous companies many already have.

However a second survey commissioned from MORI by Demos and Orange for the report suggests that traditional hierarchies are still operating in many organisations. One in five people in work (20%) say they speak to their bossís boss less than once a year according to a representative survey of the British people.

ìIn the past businesses went their own way and tried to fit people into their organisation,î says Mike Newnham, vice president of Business Solutions at Orange UK. ìToday it is the employees not the employers who own the means of production through their intellectual capital. If they walk out the door, they take an irreplaceable part of the organisation with them.î

The preference for working for ëdisorganisationsí seems to be supported by a significant proportion of people who say they would like to work for a smaller employer. For example, one in five people (20%) told MORI that they would prefer to work for smaller companies, while only one in eight (13%) said they would prefer to work for a larger organisation.

Twice as many professionals (the AB social grouping) say they to want to work for a smaller employer than say they want to work for a larger one: more than a quarter (27%) said they would prefer to work in a smaller organisation, while only 14% said they would prefer to work in a larger organisation.

The authors predict that people will be increasingly attracted to working in ëdisorganisedí companies, which feel more like looser networks and less like large machines. The report highlights a number of ëcase study companiesí whose innovative forms of organisations can be seen as reflecting a wider aspiration for freedom and flexibility at work within a less traditional structure.

Examples of ëcase study companiesí mentioned in the report include Innocent Drinks, recently voted UK employer of the year, and WL Gore. Although companies with these kinds of unusual structures or employee relations are unlikely to become the norm, large companies will have to understand that they represent aspirations and ambitions present in their own workforce.