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The new way of working : a practice oriented research to identify the competencies that are needed for a successful new way of working at Alliander

Lintelo, A. te (2011) The new way of working : a practice oriented research to identify the competencies that are needed for a successful new way of working at Alliander.

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Abstract:‘The new way of working’ (NWoW) is a concept which is often used nowadays. Organizations like Interpolis, Microsoft, Rabobank and KPN already implemented the concept of NWoW. The top management of Alliander believes in the concept of NWoW and therefore hired a program manager. Furthermore, the top management decided to rebuild several office buildings as a preparation for NWoW. In order to successfully implement NWoW, it is imperative to create a desired concept of NWoW. This research will contribute to the concept of NWoW for Alliander because it examined the competencies that are needed to meet the performance goals of NWoW in order to give an advice about the extent of NWoW within Alliander. A survey was carried out among five departments of Alliander and four departments of UMC Utrecht. This summary will mainly be about NWoW at Alliander. The literature suggested that NWoW has four core aspects: time and place independent working, managing results, access and connectivity to knowledge, and flexible employment relationships. The extent of use of these four aspects determines the intensity of NWoW within an organization. Employees and managers within Alliander have to deal with mental changes, just like the ability to perform with NWoW. Especially the competencies that are necessary to perform successfully with NWoW. Performing successfully with NWoW can be defined as meeting the performance goals. These performance goals are work-life balance, overall productivity and commitment. The theory suggested that several employee and managerial competencies influence the relation between the intensity of NWoW and the performance goals. Employees are assumed to have competencies like empowerment, knowledge sharing among employees, and employees acceptance of IT. According to the theory the managerial competencies are individualized consideration, trust, empowerment impact, supporting employees’ acceptance of IT, supporting knowledge sharing among employees, and output control. In order to support Alliander in assessing employees and managers in their competencies regarding NWoW a survey is developed to analyze the extent of NWoW within the organization. This also means the current extent to which competencies of employees and managers are present to meet the performance goals to implement successful NWoW within Alliander. The reliability and validity of the survey is assessed by performing several statistical tests. Next, the survey is spread out among five departments of Alliander and four departments of UMC Utrecht. The reason for aggregating the data was the low sample size for managers within Alliander. The data from the survey for employees were aggregated as well. All together, the sample for this research was adequate to perform statistical tests. Unfortunately, due to a low amount of respondents of managers it was not possible to draw any statistical conclusions. The amount of respondents of employees was suitable. After statistical tests, the three competencies of employees appeared to be antecedent variables instead of moderator variables. Which means that the competencies are influencing the intensity of NWoW as well as the performance goals, in the form of an interaction effect. The interaction effect was tested for the three competencies of employees and it appeared that empowerment and knowledge sharing among employees were significant. This means that empowerment and knowledge sharing among employees positively contribute to the relation between the intensity of NWoW and the performance goals of NWoW. The results from Alliander on these two competencies are good, this means that the results are acceptable in order to start working with NWoW. Regarding the intensity of NWoW, Alliander scores rather high for both managers and employees. The dimension access and connectivity to knowledge show a notably lower result. Alliander can increase this dimension by making more IT recourses available and remove the blockades on internet to increase the use of social media. In conclusion, there is evidence that the competencies empowerment and knowledge sharing among employees positively contribute to successfully implement NWoW within Alliander. Therefore, these two competencies need to be added into the competence profile of Alliander before the implementation of the concept of NWoW. Furthermore, Alliander must provide training to successfully inflow these two competencies. The other assumed competencies should not be forgotten because the theory indicates that the competencies are of great value regarding successful NWoW. For this reason, Alliander should anticipate by paying attention to the development of these competencies that will be in line with the concept of NWoW. Keeping in mind that the concept has not yet been implemented, the assumed competencies can play a role before, during, and after the implementation of NWoW within Alliander. Moreover, it is important that there is clear and regular communication towards employees about NWoW. It is also essential to make use of organizational learning as a strategy to create a high quality concept of NWoW for Alliander. Organizational learning can be done in the outline of a brainstorm group.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Alliander, the Netherlands
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62810
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