14/09/2021

 So much happened during covid. There is a world before and after

 Things are getting automized and the only thing we have is being human
3 mega forces (sth is going in on in this world) that have an impact on us as professionals:

 Flexibilization -- is there really a salary job in the future? will everything be based on
freelancing?
o We have jobs that are being done by computers
o Which departments are using alternative labour functions in companies most often?
 Alternative labour function – outsource, freelance
 IT (70% of the jobs are outside of the traditional salary jobs), Operations,
Marketing,…
o HR – half of the jobs don’t use any alternative labour, but the other half do. Our job
is likely to be alternative labour (outsource, freelance) in the future.
 Hyper competition – anyone can work from anywhere so we as professionals compete
with people from all over the world – the companies will choose those who are cheap
and good quality
 You can hire anyone anywhere in the entire world
 Before: if you want to work for a tech start-up, you need to go to London or to
Palo Alto physically and work there. Today: you don’t need to be physically
present anymore – no single person in the office.
 You can use the global market.
 A matter of time
 EX: I can hire a virtual assistant for tomorrow for 200 eur/month (no labour
contract, social security) // senior Python developer (2500/month).
Virtualstaff.ph
 This is happening to the nest jobs on the market
 Redundancies – what is the point of studying if there are no salary jobs in the future?
 Before pandemic: “it’s gonna be super hard to work from home”. When the
pandemic arrived, in 5 days everybody had to be online
 Technology not only changes how we work but it is also doing the work for us
 Technology is accelerating and jobs will be displaced by technology in the future
– we must learn new skills, and accelerate our adaptability.
THIESE WERE PREDICTIONS BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, BUT NOW…
 Times could be better: Many articles about how difficult for graduates to find job –
something is happening
 The crisis has real impact on long term salaries
 BUT!!! At the same time, the opportunities are real --- a great time to be successful while
being young (Forbes 30 under 30) - there has never been a time when a young
professional can access literately all opportunities there are
 Hyper competition can be an advantage (you can work from anywhere you want, at the
best jobs, and be ultra-successful, not only bound to a Spanish labour market)
 This bring us to the idea that the winner takes it all – there will probably be a few very
well-paid jobs and then the rest in the labour market

Objective of the class -> Build your OB/HR lens

We must build our professional profile and find a niche (define ourselves)

Become a true expert – speak the facts, and advise people, be comfortable with numbers, discover
the trend

BOOK - related
 Only look at the broad picture, not details
 Articles – quite important

Organizational behaviour = the study of the structure and management of organizations, their
environments, and the actions and interactions of their individual members and groups

 We’re not talking about individual only, but also the team they’re in, the group they’re in, the
organizations they’re in, and the society they’re in.
 But the question is, what is impacting what?

FIELD MAP: Individual factors, group factors, management, leadership leads to an outcome ==
effectiveness and quality of working life
Levels of analysis:

1. Individual level – what can we understand about their personality, motivation etc. Once we
understand this, we can go to the next level  team.
2. Team level – why is it working / not working, why aren’t they more creative, etc.
3. Organisational level- culture – is there anything that differs on a higher level from 1
company to another? What is it?

Why do we care in the first place?

 It’s our reality – organisations are all around us, so we should understand what’s going on
around us.
 To improve and understand the quality of life of our employees – that’s fairy-tale
 Term: organizational effectiveness – this goes often against that previous goal (make
employees happy). There are organisations making lots of profit without the employees
being happy – call centres.
 In itself, OB is not about improving employees’ wellbeing.

= TO describe, explain, predict, and control events in organizations

1. First, we start by describing (what’s going on in an organization, without explanation, just

pure description of facts – creating a report)
2. Explain -- why is it happening, how? Why are ppl more motivated, how are they more
motivated?)
3. Predict – this is harder, especially in human sciences, sometimes ppl are unpredictable, but
with today’s technologies and AI, easier than never. If we have this kind of management –
what will happen? If we have this type of team, then what will happen?
4. Control – giving managers the tools (this is what you should or shouldn’t do… this way people
are more effective if you do this)

There are 2 lenses to look at OB:

Variance (quantitative, described with numbers) or Process Model (qualitative, described with case
studies) :

Process theory = an approach to explaining organizational behaviour based on narratives which show
how several factors, combining and interacting over time in a particular context, are likely to produce
the outcomes of interest.

Variance theory = an approach to explaining organizational behaviour based on universal

relationships between independent and dependent variables which can be defined and measured
precisely

Examples on employee lifecycle :

 Job success: What factors lead to job success? (Recruitment)

 Variance: result of some tests (IQ), set of hard skills, CV => We predict that: the better their
IQ, the more likely they are to succeed // the more years of experience they have, the more
likely they are to succeed. (IF YOU HAVE X, THEN Y HAPPENS)
o Job success is the dependent variable. One’s job success depends on how well and
he or she does in an IQ test
o Independent variable = CV, IQ
Promotion: How are people promoted?

 Process theory: They start to work – > work performance + project performance +
organizational needs (all of this over a certain period of time) ===> promotion

Process: how the factors combine over time and give a result – the HOW and WHY (Explain like a
story ). The main difference is the time. Behaviour based on narratives.

Variance: I explain something based on relationship (IQ leads to job performance) the WHAT.
Directly related

Other examples - Quality of work environment (Individual factor)

 Variance theory = the commute time to work (the more time ppl spend on commuting, the
less they will be satisfied with their job)
 Process theory – How this employee engages with the team workers over a certain period of
time

TECHNOLOGY - Technology is changing our way of working

 As HR professionals we must be aware that things are going to change in the workplace.
 Four Challenges in the future of work :
o Inequality – wellpaid elite vs the rest
o Skills shortages – who has the skills? They are so complex and it’s very hard to get
someone who knows about some specific topics, or someone who knows a lots of
things at the same time
o Cybercrime BUT …. Technology is still made by people (programmers) and people
have biases. So if we create an app for virtual recruitment, it can be biased – bots
are not taking into accounts minorities etc. We are becoming too dependent on
technology. Also, by evaluating a certain group, we are not able to get certain
characteristics of the individuals, only their performance within that group.
o Technological unemployment - replacement and compensatory mechanisms

The way we think about the workplace is changing.

For us, HR = we want to make employees feel good. However, the biggest companies in the world
don’t even have the opportunity to think about culture, teambuilding, etc.. -> they have millions of
workers. In the reality, very few place can afford to have amazing cultures we see in Google, etc.
These tech companies don’t employ as many people (Facebook only 35 000)

Article from the World Economic Forum: speaks to governments and CEOs, decision makers “We
must act now, or it will be too late”. The language here is quite dramatic.

What skills should we care about in the future? Future Leadership Skills :

 Analytical thinking
 Active learning
 Complex problem-solving
 Critical thinking
 …
 Funny enough: technology skills are not between the first elements on the list. Its all
about learning and adaptability.
There are many jobs already gone

 Computer operators
 Legal secretaries
 File Clerks
 …..

In the history, it was the factory workers but nowadays it’s high paying jobs are at risk - that’s why
the WEF is warning us.

Why people don’t adapt to the future of work:

 Skills gaps in the local market

 Insufficient understanding of opportunities