Challenges of Remote Leadership in A Digitalized W

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ISSN 1392-1142 (Print), ISSN 2335-8750 (Online)

ORGANIZACIJŲ VADYBA:
SISTEMINIAI TYRIMAI 2021.85
https://doi.org/10.1515/mosr-2021-0005
Dietrich H. STEUDE

Challenges of Remote Leadership in a


Digitalized Working World 4.0

The digital transformation of industry is driving the advance of agile work structures and, in particular, home
office working. This article examines the question of what effect the physical distance of employees from the
company has on its productivity and innovation potential, and what challenges are posed to a remote leadership.
Keywords: home office, freelancer, ambidexterity, agile leadership, social Intranet.
Skaitmeninė industrinė transformacija skatina pasistūmėti link lanksčių darbo struktūrų, ypač darbo namų
biure. Šiame straipsnyje nagrinėjamas klausimas, kokį poveikį fizinis darbuotojų atstumas nuo įmonės turi jos
produktyvumui ir inovacijų potencialui ir kokie nuotolinio vadovavimo iššūkiai.
Raktiniai žodžiai: namų biuras, laisvai samdomi darbuotojai, įvairiapusiškumas, lanksti lyderystė, socialinis
intranetas.

Introduction their previous jobs, remote leadership has


become a daily challenge for management.
A recent article in DIE ZEIT (Dausend, With increasing physical distance
Schieritz, 2020) under the headline “Poli- from the previous office workplace, the
tics without touching,” vividly describes flexibilization of work in terms of loca-
how the COVID-19 pandemic has af- tion, time and design has been brought
fected the daily routine of a member of into sharper focus by the 2020/21 pan-
the Bundestag. “My daily routine has demic. But even before that, agile work, or
changed, both in the parliamentary group New Work (Schermuly, 2020) and the de-
and in public. The contact with citizens in velopment of new forms of organization
my constituency ... has been minimized. I were promoted with the increasing digi-
need to know what the citizens think. For talization of the manufacturing industry
large parts of the year, that did not work. (Steude, 2017).
We stay in the Berlin bubble – there’s a The object of research: the challenge
growing danger of operational blindness.” of managing and guiding employees at
Accelerated by the COVID-19 pan- a distance from the company – remote
demic, working from home has become leadership.
a widespread practice. By physically sep- The purpose of this paper is to take a
arating employees from the location of closer look at the impact of flexible work

Dietrich H. STEUDE – professor, Dr. Ing., management sciences; University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
Address: Kastanienallee 21, D14052 Berlin, Germany. Phone: +49 170 2297201. Email: dhsteude@gmail.com
© 2021 Dietrich H. Steude by Sciendo.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
66 Dietrich H. STEUDE

design and the “working world of tomor- production in one’s own home (Friedrich-
row” (VDMA, 2016) on employees and Ebert-Stiftung, 2020).
their supervisors in terms of the sustain- With the invention of hydroelectric
ability of their work outcomes and social and steam power drives for mechani-
commitment to the company. Recom- cal processing machines more than 200
mendations are developed for effective re- years ago, the 1st Industrial Revolution
mote leadership under the difficult condi- began and with it the shift of commercial
tions of agile work structures. value-added processes from home-based
Research methods. In recent years, craft businesses to factories. Only where
the author has examined the effects of in- there was no dependence on power ma-
dustrial digitization on the change and in- chines and no mechanical working ma-
novation process in companies based on chines were available did production at
many practical projects. The challenges of home continue. For example, cheap labor
digitalization require an agile process ex- was used to produce cloth and fabrics on
ecution. Leadership behavior must adapt manual looms in homework. Because of
to an increasingly digitized environment the disastrous living and working condi-
inside and outside the company. The re- tions, there was considerable social up-
sults of these experiences have been com- heaval, first in England and later in other
piled in corresponding articles by the European countries (the Weavers’ Revolt
author and form the starting base for fur- in Silesia in 1844). These conflicts did last-
ther studies (Steude, 2015; 2017). In this ing damage to the reputation of work at
paper, the special conditions of remote home in later decades.
leadership are analyzed with employees The 2nd Industrial Revolution began
who do not work in the office but in the toward the end of the 19th century with
home office for a large part of their time. the introduction of assembly lines and
For this purpose, several studies and sci- mass production of consumer goods
entific contributions are evaluated, which based on the division of labor, so-called
have been conducted and published in Taylorism (Taylor, 1911). This form of
large numbers in recent months (see Ref- production enabled the extensive mech-
erences: Studies and Statistics). Recom- anization of simple operations and the
mendations for a future agile leadership considerable shortening of throughput
concept are developed and laid down in times. The simplest operations and pro-
this article. duction steps that were not suitable for
automation were further outsourced and
produced at home.
Working from home in industrial The development of semiconductor
change technology in the mid-20th century gave
a new impetus to the rationalization ef-
Work from home as an extended place of forts of industry. The 3rd Industrial Revo-
industrial value creation relates to the in- lution was initiated with the transition
dustrial development of the last 200 years. from analog mechanics to digital tech-
In these years, many negative and positive nology. The use of numerically controlled
experiences were made with commercial machinery and equipment increasingly
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 67

dominated manufacturing operations and control of the entire operational value


operational processes. Efforts at rationali- chain – Industry 4.0 (Steude, 2015).
zation in factories were now increasingly The digitalization of industrial pro-
focused on the work assignment of em- cesses requires the qualification of em-
ployees. Considerations on the humani- ployees and a Management 4.0 that can
zation of work with the keywords job accompany and drive the operational
enlargement, job enrichment and changes. As with previous industrial up-
job rotation took center stage (Steude, heavals, the transition to a digitalized In-
1975). dustry 4.0 has resulted in a disruption of
Consideration was given to a better previous social, economic, and societal
reconciling family and work. Teleworking structures. Accordingly, the role of com-
and teleconferencing by using the new mercial work at home as part of the val-
means of communication should help ue creation process is also changing into
here. The daily trips to and from work a demanding activity in the digitalized
as well as costly business trips were to home office of today.
be saved in an increasingly globalized A fourth component, job agility, is
economy. The spread of teleworking has added to the concept of humanizing work
been accompanied to this day by the
in the previous century. With this meas-
outsourcing of services, e.g., in customer
ure, employees are to co-determine their
service, logistics and marketing. This
working conditions flexibly in terms of
relocation of such call and service centers
place, time, and design.
abroad is mostly done for reasons of cost
savings in countries with low personnel
costs.
Structural changes in the labor
The 4th Industrial Revolution was ini-
market
tiated at the end of the last century with a
further exponential increase in the com-
puting power of integrated semiconduc- In addition to digitalization, the industry
tor circuits and thus with a significant will have to master several other challeng-
increase in the performance of the infor- es in the coming years that are mutually
mation and communications technology dependent or influence each other.
ICT (Moore, 1965). Here, the digitaliza- As globalization progresses, the inter-
tion of industrial processes and network- national division of labor continues. Thus,
ing of operational control instruments simple operations in both the commercial
with the numerically controlled produc- and service sectors continue to be relo-
tion plants in cyber-physical systems cated to low-wage countries. In addition,
CPS became possible. CPS refers to the new competitors with a high level of in-
interconnection of software application novative expertise, large labor reserves
programs with mechanical and electronic and still low-income levels have emerged
components that exchange data via an In- in the Asian region. On the other hand,
tranet or the Internet. The linking of pro- ongoing digitalization in the previous
cessing and transport machines with the industrialized countries is compensating
transport units enables integrated online for labor cost disadvantages. Outsourced
68 Dietrich H. STEUDE

production can be relocated back again Contrary to initial fears, digitalization


(backsourcing). in the industrial sector has not led to a
Climate change poses a further chal- serious decline in the overall workforce.
lenge, requiring holistic sustainability Employment in the manufacturing sector
management not only in industrial pro- decreased in Germany by 23% between
duction but also in serving ecologically 1991 and 2019, while the number of peo-
changing markets. This technological ple employed in the ICT sector increased
disruption is particularly serious in the by 43% during this period (Deutschland
European core market, the automotive in- in Zahlen, 2020). The share of profession-
dustry. New mobility concepts are need- als working in ICT is expected to contin-
ed, which can only be found by success- ue to increase in the coming years. These
fully promoting innovation and involving employees will be less and less employed
all social forces. in industrial companies. By outsourc-
Demographic trends in the industrial- ing standardized and customer-specific
ized countries are influencing the indus- software applications to service providers
trial labor market through an increasing and using a cloud-based IT infrastruc-
ture, companies can reduce the number
shortage of skilled workers amid a growing
of data centers and save on their own IT
need for “digital natives” and well-trained
personnel.
IT specialists. As this demand can often
With the digital automation of indus-
no longer be met from the company’s own
trial production, the share of hardware
human resources, the number of freelanc-
configurations is decreasing at the ex-
ers in companies is increasing from year
pense of operational software solutions.
to year (Fritsch, Kritikos, 2015). For the
Using advanced sensor systems and CPS
company’s own employees, the technolo- technologies, plants and processes can be
gy shift means not only specialist training monitored, and preventive maintenance
but also improved training in the use of can be carried out in the event of devia-
digital tools and ongoing further training tions from the target. Central control sta-
so that they do not miss the boat on the tion systems are used to control the flow
accelerating technological developments. of materials and the machining process.
On a positive note, between 2006 and With a coupled production control sys-
2015, the proportion of school-leavers tem ERP, it is possible to plan, control and
with higher education qualifications in- regulate the production process from any
creased from 35% to around 55%, while point on the Intranet.
the proportion with lower secondary Work in production and production-
school qualifications fell to around 40% related areas is called exploitation. The
(White Paper, 2017). aim of this section of the company is to
Not to be neglected is the promotion achieve optimum productivity in the op-
of soft skills, which contribute to positive erating business. In the so-called indirect
collaboration with team and project part- areas of a company, work is done on pro-
ners as well as with freelancers and are the jects of a future company design, on new
basic prerequisite for successful creative technologies, and innovative products.
processes. This activity is called exploration and aims
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 69

at optimizing the future business model. the freedom gained through digital au-
For this dichotomy of operational tasks, a tomation to design creative exploration
management concept (ambidexterity) was projects for the successful future devel-
developed by M. L. Tushman of Harvard opment of the company. The option of
University, which should take these two working in a home office is considered an
different operational objectives into ac- important incentive.
count (Weibler, 2018). On the one hand,
the ambidexterity concept requires the
manager to achieve the short-term suc- Work 4.0 – Working remotely in the
cess of the company and to reconcile this home office
goal with the risky decisions for a posi-
tive future of the company. This includes The introduction of home office work is
motivating employees to support and handled very differently by companies na-
implement these ambidextrous goals. As tionally and internationally (Table 1).
a result of the digital transformation and If one examines the role played by the
the associated process automation, the home office at the most important Ger-
proportion of exploitative activities to be man DAX companies and large interna-
performed by employees is decreasing, tional corporations in the past, during
while the proportion of explorative chal- the COVID-19 pandemic 2020/21 and in
lenges in everyday work is increasing. It is the future direction, it becomes apparent
the task of human resources development that mobile working concepts and mixed
to adapt the technical and human skills of forms between office presence and work-
employees to the requirements of an in- ing from home (hybrid working) will
dustrial organization 4.0. The employees occupy an important space at almost all
of an efficient factory of the future must companies.
be able to coordinate operational process- In 2015, the Stanford Quarterly Jour-
es, communicate with partners and make nal of Economics published the results of
independent decisions (VDMA, 2016). a U.S. – China study by Nickolas Bloom
This includes agile corporate leadership describing a home office experiment over
that ensures suitable working conditions. 9 months with 1000 participants from
These should be adapted to the flexible a Chinese tour operator (Bloom, Liang,
needs of the employees in terms of loca- 2015). The researchers concluded that
tion, time, and design of their work. It is working from home had resulted in a 13%
the task of superiors to guide, coach and increase in productivity. Employee satis-
motivate employees. A transparent and faction increased and absenteeism (illness,
viral communication strategy is required etc.) was cut in half. The participants were
to synchronize and guide employees, employees of a call center having a largely
whether on-site in the company or off-site predefined activity. This study received a
in the home office. Even in the event of great deal of attention from managers in
spatial separation, employees’ commit- the American business community and
ment, and sense of shared responsibil- in academia and led to a rethink among
ity for the company must be maintained many HR managers who had previously
and encouraged. The goal must be to use been rather critical of home office work.
70 Dietrich H. STEUDE

Table 1. Concepts of flexible working at the larger Dax companies and international corporations
before, during and after the 2020/21 pandemic crisis

Company before 2020/21 future


50% of employees can work
extended home office work flexible working will be
at home, they spent approx.
Adidas according to individual made possible through
20% of their time outside
agreement individual agreements
the office (hybrid working)
Secure access to the cor- approx. 40 % of employees
porate network company- Working in a home office will work in a home office
Alliance wide; nevertheless, large becomes the norm for in the future, hybrid work
employee presence at around 90% of employees model between home office
headquarters and office
For all employees, for
No general regulations for whom it is work-technical- Staggered return to the
Alphabet (Google)
working from home ly possible, work at home is office is planned
obligatory
Work at home in consulta-
Home office for employees tion with superiors and Regulation initially ex-
Amazon
where it is possible according to regional tended until mid-2021
conditions
Work at home in consulta-
tion with superiors and Return to the office
Apple No work at home office
according to regional planned soon
conditions
Works agreement since
Planned to enable flex-
2012 on mobile working approx. 50% of employees
BASF ibility in time and place in
with agreements between in home office
consultation with managers
manager and employee
Home office and mobile Increased use of work at
working even by employees approx.40% work from home in alternation with
Bayer
in laboratory jobs is under home office work, hybrid work is
investigation under discussion
Investment in a new
approx. 65% of the 2500
communication system Flexible working should
Beiersdorf Hamburg employees work
with collaboration tools to become the norm
in a home office
improve work at a distance
Company agreement on
home office and telecom-
The goal is an intelligent
muting already in place in
approx. 60% of working mix of mobile and office
1995; employees can work
BMW time is spent working from work in coordination
outside the company not
home between employee and
only daily but also on an
manager
hourly basis on a mobile
basis
Already in 2016 agreement
approx. 90% of employees
with the works council on Continuation of the
who can reconcile mobile
Continental making work more flexible: current policy in under
working with their tasks
part-time and flextime, investigation
use it
place of work, sabbaticals
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 71

Company before 2020/21 future


Since 2016, all employees
The right of mobile work The right of mobile work
have a basic right of mobile
Daimler also applies to the pan- shall also apply in the
work if this is compatible
demic period future.
with their respective duties.
In the future, a hybrid
An agreement on home arrangement will apply: 2/3
Number of people working
Deutsche Bank office and teleworking has of the working time in the
from home tripled to 60%.
been in place since 2000 office and 1/3 in the home
office
No significant portion of Work is underway to
66% of office workers work
Deutsche Post work was performed in the improve regulations for
in a home office
home office mobile working
In 2013, approx. 25% of Home office work to be
Increased work in home
Hewlett Packard HP employees worked from permitted only in indi-
office due to pandemic
home vidual cases
Pioneer of modern forms
of work as early as the
Due to the pandemic, 40%
1980s, released from com- In the future, employees
of IBM employees world-
IBM pulsory attendance in 1990. are to work more in the
wide are working in their
2017 Recall of many office again
home offices again
employees from the home
office
Home office and mobile Improvement of mobile
Infineon approx. 80% outside pro-
work outside of production working planned through
duction in home office
everyday practice newer approaches and tools
Flexible working model For personal reasons, ad-
approx. 40% working from
Merck and digital technologies in ditional home office work
home office
use since 2013 may be arranged.
In Germany, pioneer of
High percentage of em-
flexible working, 2014
ployees (90%) for full flex- Office work remains op-
Microsoft introduction of trust-based
ibility in work design, no tion, no permanent desks
working time and trust-
more fixed workstations
based place of work
Since 2018, company
agreement on trust-based
almost 100% work in home Share of mobile work
SAP work. Employees without
office remains remarkably high
compulsory presence; ap-
prox. 50% Home Office
Proportion of home office
Preliminary mobile work „New Normal Working
work greater than 50% -
Siemens concept, Model“ to be introduced
New Normal Working
Trust-based working time worldwide
Model
Works agreement on
approx.28% of employees Office presence is increased
Volkswagen flexible working - no legal
work from home again
entitlement
2013 U-turn and departure
Pandemic causes increased
Yahoo from the previously prac- Not yet defined
home office work
ticed New Work practice.
Source: M. Hoffmann (2020).
72 Dietrich H. STEUDE

Table 2. Proportion of employees FTE (full-time equivalent) in the home office

Working time before 2020/21 future


Full time in
Home Office 1.4 M 10.5 M 3.2 M
(million)

Part-time home office


6.3 M 8.3 M 11.5 M
(million)

Total
7.7 M 18.8 M 14.7 M
(million)

Proportion of employees
approx. 11,3 % approx. 35,0% approx. 21,5%
(FTE)

Source: B. Pauly, A. Markert (2020).

For example, in large US IT corpora- strengthen employees’ personal responsi-


tions in particular, employees were offered bility and creativity (Ingenieur.de 2021),
flexible working models in terms of place (Bauer, Hofmann, 2018).
and time. These was often done in a blan- Small and medium-sized enterprises
ket manner, without having arranged the in Germany have been very reluctant to
necessary organizational preconditions make their work structures more flexible
for successful remote work for a larger since most of their employees are active-
number of employees. The specifics of re- ly involved in the production processes
mote leadership for successful work in the and work in an exploitative manner. The
home office were often not established. same also applies to larger companies ac-
This became a problem only if a company tive in plant construction and mechanical
got into an existential crisis, for exam- engineering.
ple, Yahoo in 2013 or Hewlett Packard in It was not until the crisis of 2020/21
2015. This may have been the reason why that a larger number of employees were
at some of the large international corpo- prompted to do their work from home for
rations the experience with this flexible pandemic reasons. Due to the advanced
work was not positive and the return to digitalization in most companies, ad-
the office has been arranged again. ministrative but also partly production-
In Germany, several Dax companies supporting processes could be done from
in the service and industrial sectors de- home. It has been shown that working re-
veloped concepts early on to increase motely is possible in many areas and can
employee productivity and job satisfac- even be more productive.
tion by improving work flexibility. Agree- In Germany, 11,3% of all employees
ments were reached on trust-based work- worked from home before the crisis (Ta-
ing time and place, in which employees ble 2). Of these, around 3% points were
are no longer bound to a fixed workplace. employed full-time, while 15% points
The extended freedom was intended to spent less than half their working hours
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 73

in the home office. With a share of 11.3%, of assessments from the perspective of
Germany was far below the European av- stakeholders, i.e., employers, employ-
erage of 18%. In the year of the 2020 pan- ees, unions, and society, is compared in
demic, the proportion of the workforce Table 3.
that has switched to home office work has Sustainability aspects play an im-
risen to around 35% of all workers. The portant role for society by reducing
positive experience has led to many com- mobility and commuter traffic. Living
panies in Germany wanting to develop in rural areas and their attractiveness is
mobile working further compared with
increased. This reduces the influx into
the time before the pandemic. To this
the centers. The housing situation in the
end, there are now also legislative initia-
city eases.
tives that want to establish home office
From a trade union perspective, em-
work as a legal entitlement for employees
vis-à-vis their superiors, if necessary. ployees’ job satisfaction increases be-
A Forsa study (Forsa survey, 2020) cause of greater self-determination and
shows that around 70% of those work- flexibility in home office work. These
ing in a home office in 2020 have a high are also the main advantages from the
school diploma or a university degree. employees’ point of view. They can work
As a rule, these are demanding desk jobs from home more flexibly and self-deter-
that can also be done from home with mined than in the office. They escape
the help of available IT tools. direct control by their superiors. They
As already explained above, the share can better divide their work between
of explorative activities has risen at the professional and family obligations with
expense of exploitative tasks due to the positive effects on the work-life balance.
increasing digitization of operational It is obvious that from the compa-
processes, so that the need for qualified nies’ point of view, the disadvantages of
specialists is growing. Companies are working remotely outweigh the advan-
therefore challenged to create working tages. This can be explained by a grow-
conditions that are as attractive as possi- ing challenge that home office work
ble to recruit sufficient suitable employ-
poses to management and leadership.
ees in the scarce labor market for spe-
There are only digital means of Infor-
cialists. The creation of flexible mobile
mation and communication between a
workplaces is part of this. It is necessary
to examine whether working in a home company and the remote working em-
office can be an attractive solution. ployees. Target setting and performance
monitoring require additional instru-
ments. The prerequisite is the existence
Advantages and disadvantages of of an efficient, functioning, and secure
working at distance infrastructure, both in the company and
decentralized. The organizational struc-
The advantages and disadvantages of ture, the management tools and the
working from home have been discussed management culture must be geared to
in many surveys and analyses. A selection remote leadership.
74 Dietrich H. STEUDE

Table 3. Advantages and disadvantages of working in a home office

Company view Employee’s view Social view


Up to 30%* less office space Furnishing a home office accord- Reduced environmental impact
required ing to individual needs due to less commuter
Time saved due to elimination of Time saved due to elimination of Upgrading of the rural area
commute to work commute to work
Higher productivity expected 73%* say they work more produc- Housing situation in the cities
tively in the home office eases
Further promotion of the indus- Increased satisfaction with Effective control of epidemic
Advantages

trial digitalization working conditions due to more threats from social distancing.
freedom of action
Self-realization through indepen-
dent work
More time for work and family;
improved work-life balance /
work-life blending (Cervantes,
Sarah 2019)
Cost of living lower in rural areas

IT security of the company is at Easy access to the corporate net- Provision of a high-performance
risk; it is more difficult to protect work requires separate protective local network supply
company internals measures at home
Reduced contact possibilities for For 54%*, the workplace at home No control of compliance with
the works council; control of the is less well equipped than in the labor law requirements by the
ArbStättV more difficult office trade supervisory office
Team building and working in a For 48%* of respondents, work is Impairment of Innovation activi-
team made more difficult made more difficult by a lack of ties.
official and social contacts with less new start-ups
colleagues
No health care by the company 15%* complain about more stress
doctor due to the demand for constant
Disadvantages

availability

Monitoring and coaching by Absenteeism from office can make


remote leadership more difficult employees and their work less
visible
No provision of social location- „Lifelong learning“ and profes-
based benefits for external sional development more difficult
employees
On- and off-boarding of employ-
ees made more difficult
Preservation of experiential
knowledge and knowledge man-
agement more difficult
Company loyalty decreases with
absence from the company

* percentages from Forsa survey: Experiences with home office 30.11.2020


Source: Forsa survey (2020).
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 75

Viral Network Organization 4.0 but also to their overseas subsidiaries


(Womack, 1990). Successful transfer of
Many companies still have a clear hierar- the Japanese production system requires a
chical structure today. In such a line or- changed management style and a relearn-
ganization, management by setting goals, ing process among production workers.
control and, if necessary, conflict resolu- The members of the various production
tion is carried out vertically along fixed islands work together in small, problem-
reporting lines. This form of organization, oriented project teams that change from
time to time. Close collaboration devel-
which is unilaterally oriented toward a
ops between the teams. A dynamic net-
single leader, is inflexible and generally
work structure is established. The projects
reacts only slowly to changing environ-
are moderated and coordinated by team
mental conditions. This was clearly dem-
leaders as needed. This network organiza-
onstrated by the reactions of industry to
tion makes collaboration in the company
industrial globalization and the increas-
more flexible without replacing the hier-
ing competition from Asian companies.
archy (Schermuly, 2020). It supports the
In the 1980s, Taiichi Ohno described
operational processes of exploitation and
the Toyota Production System in his book
is the appropriate organizational concept
of the same name (Taiichi Ohno, 1993).
for the further development of the value
The system of lean production was origi- creation process in the company. Despite
nally developed for the automotive in- extensive process automation, most ex-
dustry but was then transferred to other ploitative work is performed on-site, i.e.,
companies. The Japanese concept was also in production or production-related de-
taken up with a great interest in Germany. partments. Work that is flexible in terms
The tools such as Kanban, Just-in-Time, of location and time is hardly possible in
Six Sigma quickly found their way into the these areas.
management concepts of German indus- As a result of digitization and auto-
try. The basis of Lean Management is the mation of value creation processes, the
continuous improvement process Kaizen. need for employees in production has
This process takes place regularly, usually been reduced on average in industry to
in the immediate vicinity of the produc- a proportion of around 50% of the total
tion islands, in creative project meetings workforce (Figure 1). On average, 15%
with those affected and specialists from of the workforce is middle and senior
other areas. It is an important instrument management personnel who work at least
for operational rationalization and con- partially close to production. This leaves
tinuous improvement. around 25 to 30% of employees working
The Toyota Production System in Ja- on the strategic development and busi-
pan was and still is so successful because ness model optimization (exploration).
the companies maintain a consensus-ori- As a rule, they can work off-site. On aver-
ented corporate culture, which is the pre- age, this group of employees is between 25
requisite for the successful application of and 50 years old and has a middle to high
lean management tools. This applies not school or university degree. Most of these
only to the Japanese companies in Japan employees would prefer a more flexible,
to 30% of employees working on the strategic development and business model optimization
(exploration). As a rule, they can work off-site. On average, this group of employees is
between 25 and 50 years old and has a middle to high school or university degree. Most of
these employees would prefer a more flexible, location- and time-independent, agile job in a
home office (Forsa survey, 2020).
76 Dietrich H. STEUDE

Fig. 1. Employee (EE) structure of an industrial company 4.0 in Germany 2020


Fig. 1. Employee (EE) structure of an industrial company 4.0 in Germany 2020
(Forsa
(Forsasurvey, 2020),(Pauly
survey, 2020), (Pauly et2020).
et al., al., 2020).

Source:
Source: the author’s ownthe author’s own
image. image.

location- and time-independent, agile job lean management approach and the agile
in a home office (Forsa survey, 2020). development principles in a network organ-
To meet these demands, the hierarchical organization must adapt to the new conditions
that To meet
have beenthese demands,
known thetime
for some hierar- ization
from ICT are not mutually
companies. The goalexclusive but com- the
is to restructure
chical organization must adapt to the plement each other (De Raedemaercker
company into an agile form of organization (adhocracy according to Henry Mintzberg, St.,
new conditions that have been known 2020).
for some time from ICT companies. The Thus, in a company, two organization-
goal is to restructure the company into an al structures and leadership concepts con-
agile form of organization (adhocracy ac- front each other in accordance with their
cording to Henry Mintzberg, University tasks of exploitation and exploration,
of Aix-Marseille) (Emerald Works, 2021), which must be optimally served by man-
in which the employer’s right of direction agement through ambidextrous leader-
is transferred to the decision-making pro- ship. To this ambidextrous concept, man-
cesses of the various company groups on a agement must now add the more difficult
problem-related basis. The agile organiza- conditions of leadership at a distance.
tional concept was defined in 2001 in the
Agile Manifesto in 12 rules for optimized Nearly all aspects of personnel man-
software development (Morlion, 2020). agement are concerned:
These rules were later transferred to the • Decentralized job security and
rapid processing of general operational physical care.
problems in agile teams. Exploitation is The conditions for working in a home
characterized by lean management. The office are regulated in accordance with
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 77

the provisions on telework places in The employee must be informed in writ-


the Workplace Ordinance (German: ing, if possible, about the provisions of the
ArbStättV) § 2 Para. 7 and in the Occu- ArbSchG that apply to the home workplace.
pational Health and Safety Act (German: He should agree to home access for spot
ArbSchG). The employer has the obliga- checks by the company safety officer. The
tion to ensure compliance with the pro- IT configuration installed by the employee
tective regulations. is particularly sensitive due to access to the
Health promotion is part of the leader- company Intranet. Measures must be taken
ship task. “Health-promoting leadership to prevent the intrusion of malware and
refers to personal leadership behavior general usage rules for data security must
that protects the health of employees in be agreed.
terms of occupational health and (physi- • Human Resources Development at
cal) safety, ... reduces stress in the work- a distance.
place and promotes personal resources” As can be seen in the comparison
(Johannson, 2017). This also applies to of the advantages and disadvantages of
employees in the home office. Therefore, working from home (Table 3), the disad-
it is incumbent on the employer to con- vantages outweigh the advantages from
the company’s perspective. Remote leader-
trol the working time in the home office –
ship represents a considerable additional
the European Court of Justice ruling of
burden for management. For employees,
May 14, 2019 (Knuth, 2020).
working in a home office can be an inter-
Labor law applies to the employee in
esting way to gain more personal respon-
the home office. In the event of funda-
sibility, flexibility, and self-determination.
mental changes to the employee’s work
These intrinsic motivational factors ap-
situation, the works council has a say in
peal to employees who work on challeng-
the matter in accordance with the Works
ing tasks. However, the motivation only
Constitution Act (German: BetrVG). works if the other needs arising from the
Recommendation: physical care in the special conditions of
A supplementary agreement to the home office work and the leadership be-
employment contract must be concluded havior of superiors are met.
between the employee and the company One disadvantage of working from
before the start of the home office work. home is the risk of social isolation and
If there is a company agreement on trust- disconnection from the general company
based work (Riedemann, 2019), only the incidents. A lack of feedback poses the
additions due to home office work are to risk of low visibility for employees work-
be defined. This includes the definition of ing off-site and the work they have done.
present times, the agreement of online work In this case, a satisfactory personnel de-
schedules and, in the case of alternating of- velopment process would be jeopardized.
fice/home office work, the agreed changeo- It is difficult for a new employee to fit
ver times. Monitoring instruments such into teams whose members he does not
as keyloggers or monitoring tools are only know personally. Tasks are often taken out
permitted in exceptional cases and in con- of context. The actual goal is little known.
sultation with the employee. The newcomer is not familiar with the
78 Dietrich H. STEUDE

company culture and has no established network administration or editorial de-


connections. partment should be installed, which, like
With the rapidly changing knowledge the public relations department, is usually
landscape, it is difficult even for long- assigned to the executive board level. This
standing team members not to lose touch tool can be used to bridge the physical dis-
with the state of knowledge in the com- tance between employees and the company.
pany. “Lifelong learning” is a frequently The viral Intranet is an important link in
voiced demand that can hardly be met by a deeply structured corporate network. It
a “lone wolf ” working in a home office, must be agreed between the management
given the increasing complexity of opera- and the remote working employees which
tional activities and the growing speed of routines are to be decided by the employ-
technological change. ees and which procedures are to be decided
Recommendation: by the leader (management by exception)
The supervisor must regularly agree on (Breisig, 2017). Employees should be given
team and individual goals and monitor the as much room for maneuver as possible to
degree to which they have been achieved be able to act quickly and flexibly with ex-
(management by results). The goals must tensive personal responsibility.
be specified, preferably based on numbers. • Innovation and change manage-
Employees working off-site must have suf- ment at a distance.
ficient media competence to be able to use The future competitiveness of a com-
the ICT potential of the corporate network pany depends on its ability to innovate
without any problems. and dynamically adapt to changing envi-
As conditions change, the goals are also ronmental conditions. These tasks can be
subject to change, which must be discussed performed to a certain extent by employ-
with the teams in a timely manner. This ees who were previously tied up in routine
requires close contact between the team activities and are now to be freed up by
leader and the teams. This is best done by the digitization of processes. The task of
arranging team meetings at fixed dates, management is to develop the appropri-
e.g., once a week in the office. In this way, ate organizational framework in which
contact with colleagues in the company can the creativity and efficiency of employees
be maintained or strengthened. It is impor- can unfold. The driving force for the in-
tant to have a uniform information policy novation and change process is the in-
towards the widely distributed team mem- creasing shortening of product life cycles,
bers so that no information and compe- globalized competition, and the accelera-
tence deficits occur. Any information gaps tion of technology cycles (Steude, 2017).
that occur must be quickly identified and In the complex world of technology, in-
eliminated by the team leader. The installa- novations are rarely developed by an indi-
tion of a social Intranet is advisable (tixxt vidual, but rather by a team, in a face-to-
2021). This can achieve a viral flow of In- face exchange with representatives from
formation between off-site employees and different disciplines and with different
the company as well as between the various horizons of experience. In companies,
project-related user groups. To achieve effec- this happens across departments and with
tive use of the social Intranet, a professional the integration of customer experience.
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 79

Team members in the home office should production and increase productivity, the
not work on problems in isolation, ac- explorative task aims at the longer-term
cording to a rigid step-by-step plan, e.g., perspective of the company’s further de-
the linear “waterfall model” with sequen- velopment. The particular focus is on the
tial execution of process steps. Today, the innovation process, which is worked on in
flexible Scrum model is being used more agile project teams that are not bound by
and more. Through appropriate training location or time. The virtual project teams
of team members, the transformation to be formed should be limited in size, since
into virtual remote working Scrum teams confidential collaboration can take place
can be achieved (Gugenberg, 2020). This better in smaller circles of 3 to 4 members
model is also adopted in agile organi- due to the communication possibilities. The
zations to general problems in project team should appoint a team spokesperson
processing and in operational processes. for external communication. To support
Agile cross-departmental organizational the idea generation processes, virtual work-
forms are based on appropriately adapted shops can be held in larger groups at regular
flexible management structures that must intervals using creativity techniques such as
meet the challenge of innovation and virtual Metaplan moderation in conjunc-
change management at remote working tion with the virtual Scrum methodology
employees (Figure 2). (Metaplan, 2020). This can take place via
Recommendation: the social Intranet with the individual pro-
While in the exploitative work of pro- ject groups. The connection to the company
duction, the manager focuses on support- can be made by setting up closed project-
ing employees to continuously improve related user groups. Technical expertise can

Fig. 2. Multiteam network organization (Steude, 2017)


Fig. 2. Multiteam network organization (Steude, 2017)
Source: the author’s own image.
Source: the author’s own image.

During project processing, creative and rule-based phases alternate, so that agile
leadership and clear decision-making authority are required of the team leader for
fundamental decisions. Here, too, there is a need for ambidextrous leadership
80 Dietrich H. STEUDE

be brought into the teams from other de- completed independently without any
partments or external staff as needed. The major training.
management principles to be applied are Recommendation:
Management by Results or Exception. The involvement of many employees out-
During project processing, creative and side the company is a further challenge for
rule-based phases alternate, so that agile leadership. In the contractual agreements,
leadership and clear decision-making au- appropriate confidentiality agreements must
thority are required of the team leader for be concluded to protect company-confiden-
fundamental decisions. Here, too, there is tial information, which retain their effective-
a need for ambidextrous leadership com- ness beyond the actual end of the contract.
petence. The organizational structure cor- This also applies to the information that
responds to a viral network organization in freelancers receive during their work. In the
which the employees are integrated in an matter of inventions, the Employee Inven-
agile manner, i.e., flexible in terms of loca- tion Act (German: ArbnErfG) §4 Abs. 2
tion and time (Schermuly, 2020). The team Nr. 1 and the Copyright Act (German:
network overlays the basic hierarchical UrhG) are valid, as for the own employees
structure and extends across the exploita- (Meyer-Dulheuer, 2020). The freelancer
tive and explorative parts of the company. retains the right to the inventions made
• Integration of Freelances. during the contract period. However, the
Due to the shortage of young, highly company also retains the rights of use if re-
qualified professionals in the labor mar- quired and in return for payment. For the
ket, companies are forced to find new settlement of disputes, an arbitration board
ways to meet staffing needs in this seg- can be called.
ment. In the manufacturing digitized in- Effective collaboration usually requires
dustry, around 12.8% of the workforce was a close exchange of information with the re-
employed as freelancers in 2020 (Figure 1) questing teams or with the company. Lim-
(Fritsch et al., 2015). In the USA, the share ited guest access to the viral social Intranet
of freelancers is as high as 21% (Statista, makes sense. Freelancers are guided by the
2021). Among young, qualified profes- assigned team leaders. The appointment of
sionals, there is an increasing desire not to project mentors is also conceivable. The re-
be tied to an established company for life. sponsible manager in the company retains
They prefer free, agile employment rela- coordinating responsibility, as with the
tionships. They engage as freelancers on company’s own employees.
a contractual basis and mostly work re-
motely from home or in coworking spac-
es on various projects together with other Conclusions
solo self-employed and startups. They are
usually financially independent. Some The digital transformation from conven-
so-called “digital natives” want to be even tionally automated production to an au-
more independent and acquire orders via tonomous Industry 4.0 must be based on
crowdsourcing platforms on the Internet. effective digital leadership. The task of
These usually involve simple, time-limit- leadership is to give employees direction
ed jobs or work assignments that can be in this process of upheaval, to accompany
Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 81

them and to motivate them (Kotter, 1990). projects in a larger number of decentral-
In the earlier phase of production auto- ized projects and spatially distributed
mation in the mid-20th century, efforts team members and external project part-
were focused on the humanization of ners. Remote leadership, which promotes
work. The focus was on the motivational creativity, is the greatest challenge for
factors of job enlargement, job enrich- companies and management.
ment and job rotation, to counteract the The reaction of some large U.S. IT
monotony caused by automation, espe- corporations has shown that the initial
cially of an assembly line production. euphoria regarding agile work design
Due to the increasingly autonomous pro- (New Work) has given way to consid-
duction processes, the proportion of ex- erable disillusionment. In cases where
ploitative employees is declining. On the the company was facing major strategic
other hand, the need for highly qualified changes (IBM) or serious economic crises
specialists in the explorative area of stra- were looming on the horizon (Yahoo), the
tegic corporate development is increasing. freedoms granted were withdrawn and a
The requirements of these employees have return was made to “tried and tested” hi-
changed. They are more mobile and strive erarchical structures. This was done with
for more flexibility in their work. The task the aim of dealing with corporate crises
of successful digital leadership is to pro- in a more concentrated, faster, and more
vide agile working conditions. The aim is effective manner. The question arises of
to make the day-to-day working environ- whether agile work is only a “fair weather”
ment flexible in terms of the location of phenomenon.
the work, the working hours, and the way Despite or because of the digital au-
the content is carried out – job agility. By tomation of corporate processes, on the
making working conditions more flexible, other hand, employees’ desire for more
the work-life balance and work-life blend- independence will increase in the future.
ing, i.e., the balance between work and No major investments are required for
free time, are to be improved. Key features independent work. Even a “garage”, as in
of agile work are working from home the early days in Silicon Valley, will no
(home office), in a co-working space, or longer be needed; a (powerful) laptop will
working on the road equipped only with a suffice. A lifetime commitment to a com-
laptop, with extensive self-determination pany is no longer attractive, as companies
of working hours. These freedoms require also change their business models in ever
a correspondingly agile management shorter cycles to accommodate acceler-
concept. The essential tasks of the em- ated social and technological change.
ployees remain the same. It includes the Management’s goal is to maintain and in-
basic functions of personnel management crease the value of the company for many
with leadership care for the physical and “new economy” companies, intangible
mental well-being, tasks of personnel de- assets or goodwill are the essential part
velopment, on - and off-boarding of em- of the company’s value. This includes the
ployees and knowledge management. An know-how needed and available in the
increasingly important part is the project company, which is carried by the employ-
management of change and innovation ees. The effort must be to maintain and
82 Dietrich H. STEUDE

further develop this experiential knowl- with project locations. Regardless, project
edge acquired within the company. High coordination and support must be pro-
fluctuations can counteract this, as can vided by the respective responsible team
the migration of know-how via freelanc- leaders from corporate headquarters.
ers. Knowledge management is, there- This task can only be performed success-
fore, an important challenge for manag- fully through frequent face-to-face meet-
ers. According to Forsa data (Forsa 2020 ings on site. It should be accompanied
survey) collected in November 2020, by a regular exchange of information via
between 30% and 40% of employees will a company-wide social intranet. It is a
work as employees of the company or as management tool and information link
freelancers off-site at a physical distance in a viral network organization. The pro-
from the company in the future. They fessional design of the communication
are assigned to a variety of projects with structure is a decisive factor for the suc-
different tasks. The work locations of off- cess or failure of the Industry 4.0 concept
site employees generally do not correlate with remote leadership.

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84 Dietrich H. STEUDE

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Challenges of Remote Leadership in a Digitalized Working World 4.0 85

Dietrich H. STEUDE
NUOTOLINIO VADOVAVIMO IŠŠŪKIAI SKAITMENIZUOTAME DARBINIAME
PASAULYJE 4.0
S a n t r a u k a
atsižvelgiant į darbo vietą, darbo laiką ir turinio atli-
COVID-19 pandemijos pradžioje 2020–2021 m. kimo būdą – darbo lankstumą. Kuriant lankstesnes
pasaulyje nebuvo skiepų ir vaistų žmonėms gydyti. darbo sąlygas, reikia pagerinti darbo ir asmeninio
Norint apriboti viruso plitimą reikėjo pasinaudoti gyvenimo pusiausvyrą ir derinimą, t. y. pusiausvy-
higienos ir atstumo laikymosi taisyklėmis, kokios rą tarp darbo ir laisvalaikio. Pagrindiniai lankstaus
buvo taikytos prieš šimtmečius. Verslui, pramonei darbo bruožai yra darbas namuose (namų biure),
ir visuomenei reikėjo kuo labiau apriboti fizinių darbas bendradarbiaujančiose erdvėse arba darbas
kontaktų skaičių. Taigi visur, kur tai buvo techniškai kelyje, kai naudojamas tik nešiojamasis kompiute-
įmanoma, darbas namuose tapo įmanoma alterna- ris, ypač apsisprendžiant dėl lankstaus
​​ darbo laiko.
tyva industrijoms tęsti gamybą. Net įveikus pande- Šioms laisvėms reikalinga atitinkamai lanksti vado-
minę krizę, daugelis įmonių ketina išplėtoti darbo vavimo koncepcija.
namuose koncepciją, remdamiesi įgyta teigiama Viso gyvenimo įsipareigojimas įmonei nebėra
patirtimi. patrauklus, nes įmonės taip pat keičia savo verslo
Skaitmeninant gamybą labai padidėjo kvalifi- modelius vis trumpesniais ciklais, kad prisitaikytų
kuotų darbuotojų paklausa, todėl įmonės įdarbina prie spartesnių socialinių ir technologinių poky-
vis daugiau laisvai samdomų darbuotojų alterna- čių. Vadybos tikslas yra išlaikyti ir didinti įmonės
tyvioje skaitmeninėje darbo rinkoje. Savarankiškai vertę. Daugeliui „naujosios ekonomikos“ bendro-
dirbantys asmenys taip pat dažnai dirba savo namų vių nematerialusis turtas arba prestižas yra esminė
biuruose. Dirbant nuotoliniu būdu atskirai nuo įmonės vertės dalis. Tai apima įmonėje reikalingas
įmonės, reikia efektyvios informacijos ir ryšių sis-
ir turimas žinias, kurias yra įgiję darbuotojai. Rei-
temos, kad darbas būtų efektyvus. Industrinės įmo-
kia stengtis išlaikyti ir toliau plėtoti šias patirtines
nės paprastai turi greitai veikiantį įmonių tinklą. Tai
žinias. Dideli svyravimai gali tai neutralizuoti, kaip
galėtų būti išplėsta įtraukiant socialines intraneto
ir laisvai samdomų darbuotojų praktinės patirties
funkcijas, kurios integruoja nuotolinius darbuoto-
nutekėjimas. Taigi žinių valdymas yra svarbus iššū-
jus įtraukdamos į dabartinius įmonės įvykius. Dir-
kis vadovams.
bant nuotoliniu būdu reikia struktūriškai pritaikyti
Remiantis „Forsa“ apklausa, daryta 2020 m.,
įmonės organizaciją prie darbo sąlygų pokyčių.
nuo 30 iki 40 % darbuotojų ateityje dirbs kaip įmo-
Skaitmeninis perėjimas nuo tradiciškai automati-
zuotos gamybos prie autonominės Pramonės 4.0 nės darbuotojai arba kaip laisvai samdomi darbuo-
turi būti pagrįstas veiksminga skaitmenine lyderys- tojai ne įmonės erdvėje, o fiziniu atstumu nutolę
te. Vadovavimo užduotis yra suteikti darbuotojams nuo įmonės. Jiems priskiriami įvairūs projektai su
nurodymus šiame perversmo procese, lydėti juos ir skirtingomis užduotimis. Nepaisant to, projektą
motyvuoti. Ankstesniame gamybos automatizavi- turi koordinuoti ir palaikyti atsakingi komandos
mo etape XX a. viduryje pastangos buvo sutelktos vadovai iš įmonės būstinės. Šią užduotį sėkmingai
į darbo humanizavimą. Daugiausia dėmesio buvo galima atlikti tik per dažnai vykstančius susitikimus
skiriama motyvaciniams darbo vietų didinimo, įmonės erdvėje. Tai turėtų lydėti reguliarūs infor-
darbo praturtinimo ir darbo rotacijos veiksniams, macijos mainai visos įmonės socialiniame intrane-
siekiant neutralizuoti automatikos, ypač surinkimo te. Tai yra valdymo įrankis ir informacijos ryšiai
linijos gamybos, monotoniją. Gamybos procesai augančiuose organizacijos tinkluose. Profesionalus
tampa vis savarankiškesni, todėl eksploatuojamų organizacinės struktūros dizainas yra lemiamas
darbuotojų dalis mažėja. Kita vertus, didėja aukš- veiksnys patiriant Pramonės 4.0 koncepcijos sėkmę
tos kvalifikacijos specialistų poreikis tiriamojoje ar nesėkmę vadovaujant nuotoliniu būdu.
strateginės įmonės plėtros srityje. Šių darbuotojų Nuotolinio vadovavimo iššūkiai analizuojami
reikalavimai pasikeitė. Jie yra mobilesni ir siekia remiantis daugeliu šios srities lauko ataskaitų, patei-
daugiau lankstumo. Sėkmingos skaitmeninės lyde- kiamos išvados apie ateities spartaus organizacijos
rystės užduotis yra sudaryti lankstaus darbo sąlygas. tinklo lankstų darbą 4.0, palaikomame galingo in-
Siekiama, kad kasdienė darbo aplinka būtų lanksti formacijos ir komunikacijos tinklo.

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