Extra-condensed knowledge

Effectively managing a workforce that comprises internal and external players in a way that is both aligned with an organization’s strategy and consistent with its values is a critical business necessity.
Reframing from an employee-centric approach to a workforce ecosystem approach can drive significant strategic value.

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image

The “genioux facts” Knowledge Big Picture (g-f KBP) charts

The “genioux facts” Knowledge Big Picture (g-f KBP) standard chart

The “genioux facts” Knowledge Big Picture (g-f KBP) graphic

Condensed knowledge

GENERAL CONTEXT

SPECIFIC CONTEXT

g-f(2)220 THE BIG PICTURE OF THE DIGITAL AGE (4/15/2021), MIT SMR-Deloitte, WORKFORCE ECOSYSTEMS: A New Strategic Approach to the Future of Work.

Effectively managing a workforce that comprises internal and external players in a way that is both aligned with an organization’s strategy and consistent with its values is a critical business necessity.
Reframing from an employee-centric approach to a workforce ecosystem approach can drive significant strategic value.
One reality is that the workforce increasingly depends on external workers.
The other reality is that their management practices, systems, and processes are designed for internal employees.
The struggle to reconcile these two realities is an ongoing challenge, with significant implications for strategy, leadership, organizational culture, and workforce management practices.
The search for an integrated approach to strategically managing a diverse group of internal and external workers has led some forward-thinking executives to the idea of a workforce ecosystem.
We define a workforce ecosystem as a structure focused on value creation for an organization that consists of complementarities and interdependencies.

This structure encompasses actors, from within the organization and beyond, working to pursue both individual and collective goals.

Workforce Ecosystems Recognize That External Workers Are Doing More, and More Significant, Work
Workforce Ecosystem Characteristics

Workforce ecosystems may vary considerably from one organization to another, but they all have several characteristics in common: They enable value creation, they rely on complementarities between ecosystem members, and they include interdependencies among participants such that workers depend upon each other for their success or failure.

Challenges and Risks of Workforce Ecosystems

Workforce ecosystems bring challenges as well as benefits. Some of these are internal to an organization, such as cultural barriers, while others are products of the context in which the organization operates, such as legal and regulatory matters. A third set of issues concerns unintended societal effects.

Workforce Ecosystems Implications and Takeaways

Adopting a workforce ecosystem has significant implications for a wide range of management activities, including strategy; leadership and culture; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and ecosystem governance.
Beyond just being a source of additional resources, these structures provide new ways of organizing and delivering value that can profoundly impact how enterprises operate and deliver value.

About the Research

In the fall of 2020, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte surveyed 5,118 managers and leaders from around the world to better understand how they approach strategic workforce management issues. Respondents represent 138 countries, more than 29 industries, and organizations of various sizes. More than two-thirds of the respondents were from outside the U.S., and over 30% have personally worked in a contingent (nonpermanent) capacity in the past five years. The sample was drawn from a number of sources, including MIT Sloan Management Review readers, Deloitte’s network of executives, and other interested parties.
Additionally, the research team conducted 27 comprehensive interviews of C-suite executives and other senior leaders from private industry, the public sector, higher education, and government to explore topics such as shifts in perceptions related to workforces; links between these shifts and organizational strategy and culture; and implications for management practices. Finally, the team analyzed the management and strategy research literature on ecosystem dynamics, frameworks, and governance structures.

Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age

[genioux fact deduced or extracted from MIT SMR-Deloitte]

Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Deduced and Extracted Knowledge (EAK).

Type of validity of the "genioux fact".

Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts + Supported by research.

Authors of the genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

WORKFORCE ECOSYSTEMS, A New Strategic Approach to the Future of Work, Elizabeth J. Altman, Jeff Schwartz, David Kiron, Robin Jones, and Diana Kearns-Manolatos, April 13, 2021, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, MIT SMR-Deloitte.

The formal reference from MIT SMR

E.J. Altman, J. Schwartz, D. Kiron, R. Jones, and D. Kearns-Manolatos, “Workforce Ecosystems: A New Strategic Approach to the Future of Work,” MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, April 2021.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Elizabeth J. Altman (@lizaltman) is an assistant professor of management at the Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and guest editor for the MIT Sloan Management Review Future of the Workforce Big Ideas research initiative. Altman has been a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School and visiting professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Her research focuses on business ecosystems, platform businesses, strategy, innovation, and organizational change.

Jeff Schwartz (@jl_schwartz), a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is the U.S. leader for the Future of Work and author of Work Disrupted (Wiley, 2021). Schwartz is an adviser to senior business leaders at global companies focusing on workforce and business transformation. He is the global editor of the Deloitte “Global Human Capital Trends” report, which he started in 2011.

David Kiron is editorial director of MIT Sloan Management Review and leads the publication’s Big Ideas program, a content platform examining macro-trends that are transforming the practice of management. He has coedited two books on economics and coauthored more than 30 journal articles and research reports on AI, strategic measurement, performance management, analytics, leadership, digitalization, and sustainability.

Robin Jones is a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP with more than 20 years of organization and workforce transformation consulting experience. At Deloitte, Jones leads markets and services for Workforce Transformation, where she advises senior executives on strategy and execution of large-scale future-of-work initiatives.

Diana Kearns-Manolatos (@dianakearns) is a senior manager in the Deloitte Center for Integrated Research, where she analyzes market shifts and emerging trends across industries. Her research focuses on cloud and the future of the workforce. Additionally, Kearns-Manolatos draws on almost 15 years of award-winning marketing communications experience to align insights with business strategy.