7CO01 Work and Working Lives in a Changing Business Environment

7CO01 Work and working lives in a changing business environment

Introduction to the unit

The unit in Level 7 of Strategic Learning and Development is compulsory for all students. It helps the learners understand the interactions between the organisation and the business environment. The students gain insight into the people practices that influence the world of work and seek to identify opportunities that promote a positive working environment.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the unit, learners will have an understanding of the following concepts:

1. How environmental development affects employment, people, and work management.
2. How development in people management enhance understanding of current and short-term developments in the business environment.
3. How organisational productivity improvement is achieved through change, creativity and innovation.
4. How businesses and leaders are committed to promoting ethics, sustainability, diversity and employee well-being

Learning outcome 1

Globalisation and its significance for work and employment

Learners in this level should understand the globalisation concept and its impact on people’s working lives and the impact on the business environment. Globalisation enhances developments that enhance restructure and changes in employment, which creates opportunities for organisational competitiveness. In addition, globalisation enhances the development of technological structures that impact the employees’ working life. These developments affect employees’ experiences to work, which significantly affects the nature of employment and working life.

Social, demographic and economic trends for work, employment, and management practices

Learners get to understand the social and demographic trends influencing work in businesses. Among the issues that the learners have to understand relate to changes in the employees’ population, relating to their age, attitudes to different aspects that promote employee commitment such as diversity and the significance and impact of social change to organisations. The learners also get insight into the organisational roles in promoting social change towards creating opportunities for business success and development. Economic trends that students should research to understand their impact on work and management include inequalities at work and the influence of service-based and knowledge-based economies on business and management. The learners should also be aware of the long-term economic shifts and their subsequent impacts on macro-economic policies.

Learning outcome 2

Development in media, technology and economical business environments

The current trends in work have subsequent impacts on the employees’ working lives, especially on the issues relevant to enhancing international business operations. With the technology use and changes in the economic business environment, people professionals focus on understanding the influences that international developments have on work.

Public policies, legal and regulatory impacts on work

People professionals learn the need to develop strategic policies that effectively develop employment and manage the organisational labour market. The policies should positively impact HR and people practice agendas to promote industrialisation and economic development. Policies developed should support employees and respect their rights at work. Learners should therefore be aware of how they can easily associate to enhance effective enforcement of legal laws and regulations to enhance respect to the rights of employees at work. Different regulations should also promote health and safety at work and support effective management of employee well-being.

Labour market trends

The learners need to understand labour market trends associated with the development of significant issues associated with the management of skills in the labour market. For example, learners should understand their actions when there is undersupply and oversupply of skills. This helps determine the impacts that the developments have on HR functions and the learning and development strategies.

Learning outcome 3

Management and leadership of change

Learners get insight into leading and managing change most effectively to enhance good management of people and work. They get to learn about the change theories, including Kurt Lewin’s change theory, Kotter’s change management theory, McKinsey 7S change model, Kubler-Ross and ADKAR model, among others. Learners also relate to understanding the psychology of change and the need to develop positive outcomes from change. Through leading and managing change, learners understand the values of communication, support and readiness to create positive change outcomes. The learners also strive to understand why some of the workers resist change and develop strategies to manage them when changes are introduced at work. This happens effectively when the people professionals get involved, engaged and encouraged to support employees through the change process to make it successful. The learners also learn how to sustain change and involve consultants who understand how to manage changes at work. The outcome of managing change is that organisations become agile, which contributes highly to the development of cultures that positively adapt to change. In finality to this, the people professional should understand the value of training professionals and all other employees to help understand the change process and the subsequent impact to enhance alignment of change goals to the general organisational goals and objectives.

Flexible working and people management to improve productivity, creativity and innovation.

The learners have to understand the practices associated with flexible working and the different forms of work flexibility that employees can relate to while at work. Work flexibility improves people’s working lives; thus, learners should analyse and discuss the debated issues related to people’s flexibility at work. Work flexibility promotes organisational resilience and significantly contributes to improving work performance and productivity. Learners should learn of the links between organisational productivity, creativity and innovation in people practices.

Learning outcome 4

Improving organisation ethics, values and employee well-being

Learners should understand organisational ethics and organisational values, as well as their contributions to enhancing business sustainability and resilience. They should be aware of how easily they can manage dilemmas using the right moral concepts and ethical standards guided in the CIPD Code of Conduct. The learners should understand the interventions in people practices to make sure that they best analyse people concepts and their interventions to develop positive organisational values. Learners also gain insight into the policies promoting employee well-being and identify with actions and points of change to minimise work discrimination and bullying.

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability at work

Learners become aware of the approaches that stakeholders take towards enhance the effective management of CSR policies and actions. In addition, they learn how they can apply CSR and sustainability strategies towards creating organisational value and positive working lives for the people. Finally, the stakeholders realise the values of promoting diversity and inclusion to make all people engaged and involved in all work and people practices to develop positive organisational values.

Winding up:

The unit provides detailed knowledge on how to develop positive work and working lives among the employees in the organisation. Leading and managing change is an important concept that promotes a culture that enhances people’s commitment to work. In addition, following ethical and legal laws and regulations enhances policies that create positive impacts at work.

Resources

CIPD (2020) Code of Professional Conduct, available from https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/code-of-professional-conduct-april-2020_tcm18-14510.pdf

Clarke, S. and Cominetti, N. (2019) Setting the record straight: how record employment has changed the UK. London: Resolution Foundation

D’Souza, D. (2020) Change Management, available from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/change/management-factsheet

Davies, G. (2021) Understanding the economy and labour market, available from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/work/technology/emerging-future-work-factsheet

Holbeche, L. (2018) The agile organisation: how to build an engaged, innovative and resilient business. 2nd ed. London: CIPD Kogan Page.

Mohdzaini, H. (2021) Technology and the future of work, available from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/work/technology/emerging-future-work-factsheet