What is 'The Great Resignation'? An expert explains
These trends highlight the importance to understanding why people are leaving and what can be done to prevent The Great Resignation. It also calls for a data-driven approach to determine not just how many people are quitting, but who exactly has the highest turnover risk.
Given the buzz generated around the term “The Great Resignation”, we turned to Professor Dr. Isabell Welpe at the Technical University of Munich. Dr. Welpe conducts research in the area of leadership, innovation, and organization from a behavioural science perspective, with a focus on the selection of managers, managing teams, the role of emotions within managing processes as well as incentive systems and performance measurement. Dr. Welpe also curated the Forum’s Strategic Intelligence briefings on “Workforce and Employment” and “Education, Skills, and Learning” which highlight the key trends and emerging issues relating to the future of work, education, upskilling, and innovation in these fields.
Behind the buzzword 'The Great Resignation'
Your research gravitates around strategic leadership, work motivation, and the future orientation of organizations. What drew you to develop your expertise in this domain?
The study of organizations is fascinating because many things we hold dear are the result and product of organizations and the leadership therein. When things don’t work out, when services fail, or products lack a certain quality – it is all the result of organizational failure. What I find fascinating is that the role and shape of organizations is constantly shifting, often in response to technological developments. I expect organizations to become more marketized in the future with younger generations not holding 6 jobs in their lifetime anymore but 6 jobs at the same time, as workers offer their skills to different companies in different projects.
Technology development usually moves in waves and we will soon witness the dawn of the decentralised economy that enables a blockchain based way of makers and creators directly interacting with customers and users without the need to go through platform companies and intermediating firms. DAOs (Decentralized autonomous organizations) will be the next stage for organizations in this decentralised economy.
As the global workforce prepares to enter the post pandemic reality, what would you consider the most pressing challenge that organizations must address to sustain work motivation?
We have yet to see what a post pandemic world and workplace will look like. What we can already see is that how we organize work and work together will not return to the way it was before the pandemic. Many companies have announced that their employees never have to return to the office fulltime. I would expect to see a post pandemic work organization as one that moves away from a one-size-fits-all approach towards one that allows individual and asynchronous organization of work and work settings. For example, I expect that companies will allow a part of their workforce to work fully remote most of the time and allow another part of their workforce to come to the office only on 1-2 days a week.
The use of office buildings will change as they become cultural touchstones and meetings places for recruiting, meeting customers, and holding bootcamps to facilitate interpersonal exchange. This new way of organizing work requires a different leadership style and also demands new skills from workers. Self leadership will gradually replace leadership through leaders and control. Workers who are able, willing, and motivated to take on responsibility will thrive and enable greater agility in their organizations. Managing the transition to this new way of functioning organizations requires two measures: Selecting the right talents and socialising them in the right way.
- The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that describes record numbers of people leaving their jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
- Companies now have to navigate the ripple effects of the pandemic and re-evaluate how to retain talent.
- Dr. Isabell Welpe explains what we can learn from this recent trend in the workforce.
- Resignation rates are highest among mid-career employees
- Resignation rates are highest in the technology and healthcare industries
These trends highlight the importance to understanding why people are leaving and what can be done to prevent The Great Resignation. It also calls for a data-driven approach to determine not just how many people are quitting, but who exactly has the highest turnover risk.
Given the buzz generated around the term “The Great Resignation”, we turned to Professor Dr. Isabell Welpe at the Technical University of Munich. Dr. Welpe conducts research in the area of leadership, innovation, and organization from a behavioural science perspective, with a focus on the selection of managers, managing teams, the role of emotions within managing processes as well as incentive systems and performance measurement. Dr. Welpe also curated the Forum’s Strategic Intelligence briefings on “Workforce and Employment” and “Education, Skills, and Learning” which highlight the key trends and emerging issues relating to the future of work, education, upskilling, and innovation in these fields.
Behind the buzzword 'The Great Resignation'
Your research gravitates around strategic leadership, work motivation, and the future orientation of organizations. What drew you to develop your expertise in this domain?
The study of organizations is fascinating because many things we hold dear are the result and product of organizations and the leadership therein. When things don’t work out, when services fail, or products lack a certain quality – it is all the result of organizational failure. What I find fascinating is that the role and shape of organizations is constantly shifting, often in response to technological developments. I expect organizations to become more marketized in the future with younger generations not holding 6 jobs in their lifetime anymore but 6 jobs at the same time, as workers offer their skills to different companies in different projects.
Technology development usually moves in waves and we will soon witness the dawn of the decentralised economy that enables a blockchain based way of makers and creators directly interacting with customers and users without the need to go through platform companies and intermediating firms. DAOs (Decentralized autonomous organizations) will be the next stage for organizations in this decentralised economy.
As the global workforce prepares to enter the post pandemic reality, what would you consider the most pressing challenge that organizations must address to sustain work motivation?
We have yet to see what a post pandemic world and workplace will look like. What we can already see is that how we organize work and work together will not return to the way it was before the pandemic. Many companies have announced that their employees never have to return to the office fulltime. I would expect to see a post pandemic work organization as one that moves away from a one-size-fits-all approach towards one that allows individual and asynchronous organization of work and work settings. For example, I expect that companies will allow a part of their workforce to work fully remote most of the time and allow another part of their workforce to come to the office only on 1-2 days a week.
The use of office buildings will change as they become cultural touchstones and meetings places for recruiting, meeting customers, and holding bootcamps to facilitate interpersonal exchange. This new way of organizing work requires a different leadership style and also demands new skills from workers. Self leadership will gradually replace leadership through leaders and control. Workers who are able, willing, and motivated to take on responsibility will thrive and enable greater agility in their organizations. Managing the transition to this new way of functioning organizations requires two measures: Selecting the right talents and socialising them in the right way.