University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Workforce Ecosystems
Book

Workforce Ecosystems

Reaching Strategic Goals with People, Partners, and Technologies

Jeff Schwartz, Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron and Robin Jones
MIT Press, 2023
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Well Structured
  • Engaging

Recommendation

The emerging workplace looks very different from the rigid, hierarchical workplace of the past, say writers Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron, Jeff Schwartz and Robin Jones. Today’s workforces have more of an ecosystem structure than the traditional silo structure. If you want to lead your workforce to success, you need to know how to orchestrate this structure, while respecting the autonomy of all participants. Learn how embracing a more expansive view of your workforce can help your organization reach its strategic goals. Shift your business mind-set, seeing opportunities for collaboration and growth when others see only the threat of competition.

Summary

Today’s workforces are more like dynamic ecosystems than rigid silos. 

Executives today must focus on more than profit margins – they must consider their social responsibilities, focusing on issues including preventing worker exploitation, improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) and providing meaningful employment experiences. Today’s workforces include a wide variety of people, ranging from full-time employees to freelance workers and investors, all of whom function much like independent, yet interrelated organisms within an ecosystem. A “workforce ecosystem” is, essentially, “a structure that encompasses actors, from within the organization and beyond, working to create value for the organization.” 

Workforce ecosystems are emerging as a response to shifting workplace norms, as it’s now normal for people to work remotely, with gig workers frequently working at multiple companies at once. Rather than try to impose outdated hierarchical structures on today’s workforce, executives that keep pace with change respond with more flexibility, nurturing networks via the ecosystem approach, as opposed to silos...

About the Authors

Jeff Schwartz is the author of Work Disrupted, as well as an adviser on the future of work for Deloitte Consulting, and the vice president of insights and impact at Gloat. Elizabeth J. Altman is an associate professor of management at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Manning School of Business. She’s also a guest editor of the MIT Sloan Management Review Future of the Workforce project. David Kiron is the editorial director of research at MIT Sloan Management Review. He’s also a program lead with MIT’s Big Ideas research initiatives. Robin Jones leads workplace transformation at Deloitte, and she serves on the CEO’s Marketplace Leadership Team with Deloitte Consulting.

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