Session theme 5: Participation and leadership

The transformation of work is also changing company cultures. Rigid, top-down management styles are increasingly giving way to participatory decision-making processes which utilisze and take account of the abilities, knowledge and needs of all employees. Digitalization also offers many new opportunities to offer direct communication channels to staff and thus involve them in key processes. Digitalization also offers many new opportunities to enable staff to act as partners for communication as well as to involve them in key processes. Discussions in this session theme will address the opportunities and challenges this involves.

Corporate culture is evolving – from top-down to bottom-up. Where there was previously an emphasis on management’s authority and its monopoly on decision-making, its role is increasingly viewed as a means to motivate the available workforce and make full use of their skills. This can also mean allowing others to make important decisions and to take over responsibility for shaping processes.
In this session theme, participants will be shown the opportunities that flat hierarchies and democratic structures provide in the work environment as well as the challenges that have to be overcome when changing or ending traditional roles.
A particular focus in this session theme is on the roles of the different organisations representing employers and employees (the ‘social partners’) and how they interact. Many concrete examples can be used to show how to shape transformation processes within the context of change management and what organisation development means in the age of digital transformation.