Case study summary report: New ways of working

The Introduction chapter of the Case Study Summary report presents shortly the history of the Alternative work development also called New Ways of Working a.k.a NewWoW. The effect of enablers usually classified as Technological, Physical and Social are in the main focus. Objectives are 1) perform three complementary approaches of enablers, concept and future of the organization using the same consultative process to engage work practices 2) find quantitative information of the aspects (what?) of the work environment affecting to personal life using a survey 3) find out qualitative information of "How aspects of the social environment enhance or disrupt Knowledge Work - on individual, team, organizational, societal levels. Why?" using focus group discussions in the same three organizations. The first part of the report is describing the companies (VTT, Granlund and ISS) change plans and the target setting. The Optimaze engagement methodology and the results are described for the three organizations cases. The key work practices in three organizations have remarkable similarities: the need for communication, coordination, sharing, being with customers/partners/colleagues etc. The second part describes a survey of totally 255 persons in three organizations addressing question "What factors of the social environment enhance or disrupt Knowledge Work?". The SPSST statistical program was used to analyse the survey data. The differences between the Granlund, ISS and VTT in survey response patterns reflected mainly the fact that they are different type of organizations. The third part describes the preparation, execution and the data analysis of the Focus group interviews. The transcripts were content coded both manually and by Atlas.ti, a software package for qualitative data analysis. The overall impression from the group discussion is that that most of the participants cared deeply about are issues that personally affect them or their close colleagues. The drivers for Job Crafting arise from three personal needs. Firstly to exert some control over the job to avoid alienation, secondly to build a positive self-image, and thirdly to connect with others. The three aforementioned needs echo the basic psychological needs of Self-Determination Theory: namely Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness.