Leadership and New Ways of Working: A Case Study in a Financial Service Organisation

Abstract

In financial service organisations clients are imposing increasingly greater demands on staff. The organisations need to find a balance between, on the one hand, "being in control", and promoting staff responsibility, flexibility and enterprise on the other. Managers have a crucial role in this process and their leadership is assumed to have an influence on how New Ways of Working (NWW) are applied by employees. New working patterns could offer space to staff to demonstrate and further develop their competences (organising their own work and goals; showcasing independence, determination, goal-orientation, communication, flexible behaviour and collaboration). NWW is aimed at staff flexibility and the utilisation of new technical developments in order to work independently of time and place, and thereby being of even greater service to the client. The leadership style in the financial service sector is primarily task-oriented, and this is also included in the organisation where this case study was conducted. It is apparent from this study that a task-oriented leadership style does not contribute to NWW, although this is dependent on the nature of the department and the type of roles. The recommendation, based partly on the literature, is to invest in another style of leadership: the person-centred leadership style.