The future of work and ongoing disruption: challenges for leaders

We are in one of the most challenging contexts in history with Industry 4.0 (the future of work) and Black Swan events like COVID converging to create a crisis never felt before by leaders. Bostrom (2014) states that we find ourselves in an era of strategic complexity, characterised by uncertainty. According to the visionary work of Schwab [2017], the Fourth Industrial Revolution is evolving at an exponential rather than linear pace that not only changes the “what” and the “how” of doing things, but also “who” we are. Roblek et al (2016) writes that the phenomenon of Industry 4.0 was first mentioned in Germany as a proposal for the development of a new economic policy based on high-tech strategy. It is marked by full automation, intelligent production and digitization of processes and the use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, big data and connectivity. This has led to increased competition, changes to consumer behaviour and obsolete and new mindsets, jobs and skills in organisations. 

Even before the onset of Industry 4.0 around 2014 and disruptive events like COVID-19 and climate change in 2020, leaders were dealing with the challenge of leading knowledge based workforces and the increasingly team-based nature of work. In 2000, Stacey wrote that the circumstances in which most businesses today find themselves are complex, dynamic and uncertain. (Stacey, 2000). If organisations are seen as complex evolving systems, co-evolving within a social ‘ecosystem’, then our thinking about strategy and management changes. (Mitleton-Kelly, 2003). 

Since 2014 , digitalisation and global political turmoil have put leaders under significant additional stress and organisations face large scale disruption and complexity – a world that is more emergent and ambiguous than ever before (Alavi & Gill, 2017). Artley (2018) warns that we continue to underestimate the scale and speed of change leaders have to navigate and lead in in an integrated, positive, human and impactful way in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

Black Swan events like COVID 19 has accelerated Industry 4.0 trends and has also brought with it the need for understanding leadership in a new way in the time of disruption and crisis. Boin (2005) reviewed the crisis literature and declared that a crisis can destabilize the organization and its workers. In this situation organizations have to work under stress which leads to remarkable challenges for business leaders. 

What exactly are some of these complex challenges leaders face? Stockton et al  (2018) write that the more digital, more technological, and more global environment combined with fast evolving business expectations, needs, and demands are creating a very different workforce and competitive environment. In imagining the work of tomorrow with a gig economy, with artificial intelligence and evolving business models, businesses need to transform faster than ever before in a much more turbulent and uncertain environment. Organisations are no longer viewed as machines. Instead the evolving paradigm is of self-organizing and evolving systems. The workforce is becoming more mobile, virtual and globally distributed leading to new ways of leading people.

Marion and Uhl-Bien (2001) suggest that in complex self-organising systems leaders are not controlling the future, but are enabling the development of conditions, which lead to desirable future states. Schneider and Somers (2006) argued that, if organizations are viewed as self-organising complex systems, the role of leadership should be reconceptualized. Amagoh (2009) writes that the goal of leadership development should be to increase leadership effectiveness in guiding organisations through periods of uncertainty and change. We therefore need a renewed look at what leadership means in this context and how we develop leadership in a complex, disrupted and virtual world.