Role Dynamics

UNIT 6 CHANGING PATTERNS OF ROLES

IN WORK LIFE
Objectives :
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
 Learn about organizational roles and role behaviors.
 Learn about organizational socialization process.
 Understanding the changing roles and role behaviors in modern
organizations in the context of industry 4.0.
 Understanding the affect of these changing role patterns on work-life
balance.
Structure :
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Role and Role behavior
6.3 Organizational Socialization and the Stages of organizational socialization
6.4 Role dynamics in the context of Industry 4.0 and Modern organizations
6.5 Changing patterns of Roles in Work-Life
6.6 Summary
6.7 Self-assessment questions
6.8 Further readings/ References

6.1 INTRODUCTION
The world has become a global village. The organizations are no longer
constrained by national borders but are shaped by global supply chains.
Technological advancements like Ecommerce, Cloud, Block chain, Artificial
Intelligence, 5G networks, 3D printing etc., and Connectivity are the
revolutionary forces of twenty-first century. The most connected organizations
and the most connected people are the winners of this century.

The Indian Tata Motors acquired iconic British brands Jaguar, Land rover and
is planning to convert them as a fully electric vehicle line by 2025 in order to
compete with the American electric vehicle manufacturing giant Tesla. Most
of the company’s manufacturing processes are being offshored to low-cost
economies and China became the hub for mass production and an exporter of
gadgets and computers to major corporations like Apple, Dell and GE. Apple
being a consumer electronics giant is planning to diversify its business into
Electric car segment and is currently undergoing research and
development.While Samsung and Apple being the biggest competitors in smart
phones market, Samsung is the supplier of Amoled displays, DRAM and NAND
Flash drives for Apple.
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And when we are at this transition process to a very new era, the recent Covid- Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
19 pandemic has brought increased economic pressure and drastic changes to
globalization processes.Before COVID-19, the largest changes to work happened
due to new technologies, growing world trade, diversified workforce and at
that time Remote working was only a practise. And in 2020, the need for Social
Distancing has elevated the importance of the physical dimension of work.
Working culture has got a huge shift towards unconventional method of remote
working and it was not just a choice then but a mandatory practise for most
of the companies.The availability, contribution of human capital and their
management at this time became a greatest challenge to the managers.
The Virtual organization is an emerging form of organizations and is becoming
very common these days. The complete business activities here take place
electronically and it is also called as a boundaryless organization as there are
no vertical or horizontal limits. Here even with a global scope, diverse work
cultures and diverse work forces with no boundaries the organization stays
focused on their specific goals.
The advancements in the Labor markets, Production processes, Technology
inclusions and the increasing Climatic changes reengineered the business world
and here there is a constant struggle for organizations to attain current profit
maximization and long-term survival. For the current day managers, to produce
surplus, manage the changing organizational culture, organizational structure
and the diversified workforce became the biggest challenge.
Therefore, the new rule is to have an effective change management with efficient
strategic choices. And, this is the area which sees the greatest pressure for
stability and change in this ever-changing business environment. So, this is
how the new modern organizational world is with high end dynamism and
due to this there is a constant need to understand the role of an employee in
these dynamic organizations.
In this unit you will learn about the Role, Role Behavior, Organizational
socialization and stages of organizational socialization, Role Dynamics in the
context of modern organizations, changing patterns of roles in work-life, stress
and burnout in organizations.

6.2 ROLE AND ROLE BEHAVIOUR

A role is a set of activities, duties, responsibilities, and required behaviors that
the organization wants a person to accept. The behaviors that are part of a
role are the contributions the organization wants in exchange for the
compensation and benefits (like pay, incentive, reward, fringe benefits etc.) it
is willing to give. The two must roughly balanced by the individual to agree
to the role.
This means the organizations expects employees to have certain behaviors for
a particular role in an organization and this varies as per the organizational
requirements. This will be planned with the help of organizational design, it’s
division of labor and the organizational culture. There are three types of role
behaviors associated with a role and they are Pivotal, Relevant and Peripheral
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Role Dynamics behaviors. These behaviors inter-change as per the requirements of the
organizations.
Pivotal role behaviors are the basic kind of behaviors an organization expects
as a contribution from employee in return for the compensation and benefits
they give. These behaviors are also called as the “price of membership”
behaviors as they are tied to the core values of the organization and are expected
from each and every employee with whatever background they have in order
to be the part of the organization. Examples of this behavior are proper way
of dressing, having profit motive, believing in organizational structure and
culture etc.
Relevant role behaviors are the kind of behaviors the organization considers
as the most desirable and good but are not mandatory for the membership of
the organization. Examples of this behavior are extra work efforts, taking
initiatives in a group work etc.
Peripheral role behaviors are the kind of behaviors that are not necessary or
desired by the organization but it allows them. Examples of this behavior are
occasional chatting, visiting the coworkers during worktime etc. The organization
accepts these behaviors until they do not affect the work performance or is
excessive.

6.3 ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION AND

THE STAGES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
SOCIALIZATION
Organizational socialization is the first experience every employee will have
as soon as they join any organization. This is the process through which an
employee learns the culture of an organization. The employee behavior gets
affected accordingly to maintain and shape the existing organizational culture
of that firm. People whenever they switch the organizations they work for,
gets socialized into many cultures throughout their career. There will be
Boundary transitions whenever a new employee crosses the firm’s boundary
and joins the organization and also boundary transitions when such employee
moves to other new organizations. And this happens in three dimensions i.e.,
Functional, Hierarchal and Inclusionary.
The Functional dimension communicates the basic values of an organizational
culture. Every person when joins an organization will definitely take the job
in a single department like HR, Marketing, Finance, Accounting etc. All these
functional departments will have their own core works and emphasizes on how
the things are done at their place. Functional departments also do many major
works of other functional departments in an organization and therefore, may
help employee get exposed to other functional areas also which helps in their
skill development.
The Hierarchal dimension communicates about the process where the employee
masters all the functional requirements, gets promoted to higher position with
more authority and gets exposed to hierarchy of the organization. Here the
socialization process emphasizes on employee taking on more responsibilities,
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becoming more involved in the organizational affairs, receiving rewards for Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
good performance etc. And when an employee moves to a different functional
department then a more intensive boundary transition and socialization takes
place, finally letting the employee move inward and closer to the central part
of organizational culture.
The Inclusionary dimension works simultaneously with both the above two
dimensions and emphasizes on the employee’s acceptance of all the values,
rules & regulations, required behaviors of an existing system. It will be critical
for a new employee to accept all of them than others who are already part
of the existing system. And when this is done, overtime, the employee gets
accepted into the heart of the organization and gets admitted into its inner
circle. The initial phase with the inclusionary phase is most important for
both the employers and employees as that is the phase where employee gets
a complete picture of performance expectations of the organization. And,
the employee succeeds when he/she gets assigned with the job that suits their
skills, needs and values.
So, organizational socialization is a process where the value system, the rules
and regulations and the required behavior patterns of the organization or group
are learned by a new member as soon as he/she joins the organization. This
also helps organizations to leave an impact in the mindset of the new employees
though their socialization processes. Values, rules & regulations, required
behaviors are all the part of organizational culture and any new employee will
join and stay with the organization with all these contributions only when this
complete process equates the compensation and benefits being offered by the
organization.
Managers play a key role in using this socialization process to affect the
behaviors of employees and makes them fully contributing to the success
of the organization. Therefore, understanding this organizational socialization
process helps managers to use it more effectively. And also, when employees
understand this process then it helps them to handle the dynamics associated
with their roles more effectively. Therefore, socialization is a two-way process
with common goals where employers trying to influence employees’ values,
behavior and the employees trying to maintain their own individuality. There
will be a constant interplay between employees bid for individualization and
the organizations efforts at socialization. It’s like employee trying to put a
mark on the organization and the organization want to put a mark on the
employee.
As an individual person, employee will have a unique set of talents and skills
and also wish to satisfy a unique set of needs to preserve his/her individual
identity. And also, employee seeks acceptance from his/her organization and
its members so that they can use his/her individual talents and abilities.
Organizations and its members expect uniform behaviors and values among
themselves in order to reduce the potential for conflicts and for its long-term
survival. The organization also needs innovative values and behavior in order
to stay competitive and survive in this ever-changing business environment.
There is always a dilemma about socialization in organizations for both
employees and employers and it’s like a tug-of-war between individual’s need
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Role Dynamics to be who he/she is and the organization’s need to mold the individual to its
image.
Therefore, in a broad sense, organizational socialization is a process by which
employees adjust to the new organizations, new teams and new jobs. It focuses
on making employees to get used to the organizational culture by acquiring
the values, attitudes and roles behaviors involved with it. And it is concerned
with individual-organizational fit and the individual’s skill development in order
to adjust to the values, rules & regulations of the immediate workgroup.
Stages of Organizational Socialization:
There are 3 stages in organizational socialization process. They are: “Getting
in” stage (Choice: Anticipatory socialization); “Breaking in” stage (Entry /
Encounter); “Settling in” stage (Change: Metamorphosis). The output of one
stage becomes the input to the next stage. Understanding each and every stage
in detail is most important for both employers and employees. Because
employers / management always wish to achieve what the organization wants
them to achieve and this happens only through socialization and the employees
as individuals are the key people who are likely to have all these experiences
in the socialization process.

Choice: Anticipatory Socialization (“Getting in”):

This is the first stage every individual experiences even before he/she joins
an organization. This is the kind of socialization that helps the individual to
understand the organizational culture and prepare himself/herself to join the
organization. This is the stage where an individual develops expectations and
beliefs to join a particular organization with all the predictions about what
life will be like in that organization. The employees and the employers face
two major issues at anticipatory socialization stage and they are: Question of
Realism; Lack of Congruence.
Realism is the responsibility of both the employers and the employees. It
addresses the questions like “Does the new employee clearly understand all
the job requirements and have a realistic idea about organization’s culture?”
“Does the employee present an accurate picture of himself/herself?” “Does
organization really meet all the promising inducements it is offering to an
employee?” “How realistic is the “realistic job preview” given by the
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organization to develop expectations and beliefs in the mindset of job applicants Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
/ employees?” Therefore, the organization must present both the positive and
negative sides of what it is like to work for the company and also the individual
must present accurate information about what he/she can do and must not
oversell his/her profile in the job market.
Having congruence between employer and the employee means whether the
employee’s skills and abilities are able to satisfy the organizational needs or
not and whether the company is able to satisfy the employees needs or not.
This helps in developing an image of company in the mindset of employee
and an image of employee in organization’s consideration. The degree of
congruence between these two parties will define the criticality of mutual
adaptation between them.
Without realism and congruence between two parties there will be problems
like high turnover, low satisfaction, low organizational commitment and poor
job performance.

Entry / Encounter (“Breaking In”):

This stage starts from the first day the individual crosses the organizational
boundary by accepting the job offer given to him/her. Anticipatory phase will
let employees build expectations on the organization and entry phase will make
employee learn whether the company is reaching all those expectations or not.
It will be the same for the organization also in understanding whether the hired
individual is up to the mark as expected while hiring him/her by accepting
his/her candidature.
When an individual joins an organization he/she will be highly motivated to
have a certain degree of socialization from knowledgeable insiders in order
to avoid the feelings of uncertainty. In this phase the individual learns about
the organizational culture in reality. Socialization not just happens from the
group to individual but it also happens from individual to group. The group,
its culture and its image could change with the reputation of the newly joined
employee. There are also chances of conflicting demands being imposed on
the newly joined individual. This happens when immediate work group giving
conflicting messages about existing work style, immediate supervisor having
either higher or lower rules and expectations for the work group, same work
group or other related work groups putting conflicting behavioral demands
etc. The individuals nonwork roles (like roles such as father, mother, husband,
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Role Dynamics wife etc. also will have impact on the socialization process. Therefore, new
employee’s ability to resolve all the conflicting behavioral demands& intergroup
conflicts, balancing the nonwork responsibilities will help him/her to successfully
adapt and adjust to the new role in the organization.
In this phase the organization also wants to give the employee a new self-
image based on the main functions and the relevant functions of that role. Every
role expects a certain degree of change in the self-image before and after joining
the organization. And when these expectations from the organizational role
do not match with the employee’s capabilities and needs, the mismatch happen
leading to failure in the job performance.
This entry stage serves several purposes and also raises few interdependent
issues between both employers and employees. Therefore, the organization must
concentrate on: Proper clarification of the new employee’s role in the
organization; Proper way of teaching new employees about tasks, duties,
responsibilities, conflicting work assignment priorities and evaluating methods;
Proper way of teaching new employees about immediate workgroup behavioral
rules and regulations.
Change: Metamorphosis (“Settling In”):
This stage of metamorphosis explains about all the extraordinary changes that
happen to an individual through socialization by joining an organization. When
an employee successfully adapts and adjusts to the new organizational culture
then he/she will start feeling comfortable in his/her new role. This happens
when the employee achieves some degree of mastery of job requirements and
responsibilities, accepts the obvious thing of organizational culture, adjusts
to the norms of her immediate workgroup. When this happens, the employee
feels more accepted by the peers, self-confidence increases and early employment
period’s anxiety decreases.
This is the last stage of organizational socialization and from this these three
responses from newly joined employees can be generated: Rebellious response
(happens when the new employee does not accept the socialization demands
of the role); Custodial response (happens when the new employee accepts all
aspects of role content and processes as it makes sense to him); Innovative
response (this happens very rarely and happens when either the employee
changes/improves the role by content innovation or completely redefines the
role by role innovation).

6.4 ROLE DYNAMICS IN THE CONTEXT OF

INDUSTRY 4.0 AND MODERN
ORGANIZATIONS
With the technological revolution, the nature of job roles is changing at a rapid
pace. Job roles are more automated in nature now, and the process-based jobs
are becoming dis-used. The Human resource department remains the main source
for all the technological developments in the organizations. Alignment of
Organizational policies, practices with industry 4.0 have become vitally
important. Thus, organizations are in need to understand clearly the critical
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challenges present in order to adapt them and stay in par with the upcoming Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
role demands in the industry. Though there are lots of advantages and
opportunities associated with industry 4.0, there is also a need to understand
the disruptions caused by integrating industry 4.0 with organizational processes.
Organizational behavior is also rapidly changing by shifting the organization’s
focus to new employees (who are highly skilled and tech-savvy) from old
employees (who are in need of upskilling and re-skilling), and there is a constant
fear of job loss within the existing employee groups.

Figure 6.2 Industry 4.0

As per Oztemel and Gursev, Industry 4.0 is defined as a methodology for

utilizing emerging technologies, such as big data, cloud manufacturing which
has changed the current processes to integrate machine and digital
manufacturing. As per Weyer, Industry 4.0 is categorized into 3 parts i.e., (a)
Smart machine; (b) Smart product; (c) The Augmented operator. Smart machines
will have machine-to-machine communication. Smart products will have sensor
objects and microchips connected over the internet. The inclusion of industry
4.0 has reshaped the way humans operate and is increasing the complexity of
jobs and only highly skilled workers with strong technological background
are in need of the hour. The growing interface between human and machine
will need communication among smart products/machines and employees.
Therefore, there is strong need for inclusion of new competencies in employee
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Role Dynamics training and education which helps sustainable development of the organization
along with better employee work-life balance, reduced costs, lean production,
economical, social and environmental sustainability.
With the introduction of Digital era, organizations shifted from behavioral
adjustments to the digital capabilities of employees. This brought a new set
of challenges to employers, such as downsizing the functional departments,
loss of personal contacts and technical implementation, threats to privacy,
contribution to the “digital divide”, confused role analysis, dis-respect for
supervisors due to work independency and less control over subordinates,
identifying, developing and utilizing the positive potentials of digitalization.
There are also challenges for employees in adapting to the changes brought
in by industry 4.0 like constant change in the expectations on role behaviors,
constant need for up-skilling, technology replacing the human jobs and role
innovations, fear of job loss, talent gap formed due to old employees, techno
stress & tele pressure caused due to work from home culture adapted during
covid-19 crisis, missing human element due to remote working culture, wellness
& well-being, missing work-life balance, changing job descriptions to manage
diverse multi-generational workforces, increased mobility, challenging
togetherness within diverse teams, more conflicts and dis-satisfaction,
communication problems.
Therefore, Human resources department plays a very vital role in adaption of
Industry 4.0 by coming up with efficient role analysis methods and the most
effective strategies of change management for all the functional areas of the
organization(like HR (- recruitment and selection, learning and development,
performance appraisal, job analysis, training need analysis etc.), Finance,
Marketing, Production, Accounting etc.). Organizations currently may sustain
without adapting to industry 4.0 but in future it may become inevitable.
In the context of modern organizations, there are four main associated challenges
and they are: Managing Workforce Diversity; Coping up with the Quality
standards; Managing the Technology integration with the organizations;
Understanding and changing according to the Global environment of the
organizations.
Workforce diversity means the workforce variations with respect to the
employees personal and background factors. The variations of workforce include
age, gender, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, religion
and cultural beliefs, race, education. The other dimensions are the family status
like single-parent / a person with responsibilities of aged parents, dual-career
relationships. With the increasing global performance of the organizations,
people with different languages, from different cultures and social backgrounds
bring different world views to the organization and their perception of work
issues and problems also varies as per their experiences. And when these
differences are managed properly by the organizations gives out new
opportunities to the organizations or otherwise, increases the chances of conflicts.
Managing all the workforce differences productively is the biggest challenge
to the manager and can be done in three ways: Managing diversity (having
equality in access to employment, promotion, personnel policies in order to
reduce diversity from work point of view without losing their individuality);
126 Value diversity (building diverse workforce for competitive advantage);
Managing for diversity (using diversified workforce potential for organizational Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
goals). As society becomes increasingly diverse, the customers also become
more diverse. Therefore, having a diverse workforce helps managers attract
customers from diverse backgrounds. For example, KFC in India, using Indian
manager strategies to exploit the Indian market by introducing biryani buckets
along with their core chicken concept.
Quality management is a philosophy and system of management built upon
tools and techniques that help organizations manage for quality in services,
products, and processes. Examples are Total quality management, Six sigma,
Benchmarking, Total quality leadership etc. For organizations, having Quality
products/services/processes will have a competitive advantage over their rivals
and other benefits like increased profits, assets, sales, employment & reduced
costs. Quality management is a long-term commitment taken by the organization
and involving each and every individual to give the same commitment towards
quality and improvement and it is the biggest challenge to the managers.
Managing quality is a worldwide phenomenon and there are international
standards developed too. Therefore, employee roles must adapt to these everyday
improving quality demands and not just staying with the monotonous work
they were doing in the past. This requires lots of personal commitment from
each and every individual and there is also a challenge of resistance from
employees for this change. The stake holders who are all interested in
organization’s quality management for the products/services/processes are not
just the management and the employees but also the suppliers, clients, customers,
the surrounding community of the company, professional/trade associations,
competitors, the industry company belongs to. Employees are the key people
who make business practically happen, therefore managing employee role
behaviors to grab the interest of all the stake holders in organization’s quality
management is most important.
The digital revolution brought in tremendous changes to the business world.
There are many advantages, opportunities associated with it but also the
challenges. The managers must seek the most effective and productive ways
of meeting the evolving demands of doing businesses. Leading organizations
know they need to disrupt or be disrupted, so they have begun to create entirely
new work environments that we now call the digital workplace revolution.
For example, TATA is not just a cars manufacturing company but also is into
many other strategic business units like Software, steel etc. Amazon is not
just into ecommerce but also is into OTT platform, software development and
IT services. The transformed companies are moving into new industries.
Consumers, can now buy just about anything from their smartphones at any
time, from anywhere in the world, and have it delivered to them wherever
they happen to be, sometimes that same day. They perform daily essential
functions from their smartphones, such as banking, remotely regulating the
heat in our homes, renting a vacation home anywhere in the world directly
from the owner, letting friends know that they have checked into a restaurant,
or ordering products to be replenished when they run out, and the list goes
on.This consumer digital experience is what they have become accustomed
to in their daily lives. Can we imagine life without it now? It has significantly
transformed and increased the level of engagement as consumers and completely 127
Role Dynamics changed the methods of shopping, allowing them to shop from the convenience
of their own home.
The same way Human resources world also transformed and everything about
the way they work, including the nature of the work, Job roles and behaviours,
career structures, knowledge workers, workers’ expectations, and the skills
needed to do one’s job has changed. The long-term effect of this on HR should
be positive. The new HR mantra will be “HR is not HR.” Newly introduced
tools will force HR to shift its mindset from one of designing and rolling out
programs to a more interactive, self-service-oriented feedback loop methodology
with constant iterations to programs. The recent Covid-19 pandemic had brought
drastic changes in the way people live and work globally. Information
Technology is one of the Industry that got well-adjusted by working remotely
to this suddenly demanded changes in comparison to other Industries or business
sectors. Before pandemic though this culture of Remote working was
implemented rarely, in 2019, working remotely was forced on employees due
to the need for social distancing in covid situations, however, after two years
of working from remote locations, employees got settled down with the new
way of working and it became a new normal. With this new restructured working
style, the employers and employees are able to achieve benefits like less
commuting time, less cost, more autonomy, greater flexibility, reduced need
for office space, increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and decreased
turnover, ability to hire good employees from all over the world. But with all
these changes, there are also Challenges along with Benefits. Remote working
has got Challenges like longer working hours, overlaps between Work and
Personal life, work intensification, Isolation, depletion of social capital, total
dependency on technology, need for stimulation for comradeship in virtual teams,
Employee Stress and Burn out, where all these may lead to Dis-engaged &
Detached employees. Therefore, all these changes increase the complexity of
employee roles and create high dynamic roles, and yet new technology is
enabling HR for better strategic planning and management of their work.
In the context of Global environment, modern organizations have a need for
international focus with thinking beyond the domestic environment which
was not present before.(Like trans-national companies, multi-national
organizations, global companies etc.) Therefore, for modern managers world
is their environment for strategic business planning by considering the entire
planet as their source of resources. (Like money, labour, material, machinery,
production facilities, methods etc.) The world economy is highly connected
because of this and the slightest positive or negative shift in the major economy
echoes throughout the world. Advancements in the technology, high
performing satellites due to advancements in telecommunications,
developments with modern aircraft and international travelling, fast paced
internet and communication technologies, regional trade agreements, reducing
trade barriers among countries are all enabling and compelling things for a
global view. All these factors also facilitated in forming the virtual
organisations and also introduced mandatory working cultures like remote/
hybrid environments that can be adapted very easily. This new remote working
culture brought in drastic changes to the organisation’s recruitment& selection
processes and also brought in tremendous workforce diversity due to the ability
128 to hire talent force from all over the world.
With the global view of doing businesses rises the cultural differences issue Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
between the countries as most of the people are unaware of other cultures and
adapting to a multi-cultural working environment is also challenging. Managing
the people orientations to cultural differences by the modern managers is also
a challenging task. Examples where organizations successfully dealt with cultural
differences are: McDonalds tailored menu for Indian markets where Big-mac
burger called as Maharaja burger along with changed ingredients from ham
to chicken; Starbucks introduced more Indian flavours and dishes into their
menus like Reshmi kebab roll or Konkani twist along with their existing cookies
as we Indians prefer to eat while consuming tea/coffee. Starbucks also introduced
more Indianized store designs like Mumbai tables have wooden tables with
wooden carvings, Delhi stores will have more ropework design which is
influenced by local culture. Also, Indians prefer tea more than coffee, so,
Starbucks introduced TATA’s tea brand Teavana which increased 30% more
sales in India.
Many cultural differences appear in people’s orientation to space and time.
South Korean men usually wish others with a bow and women simply nod
their head to wish while firm handshakes are most preferable by Britain, France,
Australia etc. In India, it has become more common to shake hands in the
recent years however, the traditional form of address is ‘Namaste’, making a
slight bow with your palms together in front of your chest. If a man is greeting
a woman he is unlikely to shake hands, but two men may choose this over a
traditional greeting. North Americans usually stand 5 to 8 feet apart when talking
while Latin Americans prefer to communicate standing much closer. Latin
Americans view time more casually than North Americans and north American
might feel insulted when if people were late for an appointment, although no
insult was intended. Managing these mis-understandings raised due to diverse
workforce is quite a big challenge to the modern managers. Do they want the
values of the home country to dominate or do they want to adapt those of the
local culture? Therefore, cultural differences define various acceptable role
behaviours by considering all the associated role dynamics of a particular
organization.

6.5 CHANGING PATTERNS OF ROLES IN WORK

LIFE
Our patterns of work are changing. More than any generation before them,
millennials increasingly expect to work flexibly, independently and remotely,
with virtual meetings seen as the norm. The 9 to 5, 40 hours a week working
model is increasingly a thing of the past, as is the traditional 40-years-at-
onecompany career with a defined benefit pension and expensive watch at the
end of it. At the same time, technology is creating an ‘always-on’ culture, or
digital presenteeism, making it difficult for workers to switch off during their
leisure hours causing work-life imbalance. How will future managers meet
these challenges by managing to maintain expected role behaviours and
simultaneously how to manage personal relationships with colleagues who may
not share the same office space. The way people choose and develop their
careers is also changing, with the emergence of ‘flexible talent pools’ whereby
people match their skills to relevant work and choose their preferred working 129
Role Dynamics pattern. Are employees turning away from wanting to spend a solid and stable
decade at one company, towards having a more diverse career and facing a
number of different situations and challenges all with different pressures and
goals? This may be particularly relevant when you know there are multiple
employers who you could work for. As such, is ‘careers security’ - the ability
to move on and up by handling all the associated role dynamics, independent
of your current employer - overtaking ‘job security’ as a key concern? People
are now working in a gig economy with multiple careers and changing jobs
frequently based on their own preferences, lifestyle and aspiration, without
fear of reprisal. This “multi-staged path will see them moving in and out of
corporate careers, small companies, entrepreneurial ventures and self-
employment over a life-long career”.
Part of this diversification of work is the rise of multi-activity: portfolio workers
who hold several jobs and who have several different income sources at the
same time. According to “slasher generation” (so-called due to the forward
changes between job roles) benefit from greater job satisfaction and mental
wellbeing, as well as from higher income and more job variety. But will
companies still see the incentive to invest in the development of staff which
they share with others? How will these new patterns of work impact upon
workplace diversity and inclusivity? Flexible working delivers many benefits,
both personal and professional. It can mean many things: working from home,
working compressed hours, term-time hours, part-time or flexi-time working,
less productive and less committed employees. When talking about working
outside of the office, the role of technology is critical. Smartphones mean that
many tasks like checking contracts and answering a conference call can now
happen anywhere at any time. This can empower employees and help
organisations become more agile, but organisations need to avoid developing
a culture of digital presenteeism.
Here are few examples of benefits and challenges associated with Remote-
Hybrid working model which has been adapted by many of the organizations
during covid-19 and is still continuing:
Employee’s Perspective of Benefits & Challenges associated with Remote-
Hybrid working culture :
Benefits:
1. Flexible working Environment and Flexible work timings and ability
to work from any location.
2. Less and no daily Commuting or travelling to office.
3. Higher Flexibility by being able to run household errands along with
reaching work deadlines.
4. Less costly as there is no scope for transportation costs, office outings,
or purchasing any office wear clothing.
5. Less interruptions to work as there is no scope for Socializing or moving
around the office or workplace distractions.
6. Ability to spend more time with family and friends.
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 7. An opportunity to continue Education. Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
8. Ability to spend time for self-care.
9. Customisable working environment and work independence.
10. Increased Productivity.
11. Avoidance of Office Politics.
12. Low need to relocate.
13. Reduced sick days and better health maintenance.
14. Increased Women Employment as working from home being the most
comfortable way of working style for women.
Challenges:
1. Work Intensification and overlaps between work and personal life due
to Tele pressure(a fixation with checking and quickly responding to
messages from supervisors) and Technostress(occupational stress or
Mental stress that is caused by too much interaction with information
and communication technologies such as the Internet, mobile devices,
and social media.), Loss of Health.
2. Being unable to draw a line between office-time and me-time due to
high demand of staying connected for longer periods and longer working
hours and in return leading to Social Isolation.
3. Isolation and alone at desk and lack of support.
4. Being in a different time-zone than team mates and lack of coordination.
5. Feeling of overly monitored by the Employer.
6. Total dependency on only Technology and Internet and difficulty in
finding reliable internet.
7. Poor workplace connections, collaboration or Camaraderie and limited
access to information.
8. Increasing Heaters and Electric bills at home.
9. Less Motivation and Need for high self-discipline.
10. Danger of being over-looked for promotions when working remotely
while employees working in a hybrid model or employees visiting office
on a regular basis will have the edge over remote employees in getting
promotions.
11. Limited access to training, promotion and employee benefits.
12. Distractions at home and poor Ergonomics.
13. Presenteeism that is, reduced Sick leaves as the employee works from
home.
14. Work oversight and unintentionally failing to notice or do something.
15. Negative impact on career growth.
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Role Dynamics Employer’s Perspective of Benefits & Challenges associated with Remote-
Hybrid working culture :
Benefits:
1. No geographical limitations for hiring Employees which helps in access
to better talent pool.
2. Reduced office space need.
3. Reduced Employee Absenteeism and Turnover due to flexible work
environments.
4. Increased productivity and better performance of employees.
5. Happier and satisfied employees.
6. Higher employee retention due to flexible work environments.
7. Lower operating and maintenance costs.
8. Scope of increasing Customer/Client base as there are no geographical
limitations.
9. Low carbon footprint and being socially responsible in a better way
by conserving energy.
Challenges:
1. Reduced Cyber security and Network Security and Higher investment
in it.
2. Difficulty to monitor remote work.
3. Difficulty scheduling meetings, coordinating projects and depleting
Social Capital.
4. Challenging to develop workplace leadership.
5. Chances of neglecting Human element (employees getting exposed to
variety of work environments and cross cultures) in this process which
is the backbone for any companies success.
6. Reduced Employee motivation, commitment and Job satisfaction due
to isolated workplaces and poor Ergonomics that are leading to
employee dis-engagement.
7. Digitalisation of workplace being unable to be applied at a full-length
success rate for operations like Employee on-boarding, training,
performance management, monitoring, Human Resource development
etc.
8. Employee Burnouts due to high Technostress and Tele pressure.
9. Inconvenient process for New hires.
10. Less brainstorming among employees for problem solving.
11. Harder to build Camaraderie in the work teams.
12. Chances of using inappropriate management techniques, problems
related to IT-mediated-Communication and Culture of the company
132 gets very impacted with remote scattered workforce.
 13. Work independence of employees in everyday activities giving rise Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
to less accountability from them to managers which in-return leading
to mis-understandings between management and employees.
14. Providing Technical set-up to every individual employee.
15. Need for monitoring each and every Individual Employee.
16. Changes in HR Policies.
Therefore, as technology becomes a bigger part of working life, how will digital
presenteeism be managed? Even in a virtual world, employees still want social
interaction, which suggests that rather than dying out, the workplace will change.
Leaders will need to think carefully about how they design work spaces and
workflow to build in these human needs.
A key challenge is how managers and leaders adapt to these changes. McKinsey
have predicted that future organisational structures will become flatter and that
managers and teams will need to be more agile. According to some labour
market forecasts, project work and freelancing will increase at the expense of
traditional job roles. These are characterised by role dynamism i.e., flexibility,
speed and activity-oriented structures, by autonomous task management and
by the eventual dissolution of the group following the completion of the project.
With workplace structures potentially becoming wider, flatter and less
hierarchical, the skills and techniques the leaders need to manage and motivate
their team and develop engaged, committed staff is becoming more
challenging.The careers becoming more fluid and work more flexible, the
managers need to develop their employees for both their role and their
potentiality to deal with the associated role dynamics.

6.6 SUMMARY

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Role Dynamics

6.6 SUMMARY
From this unit you have learnt the importance of role in an organisation. It
also gives an understanding about organisational socialisation and its importance.
The unit also reflects on the context of the industry 4.0 with reference to present
day context.

6.7 SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1. Which of the three types of Role Behaviour is important for an organization?
Why?
2. Describe the 3 stages of organizational socialization. What are the
relationships among stages? What happens within each stage of socialisation
process?
3. Reflect on the technological changes discussed earlier. Discuss the specific
technological changes that will affect you in your work role.
4. Discuss the issues that a global orientation raises for managers. Are those
issues either problems or opportunities for managers? How do you expect
those issues to affect you in your work career?
5. Reflect on the types of businesses that are prominent in your area. Would
any of them benefit from having a global view of their markets? Is it realistic
for managers in those companies to look beyond domestic borders to find
opportunities elsewhere?
6. Discuss the disruptions caused by Industry 4.0 in Human resource world
and suggest few measures that can be integrated into management 4.0.
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7. Review the Benefits and Challenges associated with Remote-Hybrid Changing Patterns of Roles in
Work Life
working model described in the chapter from both employer and employee
perspectives. Which benefits or challenges do you expect to play a big
role in the future?
8. Discuss all the changing patterns of roles and role behaviours in the context
of modern organizations and explain their effect on employee’s Work-Life
balance.

6.8 FURTHER READINGS/ REFERENCES

 Barak, E. M. M. 2005. Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive
Workplace. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
 Joseph E. Champoux. (2017). Organizational Behaviour Integrating
Individuals, Groups, and Organizations (5th ed.) [E-book]. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315669304
 Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership.
 Schein, E. H. 1968. Organizational Socialization and the Profession of
Management. Industrial Management Review 9: 1-16.
 Deal, T. E., and A. A. Kennedy. 1982. Corporate Cultures: The Rites and
Rituals of Corporate Life. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, pp. 13-15.
 Joseph E. Champoux. (2017). Organizational Behavior Integrating
Individuals, Groups, and Organizations (5th ed.) [E-book]. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315669304
 https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-
expert-views/pages/translating_the_hr_digital_revolution_to_ everyday_
work.aspx
 https://sanketmishra24.medium.com/how-starbucks-adapted-localization-
for-the-indian-market-a618adba3f0
 https://creativeword.uk.com/blog/language/meet-greet-business-around-
world/
 https://www.managers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Patterns-of-work-
discussion-paper.pdf
 www.psychologytoday.com
 www.dictionary.apa.org

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