Businesses need to embrace collective intelligence

Jean Kaspar

Consultant, Chairman of JK Consultant

Until the turn of the century, companies produced goods or services in a context in which management objectives often went against the needs expressed by employee representatives. This productivist view has become outdated as businesses take on board the importance of human capital for efficiency.

There are many reasons behind this shift. Two hundred years of union struggles prepared the ground well. Digital technologies are continuing to change the ways companies are managed and how they behave. People’s mentalities are evolving, allowing employees to take control of their careers. Finally, social issues such as the environment and overcoming outdated notions of hierarchy are starting to permeate business. This means that understanding the major trends in society is now crucial to understanding business. And considering all the elements and forces that make up a business is pivotal for successful management. Human and social considerations are today as strategic as financial or technical decisions.

“Supervisors and employees, who today have a passive role as spectators of the dialogue between management and employee representatives, should also be involved in social regulation.”

In this context, there is a need for a new era of labour relations that moves away from what I call the ‘minimum legal requirement’, in which labour relations follow the law to the letter and often do little more than ensuring legal provisions have been respected. A new dynamic is required, in which employee representatives play a part in defining the corporate strategy in collaboration with the leadership team. Supervisors and employees, who today have a passive role as spectators of the dialogue between management and employee representatives, should also be involved in social regulation.

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If a company is to thrive and continue to develop, it must rise to the major challenges that are emerging, such as artificial intelligence and automation. It must be perceived as a space where men and women can pool their intelligence, creativity, imagination and differences to build tomorrow’s workplace together. It is this collective intelligence that will produce strategies and policies that benefit both the company and its employees.