What makes a good workplace?

What will workplaces of the future look like? What are the qualities of a good manager? How can you inspire and lead a workforce to achieve its potential? These are just some of the questions the newly established Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne will explore. 

Led by Professor Peter Gahan, with funding by the Federal Government, the Centre is seeking to drive the debate on what leadership in Australian workplaces should look like, by providing practical help to small and large business. 

“If you had the chance to go back and walk into the typical workplace 25 years ago, you would probably be astounded to see just how much modern workplaces have evolved. It would not matter if it were manufacturing or a business office. The layout, the technology and the way people related to each other, and the way people were managed was very different. Twenty-five years ago, for example, the now widely accepted idea of teamwork was still relatively new, jobs were much more compartmentalised, and management operated in a much more top-down manner,” Professor Gahan says. 

“Today, we are seeing a range of new trends, such as activity-based work, telework, flexible work – ideas that just a decade ago seemed the exception, are now on the cusp of becoming very much the mainstream, and even commonplace. The array of new technologies is beginning to reshape work in new and exciting ways that will make today’s workplace appear antiquated – and the rate at which all this is happening has accelerated and will continue to do so. All of this has profound consequences for how managers motivate their employees and how we think about leadership in the workplace,” he says.

In its 2013 National Workforce Development Strategy, the Australian Workforce Productivity Agency demonstrated that workplaces with effective leaders and managers are more productive and innovative, and have better financial returns. 

“Modelling shows increasing demand for managers across all scenarios. It is important to ensure they have the skills to foster high-performing workplaces and better use of skills. It is time for a new comprehensive review of leadership and management to ensure that Australia has the management capability to meet our potential.

“Frontline managers, who often face the brunt of disruptive change and adaptation, do not necessarily have the skills and capabilities to lead this change,” Professor Gahan says. 

“Consequently, investing in more capable management – at the top of organisations, as well as on the frontline – will be critical to meeting this new set of productivity challenges.”

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make up 63 per cent of Australia’s economy and will be a keen focus for the services that the Centre for Workplace Leadership will provide. 

“For the man or woman running a freight company in Alice Springs to the six person operation in Thomastown we can advise how leadership deficiencies vary, but we do have some evidence that the greatest gaps appear around people management skills,” Professor Gahan says. 

“We also know that there are models for management to follow that lead to higher productivity and better workplace performance.” 

Located in the University’s Faculty of Business and Economics, in a ‘workplace of the future’ designed by Melbourne’s METIER3, the Centre will collaborate on initial foundation projects with the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Cisco Systems and GS1 Australia.

These foundation projects will cover four priority themes of frontline leadership, high performance workplaces, leading through technology and innovation, and future workplace leaders. The Centre’s inaugural ‘Future of Work’ conference will be held on 9 and 10 April 2014.

Among its first priorities, the Centre for Workplace Leadership will undertake a systematic stocktake of Australian management skills and capabilities to establish the gaps that exist and identify areas for immediate attention.

One of the Centre’s first projects will be to create tools and resources to help workplaces and managers measure and benchmark their performance. 

“We’re creating the toolkit to access and harness the potential of leaders in Australia’s workplaces and encourage business of all types and sizes to get in touch with us to see how we can help drive innovation and foster efficiency in their workplaces,” Professor Gahan says.

www.workplaceleadership.com.au