January 29, 2022
The Economist recently published an article detailing the plans of consumer goods giant Unilever, to implement management cuts and an overhaul of its current operating model. It goes on to discuss the complexity of individuals that are unevenly distributed across different industries – identifying what drives employees to find purpose in their job. The article touches on a study done by Michel and his co-authors which looked at the experience of employees of the Parisian metro system who had been newly promoted to managerial roles. The study found that supervisors who had previously worked as train drivers were noticeably less content and that their roles had less meaning when they no longer had direct responsibility for the well-being of passengers.
A major theme of the study was that that firms need to think more creatively about career progression versus promotion. Another key finding suggests that by blending different archetypes of employees, teams are likelier to perform well.