What is Employeeship?

Employeeship (or Medarbetarskap in Swedish) is an approach to developing a culture of ownership and responsibility in an organisation. The philosophy has been adopted and researched most notably in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

Employeeship is a process where the traditional thinking around leadership

Leadership

Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...

 and subordination in hierarchy

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

 is abandoned. The traditional model is replaced by a mindset of partnership, a relationship where both managers and employees take ownership over their work situation. The main objective is to achieve a working environment that stimulates involvement among employees and managers. This creates a workplace where employees feel valued and important. Managers develop their skills in facilitation

Facilitation

The term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes tasks for others easy. For example:* Facilitation is used in business and organizational settings to ensure the designing and running of successful meetings....

, involving, revealing and learn to make better use of their employees’ knowledge, ideas and initiative.

One of the insights that organisations that embark on this approach uncover is that the characteristics often expected and valued in leaders is identical to co-workers and colleagues. Therefore an organisation that embarks on developing 'Employeeship' engages the whole workforce not just the leadership community. Research (see below) shows an increase in the levels openness, honesty, taking responsibility and increases trust.

The Elements of Employeeship

The key to this approach is for teams to be able to have transparent conversations with their 'leader' regarding things that are not normally discussed in the work setting, subjects such as: What is loyalty?; openness and transparency; the meaning of work and how it fits in with our lives; relationships between us in the team; responsibility, accountability and taking initiative; the service we offer others.

Typically the discussions follow a pre-designed questions so that deeper exploration can occur.

External links

• Case study of employeeship at Swedish Rail (SJ)

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