To take the initiative and to effect the necessary changes in the social contract between employer and employee, leaders in both the public and private sector need to understand that things will not be the same again, neither after the recession nor after the election. The whole structure needs redoing.
Business leaders can start the process by recognizing that their employees are part of the larger society and that to make the larger society work means to make the company work better. The new social contract involves rearranging the relations between employee and employer (and coincidently between citizen and leader and between company and customer) around specific concepts.
Leaders need to facilitate many people's interest in belonging and participating; they need to create an environment that supports the idea of working smart (as opposed to working hard); and they need to push ahead with the human aspects of the new social contract. In specific terms, that means supporting employee involvement and participation, levelling management authority systems, eliminating barriers and niches created during the old management and production systems and becoming more sensitive and.flexible in dealing with employees (and customers).
While companies push more products into their markets, make more demands on their employees and rigidify the authority lines of the old management system, they are pushing precisely the wrong direction. Restructuring has started, and to keep abreast of these changes companies need to overturn priorities they once held near and dear.