Worker trust and the watercooler: business in a post-COVID world With the move to work from home, Professor Andrew Wait uncovers some surprising research behind employee trust in delegating tasks and how important water cooler chats are to organisational innovation.
2020 was a year like no other. The pandemic has seemingly affected every aspect of our lives, and the workplace is no exception. While the dramatic move to online work following from COVID-19 restrictions has been seismic and unexpected, there has been a long-run trend of companies allowing – and encouraging – employees to work from home. Moreover, it has been suggested that this movement to work-from-home will be a permanent one. A recent study by the Centre for the Future of Work suggests that a significant proportion of the Australians – particularly office workers – could do their jobs at home. This change in the way we work raises questions about how the shift to an
online workplace should be handled; it also has implications for how we will work in the future. There are many issues about privacy, occupational health and safety and the oftentouted work/life balance. But in addition, it raises questions about the very nature of production as well. The future success of Australian businesses requires that they be both innovative and responsive to the needs of their customers. This requires effective decision making and a collaborative team effort from all staff. Some of my recent research sheds some light on these issues. Effective delegation It seems kind of obvious that if a boss is going to delegate decision-making 38
powers to a subordinate that she really needs to trust them. Without it, she might fear that the employee will take advantage of his delegated authority, making choices that suit himself, not the business. This is true for big decisions about hiring, large purchases or the choice of a new strategic direction; it is also true for smaller decisions, like what to work on first amongst completing tasks, or the approach taken to finish a job. My paper with Kieron Meagher (Australian National University) in the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization turns this whole dynamic on its head. We show that for successful delegation whether an employee trusts their boss could be just as important as the boss’s trust of her subordinate – that is, if a boss
