GETTING FLEXIBLE WORKING RIGHT COUNTRY: UK SCHOOL: University of Birmingham Business School Managers have become more attuned to the benefits of flexible working since Covid-19, but there is still much to do to ensure emerging workplace settings encourage gender equality and support working parents, according to a new report from the University of Birmingham Business School. In the report’s survey of 597 UK managers, 60 per cent agreed that working from home increases employee productivity and 63 per cent agreed that it increases motivation. A further 44 per cent felt that part-time working increases productivity. The data forms part of a series of reports exploring changes to flexible working and working norms since the pandemic from the University of Birmingham Business School’s Holly Birkett and Sarah Forbes from the University of York. “Managers have become much more positive about flexible working as a result of Covid-19, but they are still more likely to support flexitime and homeworking than other types of flexible working, such as part-time and job shares, which are more likely to be used by women,” Birkett and Forbes say. For this reason, the report gives recommendations for businesses and policymakers to implement flexible working policies in a way that ensures they are not gendered. “It is imperative that as a society we ensure that flexible working is more freely accessible, including job shares and part-time working and across more industries,” Birkett and Forbes argue. Their latest set of results have also uncovered a resurgence of beliefs that employees need to work long hours to advance in an organisation. Pre‑Covid, 43 per cent of managers thought long hours were necessary for employees’ advancement. This dropped to 35 per cent in 2021 but has now returned to 42 per cent. “While presenteeism seems to be reducing since Covid-19, there are signs we are moving back towards a traditional, long hours working culture,” the authors say, pointing to the need to further reduce the stigma of flexible working and formalise new norms in workplaces. TBD
JETTING INTO THE DIGITAL WORLD COUNTRY: USA SCHOOL: Miami Herbert Business School While virtual worlds and avatars were previously the preserve of online gamers, this is no longer the case with more and more sectors and businesses entering the world of the metaverse. Miami Herbert Business School has joined the growing number of business schools with virtual campuses by launching a metaverse designed with professional platform Engage. Designed to resemble an airport, the school’s metaverse hopes to inspire a spirit of exploration and adventure in those who visit it, said to be key features of the Miami Herbert experience. Students can, for example, enter the school through a sunlit atrium decorated with the Miami Herbert Business School logo and hop on to planes that are decked out as exclusive luxury jets. In addition, both current and prospective students can interact with art, lectures and faculty from anywhere in the world. Indeed, while this virtual school allows for greater interaction between prospective and current students, it also enables students to experience the technology of a metaverse – something that they are increasingly likely to be exposed to during their careers. The metaverse, after all, is predicted to become an $800 billion industry in 2024. “As a business school, it is important that we explore new technologies and their potential to change not only how we communicate but also how we recruit and retain our students,” says John Quelch, former dean of Miami Herbert. Zheng Fan, executive director of information technology at Miami Herbert, has initiated and led this early metaverse initiative. “We are excited to partner with Engage, a leading provider of enterprise metaverse platforms. We look forward to expanding our metaverse presence to allow our faculty to deliver courses that will enable our students to learn and to prepare for the metaverse economy,” he says. EB
12 | Ambition | MARCH 2023
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