
Empowerment: Key to the "new way of working" for SMEs and the public sector
The changing world of work poses new challenges for SMEs and the public sector in Liechtenstein. We can already clearly see this from our needs analysis discussions with decision-makers in the country. A few days ago, the results of the "New Work Barometer 2023" (NWB) by Prof. Dr. Carsten Schermuly from Berlin were published. The largest survey in the German-speaking world on this topic comes to the conclusion that personal empowerment can be seen as the key to the new world of work and that the development of personal skills is therefore also coming into focus.
The NCA study is an annual survey of professionals in companies, the public sector and consulting. In 2023, 613 contacts took part, an increase compared to 581 in 2022 and 469 in 2021. The survey covers a variety of sectors, with 12.4% from industry, 12.6% from IT and 15.5% from consulting.
Empowerment - what is it?
For many, "New Work" is about measures that promote the experience of meaning, self-determination, influence and competence. These four areas are summarized under the term "psychological empowerment". The concept was introduced by Gretchen Spreitzer in the 1990s. It is similar to the principles of the New Work Charter, which emphasizes freedom, self-responsibility, meaning, development and social responsibility as important elements.
New Work - what happens to the companies?
With regard to New Work practices, the survey shows that empowerment-oriented leadership, self-organization, open error culture, workplace autonomy and self-determined learning are at the top of the list. New Work also has an impact on the implementation of projects: Here, agile project management and Kanban are preferred and used more often than corporate democratic practices such as holacracy.

Figure 1: Approval ratings for various New Work practices
Employees forced into self-organization?
The contact persons were also asked what goals they were pursuing with the New Work measures. The four empowerment-related dimensions were available for selection: Meaning, self-determination, competence and power. If companies implement many New Work measures for self-determination but do not strengthen employees' competence, sense of purpose or power, employees are effectively forced into self-organization without being provided with all the necessary resources.
According to the NWB 2023, many problems with new working environments could originate here: 72.6 percent of respondents believe that they are promoting self-determination with their New Work efforts. However, only 32.6 percent of the sample promotes the influence dimension. As a result, performance, job satisfaction and mental health suffer, conflicts increase and problems are protracted.

Figure 2: Which dimension of empowerment is promoted by New Work in the company?
Personal skills dominate
The NCA analyzed methodological, social and personal skills that are necessary to work successfully. There were eight "new" and "traditional" skills to choose from per skills group, including the five transformative skills (so-called "future skills") published by the Stifterverband 2021 together with the management consultancy McKinsey (ability to change, judgment, innovation skills, mission orientation and ability to engage in dialogue and conflict).
Overall, personal skills dominated, with 45.4 percent of respondents selecting them (methodological skills 35.4 percent; social skills 33.4 percent). The areas of personal responsibility, willingness to learn, ability to change and self-reflection were at the top of the list.
According to the NCA, personal responsibility is "the ability to use the scope for action that is available to you personally and to develop the associated sense of responsibility." Personal responsibility is therefore a key competence when it comes to the new way of working. The interviewees also rated it as important that people in a new work environment are able to think critically about themselves and their environment (self-reflection).
The NWB 2023 comes to an interesting conclusion with regard to the Future Skills developed by the Stifterverband and McKinsey: "Skills that are generally postulated as important for the future should also be particularly relevant for the topic of New Work. But this cannot be covered by the data." Competencies such as judgment (NWB: 14.5 %; set at 95% by Stifterverband & McK for 2026) and mission orientation (6.2% vs. 82&) landed in last place in the NWB. One reason for this could be the methodology, as the respondents at NWB had to prioritize the top 10 competencies, while the respondents at Stifterverband and McKinsey did not have to decide and therefore almost all selectable competencies were seen as important.

Figure 3: Which skills are important for working successfully in a New Work environment? (p = personal skills, s = social skills, m = methodological skills)
Conclusion: take a holistic view of empowerment
The NWB 2023 concludes with the conclusion that "companies that focus on all empowerment dimensions when implementing New Work appear to benefit greatly from it." The editors also advise focusing on the development of personal skills such as personal responsibility, willingness to learn, ability to change and self-reflection.
