Think strategically, act culturally - the idea behind the Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ

The Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ is a joint initiative between Great Place To Work Switzerland and the HWZ Hochschule für Wirtschaft Zürich. The aim is to establish a platform to further develop work and organizational culture in a scientifically sound and practical manner. The lab combines research, further education and consulting and aims to support managers, HR managers and companies in actively shaping culture rather than leaving it to chance.

Peter Statz, Head of the Department of Management & Leadership at the HWZ, and Thomas Schneider, co-owner of Great Place To Work Switzerland and initiator of the lab, talk about the background, goals and challenges of this initiative.

What was the trigger to launch the Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ? Why is now the right time to launch such a project?

Tom Schneider: In our work with clients, we are increasingly seeing that the way people work together in organizations represents a decisive competitive advantage. The drivers behind this include the shortage of skilled workers, digital and technological change and hybrid forms of work.

"It is important to understand culture and strategy not as opponents, but as two sides of entrepreneurial value creation."

With the Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ, we would therefore like to create a platform that makes it possible to shape work and organizational culture in a targeted manner instead of leaving it to chance.

Peter Statz: Tom and I have known each other for a long time, and a joint project at the HWZ gave rise to the idea of working more closely together in the future. Great Place To Work has decades of empirical data and benchmarks on workplace culture, employee satisfaction and leadership quality, while the HWZ contributes scientific expertise, methodological competence and a strong practical focus in the areas of leadership, organizational development and management. Both institutions pursue the same goal: to promote good leadership and trust-based corporate cultures. Together, we want to gain new insights into what constitutes effective leadership, a strong culture and organizational resilience today - especially at a time when companies are under so much pressure to constantly change. Perhaps we will succeed in making a small contribution to ensuring that people continue to lead technology in the future - in line with the motto: "Culture eats technology for breakfast."

The Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ emphasizes the transfer between science and practice. How does the HWZ want to ensure that research actually reaches companies?

Peter Statz: Well, there are various interfaces that help us to get even closer to companies. A central element is our new CAS Business Culture Design. In this programme, managers, HR professionals, change agents and technical experts learn how to design work and organizational cultures in a targeted manner and develop them strategically and effectively. In addition, leadership training, joint research projects, master's theses and publications enable a valuable transfer between science and practice and at the same time enrich our teaching at the HWZ. In addition, we are building a network called "Friends of the Lab", which serves as a platform for exchange, cooperation and joint learning between companies, researchers and students.

Great Place To Work has been supporting organizations in cultural development for years. What added value does the partnership with a university bring you?

Tom Schneider: On the one hand, the HWZ enables us to reach a new generation of managers who understand culture as a strategic issue at an early stage. On the other hand, we can empirically test hypotheses on workplace culture and thus make our consulting even more evidence-based.

"A key aspect of this cooperation for us is the fact that the HWZ has great expertise in combining science and practice. This enables the Lab to anchor the topic of culture even more firmly as a shaping factor in the consciousness of organizations."

As Peter has already mentioned, I have had a personal partnership with the HWZ for a long time. I wrote my doctoral thesis here as part of Prof. Dr. Sybille Sachs' team and have also been a lecturer on various courses for many years.

The Lab is based on four pillars: CAS Business Culture Design, Leadership Training, Events & Community and Consulting. Which of these pillars do you think is the most important - and why?

Peter Statz: I hope that all four pillars will be perceived as important and that companies will make use of our offer in all its diversity. However, each pillar will make an independent contribution and the sum will be more than its individual parts. The CAS Business Culture Design and the Leadership Training will soon have an impact. Consulting, research and community need more time.

Tom Schneider: I have the same hope as Peter, because I am convinced that the interaction of the four courses will lead to an even better positioning of the strategic relevance of work and organizational culture. With the CAS and the leadership training, we train students to understand culture as an important factor in shaping entrepreneurial value creation. Together with the HWZ research team, we also want to explore new topics in the area of tension between culture and strategy in greater depth and test our hypotheses. And this can only succeed if we are accompanied by a network consisting of representatives from practice (HR leads, HR experts, decision-makers from organizations) and academia as well as lecturers from the HWZ. We call this network "Friends of the Lab" and are happy to welcome new members.

Many companies are currently struggling with a shortage of skilled workers and change processes. To what extent does workplace culture actually determine economic success?

Peter Statz: One is naturally inclined to spontaneously answer this question by saying that the correlation between corporate culture and economic success is positive - and indeed, many studies show exactly that. However, there are also some methodological challenges, for example with regard to causality (i.e. what affects what?), the measurability of culture or sample bias, as many studies are based on small or cross-sectional data sets. A meta-study from 2019, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, nevertheless comes to the clear conclusion that cultural characteristics make a significant contribution to explaining organizational performance.

Culture is also always context-dependent, but there are cultural characteristics that often serve as a positive breeding ground, such as trust, a sense of purpose, psychological security, openness to learning and participation. Ultimately, it is an important first step for every company to really know its own corporate culture in order to shape it in a targeted manner and use it as a success factor.

The CAS Business Culture Design relies on AI simulations. Can you explain how artificial intelligence helps to better understand cultural processes?

Tom Schneider: We will spend a day in a lab in which AI simulates a challenge at the interface of culture and strategy. The students will act in groups with different AI agents (e.g. CEO, transformation experts, HR director, change denier, CFO, ...) who will repeatedly pose challenges in the context of the case study. The case study then develops further depending on the group's decisions. At the end, the students receive feedback on the quality of the decisions made and compare the results with each other.

The AI also accompanies us during lessons. Throughout the days and topics, we have the students repeatedly question relevant situations using the AI and its agents. Of course, the AI does not replace the actual conversation, but should serve as a basis for reflection for the students to understand cultural challenges in a strategic context. We use the AI simulations to simplify the transfer to everyday working life.

Where do you expect the Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ to have developed in five years?

Tom Schneider: I would be delighted if the Great Place To Work Lab @ HWZ has established itself in five years as a platform and contact point for the topic of "Culture & Strategy" for various stakeholders:

For students who want to further their education in the field of strategic cultural development. Here we have the CAS and the Leadership training.

For organizations that want to investigate a specific challenge in more detail. Here we have the Research and consulting.
For practitioners who are keen to experiment, if they want to try out new topics at the interface of culture & strategy or serve as a case study. Here we have the "Friends of the Lab" network with whom we would like to organize events.

Peter Statz: The Great Place to Work Lab @ HWZ is an excellent example of how the HWZ lives its self-image as an entrepreneurial university. At a time when technology and artificial intelligence in particular are having an enormous impact on organizations and people, it is crucial that we always remain aware: The responsibility for decisions lies with us humans and not with the algorithm. This requires a strong and self-confident corporate culture. Cultural development is key in the age of AI because it enables the responsible, reflective and human-centered use of technology. Our journey together has only just begun, and I hope that we can establish ourselves as a competent sparring partner for our stakeholders on the topic of corporate culture in the coming years.

About the HWZ Zurich University of Applied Sciences

With over 2,500 students and around 800 lecturers with practical experience, HWZ is Switzerland's largest university offering exclusively part-time degree programs in business. It provides a wide range of bachelor's and master's degree programs, over 100 diploma and certificate courses, the opportunity to pursue a doctorate, and customized corporate training. HWZ is institutionally accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Council. fh-hwz.ch