Organizational Future Fitness

• Possible Selves Theory

• Hopes and Fears Theory

• Future Time Perspective

• Aspiratipons and Expectations

Basic Idea:

• “Possible selves are positive and negative images of the self already in a future state” (Oyserman et al. 2006, p. 188)

• Positive selves matter for goal setting and motivation (Lee & Oyserman, 2008)

Relevance for future-oriented thinking:

• Future Orientation as creating positive and negative images of oneself in the future.

Basic Idea:

• Hopes are idealistic views of the future

• Fears are things people want to avoid in the future

• Hopes and fears ➠ motivation

Relevance for future-oriented thinking:

• Hopes and fears as drivers of future-oriented thinking

• Insights about the sources of motivation

Basic Idea:

Future Time Perspective (FTP) is a summary of multiple views:

• FTP as personality trait: orientation of oneself

  towards the future and future goals with foresight

• FTP as coping strategy: development of a list of

  possible outcomes to reduce uncertainty

Relevance for future-oriented thinking:

• Future Orientation as both a personality trait and a coping strategy.

Basic Idea:

• Aspirations as number of desired possible objectives in a certain period of time

• Expectations as reachable objectives in a certain period of time

Relevance for future-oriented thinking:

• Future Orientation as a combination of “aspirations" and “expectation".

• Future Fitness is the long-term orientation of a company and/or its individuals

• Future Fitness is rooted in individual hopes, expectations, fears, and motives

• The way we think and feel drives the future orientation of people and companies

Basic Idea:

• How can companies manage their business in a future-oriented way?

Focus:

• Whole organization or organizational units

Perspective:

• Long-term (5-10 years)

Scope:

• Measurement and Management of Future Fitness

• Do you run your company in a future-oriented way that will stay on track in the next 10 years

• How well do you currently manage your business

• Do you explor new ways of working

• Is your company able to matching todays working model with tomorrows

Future Orientation:

• captures the consistent orientation of a company's activities towards the future requirements of relevant markets and the needs of future employees.

Exploitation:

• captures the continuous optimization of existing working methods and products in terms of an efficient management of today's business.

Exploration:

• describes the extent, to which companies are already experimenting with new working environments (e.g., agile working, new forms of corporate democracy) and testing new business models.

Integration:

• indicates how well a company combines current and future promising work concepts.