Speaking at a roundtable event on flexible working, Waters said most business schools are teaching aspiring managers the wrong things.
“Business schools are still training people how to manage, not how to engage,” said Waters. “Employment as a model is starting to run its course. The one question a manager has to ask now is: ‘How do I make my employees happier?’”
She also blames the Government for SMEs’ apparent lack of interest in flexible working, saying: “There is an administration burden for small businesses [that implement] flexible working, thanks to the way the Government has introduced it.”
Also speaking at the event was Peter Thomson, director of the Future Work Forum, Henley Management College, who agreed that the Government’s approach to flexible working was inappropriate. He said the Government’s way of promoting flexible working as family-friendly is sending out the “wrong message”, and that it should be seen as being “business-friendly” instead.