The world of work has changed significantly, as have the needs of the modern workforce. Today, employees and business leaders face unprecedented challenges in the workplace, with a labor market that’s affected by trends such as globalization, automation, artificial intelligence, growing wealth inequality, and climate change. The rate of this transformation has also outpaced many of the public policies, business strategies, and organizational practices that were previously designed to govern work, pay, and employment relations.
Leading the Future of Work aims to prepare you, and your organization, for an evolving workplace as it investigates its impact on social, legal, and economic policy. Over six weeks, you’ll explore the reasons why workplace advancements require a new, updated social contract — the mutual expectations and obligations workers, employers, and society have for work relationships — so that the quality of jobs can be improved, inequalities can be addressed, and everyone can prosper. You’ll also develop the tools and strategies to create this new social contract, examine the role of technology and automation in work, and learn how to empower both your employees and shareholders alike.
Welcome to your Online Campus
The Current State of Work: Challenges and Opportunities
The Old Social Contract and the New World of Work
Partnering with the Workforce to Integrate New Technology
Managing Work to Benefit Both Labor and Business
Incorporating Worker Voice
The Future of Work: Building a New Social Contract
This program is designed for anyone interested in understanding the future of work and its implications for their careers, organizations, and broader society. This includes business leaders, as well as mid, senior and top-level managers such as C-suites and policymakers in both the public and private sector. Decision makers will gain the expertise to effectively implement strategic process changes that lead their business forward. Professionals involved in HR transformation, organizational design, and change management will learn more about new developments and how they can prepare their relevant workforces for change. Additionally, those in the public sector will benefit from learning to identify opportunities in order to positively impact labor policies at a business level.
This course is delivered in our Self-Paced Online format which enables you to participate at your own pace within weekly modules. This course runs over 6 weeks with an estimated 6-8 hours per week of study time
Earn a certificate of course completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management
You will learn through a variety of formats including interactive videos, practice quizzes, presentations, assignments, and discussion forums
You will have access to a Success Adviser who will help you manage your time, and support you with any administrative or technical queries you might have
"i totally recommend it"
Najat A
"In an era where tectonic shifts in technology, demography, and expectations are redrawing the contours of employment, MIT Sloans Leading the Future of Work stands as a beacon of clarity, conviction, and courage. Far from a mere academic exercise, this programme is a lucidly-structured, intellectually immersive odyssey through the anatomy of modern labour and the imperatives of organisational reform. The MIT Sloan Leading the Future of Work programme is a masterclass in strategic foresight and ethical leadership. It offers a compelling synthesis of economics, organisational behaviour, and public policyinviting participants not merely to understand, but to shape the evolving world of work. From diagnosing labour market disparities to co-creating a new social contract, each module builds methodicallychallenging assumptions while equipping leaders with tools to drive systemic, inclusive change. Particularly powerful were the lessons on integrating technology with empathy, amplifying employee voice, and fostering stakeholder collaboration across labour, government, and education. What distinguishes this course is its unwavering commitment to high-road business practicesdemonstrating that profitability and purpose are not mutually exclusive, but mutually reinforcing. In sum, this is not just an academic experienceits a leadership imperative for anyone committed to crafting a just and resilient future of work."
Swapnil W
"Fantastic course. Highly recommended."
Paola P
"I've been in my third year as CEO, and I've had a lot of questions about leadership, and I've solved a lot of things in this class. It's an unforgettable class for me."
Eunsung J
"In this course, we investigated the change in the social contract of work over the last 100 years, how this affects workers and in turn how organizations need to be aware of and respond to the changing social contract in order to be successful and retain staff. The pace of the class was just about right for me. I was concerned that this class wouldn't be applicable to my situation, as I'm in an academically-oriented non-profit, but I was pleased that the examples given were broad and the homework was customizable to address the needs of my organization. I think this class worked well enough in an online format. I didn't interact much with my classmates, but I did read their forum posts and posted on the forum myself; I didn't feel that this interaction was a key component of this class."
Amanda B
"I signed up for this course thinking The Future of Work was around upskilling employees with digital tools and developing winning strategies to help level the digital playing field by providing access, opportunity and training to gain a competitive advantage. It turned out to be so much more! I left this course with a better understanding of the societal challenges we face in the transition from an industrial to information driven economy and how this plays out over different geographies across the world. We learnt about high road and low road company strategies. We did a deep dive into the fundamental premise for and the current gaps in post war social contracts and steps that we as leaders can take in designing andor influencing new social contracts necessary to unlock valve and successfully lead in the future of how we work."
Omar T
"The course was not interactive."
Ammara S
"The course first taught us where we should stand and what we should head from a macro perspective. And the course taught us the details of high road business strategy and how to apply it. I also got a global perspective of the environment that is a little different from Japan. The High Road Business Strategy is a strategy that I want to apply in the future. In the company under the umbrella of an investment company that was pursuing short-term profits, I ended up failing to take this strategy. But, someday hopefully near future, I would like to apply the strategy in an organization. Thanks."
Motoyasu S
Same topic, Similar duration - Broader exploration across all institutes
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Programme Advisor
Executive Education Office
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