A forthcoming book, The Democratic Enterprise, by Lynda Gratton, associate professor of organisational behaviour at London Business School, looks at how supermarker giant Tesco employs the same techniques it uses for customer research to help it to understand its 200,000 staff.
The research revelaed that an increasing number of its staff were "pleasure seekers", keen on overseas travel and leisure pursuits. Others are what it called "work/life balance", and "want it all" types.
Armed with new insights, Tesco has devised working practices better suited to its eclectic range of employees.