Speakers at this year's CIPD annual event will urge organisations to give their employees more freedom in their working lives.

Mark Maletz, Professor of Babson College USA will present a masterclass on Managing in the Whitespace. He argues that this whitespace contains all the opportunities that fall outside the scope of formal planning, budgeting and management.

Maletz believes that whitespace exists in all companies and enterprising employees working within it are creating unofficial ways of boosting the bottom line. The trick, he will argue, is to actively support such activities and encourage entrepreneurial activity.

In another masterclass "Building the democratic enterprise", Lynda Gratton, Associate Professor London Business school will ask if we are crushing our most talented people. Gratton will argue that the core of the 'democratic enterprise' is individual employee autonomy, broad organisational choice and shared purpose. She will present case studies that show that by letting go of old command and control structures, organisations can build a more successful democratic enterprise.

Gratton will demonstrate that the companies who will be most successful in the 21st century will be those that are capable of gathering and bonding talented, creative people, who are excited and motivated, who trust the company and are inspired by what they do. Her view is that the behaviour of individual employees at the heart of wealth creation.

Find out more about the CIPD's Annual Conference and Exhbition.