Transcript Managing and Leading People in High Performance Organisations CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1
Managing and Leading People in High
Performance Organisations
Managing and Leading People in
High Performance Organisations
• The impact of change on organisations and
the way in which they work
• The importance of management and
leadership in the change process
• The characteristics of ‘high performance work’
organisations
Triggers for change
A variety of sources
• Changes in the political, economic, social and
legal environments of organisations
• Increased competition
• Organisation and/or management failure
Triggers are often overlapping and concurrent in
nature
Organisational change and employees
• Increased pace and scale of change
• Impact on employees
– Employment insecurity?
– Lower level of trust in management?
– Fractures in the psychological contract?
– or New challenges and opportunities?
• Implications for HR function and line
managers
Organisational responses to change
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Employees as a source of strategic advantage
The role of the HR function
High performance working (HPW)
HPW and organisational performance
Employees as strategic advantage
• Employees as key resource (Barney, 1991;
1995; 1997)
• Four qualities that sustain advantage:
– Must add value
– Must be rare or unique
– Must be difficult for other organisations to
replicate
– Must be non-substitutable, eg by technology
• Human capital can thus provide intangible
assets for the organisation (Storey, 1995)
Core competencies
Prahalad and Hamel (1994)
• The configuration of skills and technologies
that provide benefit to customers
• Strategies based upon learning, positioning
and planning
• Thus the recruitment and retention of
knowledge workers is crucial
• The ability of employees to learn is a key
feature of the management of human
resources
The role of the HR function
Ulrich and Brockbank (2005)
• Five key roles of HR
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HR leaders
Strategic partner
Human capital developer
Functional expert
Employee advocate
• As leaders and strategic partners, complemented
by developing human resources, provide the
means by which HR adds value
• Links with the ‘thinking performer’ and ‘business
partner’ (CIPD, 2004)
High performance working (HPW)
• Typically seen as a move towards
teamworking, autonomous working based on
high levels of trust and involvement
• Workers seen as more highly skilled and with
the capacity to engage in lifelong learning
• A route to differentiating the organisation’s
products or services
Characteristics of HPW
• Decentralised, devolved decision-making
• Development of people through learning
• People-management processes aligned to
organisational objectives
• Fair treatment for leavers
• Engagement with the outside community
• High levels of communication and
involvement
HPW and organisational performance
• Some evidence that supports use of HPW and
improved ‘bottom line’
• Work Foundation (2003) High Performance Index
– Suggests HPW firms 4% more productive
– A 1% increase in index score leads to 2.5% extra sales per
employee and 1% increase in profitability
• DTI/CIPD study suggested that HPW led to better
training, more motivated staff and more effective
change management
HPW and performance
Some criticisms
• No consensus on what constitutes HPW
practices
• Take-up far from universal
• Specification and measurement of
performance often rudimentary
• Studies often rely on management responses
• Cause-and-effect issues – are successful firms
more able to provide better employment
conditions?
Managing and leading people
Strategic context
Leadership
Job design
Psychological
contract
Recruitment
and Selection
Processes
Learning and
Training
Performance
and Reward
Ethics
Diversity
Involvement and
Participation