(BQ) Part 2 book “Business psychology in practice” has contents: Releasing talent across an organization, unleashing leadership and learning within an international bank, releasing talent through coaching, organizational change, why chief executives hire coaches,… and other contents.
PART RELEASING TALENT CHAPTER 19 Introduction SARAH LEWIS for the first time ever it is possible to state with confidence that how organisations manage people has a powerful - perhaps the most powerful - effect on overall performance, including the bottom line (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2001) This bold statement from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reflects the culmination of many years of effort to demonstrate the impact on organizations of effective people management ‘Our people are our greatest asset’ has become a management clichC Research, however, confirms the suspicion that as a sentiment it is more honoured in the breach than in the observance For instance, the 1998 Workplace Employment Relations Survey reveals that while twothirds of UK organizations surveyed relied strongly on people for competitive advantage, only one-tenth prioritized people issues over marketing and finance issues (Guest et al., 2000) West and colleagues found that, amongst the manufacturing businesses they researched, 18%of variation in production and 19%of variation in profitability could be attributed to people-management practices, these representing the largest impact of the variables investigated By contrast, research and development accounted for 8%whereas perennial favourites quality, new technology and competitive strategy only accounted for approximately 1%each (West and Patterson, 1998) Similarly, Caulkin’s examination of 30 organizational performance studies in the UK and US since 1990 notes that the results leave ‘no room to doubt that there is a correlation between people management and business performance, that the relationship is positive, and that it is cumulative’ (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2001) These findings suggest that good people management policies and procedures are at the heart of profitable businesses However, policies and practices are necessary but not sufficient for good results It is how they are 185 Business Psychology in Practice 186 - ~~~ - enacted that counts For example, employees, if asked about the appraisal process, will refer to their own experiences with their managers, not to the elegance of the written policy (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2002) Following this observation, a number of researchers have recently investigated the connection between good human resources strategy and good business outcomes in more detail, to examine more closely how these inputs and outputs are actually linked Early results suggest a number of points of interest to business psychologists For example, is it apparent that good human resources practice can provide a source of competitive advantage by enhancing skills, promoting positive attitudes and giving people more responsibility, so they can make the fullest use of their skills (West and Patterson, 1998) These findings are supported by Stern and Sommerdale (1999) who note that ‘practices that encourage workers to think and interact to improve the production process are strongly linked to increased productivity’ The work of West and Patterson (1998) indicated that two specific HR practices are related to improvements in profitability and performance: acquisition and development of skill, and job design These suggested linear chains of causality are of great use to psychologists working to improve organizational effectiveness At the same time, findings of large research studies point to the importance of system-wide influences o n organizational performance West and Patterson (1998) note that an interesting and unexpected finding of their research with manufacturing organizations was a positive predictive correlation between the global organizational measure of employee satisfaction and positive organizational outcomes ‘One of the most exciting results from the study is that the satisfaction of the workforce is such an important predictor of future productivity’, they write, concluding ‘that good people management is not simply about selection, appraisal and so on It is about the development of whole communities in which people feel socially included rather than alienated, by the experience of work.’ Meanwhile John Purcell and his research team at the Work and Employment Research Centre at the University of Bath have been examining employee ‘discretionary behaviour’ as a possible link between human resources practices and performance Their research is starting to suggest that the degree to which such behaviour is exhibited is a function of ability, motivation, and opportunity (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2002) - in other words, the relationship between the individual and the possibilities offered by the organization Caulkin adds another perspective Having examined how practice affects performance he suggests that ‘capacity determines what strategic intent can be’ - that organizational strategy follows development rather than vice versa, which suggests a much more circular causality of organizational performance than that which underpins the typical top-down strategy development models (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2001) So good people management is good for the organization, and ultimately, it can be assumed, for the shareholders, but is it good for the employees? Research into the area of ‘what makes a good life’ notes that people are more likely to consider themselves happy when (amongst other things) they experience periods of ‘flow’,a sense of being happily engaged in a challenging task, and when they consider themselves working towards or for something bigger than themselves (Seligman, 2003) These conditions can be met in a workplace following best practice Often psychologists interviewing candidates for jobs hear them express their work motivation in terms of ‘wantingto make a difference’.But such an outcome is not inevitable as many organizations still ignore individuals’ needs for group affiliation and personal achievement For instance, research suggests that most firms concentrate only on developing those skills that are targeted at broadening the scope of the individual while ignoring those focused on developing quality and group-based skill (Stevens and Ashton, 1999) In other words, managers tend to think of high performance as getting individuals to work harder individually, not smarter together This section demonstrates different ways that business psychologists add value to good human resources practices by releasing organizational talent Throughout, the authors demonstrate an awareness of their responsibility to individual employees as well as to the hiring organization In addition, the psychologists each take careful note of the specific organizational context into which they have been invited, demonstrating an awareness that ‘one size does not fit all, a degree of fit with the company’s environment, with its business strategy and with its other people management policies and with its own history’ is needed (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2001) Business psychologists are well placed to create a phenomenon known as ‘learning in context’ that is, learning relevant to the individuals involved, the situation and the business environment Our various authors introduce us to interventions at the organizational, team and individual levels that release and develop the talent within the organization by focusing not just on the individuals, but also on the connections and relationships between individuals There is a strong emphasis upon organizational and social context throughout All of the authors in this section are writing from and about personal professional experience and, where appropriate, the theory that supports their particular choice of practice They share with us what it is really like attempting to apply organizational, team or individual theory to live organizations concerned with issues of profitabilim competitiveness, service quality and change Their writing styles vary considerably but, through 188 ~- _ _ ~ ~ Business Psychology in Practice ~- ~ ~~ their contributions, these experienced practitioners reveal some of the thinking behind their way of working, their ‘mental models’ (Senge, 1994) They provide a fascinating insight into the working lives of consultants active in this field CHAPTER 20 Releasing talent across an organization KATEOLIVER, SHANEPRESSEY Introduction Increasingly, when talking with human resources professionals and leaders, we are finding that the area of talent is a key concern for organizations It seems helpful at this point to define what we mean by ‘talent’.Talent in its most general sense can be said to be the sum of people’s abilities - their skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgement and personality It also includes their ability to learn and grow to realize their full potential It is unsurprising therefore that the way that talent is managed is seen as key to an organization’s success This focus on talent also emerged in two recent surveys undertaken by our organization (Human Qualities, 2001, 2002) In their responses organizations identified attracting, leveraging and retaining talent as key challenges facing their businesses The response to these challenges is commonly labelled ‘talent management’ It is apparent both from research and our experience that there is a number of forces fuelling this quest to effectively manage talent These include: 0 the intensifying demand for high-calibre leaders (McKinsey & Co., 2000); the growing propensity for people to switch from one company to another (Capelli, 1999); the increasing importance of knowledge in the Information Age (Butler et al., 1997) As such, talent is now a critical driver of organizational performance and a company’s ability to attract, develop and retain talent will be a major competitive advantage, now and into the future 189 Business Psychology in Practice 190 - - ~ - The role of managers Given this growing awareness of the need to manage talent effectively, we might ask where in the organization such responsibility should lie? Many large organizations will have a specialized HR or development department - some may even have renamed this department ‘talent management’ This department’s contribution to releasing talent will vary from company to company However, typically it might include setting standards, putting in place processes to support talent management and providing support for skills development It is our belief that it is not the human resources department that is really responsible for releasing talent; it is leaders and managers within the business It is the mindset of leaders that makes the difference This is because releasing talent is about what happens to individuals on a day-today basis - how they are led, what they are encouraged to do, how their behaviours are reinforced This is the essence of the role of the manager This belief is backed up by recent research showing that topperforming organizations managed talent differently from averageperforming companies - and that they did so in terms of their managers’ beliefs and actions rather than their human resources processes (McKinsey and Company, 2000) Thus, we assert that it is leaders and managers who are really key to the releasing of talent, as outlined in Figure 20.1 Great managers Enhance business performance Figure 20.1 The virtuous circle of talent The process of releasing talent So what does the process of releasing talent actually involve? There are many ways, some complex, to answer this question On a practical level, Releasing talent across an organization ~- ~ ~ 191 ~ ~~ a simple model that we have found useful in our work with leaders and managers is given in Table 20.1 This model portrays releasing talent as a four-stage process Table 20.1 Releasing talent - a process _ _ ~ ~~ _ _ _ _~_ ~ ~ Activity Stage ~-~~ ~ ~~~ ~~ ~ Understand business context Strategy Vision Culture and values Understand yourself Strengths Development needs Impact on others Understand your people Performance Abilities Motivation Take action Objective setting Feedback Coaching - _ _ ~ - -~ - ~ ~ Initially, managers need to understand the context in which they are operating - the business strategy, goals and culture Once that is in place then the process of self-insight comes into play Managers need to know themselves and to understand the impact they have on others In other words, they need to understand how to release the talent within themselves before they are able to release talent in others This then leads onto the need to understand their team members, not just in terms of their current level of performance, but also in gaining a deeper appreciation of what underlies this in terms of abilities, style, motivation, and so on Having gained this understanding a manager is well placed to know what action to take in order to release talent - to direct, motivate, empower, guide and coach their people to fulfil their potential The role of psychology How can we, as business psychologists, help managers to release talent? 192 Business Psychology in Practice When we asked ourselves this question, we started to think about the different contributions that we bring to our work with managers in organizations Based on our experience, we believe that our contribution can be divided into three main areas: tools and techniques, insight into people, and theory and research Tools and techniques Firstly, we believe that as psychologists we possess analytical problem solving skills, rooted in our knowledge of experimental techniques These skills give us a framework within which to operate and a language with which to diagnose and understand situations This helps us to structure our thought processes and to communicate these in a meaningful way to our clients We also find that these are skills that managers can benefit from developing for themselves Thus, in much of our work with managers we aim to share these tools and techniques, transferring some of the underlying skills to enable them to use these to release talent within their teams Insight into people Our background and training leaves us well equipped with the skills required to gain insight into people, appreciate difference and demonstrate empathy This does not mean that we believe all psychologists are experts in emotional intelligence (Goleman, l998)! However, we believe that our training has helped us to look at people in a different way, and to understand the complexities of interpersonal relationships to a more sophisticated level than the untutored In fact, when working alongside non-psychologists, we find that they often give us feedback confirming this We also believe that these are fundamental skills in facilitating managers to develop their skills in releasing talent Theory and research From a practitioner’s point of view, we find that we spend most of our time using our knowledge of tools and techniques and insight into people, in helping managers to release talent Occasionally, theory in its own right will be highly relevant For example, when exploring the various factors that motivate individuals, we frequently share with managers a number of theories of motivation More often, we see that theory will have informed our tools, techniques and insight One example of this would be the underpinning use of Skinner’s reinforcement theory (Skinner, 1938, 1953, 1969) in much of the training and coaching we conduct with managers ... model in Figure 20 .4 Knowing what you need to Being able to it Figure 20 .4 Releasing talent - changing behaviour Being willing to it Business Psychology in Practice 20 0 ~~~~~ ~ ~ - _ In essence... fascinating insight into the working lives of consultants active in this field CHAPTER 20 Releasing talent across an organization KATEOLIVER, SHANEPRESSEY Introduction Increasingly, when talking... have informed our tools, techniques and insight One example of this would be the underpinning use of Skinner’s reinforcement theory (Skinner, 1938, 1953, 1969) in much of the training and coaching