One interesting quality management topic is ensuring quality work in crowd sourcing such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Crowd sourcing can be especially beneficial in research and developing software. Requesters can gather large amounts of data for a relatively low cost. Ensuring quality data can seem like a very difficult task because anyone at any knowledge, skill, and intent level can perform the work.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a marketplace for work (Amazon). It enables individuals or businesses to post tasks that they would like completed to an on-demand scalable workforce (Human Intelligence, which means that anyone can choose to perform that task from their computer that is connected to the internet. These tasks are tasks that usually involve simple tasks that require human judgement and intelligence. For instance, A9's BlockView pictures show street-level pictures of businesses and people are asked to select the best representation of the business from multiple photographs (Amazon). It seems a daunting task to make sure that the requestors are getting quality information from the tasks that they are paying people.
Malicious workers often take advantage of this and submit answers of low
quality. Most requestors rely on redundancy to identify the correct
answers, however, it is expensive to have enough submittals to ensure
the correct answer. One group worked on an algorithm for multiple
choice type work that incorporates estimating the correct answer by
getting answers from multiple workers while accounting for each workers
quality, and estimating the quality of the works by comparing their
answers with the inferred correct answer (Ipeirotis). The output of
this algorithm would be able to show the correct answer for each
question and the quality rating of each worker.
Amazon addresses the question of quality data in their Frequently Asked
Questions page for Amazon Mechanical Turk. Requestors have the option
to automatically approve work completed without viewing, automatically
approving the work completed when at least one other person has the
matching answers, and manually approving them. Requestors can also
specify that the workers complete a qualification test and they have to
meet a certain level in order to start on the work. Also, workers have
statistics associated with their account that track how many jobs they
have completed and how many of those were approved (Amazon). Amazon is saying that they do have some means of quality control, but it is up to the customer to decide on how much control they want to ensure accurate data. There could be much effort on Amazon's side for quality management.
Amazon should develop this quality management more, to ensure further quality. Amazon is dealing with hundreds of thousands of "employees" with no direct supervisor besides the rules they set in place. Amazon could try to set more rules and try to develop their relationship with their workers. It is a very difficult situation because the idea of crowdsourcing is to be able to get information from a lot of workers to get a confident answer and it is important to get quality answers, however that would increase costs and time. It would be good to use an algorithm to help ensure the answers are quality and the workers are quality. Workers should have developed profiles that give more criteria for statistics. They should also include work type and categories, as well as, some personal and demographic type of information. This could help requesters to help determine marketing strategies for different demographics, for example. The more advanced Amazon Mechanical Turk's quality management system is, the more inclined businesses will be willing to use the crowd sourcing effort to help their business.
Amazon Mechanical Turk. Amazon Web Services. 2013 http://aws.amazon.com/mturk/faqs/
Ipeirotis, P; Wang, Jing; Provost, Foster. "Quality Management on Amazon Mechanical Turk." Department of Information, Operations and Management Sciences. Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. July 2010.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Employee Retention and Happiness
When searching for the highest employee retention rates, SAS is at the top of the list, and it has also been at or near the top of the list for best companies to work for many years (Fortune). Their annual turnover rate is 2-3% while the industry average is 22%. They are a successful company. SAS has increased their profits every year for the past 37 years (Crowley). This shows that a company that focuses on their employees can be a very successful company due to their employees. It is helpful at understanding how to sustain high employee retention and happiness in order to have a successful organization.
SAS has four main areas of focus to achieve employee happiness and that is valuing employees, offering perks, a culture of trust and ensuring employees understand their significance in their contributions (Lane). This happiness leads to high productivity and retention. During the economic downtown in the late 2000s, employees were concerned that there would be layoffs due to the reduction in revenue. However, SAS announced in January 2009, to all of its employees that there would be no layoffs (Crowley). Their productivity increased after that announcement, and while other companies were cutting costs, SAS's employees were working on new products. There are many onsite benefits for the employees and their familes including a massive gym, free on-site health care, deeply discounted child care, counseling for managing stress, and snacks are available for the employees during the day as well (Crowley). These and many other perks are a reminder to the employees that the company values each employee. The company works hard to have a culture of trust. They are diligent in ensuring they have the right leadership team to keep this culture of trust. Leaders must show that they naturally want to support and help people, and their role is to facilitate the career success of other employees, not their own. These leaders that help others get rewarded the most. To add to the trust, the company also gives employees freedom on the hours they work and when they use the campus services. SAS also makes sure that employees understand how they each make a difference (Crowley). This creates more fulfillment in the employees and inspires them to fully invest in their work.
The key thing to notice from SAS is that they value their employees. They demonstrate to each employee that their contribution is important to the company and the company shows that they value each employee. They show their employees that they value them by ensuring job security, offering perks, offering autonomy, and providing career planning and development opportunities. Selecting the right leadership is an important part of employee happiness because the company thrives to have a culture of trust and trusted leadership. Their leaders need to be authentic and work for the success of their employees. SAS is a great example of a company that employee happiness leads to a successful business.
"Best Companies to Work For 2013". Fortune. CNNMoney. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/turnover/
Lane, A. "SAS on Fortune Best Companies to Work For list in US." SAS Press Release. January 2012. http://www.sas.com/news/preleases/2012fortuneranking.html
Crowley, Mark. "How SAS Became the World's Best Place to Work." Fast Company. January 2013. http://www.fastcompany.com/3004953/how-sas-became-worlds-best-place-work
SAS has four main areas of focus to achieve employee happiness and that is valuing employees, offering perks, a culture of trust and ensuring employees understand their significance in their contributions (Lane). This happiness leads to high productivity and retention. During the economic downtown in the late 2000s, employees were concerned that there would be layoffs due to the reduction in revenue. However, SAS announced in January 2009, to all of its employees that there would be no layoffs (Crowley). Their productivity increased after that announcement, and while other companies were cutting costs, SAS's employees were working on new products. There are many onsite benefits for the employees and their familes including a massive gym, free on-site health care, deeply discounted child care, counseling for managing stress, and snacks are available for the employees during the day as well (Crowley). These and many other perks are a reminder to the employees that the company values each employee. The company works hard to have a culture of trust. They are diligent in ensuring they have the right leadership team to keep this culture of trust. Leaders must show that they naturally want to support and help people, and their role is to facilitate the career success of other employees, not their own. These leaders that help others get rewarded the most. To add to the trust, the company also gives employees freedom on the hours they work and when they use the campus services. SAS also makes sure that employees understand how they each make a difference (Crowley). This creates more fulfillment in the employees and inspires them to fully invest in their work.
The key thing to notice from SAS is that they value their employees. They demonstrate to each employee that their contribution is important to the company and the company shows that they value each employee. They show their employees that they value them by ensuring job security, offering perks, offering autonomy, and providing career planning and development opportunities. Selecting the right leadership is an important part of employee happiness because the company thrives to have a culture of trust and trusted leadership. Their leaders need to be authentic and work for the success of their employees. SAS is a great example of a company that employee happiness leads to a successful business.
"Best Companies to Work For 2013". Fortune. CNNMoney. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/turnover/
Lane, A. "SAS on Fortune Best Companies to Work For list in US." SAS Press Release. January 2012. http://www.sas.com/news/preleases/2012fortuneranking.html
Crowley, Mark. "How SAS Became the World's Best Place to Work." Fast Company. January 2013. http://www.fastcompany.com/3004953/how-sas-became-worlds-best-place-work
Sunday, November 24, 2013
SAP and change management
Change management is very important when implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) management software into a company's business. It is a large investment, but can be a very large benefit to the company. A communications chair of the Indiana chapter of the Americas SAP users group, Lester Burch, recently was a guest lecturer for an Information Systems class at Ball State, and he gave insight into the benefits and the difficulties with implementing an ERP into a business.. There are many benefits to using an ERP such as streamlining essential business processes, tracking financials, supply chain management, and many others. It increases the efficiency and effectiveness of a company. However, planning and implementation are very important to the success of the system. The keys to the implementation are planning and employee buy-i. It forces many business processes to change because it is different, and customizing the system to fit the old business practices are much more difficult to achieve than changing the business practices to fit the system (Burch). This is where change management comes into play for making this system successful to the company. The implementation is difficult because it usually takes over a year to stabilize (be a functional working system, with little issues), and the initial implementation usually involves a lot of technical issues and hurts productivity (Burch). Many employees will want to revert back to the old practices because of the initial negative impacts it has on them (Burch). Management, at this point, needs to keep up the encouragement and continue moving forward. It would be very costly to cancel a multimillion dollar project. The state of California spent $254 million on an SAP (an ERP software development company) software system, then cancelled the contract due to the many issues that were having with the implementation of the system (Kanaracus). There is nothing wrong with the system, as evidenced by the fact the nearly 80% of the Fortune 500 companies use SAP (Lev-Ram). However, the planning and implementation cost the state a lot of money. Once their is trust in the system and employees have bought into it, then it is a good time to start adding more functionality to the system. It is important for the employees to have already bought-in to the system before implementing new things. These additions are easier to manage because the employees have already experienced a change that they have bought into, and now, they are just doing the same type of change (from old business process to ERP process), but in another part of the business. So they have seen success in a change, and they can better react to the new change.
Kotter's 8 step model for change is application in this situation (Kotter). First, they start with having a sense of urgency by communicating how ERPs can streamline their business practices and connect everything together in this efficiency driven and information rich world. Second, the would need a group to push an ERP and generate interest and buy-in in the new system. Third, they would clarify how this ERP system will be utilized and the benefits and changes that will need to take place, such as changing the business processes to fit with the way the system is setup. Fourth, they would communicate the vision for ERP, how activities will change, and the many benefits from the new system, and how the ERP will make each individuals jobs easier and more enjoyable. Fifth, empower action and be in line with the vision . Sixth, the short-term wins would be really easy to quantify in the ERP implementation because it is a tracking system, so they could look at getting certain business processes through the new system in a certain time or counting how many times a certain type of process is completed by an employee, or they could track how many tickets are created overtime with the company's help desk, then reward those involved if the ticket frequency goes down. Seventh, they would keep pushing through the resistance to keep moving forward with the ERP implementation as well as introducing new functionality. Finally, prove how the ERP system has increased efficiency, reduced costs, and made employees jobs easier, then reinforce the new norms that come with the changes that took place to adapt to the new ERP system making the system a part of the culture (Kotter).
Burch, Lester. MBA 621. Ball State University. Muncie, IN. 24 Nov 2013.
Kanaracus, Chris. "California Ends Contract with SAP Over Troubled IT Project." 8 Feb 2013. Computer World. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236662/California_ends_contract_with_SAP_over_troubled_IT_project
Lev-Ram, Michal. "Inside SAP's radical makeover." Fortune. 29 March 2012. http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/29/sap-makeover-mcdermott-hagemann/
Kotter's 8 step model for change is application in this situation (Kotter). First, they start with having a sense of urgency by communicating how ERPs can streamline their business practices and connect everything together in this efficiency driven and information rich world. Second, the would need a group to push an ERP and generate interest and buy-in in the new system. Third, they would clarify how this ERP system will be utilized and the benefits and changes that will need to take place, such as changing the business processes to fit with the way the system is setup. Fourth, they would communicate the vision for ERP, how activities will change, and the many benefits from the new system, and how the ERP will make each individuals jobs easier and more enjoyable. Fifth, empower action and be in line with the vision . Sixth, the short-term wins would be really easy to quantify in the ERP implementation because it is a tracking system, so they could look at getting certain business processes through the new system in a certain time or counting how many times a certain type of process is completed by an employee, or they could track how many tickets are created overtime with the company's help desk, then reward those involved if the ticket frequency goes down. Seventh, they would keep pushing through the resistance to keep moving forward with the ERP implementation as well as introducing new functionality. Finally, prove how the ERP system has increased efficiency, reduced costs, and made employees jobs easier, then reinforce the new norms that come with the changes that took place to adapt to the new ERP system making the system a part of the culture (Kotter).
Burch, Lester. MBA 621. Ball State University. Muncie, IN. 24 Nov 2013.
Kanaracus, Chris. "California Ends Contract with SAP Over Troubled IT Project." 8 Feb 2013. Computer World. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236662/California_ends_contract_with_SAP_over_troubled_IT_project
Lev-Ram, Michal. "Inside SAP's radical makeover." Fortune. 29 March 2012. http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/29/sap-makeover-mcdermott-hagemann/
Kotter, John (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Human Resource Management using Analytics
Human Resource Management is very important for an organization in selecting and retaining the right employees for the right jobs. There are many strategies for human resource management, and an innovative company, Google, has been using analytics for human resource management (Sullivan). A company that continues to gain and sustain competitive advantages in the marketplace through innovation, and so the company has focused on recruiting and retaining innovative employees. Analytics has been a part of business for some time now, but the focus has been on finance, the supply chain, marketing, and operations, and not HR.
Sullivan's article investigates how Google using information system technologies and analytics to increase the effectiveness of human resource management and thus the effectiveness of the business. First of all, they do not call in human resources, instead they call it "people operations." Google has many employee perks that are very enticing to prospective employees and current employees such as free food, allowing 20% of employee time to be spent on special projects, and fun activities. These perks were implemented and are maintained based on data and analytics. They also used this to determine the eight characteristics of good leaders within the company. They found that periodic one-on-one coaching, interest in the employee and feedback were the most important things to be a successful leader in the company. Managers get rated twice a year by their employees. They have even developed a retention algorithm, which predicts which employees are most likely to become a retention problem, so that managers can react and try to retain the employee. They have developed a hiring algorithm, which predicts which candidates has the highest probability of succeeding in the company. They have calculated that the value of an exceptional technology employee versus an average one is as much as 300 times higher. This is a great example of why Google has such an involved human resource management technology infrastructure and utilize such a large amount of resources to hire, retain and develop their employees. It makes fiscal sense to do this. They also make sure to introduce fun and learning into the work environment. The great thing about this analytic approach is that programs and initiatives do not have to be persuaded to the managers of the company because the data and analysis alone convinces the managers of the potential successes (Sullivan).
This type of human resource management is very exciting because it uses information on the employees of the company to analyze and develop solutions. Since technology has streamlined so many other parts of the business, it makes sense that it also streamlines human resources as well. Google's enormous success can be tracked back to this analytical way of recruiting, hiring, retaining and developing employees. A company that thrives on their internal innovation and this innovation is their key to their competitive advantage in so many ways. This is the most likely format for human resource management to function in all business in the future. Google's success shows that this is a very beneficial format and works for so many reasons.
Companies really should consider this analytic approach to human resource management. The challenges for management of business would be decided if, how, and when to implement this analytic approach to human resource management. They will have to decide whether or not to use a contract company to provide the service, or just provide the implementation, but leave it up to the business to maintain it. There are many considerations into how they would develop and implement the new system. People in human resources and software/database developers would need to collaborate to develop the systems to work best for their company. The key to success would be the correct development and implementation of the system so that it works best for the organization.
Sullivan, John. "How Google Became the #3 Most Valuable Firm by Using People Analytics to Reinvent HR." ERE Media. 25 Feb 2013.
http://www.ere.net/2013/02/25/how-google-became-the-3-most-valuable-firm-by-using-people-analytics-to-reinvent-hr/
Sullivan's article investigates how Google using information system technologies and analytics to increase the effectiveness of human resource management and thus the effectiveness of the business. First of all, they do not call in human resources, instead they call it "people operations." Google has many employee perks that are very enticing to prospective employees and current employees such as free food, allowing 20% of employee time to be spent on special projects, and fun activities. These perks were implemented and are maintained based on data and analytics. They also used this to determine the eight characteristics of good leaders within the company. They found that periodic one-on-one coaching, interest in the employee and feedback were the most important things to be a successful leader in the company. Managers get rated twice a year by their employees. They have even developed a retention algorithm, which predicts which employees are most likely to become a retention problem, so that managers can react and try to retain the employee. They have developed a hiring algorithm, which predicts which candidates has the highest probability of succeeding in the company. They have calculated that the value of an exceptional technology employee versus an average one is as much as 300 times higher. This is a great example of why Google has such an involved human resource management technology infrastructure and utilize such a large amount of resources to hire, retain and develop their employees. It makes fiscal sense to do this. They also make sure to introduce fun and learning into the work environment. The great thing about this analytic approach is that programs and initiatives do not have to be persuaded to the managers of the company because the data and analysis alone convinces the managers of the potential successes (Sullivan).
This type of human resource management is very exciting because it uses information on the employees of the company to analyze and develop solutions. Since technology has streamlined so many other parts of the business, it makes sense that it also streamlines human resources as well. Google's enormous success can be tracked back to this analytical way of recruiting, hiring, retaining and developing employees. A company that thrives on their internal innovation and this innovation is their key to their competitive advantage in so many ways. This is the most likely format for human resource management to function in all business in the future. Google's success shows that this is a very beneficial format and works for so many reasons.
Companies really should consider this analytic approach to human resource management. The challenges for management of business would be decided if, how, and when to implement this analytic approach to human resource management. They will have to decide whether or not to use a contract company to provide the service, or just provide the implementation, but leave it up to the business to maintain it. There are many considerations into how they would develop and implement the new system. People in human resources and software/database developers would need to collaborate to develop the systems to work best for their company. The key to success would be the correct development and implementation of the system so that it works best for the organization.
Sullivan, John. "How Google Became the #3 Most Valuable Firm by Using People Analytics to Reinvent HR." ERE Media. 25 Feb 2013.
http://www.ere.net/2013/02/25/how-google-became-the-3-most-valuable-firm-by-using-people-analytics-to-reinvent-hr/
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Peyton Manning Leadership
Peyton Manning, one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time, is also one of the greatest sports role models and great example of a leader. Peyton Manning has the respect of fans, teammates, coaches, opponents, opponent-fans, sport-fans, commentators, non-sports fans, and others. He is not only a great quarterback, but also a great leader for his team on and off the field. There is great trust in him among his coaches and teammates. Below are some of the key traits that make him a great leader.
Vision: he has great vision for what his goals for the himself and the team, and how he is going to achieve those goals
Focus: he has tremendous focus on his team, and football is his life during the time from pre-season to post-season.
Shows passion for making his team better and winning.
Communication: Peyton is in constant communication with his teammates and coaches during every play of every game as well as during practices and meetings. He is always making sure everyone is on the same page.
High Expectations: Peyton expects his team to win and does not make excuses. Even the Denver Broncos head coach John Fox has stated that Peyton's high expectations has made him a better coach (North). High expectations leads to higher performance. His attitude develops a culture of accountability and attention to results.
Does not dwell on past, but learns from past: he always seems to move on quickly from his mistakes and learns from them, and he makes sure to practice whatever things that caused him to make those mistakes.
Asks for help: Peyton has had coaches and players that are younger than him with less success than him, but he takes in information and teachings from others in order to improve himself and his team
Takes responsibility: after every loss he is always first to blame himself for the loss and his performance, he never publicly attacks another teammate for their mistakes, but lets them know of their mistakes and low performance, and creates action plans for them.
Acknowledge and rewards performance: A team needs to know that their work is appreciated and valued. Great leaders both praise and reward their team. Peyton Manning always acknowledges his teammates and coaches for their hard work, dedication, and performance. Peyton Manning buys expensive watches, custom suits and various other gifts for his offensive linemen to show his appreciation for their blocking abilities (Fletcher). It does not matter how good a quarterback is, if the offensive line does not give him protection, then he is in trouble.
Peyton Manning's leadership can and should be studied on how to become a great leader.
Fletcher, Molly. "Team Leadership Tips from Peyton Manning." Exerpt from "The Business of Being the Best: Inside the World of Go-Getters and Game Changers." Wiley, 2012. Exerpt from Monster.com
http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-management/employee-performance-
management/team-leadership.aspx
Marot, Michael. "Colts teammates respect Manning's leadership style." bleacher report. 2009 Dec.
Vision: he has great vision for what his goals for the himself and the team, and how he is going to achieve those goals
Focus: he has tremendous focus on his team, and football is his life during the time from pre-season to post-season.
Shows passion for making his team better and winning.
Communication: Peyton is in constant communication with his teammates and coaches during every play of every game as well as during practices and meetings. He is always making sure everyone is on the same page.
High Expectations: Peyton expects his team to win and does not make excuses. Even the Denver Broncos head coach John Fox has stated that Peyton's high expectations has made him a better coach (North). High expectations leads to higher performance. His attitude develops a culture of accountability and attention to results.
Does not dwell on past, but learns from past: he always seems to move on quickly from his mistakes and learns from them, and he makes sure to practice whatever things that caused him to make those mistakes.
Asks for help: Peyton has had coaches and players that are younger than him with less success than him, but he takes in information and teachings from others in order to improve himself and his team
Takes responsibility: after every loss he is always first to blame himself for the loss and his performance, he never publicly attacks another teammate for their mistakes, but lets them know of their mistakes and low performance, and creates action plans for them.
Acknowledge and rewards performance: A team needs to know that their work is appreciated and valued. Great leaders both praise and reward their team. Peyton Manning always acknowledges his teammates and coaches for their hard work, dedication, and performance. Peyton Manning buys expensive watches, custom suits and various other gifts for his offensive linemen to show his appreciation for their blocking abilities (Fletcher). It does not matter how good a quarterback is, if the offensive line does not give him protection, then he is in trouble.
Peyton Manning's leadership can and should be studied on how to become a great leader.
Fletcher, Molly. "Team Leadership Tips from Peyton Manning." Exerpt from "The Business of Being the Best: Inside the World of Go-Getters and Game Changers." Wiley, 2012. Exerpt from Monster.com
http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-management/employee-performance-
management/team-leadership.aspx
Marot, Michael. "Colts teammates respect Manning's leadership style." bleacher report. 2009 Dec.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/305745-colts-teammates-respect-mannings-leadership-style
Ferguson, Christine. "Leadership and Life Lessons from Peyton Manning." 2011 Jan.
Ferguson, Christine. "Leadership and Life Lessons from Peyton Manning." 2011 Jan.
http://christinenferguson.com/leadership-and-life-lessons-from-peyton-manning/
North, TC "Nine Great Peyton Manning Traits" Colorado Biz. 2013 Oct.
North, TC "Nine Great Peyton Manning Traits" Colorado Biz. 2013 Oct.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Motivating Employees Close to Retirement
It appears that as many employees are getting closer to retirement they really start to lose motivation, especially once they announce their retirement date. This can be a very difficult situation for a manager to motivate the employee to continue their work at the same energy level as before. They know that their performance will not lead to any desirable outcomes. They will not get any bonuses, no promotions, or increases in pay for their efforts. They are at the point where they are only there to be utilized as a resource and give some time for the company to find a replacement before they retire. Perhaps, in this case, expectancy theory is not a good theory to utilize when trying to motivate this employee. Since these employees close to retire seem to be unmotivated, the first thought may be to try to get them to retire earlier so there will be room for younger more energized and cheaper employees. However, sometimes it would be better to try to keep them past retirement, as from study from P. Matthijs Bal, Simon B. De Jong, Paul G. W. Jansen and Arnold B. Bakker. They argue that the baby boomer population, which is nearing retirement age is full of knowledge and expertise that cannot be matched in many companies. Old research on individuals have concluded that people would work past retirement age when in good health, attached to work, and have a poor financial situation (Matthijs). Also, if the organization has high support, it may influence the employee to stay. Their research was focused on the role of I-deals (the idiosyncratic deals made between employees and their organization). There are two types of I-deals: development and flexibility to motivate employees to work past retirement. With development being knowledge and skill development and flexibility being scheduling flexibility. Their research indicated that flexibility I-deals contribute to higher motivation without regard to the work climate. Also, for the development I-deals higher motivation is contributed to encouragement to develop themselves and use their knowledge and experience. In a work environment where the close to retirement employees are not encouraged to use new skills or take up new and challenging tasks, they do not have the motivation to continue working (Matthijs).
There are a few instances that I have heard, that involve the two conclusions of flexible scheduling and/or developmental encouragement. One person had high expertise in a few programs that no one within the company had and the programs were older programs that younger employees would not have any experience with, and he was about to retire. However, management wanted him to stay, so they offered him a very flexible schedule. He worked about 20 hours per week, basically anytime, mostly 2 10 hour days. And he got just as much work done as before. His energy levels and happiness were up very much when he started that 20 hour per week flexible schedule. Another employee was a manager that was about to retire, but he had a lot of experience and knowledge working in various sections of the company. So he was given a special assignment to increase the efficiency of the business practices that he had experience with. He was no longer doing the day to day activities, and he was motivated and energized to continue working. Another employee that was about to retire was given no encouragement to stay, and only given the simplest jobs, since everyone knew he was about to retire. He had no energy and took naps during the workday. He was not motivated.
Managers really need to be conscious of employees entering retirement, and it seems that given them more responsibilities or more flexibility will continue to motivate them.
P. Matthijs Bal, Simon B. De Jong, Paul G. W. Jansen and Arnold B. Bakker. "Motivating Employees to Work Beyond Retirement: A Multi-Level Study of the Role of I-Deals and Unit Climatejoms" March 2012. Journal of Management Studies.
There are a few instances that I have heard, that involve the two conclusions of flexible scheduling and/or developmental encouragement. One person had high expertise in a few programs that no one within the company had and the programs were older programs that younger employees would not have any experience with, and he was about to retire. However, management wanted him to stay, so they offered him a very flexible schedule. He worked about 20 hours per week, basically anytime, mostly 2 10 hour days. And he got just as much work done as before. His energy levels and happiness were up very much when he started that 20 hour per week flexible schedule. Another employee was a manager that was about to retire, but he had a lot of experience and knowledge working in various sections of the company. So he was given a special assignment to increase the efficiency of the business practices that he had experience with. He was no longer doing the day to day activities, and he was motivated and energized to continue working. Another employee that was about to retire was given no encouragement to stay, and only given the simplest jobs, since everyone knew he was about to retire. He had no energy and took naps during the workday. He was not motivated.
Managers really need to be conscious of employees entering retirement, and it seems that given them more responsibilities or more flexibility will continue to motivate them.
P. Matthijs Bal, Simon B. De Jong, Paul G. W. Jansen and Arnold B. Bakker. "Motivating Employees to Work Beyond Retirement: A Multi-Level Study of the Role of I-Deals and Unit Climatejoms" March 2012. Journal of Management Studies.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Manufacturing vs. R&D leadership
The University of Michigan studies on leadership behaviors concluded that there are two main leadership behaviors: production-oriented and employee-oriented. An interesting example of these two contrasting behaviors are at manufacturing companies. Many companies have their manufacturing facilities located right next to their research and development facilities. It is very obvious the differences between how the two organizations operate and how the managers lead as well. The manufacturing facilities usually have many assembly line workers that perform simple repetitive tasks. There are many signs posted throughout the plants that use color coating, process work flow diagrams, and other illustrations for increased productivity
In the manufacturing part of a company, there are many strict rules, goals, and timelines. The main thing that they are continually evaluated on are the number of parts produced in a given time. There are timers and counters throughout the plant for the managers to analyze as well as the employees to see their direct goals. There are specific times at which employees take breaks, arrive and depart work, and perform their job activities.
In a research and development organization, there are many managers, engineers and scientists that work together and collaborate to develop products. In this type of an organization employee oriented behavior is very important. Employees have more knowledge and skill, and they want more autonomy and freedom to work, which allows for an environment that enhances creativity and innovation. Employees take breaks at any given time, and there are usually more discussion activities going on. These discussion are valuable, but in a production-oriented environment this can be seen as unproductive and a negative thing.
Baxter's model is a good example of the different environments. The company does manufacturing all over the world, but its main R&D facility is in Round Lake, IL. An employee of Baxter outlined the reasons for having R&D be separate from manufacturing, and it mainly breaks down to the situational environment and which leadership behavior is employed (Nash-Hoff). R&D encourages risk, has a flexible environment with changing schedules and plans, personnel thrive on change and growth, and thus, the employee-oriented leadership behavior is best suited for this environment. Manufacturing tries to minimize risk, has a highly structured environment, personnel have thrive on status quo, and thus, the production-oriented leadership behavior is best suited for this environment. It is important for the two organizations to choose their employees based on their attitudes, motivations, and values. A person that would be an effective R&D employee would probably not be an effective employee in the manufacturing environment, and likewise the other way. This distinction of leadership behaviors can be seen in many companies that manufacture and develop products.
Even though the leadership behaviors are different it is still important for R&D and manufacturing to have good communication. This communication leads to faster time to market, less reproducibility issues, lower manufacturing costs, and other benefits from research and development working with manufacturability in mind.
Nash-hoff Michelle. "Does it Matter Where R&D is Done by Manufacturers" Can Manufacturing Be Saved. 7 June 2011. http://savingusmanufacturing.com/blog/general/does-it-matter-where-rd-is-done-by-manufacturers/
In the manufacturing part of a company, there are many strict rules, goals, and timelines. The main thing that they are continually evaluated on are the number of parts produced in a given time. There are timers and counters throughout the plant for the managers to analyze as well as the employees to see their direct goals. There are specific times at which employees take breaks, arrive and depart work, and perform their job activities.
In a research and development organization, there are many managers, engineers and scientists that work together and collaborate to develop products. In this type of an organization employee oriented behavior is very important. Employees have more knowledge and skill, and they want more autonomy and freedom to work, which allows for an environment that enhances creativity and innovation. Employees take breaks at any given time, and there are usually more discussion activities going on. These discussion are valuable, but in a production-oriented environment this can be seen as unproductive and a negative thing.
Baxter's model is a good example of the different environments. The company does manufacturing all over the world, but its main R&D facility is in Round Lake, IL. An employee of Baxter outlined the reasons for having R&D be separate from manufacturing, and it mainly breaks down to the situational environment and which leadership behavior is employed (Nash-Hoff). R&D encourages risk, has a flexible environment with changing schedules and plans, personnel thrive on change and growth, and thus, the employee-oriented leadership behavior is best suited for this environment. Manufacturing tries to minimize risk, has a highly structured environment, personnel have thrive on status quo, and thus, the production-oriented leadership behavior is best suited for this environment. It is important for the two organizations to choose their employees based on their attitudes, motivations, and values. A person that would be an effective R&D employee would probably not be an effective employee in the manufacturing environment, and likewise the other way. This distinction of leadership behaviors can be seen in many companies that manufacture and develop products.
Even though the leadership behaviors are different it is still important for R&D and manufacturing to have good communication. This communication leads to faster time to market, less reproducibility issues, lower manufacturing costs, and other benefits from research and development working with manufacturability in mind.
Nash-hoff Michelle. "Does it Matter Where R&D is Done by Manufacturers" Can Manufacturing Be Saved. 7 June 2011. http://savingusmanufacturing.com/blog/general/does-it-matter-where-rd-is-done-by-manufacturers/
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