Chapter 1: The New Workplace

Copyright 2007. Based on Organizational Behavior & Management, An Integrated Skills Approach by Ramon J. Aldag and Loren W. Kuzuhara (2002), on slides prepared by the authors and Southwestern Thomson Learning, and on work by John Kevin Doyle.

3/28/072

Characteristics of New Work World

The New Worldof Work

Complex

Ambiguous

Changing

Diverse

Global

3/28/073

Today’s Organizations

Hierarchies are flatter. Deadlines are shorter. Teams are everywhere. Employees must manage themselves. Managers must lead and vision. Technology is transforming the nature, pace,

and possibilities of work.

3/28/074

Demands of the Modern Workplace

Demands ofthe modernworkplace

Attention toethical behavior

Flexibility

CreativityCooperation

Politicalsavvy

Proactivity Speed

3/28/075

Management Skills and Company Success

Management is most significant determiner of company profitability.

Management weaknesses are the primary cause of insolvencies.

Many studies of large and small firms point to management skills as critical to firm success.

3/28/076

Critical Skills Across Business Functions

Strategic thinking, effective communication, and leadership are required even of finance staff.

More technology will require IT workers to communicate more effectively and articulately.

Communication, diplomacy, and problem solving skills will grow in importance.

3/28/077

Skills Training

Employees identify key competencies or critical skills to develop.

Employees must take responsibility for developing those critical skills on an ongoing basis, and talk with their supervisors to develop an individual development plan.

Employees’ job security is grounded in what they know and the value they can create around themselves.

3/28/078

Status of Skills Training

98% of firms reported that skills training reaped significant economic benefits for the firm.

Only 21% of companies could identify where employees want to be in terms of skill development in a year;

58% of managers had received no leadership training, 72% had received no training on giving feedback on performance, and 87% had received no training in stress management.

3/28/079

The Need for Management Skills

The need formanagement skills

Managerialskills and

life success

Managerialskills and

hiring

Managerialskills in the

new workplace

3/28/0710

Managerial Skills and Hiring

Companies are hiring for skills, including management skills.

A GAO report recommends: “Hire, develop, and retain employees according to competencies. Identify the competencies – knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors – needed to achieve high performance of mission and goals, and build and sustain the organization’s talent pool through recruiting, hiring, development, and retention policies targeted at building and sustaining those competencies.”

3/28/0711

Sixteen Basic Skills

Knowing How to Learn Reading Writing Mathematics Listening Oral Communication Problem Solving Creative Thinking

Self-Confidence Motivational Goal Setting Leadership Interpersonal Skills Negotiation Teamwork Organizational Effectiveness Personal and Career

Development

3/28/0712

Ranking of HR Managers’ Perceptions of Criteria for Evaluating Business Graduates

Criterion Mean

Oral Communication Skills 4.6

Listening Skills 4.5

Resume 4.4

Interpersonal Communication Skills 4.3

Problem-Solving Skills 4.2

Work Experience 3.7

College Attended 3.1

Contacts within the Organization 2.2

3/28/0713

How Many Employers?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the average 22-year-old college graduate will have more than eight different employers before he or she reaches the age of 32.

That is a change of employers every 15 months.

3/28/0714

Managerial Skills in the New Work Environment

Managerial skillsand career success

Entrepreneurship

Growth in manage-ment positions

Downsizing anddelayering

Hiring for thesecond job

Self-managedwork teams

Job enrichmentand empowerment

3/28/0715

Managerial Skills Sets

Technical skills include knowledge about methods, processes, and techniques needed to carry out specialized activity, ability to use related tools and equipment. Dealing with things.

Human skills deal with human behavior and interpersonal processes, communication, cooperation, and social sensitivity. Dealing with people.

Conceptual skills include analytical ability, creativity, efficiency in problem solving, and ability to recognize opportunities and potential problems. Dealing with concepts.

3/28/0716

Management Skills Needed for Success by Organizational Level

Conceptual

Conceptual

Conceptual

Human

Human

Human

Technical

Technical

Technical

Top-Level Managers

Middle-LevelManagers

First-Level Managers

3/28/0717

School vs. Business

3/28/0718

The Knowing-Doing Gap

Simply knowing – recognizing or understanding what to do to manage an organization – is not enough for an individual to become a successful manager.

Knowledge management efforts emphasize technology and the exchange of codified information and not how the information can be used to make better decisions to enhance work-unit or organizational effectiveness.

3/28/0719

Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap

Why before how: Philosophy is important. Make sure that all members of an org-anization understand and are committed to the way of thinking about how to achieve given business objectives.

Knowing comes from doing and teaching others how. Teaching through apprentice-ships, coaching and mentoring helps organ-ization members how to “do the right things.”

3/28/0720

Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap: Ready-Fire-Aim

Action comes before plans and concepts. The key is to focus on the bottom line of taking action and to ensure that talking about what to do is always coupled with specific actions.

There is no doing without mistakes. Organ-izations that bridge the knowing-doing gap are able to learn and become smarter based on their successes and failures in the market-place.

3/28/0721

Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap

Measure what matters and what can help turn knowledge into action. Management should identify a handful of critical measures of success for the organization and track them on an ongoing basis.

What leaders do, how they spend their time, and how they allocate resources, matters.

3/28/0722

The Social Learning Perspective

Pre-assessment

Conceptuallearning,modeling

Conceptual& behavioral

practice

Lifeapplication

3/28/0723

Steps in the “4 A’s” of Skill Learning

Skills Assessment Get baseline measures on important skills and to foster interest in those skills.

Skills Awareness Discuss important background material, such as why the topic is important, key approaches to mastering the skill, and other relevant information.

Skills Attainment Through a variety of experiential methods, you develop the skill.

Skills Application Life application, such as using the skills in case analyses, life situations, and field projects.

3/28/0724

Mastering Management Skills

Take baseline(pre-test)

measures of thetarget skills

Master contentthat supports theapplication of the

target skills

Practice theapplication of the

target skillsin an exercise or

case study

Obtaindevelopmental

feedbackregarding thetarget skills

Practice theapplication of the

target skills inan organizational

context

Take post-testmeasures of the

target skills

3/28/0725

Global Perspective: Skills in the Global Labor Market

Firms and their management are becoming increasingly global.

A record number of foreign CEOs are now running major U.S. companies.

The number of international assignments is expected to accelerate in the next five years.

Many people fail in international assignments, and almost half say they would not work abroad again.

This all suggests that employees often lack the skills needed to succeed in international positions.

3/28/0726

The Management Skills Framework

The management skills framework focuses on human and conceptual skills.

We classify the skills as primarily:– personal – self-management and critical thinking.– interpersonal – communicating and resolving conflict.– managerial – leading, motivating, managing teams,

strategic planning, and creating a positive work culture. The framework also considers three levels of

effectiveness – employee, work unit, and organizational.

3/28/0727

Management Skills Framework

Organization

Organizational effectiveness

Work unit effectiveness

Employee effectiveness

Manager

Managerial skills

Interpersonal skills

Personal skills

3/28/0728

Action Planning and Implementation

Action planning refers to the process through which a manager formulates the specific steps that will be taken to address business problems and challenges.

The action plan becomes a blueprint or roadmap for actual implementation.

Guidelines for developing and implementing effective action plans include:

– The process must be systematic and actively managed.– Action planning requires a “layering” approach in which action steps

are translated into specific supporting actions in relation to each employee who will be involved in implementation.

– There must be ongoing and systematic evaluation of the results achieved after implementation of the action plan.

3/28/0729

Action Planning and Implementation

Identifykey

problems

Defineobjectivesassociated

with solvingthe key

problems

Identifykey

measuresof success

for eachobjective

Work withemployees

to formulateaction stepsto achieve

eachobjective

Assignimplementationresponsibility

for each actionstep to aspecific

employee

Clarify therole of eachemployee in

supporting theimplementation

of the plan

Providemanagementsupport (e.g.,

direction,budget,

training) foremployees

Evaluatethe results ofimplementing

the actionsteps against

your initialobjectives

Modify theobjectivesor action

stepsbased on

yourevaluation