The 12 management thinkers of Christmas

Courtesy of the excellent and pocket sized "The World of Business" (published by The Economist), here's a list of 12 of the most influential management thinkers, together with a  link (carefully chosen by the HR Case Studies Editorial Team) to a website containing further information.

Warren Bennis
Laid-back silver-haired professor at the University of Southern California who has been an influential authority on leadership for decades.

Marvin Bower
For many years the management consulting business was dominated by one firm. It advised the world’s biggest corporations and some of its biggest countries about high-level strategy. That firm, McKinsey was the creation of one man: Marvin Bower.

Jim Collins
Former Stanford Business School professor who found himself with a publishing sensation when he expanded his Stanford research—about what it takes to make companies endure—into the book: “Built to Last”

W. Edwards Deming
A physicist/statistician with a PhD from Yale who applied the ideas of a little-known American mathematician, to business processes, with dramatic effect in terms of quality and productivity.

Peter Drucker
The most enduring guru of them all, Peter Drucker was the author of more than three dozen books, translated into almost as many languages.

Gary Hamel
Hamel started his working life as a hospital administrator before taking a PhD and becoming an academic, sharing his time between London and Chicago. He brought a new focus to the subject of corporate strategy, building his reputation with the idea of core competencies.

Michael Hammer
Professor of computer science at MIT who came up with the biggest business idea of the 1990's:  Business Process Re-engineering

Charles Handy
Son of an Irish Protestant vicar whose broad interests spread from religion and philosophy to the organisation of the workplace.

Henry Mintzberg
Consistently contrary Canadian academic who sometimes seems to be undermining the very industry that he works in. A professor at McGill University in Montreal for 40 years, he has been controversial at least since his 1975 Harvard Business Review article in which he examined what a number of managers in different industries actually did, day in, day out, and found that they were not the robotic paragons of efficiency that they were usually made out to be.

Tom Peters
Co-author of what was for over 20 years the best-selling business book of all time: “In Search of Excellence”, written with his fellow McKinsey consultant Robert Waterman.

Michael Porter
The doyen of living management gurus, a professor at Harvard Business School whose office is a whole on-campus house, home of his own Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness.

Sun Tzu
The ultimate military strategist whose "Art of War" is often quoted by contemporary management thinkers

Need a pay rise? Beat the bankers to Bucharest!

It seems a while since we had an “ a new report claims” article, so let’s remedy that before the weekend.

Apparently, in real terms, UK managers' salaries are amongst the lowest in the world, according to a report quoted in this week’s Management Today.

Even without this week’s announcement of an increase in National Insurance contributions, in a new study of global management salaries undertaken by the Hay Management Consultancy Group the UK has just been ranked 43rd of 56 countries once the higher cost of living has been factored in.

According to the Hay report, Britain ranks behind China, Mexico, Hungary, Slovakia and even Kenya in the disposable income stakes. At the top end of the scale, the oil-rich Gulf states dominate: managers in Qatar are the world’s best paid, followed by those in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

If you’re planning an escape to somewhere in Europe that gives you more bang for your buck (or Pow! for your pound!) the place to head for is Romania (ranked 8th), followed by Turkey (9th). Ireland (16th), Greece (17th) and Portugal (20th)

Hay point out that most of the big developed economies are to be found in the lower half of the disposable income league; not just because of higher living costs, but also because they enjoy a greater supply of qualified managers. Hay explain the low ranking of Britain as “an indication of strength in depth: if you’re a rare commodity, you get paid a lot more.”

For those planning to beat the rush of the bankers who are threatening to leave the country as a result of their bonuses being capped, Aer Lingus offer one way flights from Gatwick to Bucharest starting at £49.99. But unless you’re attracted by a chaotic jumble of traffic-choked streets, ugly concrete apartment blocks and grandiose but unfinished Communist developments, you might want to splash out on a return ticket.

Management Today: Want a pay rise? Move to Romania or Kenya

• How do the findings of this report support or clash with those of the UBS Prices and Earnings Survey quoted in the earlier HR Case Studies article,  "How long do you have to work to afford an iPod nano?"

Next challenge for Sir Ranulph Fiennes: crossing the bus station

Earlier this week, while travelling by public transport, I encountered a festively attired (I jest not) Elf and Safety representative who was handing out garishly coloured candy cane confectionery items (presumably rather dangerous for those with dodgy fillings) plus a copy of the above information notice.

Traversing those few yards from one side of the bus station to the other has undoubtedly become a treacherous expedition in these days of personal injury litigation, so ice-axes and snowshoes may soon be distributed to intrepid explorers of the country's bus stations. Perhaps Sir Ranulph Fiennes may soon be engaged as a consultant to provide expert advice on negotiating sliding doors and avoiding old ladies in motability scooters.

Of course with the Christmas party season almost upon us, semi-inebriated travellers will be likely to forget the basics of road safety, so reminding them to look both ways when crossing the road, and not fall headlong on those devilishly slippery surfaces is a must, especially if the transport operating companies are to keep themselves out of the Claims Courts.

A few serious (and somewhat boring) questions for students:

• What is the particular Act of Parliament which governs health and safety of employees?
• Who enforces the Act referred to above?
• What powers do workplace inspectors have?
• What practical problems are encountered by large companies in, for example, the construction industry in complying with Health and Safety legislation?
• Is a safe working environment likely to lead to a more motivated workforce?

Why do 53% of small businesses fail? Because of poor people management.

The Financial Times has recently reported that the number of new businesses being registered in the UK is surprisingly on the increase. An average of 47,500 small businesses have set up new bank accounts each month of this year so far – compared to an average of 43,800 in 2008. Presumably these statistics are being fuelled by the recession, as more people create the jobs and work they want and need by starting up a business themselves.

Sadly, over half of these businesses (53%) will fail within five years.

An illuminating article in Management Today firmly attributes such failures to the oversight of small businesses in addressing the plethora of small and tricky people issues that are essential for the success of a commercial venture.

According to Management Today:

Obviously in one-man-bands and very small businesses you can resolve these issues easily through common sense conversations, and taking individual views into account when making key decisions. At the other end of the scale, larger businesses of anything more than 100 people require HR professionals who create policies by which decisions are made. It’s more impersonal and people grumble, but they usually accept that the policies were created for the common good of the business, even if they don’t always agree with the outcomes. It’s the small to medium-sized businesses that feel the crunch: they're torn between accommodating everyone’s views, and trying to reach decisions that are right for the business and the individuals - all of whom of course you know personally almost as friends.

The small, everyday issues that quickly become so difficult are things like policies for extended leave, sabbaticals, more flexible working arrangements, status needs (job titles!) and personal behaviour.

In managing the people stuff in medium-sized businesses, we have to walk a tightrope between impersonal policy and personal preferences, between consultation and leadership, and between the business and individual needs.

MT Expert - People: Most SMEs fail because of people stuff

• In a small business where there is no specific individual responsible for HR issues, who should be accountable for people issues?
• Does it make sense for small businesses to outsource certain aspects of HR to a third party? If so, which aspects?
• Do even small family-owned businesses need formal HR policies?

Captain Pugwash takes on the lolloping landlubbers of HR

The mention of the children's TV cartoon Captain Pugwash to any British male over the age of 40 will almost inevitably be quickly followed by much tittering and guffawing.

Just how on earth did the cartoon's creators manage to get away with introducing characters with names like Master Bates, Roger the Cabin Boy and Seaman Stains?

The answer is possibly rather less risqué:

They didn't get away with it. The series never featured characters with any such names. It's simply another example of an urban myth.

But I will guarantee you this: when you pass on this demythologizing snippet of information to the next person who claims that the tale is true, they will vehemently claim that their uncle's friend's grandfather actually met someone in the doctor's surgery who has an old video of the pilot episode with all of these characters in it.

But ask for hard evidence and you will be disappointed.

"Kipper me capstans! What's all this leading up to?" I hear you cry!

How about the urban myths that we unquestioningly accept in the HR profession? Is there actually any hard, empirical evidence for any of the following commonly accepted "truths"?

Forced-ranking appraisal systems which reward those at the top, but fire those at the bottom lead to an improvement in an organisation's performance.

Outsourcing transactional activities has positively transformed Human Resource Management.

Organisations want Business Partners, not HR Managers.

The motivation theorists got it right: money doesn't motivate people.

The diversity and equal opportunities agenda has delivered demonstrable benefits to the target populations.

I'm sure that there are more too, but perhaps that's just me being cynical!

Oh, and if you don't leave a comment, the hairy-handed hitch-hiker will come to get you!

Waitrose: 2,500 applications for 20 graduate posts. Need any help with the psychometrics madam?

The decision by supermarket chain Waitrose to commence using psychometric tests in its recruitment process is hardly a surprise bearing in mind that 2,500 applications were received for the 20 posts available as part of its store management programme.

The hurdles faced by aspiring store managers, as well as the challenges faced by the Waitrose recruitment team are plain to see: 2,500 applications filtered down to 150 candidates attending assessment centre still requires a significant investment in management time and effort.

Waitrose is understandably keen to make the process for selecting those candidates who attend assessment centre as effective as possible, so the company has introduced a “Graduate Dilemmas” selection tool to serve as a filter.

A&DC (who have designed the psychometric tool describe it as “a Situational Judgement Test used at the initial sifting stage of Graduate assessment. Candidates must rate several potential responses to common situations, through an online platform, where results are collated and scores automatically produced.”The particular competencies that the test is designed to identify are Planning and Organising, Analytical Thinking, Achieving Results and Relationship Building.

The head of the recruitment services team at Waitrose explained that they are looking in particular for people who are achievement oriented, coupled with an openness and positive regard for colleagues that is appropriate for their business.

A&DC Candidate Sifting Tools

• Any thoughts on the use of such psychometric tests for filtering out candidates prior to interview?

Don’t trust the boss? Don’t worry, the boss doesn’t trust you either!

Pic: a rather scrumptious looking porkie

According to recent research (mid week groan), two-thirds of managers believe that they can tell when their staff are lying, and 90% don’t believe reasons given for being late for work. But it also seems that these managers are usually kidding themselves.

Those managers who regard themselves as super-sleuths give lack of eye contact, avoiding people and body language as the signals they look for when trying to spot someone telling porkies. But these crude and unreliable indicators should actually brand just about every shy person as a liar.

Those in the know about such things (who presumably run courses in How To Lie Effectively) say that the best way of spotting lies involves careful questioning, looking for irregularities and then following up. Master practitioners (the Black Belts of Baloney Bashing) know how to spot micro-expressions such as a slight twitch, a swallow, an eye flutter.

But perhaps the most alarming statistic in all this is that the average manager only believes 10% of the reasons that are given for late arrival at work and other such lame excuses for under-performance.

There’s been a lot of debate recently about lack of trust of managers; it seems that they are getting their revenge by not trusting the lying little blighters that work for them.

Touché!

• Is mutual distrust between boss and subordinate an inevitable part of the working relationship?