|
|
     |
New Research into Optimizing Team
Performance
University of Florida social psychologist Dr. James Shepperd (shepperd@psych.ufl.edu) will release the results of a just-completed study that shows how to optimize the performance of all team members. His research, which will appear in the August, 1999 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , shows that people will work hard in groups if three condtions exist. First, team members must believe that working hard will result in good performance. For example, if the team is designing a new policy on sexual harassment, team members must believe that their efforts will result in an improved policy. Second, team members must perceive that a good performance will be rewarded. To continue our example, if they write an improved policy, management must provide them with recognition. Third, the reward that they can receive from a good performance must be perceived by team members as something valuable. If team members are motivated by recognition,it must be the kind of recognition they value. If they are motivated by money, it must be a sufficient amount to be considered as a genuine reward for their efforts. Dr. Shepperd found that if one or more of the conditions is not met, some team members may become a burden for their teammates. IT Workers Are Career-Switchers A survey from George Mason University indicates that information technology workers are almost twice as likely as the general college-educated population to switch careers, with one in three anticipating doing so in the future. The survey polled 400 college graduates between the ages of 30 and 55 who are currently employed and have been out of school at least 10 years. Half of the respondents said they had already experienced one career change since college, and 40% reported at least two. Forty percent of IT workers said if they were starting over, they would study something different as undergraduates, with most of them citing the liberal arts. "The results suggest that employees are more restless than in the past and that companies, especially in the critically short-staffed high-tech industries, may want to take a hard look at their retention efforts," says Alan Merten, president of GMU. (from CIO, 11/1/98) Whatever else you may think about Bill Gates, he is one of the most underpaid CEOs around. That is one of the many interesting facts about executive compensation contained in Forbes' 1998 series on executive compensation. CEOs Rate Key Success Factors Guess what the typical CEO thinks is the number one success factor for the company's future? Quality? Nope. Customer orientation? Uh-uh. The right people? Wrong again. According to a 1998 survey of 213 CEOs conducted by A.T. Kearney, "using new technology" is the most important "critical success factor" for the company's future, followed by product quality, quality staff, customer orientation and innovation/R&D. You can read a story on the survey in the June 22, 1998 issue of InformationWeek. Singapore Tops Competitiveness Ratings, Survey Says A June 6, 1998 report in the Detroit News states that in the latest Executive Opinion Survey --conducted each year by the World Economic Forum--Singapore ranks as the most competitive national economy. The United States is ranked as the leading large country. East-West Center Report on the Asian Economic Crisis As an associate of the East-West Center in Honolulu, I thought visitors might find their recent work on the Asian economic crisis valuable. Check out Charles E. Morrison's overview of this crisis, "The Asian Financial Crisis: Putting the Region--and the U.S.--to the Test" by clicking on this link: http://www.ewc.hawaii.edu/pubs/update.htm . Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Purchasing: New Report The latest electronic edition of the Electronic Buyers News has an article by Dianne Trommer on the glass ceiling experienced by women in the purchasing field. In 1996, the average male in purchasing earned $51,800, while the average female earned $38,400. Trommer's article, however, focuses on the success stories of three women who have used the purchasing route to break into executive ranks. One of them, Peggy Williams, Tandem Computer's Director of Supply Management, describes the methods she used to be successful, one of which directly bears on our concept of building executive community. Ms. Williams reports the following: "I have always felt that one head was not as good as a number of heads," she said. "I always had the inclination to get more people involved. I would informally pull people together to get opinions - I think that was one aspect of how well I have done." The article details the single-mindedness that was necessary for these three women to succeed, as well as the hurdles they experienced. Hot Off the Press: Interim Executives Are Optimistic A recent study just released by Imcor, Inc. of Stamford, Connecticut, one of the leading interim executive staffing agencies, revealed some very positive trends. Imcor polled 5000 senior executives, nationwide from all functions and industries. All are past or present members of the Imcor Executive Community. Their average annual compensation is $120,000. The study found that within this group of executives 59% felt comfortable with the current rate of change in their careers, with another 20% feeling somewhat comfortable and only 21% not comfortable. About three-fourths of those sampled felt optimistic about securing future jobs, with only 9% not optimistic. Two thirds currently earn $100,000 to over $250,000 annually. Executives, the Imcor study reveals, realize that a symptom of companies managing change is a faster rate of management turnover. Sixty-eight percent of the executives surveyed work in or are seeking "permanent" jobs. Forty-six percent think their current or next job will last less than five years. Responsibilities in a Learning Organization Dr. Nancy Dixon is currently an Associate Professor of Administrative Sciences at The George Washington University, Washington D.C. Dr. Dixon is currently working on a book about how knowledge gained from experience, lessons learned, are collected, shared, and implemented within an organizational setting. One of the chapters is entitled, "The Responsibilities of Members in an Organization that is Learning". She argues that all members of a learning organization must hold themselves accountable for the following: 1. Actively engage in organizational dialogue that continually examines the worth of the organization’s purpose. What she has to say about the way organizational dialogue should take place will be of interest to those of us who want to promote executive community:
Dr. Dixon's work challenges many of our assumptions about the place of hierarchy in organizations, for she advocates all organization members taking active roles in governance. I admire her vision, but I believe that in order to realize it, the most powerful organizational members--the executives--must both model this type of behavior and champion its filtering throughout the corporation. Furthermore, their advocacy must make good business sense for the overall vitality of the organization. After all, power is never given away freely, particularly in a business organization. |
