Good workplace practices and their impacts

1

• Good workplace practices and their impacts
• David Pardey,
• Senior Manager Research Policy
• The Institute of Leadership Management

2
A brief review of management

• 4.5m managers in the UK estimate 375,000 in
  Scotland1
• Approx. 2/3 male 1/3 female, but
• Majority of new managers are women and are likely
  to have a degree
• Majority of established managers are men and are
  unlikely to have a degree (2, 3)

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Whats so good about being a manager2?

1. Being able to make a difference 44
2. Making change happen 35
3. Developing others skills 32
4. The variety of challenges 36
5. Able to influence people or decisions 29
6. Helping my team achieve their goals 32
7. Increased financial benefits 31
8. The potential for career development 21
9. Increased level of responsibility 18
10. Status 11

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Four good workplace practices

• Organisation
• Systems
• Management
• Leadership

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Good organisation practices

• Train managers
• Better to train all managers a little, than a few
  managers a lot
• Good management practice is strongly associated
  with better productivity, profitability, Tobins
  Q (asset value ratio), and sales growth.
• Poor management practice survives through lack of
  product market competition firm age few new
  market entrants using better management
  techniques and labour market regulation.4
• UK managers lag their colleagues in the US,
  France and Germany in terms of competence and
  experience5
• better-managed firms also have a more highly
  educated workforce, among managers and
  non-managers alike6
• General ability and variety of experience used to
  identify future leaders, in-house training
  favoured for their development(7,8,9)

6
Good systems practices

• Measure what matters
• Most improvement methodologies emphasise the
  value of measurement and analysis (eg PDCA,
  Ishikawas 7 tools techniques, Six Sigma/DMAIC,
  etc), and of benchmarking against the best
• Effective skills utilisation means
• measuring productivity (efficiency of resource
  utilisation and product/service quality)
• comparing with best practice
• using appropriate improvement strategies to raise
  standards
• Far more prevalent in manufacturing than service
  industries

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Good management practices

• From supervision to development
• Change focus of management role from supervising
  performance to improving performance through
  development(9,10)
• Better performance management systems
  (continuous, people- not system-driven)
• Use workplace coaching and mentoring
• Culture of everyday learning

Productivity comparison Productivity comparison Productivity comparison Productivity comparison
GB DE Labour DE/GB
Ave. bed nights/ house-keeping employee 6.05 10.33 59
Ave. occupied room/ receptionist 5.83 9.26 63
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Good leadership practices

• Build trust
• Trust in co-workers and management is a predictor
  of
• an employees preference for teamwork,
• increased engagement, and
• lowered employee turnover(11,12)
• Trust is positively related to task performance
  and negatively related to stress13
• Trust can
• reduce transactional costs (by obviating the need
  for excessive controls and regulation), and
• promote positive relationships14
• Trust is the product of three broad personal
  attributes that all managers need to foster
• Ability (understanding their own role and the
  role of those they lead)
• Integrity (honesty and consistency)
• Benevolence (openness and fairness)15

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References

1. Office of National Statistics (various)
2. What makes managers tick? ILM, 2008 (unpublished)
3. Thomson, A., Mabey, C. Storey, J. Gray, C.
   Iles, P Changing Patterns of Management
   Development Blackwell 2001
4. Bloom N, et al Management Practices Across Firms
   and Nations Centre for Economic Performance (LSE)
   McKinsey Co June 2005
5. DTI ECONOMICS PAPER NO.17UK Productivity and
   Competitiveness Indicators March, 2006
6. Bloom N, et al Management Practice
   Productivity Why they matter Centre for Economic
   Performance (LSE) McKinsey Co July 2007
7. Future Leaders ILM, due October 2010
8. Newell H Who will follow the leader? Managers
   perceptions of management development activities
   an international comparison SKOPE Research Paper
   51, Autumn 2004
9. Tamkin P et al The Comparative Capability of UK
   Managers Institute for Employment Studies for
   Skills for Business, April 2006
10. Prais, Jarvis Wagner Productivity and
    vocational skills in services in Britain and
    Germany Hotels National Institute Economic
    Review, November 1989
11. Kiffin-Petersen S., Cordery, J., February 2003,
    Trust, Individualism and Job Characteristics as
    Predictors of Employee Preference for Teamwork,
    International Journal of Human Resource
    Management, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p.93-116.
12. Ferres N., Connell J., Travaglione A., June 2004,
    Co-worker Trust as a Social Catalyst for
    Constructive Employee Attitudes, Journal of
    Managerial Psychology, Vol. 19 Issue 6,
    p.608-622.
13. Costa A.C., Roe R.A., Taillieu T., September
    2001, Trust within Teams The Relation with
    Performance Effectiveness, European Journal of
    Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 10,
    Issue 3, p.225-244.
14. Kramer R.M., 1999, Trust and Distrust in
    Organizations Emerging Perspectives and Enduring
    Questions, Annual Review of Psychology, 50,
    p.569-98.
15. Index of Leadership Trust 09 ILM September 2009