Call for Papers: 2014 Spring Global Management Conference

Conference

Proposal Deadline: February 28^th, 2014

7th to 8th March 2014
Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Website

Submission of an abstract, topic of interest or proposal will be accepted for the purpose of registration. Time schedule to be determined later after all the papers have been received. 30 minute presentation per paper

Pick the Right People and Make More Money

By Dr Andree Swanson

"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don't have to manage them."

— Jack Welch

HR talent and acquisition people tend to place managers in three different categories: Top (executive), middle (middle management), and bottom (supervisory) (Kaiser, Craig, Overfield, & Yarborough, 2011, p. 84). 

Top level managers have a long time span for service from 5 to 20+ years).  Their primary skills are conceptual in nature (Kaiser et al.).

Conceptual thinking, according to Buffalo State College, is the "[a]bility to identify patterns or connections between situations that are not obviously related, and to identify key or underlying issues in complex situations." For an organization to be successful in a globally competitive and complex environment, organizations must hire managers with the intellectual ability to visualize what may not be apparent, then delegate to supervisors the task of strategy execution. (Houston, 2014, para. Conceptual Comptence). 

Great conceptual leaders have great vision.  Consider Martin Luther King… Bill Gates… Steve Jobs… What visionary leaders can you think of?  Why were they top conceptual leaders?

You know there is an ad out currently that talks about all the businesses that started in a garage.   Well, these businesses did not start through osmosis in the garage.  A man or woman was behind these ideas.  What visionaries were they?  The were great conceptual leaders and managers.

Take a look at a few at the blog:

http://www.retireat21.com/blog/10-companies-started-garages

I am personally grateful for # 9 and # 10.  Without them, I wouldn’t have had any Barbies and my house wouldn’t smell like a lemon meringue pie or cookies for Santa!

Picture provided by Dr. Andree Swanson

Middle management are the workers who keep the operations going.  They are also the managers that implement change within an organization.  They have it tough at times.

“Middle managers, it turns out, make valuable contributions to the realization of radical change at a company—contributions that go largely unrecognized by most senior executives. These contributions occur in four major areas” (Huy, 2001, para. 4).

Middle managers:

1.    Have entrepreneurial spirit and intentions

2.    Better communicators with the informal networks

3.    Strong emotional intelligence

4.    Maintain momentum in a changing organization (Huy).

Supervisors keep the systems running, whether they are dealing with people and their issues or product and its issues or machines and their issues.  Excellent supervisors have a strong impact on the financial statements of companies.  “Good bosses are a good deal better than bad ones. Replacing a supervisor from the bottom 10 percent of the pool with one from the top 10 percent increases output about as much as adding a 10th worker to a nine-worker team” (Yglesias, 2012, para. 4). Yglesias wrote about a research study on supervisors.  The results showed that good supervisors not only motivate employees but impact their productivity. “Make sure your most promising workers are paired up with the best supervisors. … teaching and learning are the essence of an effective boss/employee relationship. Good bosses … deliver concrete improvements in workers’ ability to get the job done” (Yglesias, para. 8).

Have you seen a supervisor not only motivate employees, but impact the bottom line?

References

Houston, G. (2014). Why is conceptual competence more important for top managers than for supervisors? DemandMedia. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/conceptual-competence-important-top-managers-supervisors-18744.html

Huy, Q. N. (2001, Sep.). In praise of middle managers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/2001/09/in-praise-of-middle-managers/ar/1

Kaiser, R. B., Craig, S., Overfield, D. V., & Yarborough, P. (2011). Differences in managerial jobs at the bottom, middle, and top: A review of empirical research. Psychologist-Manager Journal, 14(2), 76-91. Doi:10.1080/10887156.2011.570137

Michael. (2014). 10 world famous companies that started in garages [blog]. Retrieved from http://www.retireat21.com/blog/10-companies-started-garages

Yglesias, M. (2012, Oct). Who’s the boss? Slate.com. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/business/small_business/2012/10/the_value_of_a_good_boss_stanford_researchers_show_the_economic_value_of.html

@aol.com

Reaching New Customer Service Peaks in Manufacturing

Art Work: Dr. Murad Abel

The world of manufacturing is changing and new methods of competing are important to ensure that companies are staying competitive. Companies can incorporate additional concepts related to service and service metrics into their manufacturing operations to help encourage higher levels performance that are more reflective of market needs. Research by Visnjic, et. al. (2013) helps decision makers find new ways of adopting higher service oriented operations.

Just like Americans went through a shift in their manufacturing management toward Japanese models in the past they are now moving toward new customer service oriented values. They are seeking to tie their products more closely to the needs of the customer and this requires a new way of thinking. As the system changes, so will the measurements of success and the accounting of financial revenues.

Metrics are important markers that help guide strategic decisions. The previous product-based performance measurement systems are inadequate to understand the service dynamic. Organizations are seeking to update their measurement mix in order to create higher levels of relevant data used to guide the organization to higher levels of performance.

Companies often rely on a few measurements and try to replicate them in other places, other nations, and at different times. Because measurements are supposed to give one the ability to take a snap shot of what’s going on in the market a single measurement skews this the accuracy of this picture. It is beneficial to ensure that measurements are chosen for their well-rounded image so trends and changes can be discerned.

The researches completed a three-year case study of Atlas Copco a multinational equipment manufacturer to come to their conclusions.  They looked at both qualitative and quantitative data to understand their measurement systems.  They have a presence in 100 companies and 14,000 employees that makes them adequate for a global case study.

They found that moving services from a support function role to a revenue stream helps encourage better decisions.  Conflicts between production and service should rectify by developing and catering new performance measurements that can bridge the gap. Companies should seek both breadth and depth in their customer service penetration.  Capitalizing on the new service oriented dynamics makes companies more responsive to market trends and raises their potential revenue generation.

The report does provide some information on bringing forward concepts as they relate to changing the perception of customer-oriented processes within manufacturing. Having the right data metrics is important for analyzing and making strategic decisions. Implementing service components into the manufacturing processes takes some time, as it is a new way of thinking. As the implementation process continues, the mindset of employees and decision-makers will change with it.

“The relationship with the customer tells us every day how well we perform and, for sure, keeps us alert to all the changes in the market.”—Ronnie Leten, CEO Atlas Copco Group

Visnjic, K., et. al (2013). Steering manufacturing firms towards service business model innovation. California Management Review, 56 (1).

Become an Influencer-Learning the Art of Persuasion

Improving on communication skills and influencing is extremely important for potential success.  A paper by Johnson and Young (2012) discusses the concepts of influencing others to achieve objectives. Their advice appears to be practical in the sense that it continues to expand the network creating more adherents. It also takes into account the natural resistance people display and how to overcome those concerns. 

Most people tune out a significant amount of daily conversation and lots of information is lost from one day to the next. To attract someone’s interests it is sometimes necessary to do or ask something interesting. In sales they may call this “making the pitch” but in daily conversation it is more of “tuning in” to potential engagement.

Most people are receptive to things that help them. Explaining concepts through their vantage point and the potential benefits of certain actions helps them to visualize the possibilities. Focusing on encouraging others to engage the solution is helpful to developing personal influence.  You can’t be influential without other people.

Before one can properly influence others they need to have the right questions. This is a process of brainstorming and thinking about all of the alternatives. Asking the right questions can prompt other people to start thinking about the answers and if their answers logically lead to your conclusions you are likely to find support.

Each organization comes with other influencers and connecting them together creates systematic impact. Communicating with opinion leaders and power brokers creates the ability to render converts to a cause and then move those ideas throughout an organization. The more people, who hear, understand and pass on the concepts the more influence that is created. 

People want to quantify the concepts. They want to envision, touch, taste and see the ideas. Speaking in terms of tangibles helps people understand and create a mental framework that solidifies the concepts. This allows them to formalize, ponder, and finally conclude with their agreement.

People want to understand your message. Use the language of your audience. This means using the terms, vocabulary, education level and at times even the slang others use. Helping people understand the message means speaking in a way that allows for easy connection to the concepts. 

It is beneficial to work in a group and allow multiple vantage points and perspectives to make their way into the solutions. Doing so will afford greater allies in your quest. People have varying perspectives and these perspectives can be used to help ensure that concepts make sense to a greater amount of people. 

Developing greater presentations with graphics, charts, and content helps people solidify the information. Just like in sales a great presentation can provide for higher levels of understanding. It can draw interest and put things in a tangible form. 

Don’t believe that you are infallible. Continually learn from your mistakes to improve upon your influencing abilities. Some things work while others do not. If you continue to learn you are likely to improve over time and create greater abilities. 

The report doesn’t talk about truth but it should be included as an influencing argument. People don’t want someone to “pull the wool over their eyes” or “blow smoke” and will be naturally resistant to those who have an unyielding agenda. Rightly so, an over demanding agenda means they have not evaluated the alternatives and their concerns are limited. People want to hear the strengths and potential pitfalls so that they can understand the credibility of the speaker. Those who think they know all the answers usually don’t. 

Johns, W. & Young, N. (2012). Power of persuasion: becoming the influencer. Facilities Manager, 28 (3)

The Accuracy of Developing Feedback Loops in Strategy

In strategy, it is necessary to develop not only the action but also the feedback loop to ensure effectiveness. Research by Newell, et. al (2013) using dice rolls indicates that top-down strategies are quickly developed while the changing of poor strategic choices through bottom-up discoveries in feedback is much slower. It helps decision makers understand they may be quick to accept optimizing strategies but slow in adjusting course once those strategies are enacted. An unyielding strategy could potentially lead to poor results.

People often use probability matching when determining a strategy which is based on the probability of outcome.  In essence, if people believe they will have a payoff 70% of the time they are likely to choose that option 70% of the time even it could be chosen 100% of the time for more effectiveness. Optimization requires the ability to understand the factors within the game.

When people are provided feedback of outcomes it is believed they would optimize at a greater level than those who did not receive feedback. It is also believed that optimization for maximum results are ingrained into strategic decision making with feedback being a key factor that fosters effective behavior. Likewise, it is also logical that people should be open to feedback for improvement. 

When participants were provided with hints, they were much more likely to find an optimizing strategy. They did this by focusing on the payoffs of each dice role. Even when information is available without hints a large portion of people were unable to come to an awareness of a proper strategy. Strategy is then seen as a function of awareness of information within the environment.

The researchers Newell, et. al (2011) used two dice games with 7 greens and 3 red sides.  Some participants were provided with hints while others were not. Likewise, some were provided with feedback and others were not. They designed the games to ensure that both the maximization and the matching strategies were available as potential choices to determine what method participants used.

Despite having all of the information available from the beginning of the game, it was the feedback with a hint that helped participants maximize their strategies. A majority of participants didn’t appear to make meaning from the feedback information without a hint.  Participants that did formulate strategies sought and tested new strategies over subsequent trials.  A large percentage of participants thought of a quick strategy and used it throughout the game without changing their behavior. A small group of individuals were found with superior cognitive abilities that optimized their strategies without feedback or hints. 

The study does relate to business strategy development. Executives may use a particular strategy and continue with that strategy (top down) and ignore feedback (bottom up) that would help them adjust and improve their strategy. These strategic choices are often made in the earliest part of the game before information is readily available making them likely inaccurate.  This can lead to disastrous results when an environmental scan and feedback loop are not included to ensure direction adjusts to increase strategic accuracy. Even worse, if a poor strategy is used to its natural conclusion it may be far off of the mark.  A small percentage of people may be able to look at the factors involved, and develop their own strategies and have the cognitive flexibility to continue the adjustment of their approaches as information becomes available.  Openness to information equates to success in strategic management.

Newell, B, et. al. (2013). Probability matching in risky choice: the interplay of feedback and strategy availability. Memory and Cognition, 41 (3).