Abstract
The
monopoly must develop new organizational structures, creating a project/programme purpose-driven unity. The
leadership must take on risks and orientate itself toward financial aspects. This change
corresponds to a change in the policy of middle management directed at greater
self-management. Even lower-level workers must understand the strategic positions and the
objectives of the organization, to be trained and able to make operative decisions.
Module
1
Culture
Change and Competitive Effectiveness
Module
2
Middle
Management Capabilities, Empowerment and Accountability
Module
3
Building
Trust with Front Line Employees
Module
4
Recruiting
and Retaining Outside Talent
INTRODUCTION
The
most difficult part of organizational change at a organization transitioning to competition is
the subtle, difficult-to-manage and difficult-to-measure culture change that must take
place.
The
purpose of this module is to deepen our knowledge and perspective about the phenomena
called culture change. We will learn how to
identify culture and its characteristics. We
will consider where culture comes from, as well as how to use culture to achieve organization
and project/programme purpose unit goals in a competitive organization.
Monopolies
of any kind - government, project/programme purpose, NGO – tend to be status quo in their outlook and
methods of operation. They tend to be guided
by rules and regulations. They are
risk-adverse and control-oriented. They are
influenced by politics more than by impersonal market forces. More often than not the leaders of the organization
seek control, not input. Innovation and
risk-taking tends not to be rewarded and failure is usually penalized. Employees generally receive orders and direction,
not the information necessary to take initiative and autonomous actions. The framework of personnel policies and procedures
in such organizations contain incentives that reward discipline and predictability rather
than initiative and innovation.
Major
structural changes of monopoly organizations rarely succeed unless accompanied by equally
major changes in the culture of the organization.
This
module addresses the key difficulties organizations experience as they try to move their
culture away from a “command and control” past towards a future that values
innovation, creativity and initiative. The
right type of culture can be very precisely described – managing to create that type
of culture is a very difficult art. And, not
all managers will be up to the challenge.
Many
research studies – some of the best are provided as required reading for you, or
listed in the bibliography as optional readings – are available to help us. Managing cultural change represents a very
difficult task; but one that is very satisfying when successfully accomplished.
INTRODUCTION
This
module will consider the particular challenges for “middle managers” as a
organization moves from monopoly to competition. Perhaps
no group of individuals is so deeply and directly impacted by this transition as are the
middle managers of the organization.
Senior
manager jobs can be described as deciding what to do; middle managers jobs can be
described as implementing what the senior managers decide.
Middle managers are often described as the men and women in the middle:
constantly under pressure from above for more productivity, quicker turnaround, and better
relations with frontline employees; they receive pressure from below, from the employees
they supervise, and from their unions to be more worker oriented. Middle managers are central to getting most
of the real work of the organization done.
Middle
managers translate and communicate the organization vision and goals to frontline employees in
their project/programme purpose units. Experienced senior
executives know that without the experience, commitment and knowledge that middle managers
bring to the organization a great deal of productive activity would come to an abrupt
halt.
Successful
senior executives in the competitive environment recognize that the challenge is to give
to middle managers substantial training, a hospitable place to work, and ample rewards to
perform. In a competitive environment, middle
management must be highly trained and highly motivated.
Middle managers should be given demanding performance targets and rewarded
when they achieve or exceed the targets. They
should be given far more information and independence than was ever conceivable in the
monopoly culture. Virtually all organizations
transitioning to competition find that there is a group of middle management who cannot
perform to competitive standards and who are afraid to the leave the organization’s
employ. These individuals present a
particularly difficult issue for the organization and its human resources managers.
By
making middle management more effective, the organization will also dramatically enhance the
performance of the organization as a whole. Paradoxically,
this creates the urgent need to focus on the retention of the best middle managers. Liberated, high performing middle managers,
typically have a broad range of outside employment options.
Several
features of the middle management role will be examined in this module, including:
What
are the characteristics that successful middle managers need to have in the market-based
competitive organization?
What
tools does the farsighted organization give to its middle managers so that can do their jobs in
the most effective way possible?
We
will begin with a look at what differentiates the activities of the leaders from the
managers of a organization.
INTRODUCTION
Building
trust with front line employees is perhaps the single most difficult challenge facing
management during the transition to a competitive organization. The challenge becomes even greater when the level
of trust was low before the previous stage.
Most front line employees will feel a
sense of great personal and professional disruption and loss by the transition to
competition. Even if a high level of trust
existed between management and front line employees previously, the transition is seen as
threatening by most front line employees. Fears
of the unknown – new management, new performance expectations, new ways of
compensation – will dominate their thinking. Unless
these issues are tackled, they can lead to negative psychology and unproductive behaviors. In an environment of competition, employment will
seem less secure and work requirements will seem more demanding. Past assurances of lifetime employment vanish. More is expected, and, in the minds of many, far
less is provided. Unions typically reinforce
the message that front line employees are at risk seeking compensating benefits.
"Unions typically reinforce the message that front line employees are at risk seeking
compensating benefits." The main responsibility of unions is to look out for the
economic and social welfare of the workers. When
a organization undergoes major change such as transition from public to private or monopoly to
competition there will be work and employment disruptions.
In these circumstances, unions will typically highlight the risks (real or
imagined) of these changes to frontline employees and seek additional protections (e.g.,
job security) or compensation (e.g., severance pay) for the workers.
The
practical experience of front line employees makes their fears reasonable and grounded in
reality. Management has to address employees’
fears and concerns through unprecedented communication and cooperation in order for the
transition to be smooth and to succeed.
The
transition to competition can vastly expand income and career opportunities for many
employees. Yet, for many others, it leads to
loss of status and opportunity, and possibly a loss of the job itself. Management cannot ignore the concerns of front line
employees regarding their jobs and job security.
This
Module reviews how management can provide the information, communication and support to
front line employees to help facilitate their successful transition to a competitive
environment. This means investing more in
front line employees – in training, in attention and in communicating timely
information – than every before. It also
means seeing more feedback and acting upon it.
A
hallmark of a successful competitive organization is a motivated, informed, trusting and
empowered front line workforce, trained and at ease with new technologies and
knowledgeable about project/programme purpose decision-making.
INTRODUCTION
Monopoly
organizations in general, and monopoly utilities in particular, have a poor track record
of retaining the employees they recruit from outside the utility sector of activity. A recent study in the
The
transition from monopoly to competition presents many challenges for a utility embedded in
the old culture. Recognizing the necessity of
recruiting and retaining highly qualified personnel is one such challenge. There is no guarantee that an outside hire is the
right person to help the utility move successfully into the future. Nonetheless, it is a serious loss when the utility
identifies and hires the right outside employee – only to lose that employee because
of culture clash or other reasons which have little or nothing to do with the
opportunities of the position itself.
Recruitment
and retention of key outside staff are universally regarded as critical determinants of a
successful organization in a competitive environment. This
Module will review the experiences of successful organizations in recruiting and retaining
the employees they really want. It will
also examine the steps that executives of the organization can take to motivate, protect and
develop outside hires. The challenges for the
organization in acquiring and retaining outside talent consist of a series of discrete steps: recruitment, selection, socialization and
retention. The organization that successfully
navigates through each of these steps is well on its way to achieving success in its
markets.