Breakthrough In Organization Performance
Breakthrough in organization performance: competitive advantage through employee-centered management.
Sustainable competitive advantage can best be achieved through employee-centered management which encourages widespread participation and contribution of employees in problem-solving and decision-making. This article describes the experience over a six-year period at Ault Foods, Ltd. of Canada, which implemented a structured seven-step strategy for improved organization performance through employee-centered management. A significant change in the condition of the human organization resulting from the intervention was shown to be correlated with a 66 percent increase in profitability.
More and more companies in the U.S. are taming to employee-centered management to enhance productivity and quality, and to gain the competitive advantage of a workforce fully committed to the organization's goals. Organizations are increasingly recognizing that efforts to improve productivity and quality must include attention to the human organization - its motivation, commitment, and morale. For example, a major component of the scoring system for the Malcolm Baldrige award involves accounting for the state of the human organization.
Increased attention is therefore being paid to developing tools for analysis and strategic management of the human organization. These tools may be used for measuring the condition of the human organization, evaluating its performance, and initiating corrective action when needed to bring performance in line with organizational objectives. A number of leading firms including General Electric, Texas Instruments, and Motorola have pioneered the development of survey systems which facilitate such measurement. The survey instrument used in this intervention to implement employee-centered management is the Human Resource Index (HRI).
The HRI is a standardized employee survey instrument that measures employee perceptions of 15...
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