Bottom Line Results: Evidence of HR Contribution
Professor Mike Bourne
Steve Macaulay
In this interview we are going to look at organisational performance;
and we are taking an angle which may surprise some of you and that
is we are looking at managerial and HR practices and approaches.
In the studio today is Professor Mike Bourne. Now, Mike, you focus
in on business performance, you have done lots of research in all
sorts of areas – how come you are focusing in on HR practices?
Mike Bourne
We were particularly sponsored in this piece of work by Investors in
People which is a UK standard about good practice in managing and
developing people, and they were particularly interested in the
impact of front line and middle managers in the delivery of business
performance.
Steve Macaulay
Now you got down to some real specifics; you looked at case studies,
you did plenty of surveys, you looked at actual practice. What did
you find?
Mike Bourne
We found that when people adopted Investors in People it improved
their managerial performance. Managers perform better and as a
result the organisation performs better. That came out very
strongly from the case studies but what we also had were the
questionnaires behind it. So we have got responses from
organisations about how good their managers were which we then
correlated with results from Companies House, the published
financial results for the company. And what we were finding was
that when you get good managerial performance you get higher
sales margins, basically.
Steve Macaulay
Let’s get down to specifics. What does good managerial
performance mean?
Mike Bourne
Good managerial performance is all about how the manager actually
manages the people; it is about the coordination, it is about the
social skills, it is about their motivation, it is about how they plan and
interact – how they represent the people who work for them. So it
is a whole combination of things and that is developed in the
organisation through management development.
And one of the things that really came out from the case studies was
how much successful organisations were really developing their
managers and you could see the difference that that was making to
their companies.
Knowledge Interchange Online© Cranfield University
April 2010
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Professor Mike Bourne
Steve Macaulay
Now some people would say you are from a business school, you were
sponsored by an organisation that promotes development – you would
say that, wouldn’t you?
Mike Bourne
Yes, except that I think I was quite surprised to find the evidence
there. We do preach that management development is something
that you should do and drive the organisation forward, but I actually
find real evidence that links people’s engagement – the managerial
practice and the return on sales reported through Companies House.
I was actually quite surprised to find that.
Steve Macaulay
Now you spelt out that in more detail in your report, but I would like
to pick out some of the elements. You pick out four areas; one is
about a learning culture. Can you say a bit more about that?
Mike Bourne
Organisations need to learn and need to respond and there were a
number of things that really came to the fore in this. Managerial
discretion was another and they kind of come together because what
you are trying to do is to get people to react in this kind of
environment, to learn from what is going on and to move on. And
having those two things together really makes things tick for an
organisation.
The other element was about people understanding what they are
there to do; that is not the day to day nitty gritty, that is what are the
goals of the organisation we really need to achieve. That was another
element that very strongly drives performance.
So if you can develop managers that can both pass down the
organisation what the organisation is trying to achieve and take back
up again the learnings that come from the front line; that is what you
need to truly perform well, especially in these troubled times.
Steve Macaulay
If you were to say to an aspiring company that says how do we get
better and how long will it take us, what would you say to them?
Mike Bourne
Firstly it takes quite a bit of time. You don’t create good managers
overnight. But having said that, just start to invest and just start to
work through and it will come over time, and it will develop, and it
will build a capability that the organisation has before it.
It is about the development of managers; it is about making them
self aware about their styles and other people’s styles and how that
can work for the benefit of the organisation.
© Cranfield University
April 2010
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Professor Mike Bourne
Steve Macaulay
And the second thing, I guess, is about focusing on objectives and
that people are very clear what their goals are in relation to the
organisation’s objectives?
Mike Bourne
It is very true that if people understand how what they do
contributes to the success of the organisation – they have clear goals
for themselves and clear goals for the organisation –it makes a huge
difference.
Steve Macaulay
Mike, thank you very much.
© Cranfield University
April 2010
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