Taylor: People Resourcing – Feedback on Exercises and Key articles
EXERCISE 22.1
SUSAN GREENFIELD’S PREDICTIONS
Feedback
1
Factors identified by Susan Greenfield that will bring about the changes envisaged are:
 the blurring of the boundaries between home and work
 developments in technology
 an increase in alliances of smaller, more virtual networks.
2
Weaknesses in her arguments include:
 that she makes a lot of assumptions about people’s preferences, their willingness to
embrace ‘portfolio’ working and new technology, the changing structures, etc
 that no evidence is presented to support her claims.
3
The implications for HR professionals if ‘imminent change’ happens would involve the
immediate requirement of:
 stress management initiatives
 appropriate training initiatives that are individualised
 change management skills.
KEY ARTICLE 52
Peter Nolan: ‘Shaping the future: the political economy of work and employment’
Feedback
1
It is wrong to argue that new technology will replace people, leaving a world where there are
too few jobs to occupy the population of Western countries, because:
 Arguments are not grounded in complete and current data. There are still a large number
of jobs out there – they are just of a different nature from those in the past. A huge
increase has taken place in service and caring roles (and is likely to increase further with
the ageing population – as is in part enabled by new technologies).
 Productivity promotes the lower costs of capital goods and of the wages of labour – the
demand for labour may therefore increase.
2
It is wrong to assert that self-employment and temporary work will increasingly replace
traditional employment because:
 Temporary work in the UK has remained roughly constant at 7% since the mid-1980s,
and the vast majority of people still work for an employer: ‘the employment relationship –
however blurred … remains firmly entrenched’
 Many people are uncomfortable with a non-traditional employment relationship.
 The current focus of discussion is the knowledge economy and the importance of
retaining valuable tacit knowledge within the workforce.
3
Nolan says that the research commissioned ‘reveals good and bad news for paid and unpaid
work in the UK’, on the subject of which his arguments are:
 The bad news is that there is little evidence of the narrowing of inequalities, while at the
same time there is a representation gap (a failure to replace lost collective bargaining
arrangements with new voice mechanisms).
 The good news is that there is evidence of a partial recovery of the union presence and
influence (partnership arrangements) which is linked to career ladders, training and
development, pension provision, and family-friendly measures. Also, careers are reviving.
EXERCISE 22.2
EQ IN CALL CENTRES
Feedback
1
Call centre workers’ personality traits differ from those of good employees in other customer
service roles in that:
 Their job requires an ability to remain conscientious and motivated in a very monotonous
environment (using scripts and SOPs).
 There is no body language feedback to keep conversations interesting.
 Genuine inquisitiveness is not required in this environment.
2
This question requires an individual response from the student – who should nonetheless
justify his/her answer.
3
Older women make good call centre workers because:



Female traits – sensitivity, patience, building relationships, etc – are beneficial in this role.
They have the requisite life experience.
They are less likely to be pushing for promotion.
KEY ARTICLE 53
Laura Thi Lam and Susan L. Kirby: ‘Is emotional intelligence an advantage? An exploration of
the impact of emotional and general intelligence on individual performance’
Feedback
1
‘Perceiving’ emotions is about understanding other people’s emotions (interpersonal
intelligence), and ‘regulating emotions’ is about controlling your own emotions and using
information about emotions (intrapersonal intelligence). Both of these have an impact on a
person’s performance. ‘Understanding emotions’ is merely about describing emotions and
relating them to other sensory experiences – it does not help with the achievement of a task.
2
People with high emotional intelligence do not find that their own emotions interfere with their
ability to complete tasks satisfactorily because they are able to use control mechanisms:
‘buffering’ to control undesirable emotions (encapsulating and segregating them), and
‘personal engagement’ to channel positive emotions into motivation and performance.
3
Criticisms of the methodology used in the study – and which might make questionable its
validity and generalisability – include:
 The study was not carried out in the workplace.
 The study’s sample was small – all students from the same university, mainly white and
young (aged 18–33).
 Performance was measured in relation to the Burney logical reasoning test. This is a very
limited view of ‘performance’, and excludes many competencies, including interpersonal
ones.
 There are reliability issues associated with the MEIS.
EXERCISE 22.3
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
Feedback
1
This question requires an individual response from the student – who should nonetheless
justify his/her answer.
2
This question requires an individual response from the student – who should nonetheless
justify his/her answer.
3
This question requires an individual response from the student – who should nonetheless
justify his/her answer.
EXERCISE 22.4
SHELL
Feedback
1
The article’s approach is particularly appropriate for large, international organisations
because:
 Such an approach makes it easier to share best practice in these companies, where
issues cannot easily be discussed face-to-face.
 The approach requires considerable resources to set up and maintain.
 The approach requires enough specialists in each field to make knowledge sharing
viable. There must be enough traffic for the networks to work.
2
Aside from savings, other benefits of a web-based approach to knowledge management
include:
 networking
 that people become more engaged with the organisation
 that people learn from colleagues
 the development of an archive of information
 that information on competitor history can be added to the database when people join the
company from the competition
 an enhanced reputation of the company.
3
The problem of ‘knowledge hoarding’ has been overcome by:
 recognising individuals as experts, and departments/companies within the group as
‘centres of excellence’
 the benchmarking of Shell companies in terms of their knowledge sharing
 making it a requirement for global consultants to be available to other Shell businesses
for up to 15 days per year
 making it a requirement for centres of excellence to share their expertise.
KEY ARTICLE 54
S. J. van Zolingen, J. N. Stremer and M. Stooker: ‘Problems in knowledge management: a case
study of a knowledge-intensive company’
Feedback
1
What the article says about the significance of tacit knowledge and the methods used to
‘manage’ it is that:
 Tacit knowledge (‘know-how’) is the most important company asset. It increases with use
(whereas other assets decrease), and cannot be copied by a competitor (because it is
personal and context-specific).
 It is vital for companies to ‘manage’ tacit knowledge to ensure continuous knowledge
creation, and to stop knowledge being lost when an individual leaves. Management
includes connecting people in a dialogue to increase collecting intelligence, creating and
sharing learning histories, and the development of communities of practice.
2
The best organisational structures and cultures for maximum effective knowledge
management are:
 the ‘hypertext organisation’ comprising three layers – business system, project team and
knowledge base
 flatter structures/network structures that allow for interaction between people at different
levels and in different disciplines
 a learning culture
 a high-trust culture
 an enterprise culture.
3
The major problems of knowledge management encountered by ICT Ltd were that:
 The company had not established what specific knowledge and skills each employee
possessed, so time was often lost in searching for the right person with the right qualities.
 ‘Fireplace sessions’ were being carried out, but nothing was done at an organisation level
with the results.
 T&D was initiated by each individual and usually on an ad-hoc basis.
 Individuals were unclear about how to access knowledge about past activities. The
intranet was not suitable, and a good deal of information was not recorded (but just
existed inside the heads of employees).
 Employees were not changing jobs, so knowledge could not be spread that way.
 The same knowledge was being developed in different places in the organisation.
 The focus on short-term results often hindered knowledge management.
 Turnover levels were problematical.