BUS576 - 6 Organizations - Human Resource Issues

Performance

When looking in an organization, there are different performers, top, average, and poor. The top performers are in the 10% that have contributed 50% or more than the remaining 90% (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006). That is an amazing statistic I was not aware of. Benjamin Schneider says that 'people make the place.' This type of thinking is different than what I have observed or failed to observe. When interviewing, you are taught to sell yourself as a person who can add value to the organization. I always thought I had to become part of the organization, but people make up the organization and actually do make it what it is. Without the people, there is no organization. Of course there are policies, mission statements, values and beliefs, and goals, but everyone who works in the organization brings a different personality and originality that makes them make the place. Two organizations that are identical except for the people are going to be completely different. The way things are ran and done are going to be different because of the people they are employed at each. When there is better talent, it makes a huge different in company performance and talent is a crucial competitive advantage (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006). It is hard to change people, so attracting the right people the first time can have a domino effect on the future of the company.

Wisdom

It is interesting that Pfeffer and Sutton say that wisdom is more important than intelligence when it comes to sustaining organizational performance. There are different ways of thinking that can be wise and unwise. The attitudes of wisdom are acting with knowledge, understanding and acknowledging the limits of your knowledge, having humility about your knowledge, asking for and accepting help from others, giving help, and being curious. In my job, we are all about asking for and giving help. Their counterparts are acting without knowledge, acting like a know-it-all, being arrogant or insecure about your knowledge, not asking for, or refusing help from others, not giving help, and lacking the curiosity. Since I am young, I usually do a lot of the asking from more experienced, wiser colleagues. Sometimes I feel that they get annoyed or just act without knowledge. It can be hard to constantly bother someone who doesn't want to give help. But this is a part of our jobs and we are a team. Sometimes, though, I am the same way. I don't want to help. There are different reasons for not wanting to help, but it is going to help the person who is curious and help increase performance. I always use the quote' give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.' Instead of helping someone, I want to give them the knowledge so they know and can teach others. Being wise is a great choice when moving forward in a career.

Critique

In How to Improve Employee Retention, the author talks about ways to increase retention rates in organizations. The first way to realize motivation is not enough. The information provided is from Mark Murphy who is an author and CEO. Murphy wrote a book so he probably did research to support his arguments. Him being a CEO doesn't give him more or less evidence of one thing or another because experience isn't solid. When reading a book, you would hope the author did research to ascertain supporting evidence. They mentioned his book in the article, so he probably did. The next way was to keep employees satisfied. The example used was from a CEO. It isn't a good example because there was no research involved, just past experience. The third way is to attract the right candidates. The company, Engage, implemented policies that produce results to support this. They even say that there is evidence to show their findings. The last three come from Murphy with research he did from his book. This means it is evidence-based.

Reflection

I can't believe the class is coming to an end and this is my last blog post, for now. It was a very useful class as have all my other MBA classes been. In undergrad, I felt I really didn't learn anything I would use in the real world. This is all real-world information that is positively correlated with my job. I am learning and using what I have learned to become a better employee and advance in my career. I am keeping this book to use as a reference for the future. I don't want to forget what I learned and can always use it because it is evidence-based. I now know what to look for when researching because not everything comes from good sources. Experience and credentials mean nothing. Next time I go to a speaker, I want inquire if that speaker actually did their research!

Resources:

Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. (2006). Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, & Total Nonsense. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Spiro, J. (2010, Apr 7). How to Improve Employee Retention. Retrieved 
Aug 1, 2014, from Inc: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/employee-
retention.html