Human Resource Measurement News
May-June 2007
Articles:
Product and Service News :
Study: Knowledge Worker Engagement Equally Influenced by Pay and Leadership
Leaders with a high versatility index have employee teams with high job commitment and engagement according to a unique industry-university collaborative study at the North Carolina State University. The research was conducted by Dr. Beth Coberly under the supervision of Dr. Denis Gray, Professor, Department of Psychology, to improve the hit-rate of breakthrough innovations by faculty members who are involved in research for private business. They sought the key workplace factors that promote the job satisfaction, commitment, and engagement of highly creative knowledge workers. The study included faculty from nearly thirty cooperative research centers from around the U.S.
“We found that leaders who were flexible at adjusting their styles and behaviors to the leadership situation also had the most satisfied and committed research teams,” says Dr. Gray.
Rob Kaiser, a partner with the executive development consultancy, Kaplan DeVries Inc., which also supported the research, points out that the number one motivator of commitment for the researchers in this study was personally meaningful work on compelling projects. “This is not a surprising result, in itself,” he says. “But it does underscore the importance of matching creative people to the right job and playing to their natural interests and talents.”
Kaiser continues, “What surprised us was that versatile leadership tied for second place with rewards as the next most important factor.” Kaiser concludes, “In other words, compensation is no substitute for weak leadership"
The study employed the Leadership Versatility Index® (LVI). The LVI measures the extent to which leaders have a well-rounded style and vary their approach with the situation, as opposed to over-relying on one way of leading or another. The LVI and its decade-long development are described in a 2006 book, "The Versatile Leader" (Pfeiffer/Wiley), coauthored by Bob Kaplan, Ph.D., and Rob Kaiser. More information? Contact Us.
Coaching Away the Blind Spots
After more than fifteen years as an executive coach, Claudia M. Shelton had used all the well known assessment instruments. “With each one of them, the feedback recipient had to make an investment in learning the framework and nomenclature that went along with that instrument. I found that it slowed the process considerably.”
Not finding a plain-language feedback report on the market, she developed her own. Over the past several years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with her in bringing a series of “Blind Spots” profiles to market. At the same time, Shelton’s new book, Blind Spots: Achieve Success by Seeing What You Cannot See, was published in April, 2007 by John Wiley & Sons.
Hartford Insurance Company Senior Vice President Stephanie Bush recently used the Blind Spot Profile Plus for a strategic planning off-site meeting with her direct reports. She says, “It’s simple to understand but deeply insightful. In 10 minutes you can understand the framework without having to learn a lot of jargon. In an hour an individual or a whole team can understand their strengths and blind spots and apply that understanding to key strategic problem-solving.”
Bush was also impressed by finding that the learning stayed in the minds of the team members. A week after the meeting, team members referred back to their blind spots discussion. She adds, “the Blind Spots System and Profile are helping to change the way my team operates.”
As part of her world-view, Shelton sees blind spots not as faults or weaknesses, but as doors to opportunities. But she is addressing the same issues that others call unacknowledged weaknesses or cognitive distortions—all of which are widely accepted as sources of career derailment, managerial ineffectiveness, and team dysfunction. Many types of assessments try to detangle this problem, including 360 feedback and various type indicators such as the MBTI.
Shelton explains: “The Blind Spots instruments help managers in the early stages of career development to learn the lessons that executive-level clients often get through individual coaching. But I’m finding that the senior people relate to it equally well.” She notes that the pressure to perform in executive roles leaves little development time. “These assessments help clients move rapidly. Where it might have previously taken three sessions to help them see a troublesome blind spot, I now can communicate it effectively in one session…” She notes that the Blind Spots Profiles point directly to the same issues that would be pinpointed through 360 feedback.
Shelton has used the Blind Spots system for several years with about 1000 clients—from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups. Now, it is online and report delivery is fully automated. A free trial version called the Blind Spots Snap Shot is available to the public. The upgrade, called Blind Spots Profile Plus, is available online for $34.99.
Shelton is developing a package for other coaches, including certification training, a workbook and the ability to obtain copies of feedback recipients’ reports—to be available in June 2007. There is also a 360-feedback coming in the Blind Spots Profile series. Shelton will offer the first certification training this summer.
For more information, contact us.
Cross Cultural Nuances in 360 Feedback
Frank Shipper, Ph.D., recently coauthored an 18-page scholarly article titled "Does 360 Feedback Process Create Actionable Knowledge Equally Across Cultures?" in the Academy of Management's Learning and Education (2007, Vol. 6, No. 1, 33-50). Shipper has researched various aspects of management effectiveness for more than 20 years, often using Clark Wilson Group 360 feedback as his research instrument.
In this study, he and coauthors Richard Hoffman and Denise Rotondo examine the assumption that 360 feedback process applies equally across cultures. They studied 360 feedback, and its ability to create actionable knowledge for feedback recipients, in the US, Ireland, Israel, Philippines, and Malaysia.
Culture is likely to affect 360 feedback in two basic ways. "The process of seeking and providing multiple sources of feedback is based on values and assumptions not equally shared by all cultures," they write. In addition, they say, "the relationship of [360 feedback] outcomes to various cultural values may also come into play."
Using Wilson's Survey of Management Practices™, the study showed important nuances in the usefulness of feedback information to individuals. It used four cultural values that have been found to differentiate workplace behaviors: uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism and "masculinity" (orientation to competition and outcome, as opposed to cooperation and process).
The printed article is available on the PPI shopping cart for $10 including shipping to the U.S and Canada (for international shipping please contact PPI).
High Ranking Human Resource Web Sites
One of the best and worst things about Web search is the sheer quantity of results. Who should you believe? And, if you're in the human resources business, where should you place your articles and advertising?
We created a list of 130 HR sites from HRMarketer.com, based on our categories of interest: general HR, training and development, recruiting, management and leadership, wellness, work-family, and compensation. Then we applied two well known measures of search engine success: Google page rank and Alexa traffic statistics.
These quantitative measures, of course, don't predict the quality of the editorial material. We'll leave that to your judgment. (We're not endorsing any of these sites.) Nonetheless, here's some insight into HR sites that are succeeding in the Web game.
Top Sites
Four general HR sites stand out. The most successful, by the measurements listed above, is the Society for Human Resource Management Online. It has three relatively close followers: the HR portal site, HR.com, and two sites published by BLR, the Best Practices in HR newsletter and HR.BLR.com compliance tools.
In the world of training and development, ASTD's T+D Magazine site is the hands-down winner. Another busy site in this category is eLearning Guild .
Among work-family sites, Sloan Work and Family Research Network from Boston College makes a very credible showing, followed by Penn State's WorkFam Notes.
Among recruiting industry sites, Electronic Recruiting Exchange seems to be garnering a lot of traffic, followed by Recruiting.com.
Among compensation sites, Compensation & Benefits Review is the hands down winner.
For management and leadership, MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Online, and Workforce Management lead the pack.
For talent management Performance and Talent Management Blog by Success Factors, Inc., is strongest, followed by Taleo's Talent Management Blog.
What sites did you expect to find on the list? Do you have other sites you'd like us to look at? Contact us.
In the May 2006 edition, we wrote about the top search terms in the field of Human resources. (Interested? See the back issue.)
Notes: Alexa.com measures traffic trends, among other things. The traffic of the above sites varies widely, but each of the sites mentioned are tops in their categories.
Product News
News about Hogan Personality Tests
Something new, something free, and more certification seminars are all in the offing for users of Hogan Assessment Systems' products. Here’s the rundown:
New Hogan Hiring Report Eliminates Need for Local Validation—Free Trial Available
The Candidate Potential Report Series (CPR) joins the report options for the Hogan product line . This report is designed for organizations assessing fewer than 80 job candidates per year across different job titles. CPR helps select the right candidates for jobs throughout an organization, providing an immediate rating of “high,” “medium” or “low” job fit based on Hogan's archive of job families*. CPR is based on seven job families that capture more than 95% of jobs in the economy. You do not need to conduct local validation through job analysis. CPR reports are valid and legally defensible. Performance Programs looks forward to offering this to our clients as one of the fastest ways yet to manage the risks of bad hires. CPR is part of Hogan’s Selection Series.
Free: Get three free Candidate Potential Reports before August 31, 2007. If you wish to continue using the reports, you will be billed a one-time fee of $400 to set up your account and $50 per report thereafter.
Cross Cultural Readiness: Global Assessment Inventory
New! Free Trial Available!
The Global Assessment Inventory (GAI) is a new survey from Prudential Relocation's Intercultural Group, publishers of the 30-year-old Overseas Assignment Inventory. The GAI is designed for business travelers, employees in multicultural teams, executives who manage individuals from multiple cultures, candidates for international work assignments, college students considering a study year abroad, and Human Resource managers who want to promote cross-cultural effectiveness through assessment and training.
GAI measures eight distinct individual attributes crucial for successful adaptation to doing business across cultures.
- Change tolerance
- Initiative
- Respect for beliefs
- Patience
- Risk taking
- Sociability
- Openness
- Global sensitivity
- Travel flexibility
- Travel expectations
We are currently collecting data to create norms. Please contact us for further information on how you can obtain your free trial of the Global Assessment Inventory. See a sample report. (If you are a registered member of the PPI shopping cart, simply log in and use the Free Resources link at the top.)
Easier Way to Obtain Survey Samples and Reports
If you received this newsletter by e-mail, you have already registered for PPI's new shopping cart. We thought you'd like to know that, in addition to providing the opt-in for newsletters and product updates, registration on the shopping cart also gives you a link called Free Resources. After creating your account and logging in, look for the link at the top of the screen. By using Free Resources link, registered members obtain unlimited downloads of report and survey samples of all the types we offer.
Shopping cart registration also gives you the option to receive sign up for product notifications by using the Product Notification option on each product page.
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