Got a Solution?: HR Approaches to 5 Common and Persistent Business Problems - Softcover

Dwyer, Dale J., Ph.D.; Caldwell, Sheri A., Ph.D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586443666 ISBN 13: 9781586443665

Verlag: Society for Human Resource Management, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

As an HR professional, do you see problems in your organization that you know could be solved, but you don’t know where to begin?

The authors of the bestselling Got a Minute? The 9 Lessons Every HR Professional Must Learn to Be Successful have written a timely book about the five universal problems that all organizations face.

The problems discussed focus on under-developed or improperly implemented strategies, falling market share and increased competition, overwhelming federal and state laws and regulations, poorly prepared leaders, an inability to attract and retain workers, and the changing nature of society and the workforce.

Some unique solutions to these problems can be found in Solving Organizational Problems with HR Solutions. This book approaches these problems by engaging employees, resulting in lasting benefits for the entire organization. After reading this book, you will be better equipped to come up with workable and innovative solutions to the very problems that plague your organization, as well as demonstrate to upper management that "people truly are their greatest asset."

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dale J. Dwyer, PhD is a professor of management at the University of Toledo. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. Sheri A. Caldwell, PhD is HR Director at the Grain Division for The Andersons. She has held top human resource management positions at Hickory Farm, the University of Toledo Physicians Group, the Toledo Zoo, and American Identity. She is past president of the Toledo Area Human Resource Management Association and was on the human resources committee for the American Red Cross. She lives in Oregon, Ohio. Dale and Sheri are also the coauthors of Got a Minute? The 9 Lessons Every HR Professional Must Learn. 

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Got a Solution?

HR Approaches to 5 Common and Persistent Business Problems

By Dale J. Dwyer, Sheri A. Caldwell

Society for Human Resource Management

Copyright © 2014 Dale J. Dwyer and Sheri A. Caldwell
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-58644-366-5

Contents

Preface, 
Acknowledgements, 
Chapter 1: Missing the Mark: Why Organizational Problems Don't Get Solved, 
Chapter 2: Does This Make Me Look Fat? Analyzing Organization-Environment Fit, 
Chapter 3: Common Business Problem #1: Fads, Flubs, and Failures: How Do We Keep Vision-Focused and Strategy-Directed?, 
Chapter 4: Common Business Problem #2: Playing to Win or Playing Not to Lose: How Do We Become More Competitive in Our Marketplace?, 
Chapter 5: Common Business Problem #3: Ad Quod Damnum: How Do We Deal with All the Changing Laws and Regulations?, 
Chapter 6: Common Business Problem #4: Extreme Makeover: How Do We Attract and Retain the Most Competent Talent?, 
Chapter 7: Common Business Problem #5: Future Shock: How Do We Deal with a Changing Society?, 
Chapter 8: Concluding Thoughts, 
Appendix: Resources and Tips, 
Endnotes, 
About the Authors, 
Additional SHRM-Published Books, 

CHAPTER 1

Missing the Mark: Why Organizational Problems Don't Get Solved

"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year."

— John Foster Dulles, former secretary of state

One only has to look at the recent headlines or the never-ending television reports on the current condition of U.S. organizations to know that a host of problems confronts all of them. Many of these problems, of course, we blame on the financial crisis, government regulations, and general malaise of our country's political, social, legal, and economic systems that have dominated much of the last 20-plus years. However, though many of the problems have been exacerbated by these systems, most organizational problems have not been caused by these external systems. Rather, the responsible parties are generally managers who have missed or misinterpreted crucial environmental information and, as a result, have made decisions that have led their organizations to their current level of instability and, in some extreme cases, eventual demise.

In this book we examine some of the most common problems and issues that organizations have faced in the past few years. Moreover, we take an additional step of proposing resolutions to these problems by using an underused resource — employees. Our basic premise is this: In times of organizational trouble, making full use of the organization's human capital will save the organization. As a corollary to this premise, we offer another: If an organization's employees are not capable of helping an organization in times of organizational trouble, then the management of the organization is to blame for making poor HR decisions (that is, selection, training, evaluation, development, discipline, and termination).

We realize that these are controversial statements. However, many organizations have found these statements to be true for them. We hope you will discover throughout the book some novel ways to address your organization's problems by making full use of the competitive advantage that your employees provide.

All Organizations Have Critical Problems

Regardless of the perceived level of an organization's success (and by "success" we mean that it is growing, profitable, and outperforming its competitors and that its customers are happy), all organizations have problems, many of which go unresolved. In fact, the majority of these problems turn out to be critical predictors of an organization's continuing success or its inevitable decline. What is most concerning, however, is that top managers often do not know how severe the problems are, and some managers are not even aware that critical problems exist in their organizations until it's too late to do much about them.

How can that be? Senior managers are in charge, aren't they? Shouldn't they know what is affecting their organization's success or failure? We believe there are two basic reasons why many senior managers do not see the existence or severity of organizational problems.

First, when an organization is successful, managers believe they are effectively addressing any problems or issues before they become critical. In other words, the mindset here is that if an organization is successful, it must not have critical, unsolved problems. Consequently, the managers believe that they are aware of and in control of those things that affect the firm's success or failure.

Second, managers and employees alike have learned over time to tolerate problems so that they become almost invisible. As a result, the organization has learned to "work around" problems, rather than to tackle them head-on. Think about the last time you heard someone in your organization say something like this about problem X: "Yeah, everybody knows about [problem X], but we don't pay much attention to it; nobody wants to deal with [the red tape, specific person, agency, vendor, central office], because it's just easier to [alternative workaround action or behavior]."

In the first case, managers who believe they control those things that affect the success or failure of their organizations are deluding themselves. Organizations have critical problems primarily because the environment in which they are operating has changed. Although it is certainly true that managers control how they respond to (or adapt to) the environment, they do not control the environment itself. To grasp this realization requires a change in mindset about the extent and type of impact that managers have on their organizations and, more importantly, what role(s) they play in anticipating and addressing critical problems.

In the second case, what has been an invisible problem, or one that has been avoided or tolerated, can become catastrophic when the environment significantly changes. That is to say, an unsolved critical problem is a ticking time bomb that may or may not explode, depending entirely on the extent and type of an environmental change.

All of us have seen this play out in a host of different industries, organizations, and places in the past few years. One recent example was Toyota, which fought to protect its tattered reputation in the United States in public hearings on whether it properly handled recalls and other safety issues surrounding the unintentional acceleration of some of its vehicles. One member of Congress categorized Toyota's approach to unintended acceleration complaints this way: "There was kind of an attempt to sweep everything under the rug, keep it under the table, not tell anybody, and maybe it'll just go away."

Of course, responsible business professionals know that problems don't "just go away" by themselves. In 1982, Johnson and Johnson responded to the cyanide-poisoned Tylenol capsules by immediately removing 31 million bottles of Tylenol products from the shelves, promptly changing the bottle by introducing the first triple-seal, tamper-resistant package, and making presentations to the medical community and to consumer groups to explain the safety changes. The company's swift actions quickly restored lost market share and regained the confidence of consumers and, thereby, was the key to the brand's survival.

The Relationship of Organizations to Their Environments

How critical...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Society for Human Resource Management
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1586443666
• ISBN 13: 9781586443665
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 217
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar