March, 2001
Volume 40 / Number 3
Page 14
HPT: The Culture Factor
by Roger Addison and Klaus D. Wittkuhn
Working with colleagues from other areas of the world can be stressful because
we are faced with different values and behaviors. On the surface everything
might look the same, but the way we experience work may be totally different
from culture to culture. This can have far-reaching consequences. If a manager
goes to a production site in a foreign country, he or she can no longer be sure
that the management techniques he or she has found successful will work in
another culture. How do we identify and prepare for these differences, and how
can we adapt our behaviors and methods for success?
One management challenge is to simultaneously manage performance across cultures
and within fast-changing corporate cultures. How can human performance
technology (HPT) support managers to meet this challenge? Can HPT be
successfully adapted to different cultures? Two HPT tools?the
culture audit and the systems model?can help performance consultants
understand different cultures and provide the basis for successful management
action.
Page 20
Measurement: A Few Important
Ideas
by Carl Binder, PhD
HPT practitioners do not collect or share performance measures as often
as one might expect, in part because of confusion about what performance
measurement is and how to do it. This article builds on three key points: (1) We
should identify countable behaviors, accomplishments, and business
results as the foundation of performance measurement. (2) Because performance
always occurs in time, our performance measurements should include the time
dimension whenever possible, expressed in standard units. (3) By representing differences
and changes as multiply/divide factors
rather than as percentages, we can avoid the dangers of percent?including
the fact that a given percent increase does not equal the same percent decrease.
These principles should encourage practitioners to gather more direct measures
of performance, to share measured results more widely, and to compare the
effects of various interventions using standard units of measurement to advance
the field and the effectiveness of their own practice.
Page 29
Degrees of Change?Resistance
or Resilience
by Christine Marsh
It is a fact that most organizations have a majority of employees who are more
likely to question, resent, or even fear change than those who are in tune,
motivated, and keen to move forward. Any system can only provide a framework for
the implementation of agreed processes. The evaluation and monitoring of peoples’
performance and behavioral competencies follows on.
The resilience or bounce-back factors that affect making a smooth transition
from "old" to "new" need to be explored and the blocks
removed prior to implementation. It is too costly to allow negative vibes
to sabotage key business objectives.
There is a diminishing time slot for any degree of stability before the next
change hits you. The need to stay ahead of the game is vital; predictive and
innovative skills are now rated highly in any senior manager’s tool kit.
At the end of the day, people have to deliver the goods. The balancing act
between having effective systems and motivated people is crucial.
Page 34
Energizing
Employees with Mentoring: They Keep Staying, and Staying, and Staying…
by Margo Murray
Attracting good people is unusually difficult today with such a shallow labor
pool. The US unemployment rate dropped below four percent in 2000, the lowest in
more than 37 years. Ireland, Taiwan, and other countries are experiencing
similar shortages of skilled workers. Hiring bonuses of one year’s salary are
common in many professional and technical work arenas, and the proliferation of
stock options elsewhere has put the squeeze on many manufacturing and
government-sector recruitment efforts. Costs of recruitment are the tip of the
iceberg if the new hire is to replace an employee who resigned to go elsewhere.
Recruitment and retention are just two of the result areas impacted by employees’
perceptions of the concern employers demonstrate for their career development.
Page 39
Making a Difference
by Carol M. Panza
Making a difference doesn’t mean preparing and presenting a set of
recommendations for moving your client from where it is now to some ideal
operating process. Heresy, you say? Twenty-five pounds of advice that will end
up in a big binder sitting on a shelf, or worse, an expensive long-term effort
that never pays back its investment or achieves stated goals, cannot be anyone’s
idea of a useful objective. This article first presents an overall approach for
looking at organizations of all types, beginning at the macro level and
proceeding systematically to the performer/position level. However, the focus is
on making a case for the development of performance improvement recommendations
that are truly client supportive according to a set of requirements. The idea is
to help clients actually improve, rather than being satisfied with defining for
them a long-term ideal without addressing the practical reality of getting
there.
Page 46
Going International:
The Balanced Scorecard
by Alicia M. Rojas, PhD
The balanced scorecard is a management system that provides a framework for
strategic measurement that translates the vision and the strategy of an
organization in operational terms by a set of four indicators: financial,
process, employee and client satisfaction, and results. There is a closed
relationship between the organizational vision, strategy, and the strategic
objectives with these four types of indicators.
The balanced scorecard is not a measurement system or a bureaucratic process.
And it is not a simple tool to implement without the commitment and
participation of upper-level management. As human performance technologists
working throughout the world, we deal with multicultural labor forces and
customers, as well as the intercultural issues associated with them. Therefore,
when designing and deploying a balanced scorecard, we must pay attention to the
characteristics of the framework we are using and the environment and its
cultural variables as well.
Page 52
lean-ISDSM
by Guy W. Wallace
The ultimate goals of ISD processes are to create instruction that is effective
and efficient. Good ISD processes should themselves be effective and efficient.
Many training and development organizations have undertaken efforts to
re-engineer their ISD processes to make them common across the
organization and predictable in their schedules and costs, and to ensure
that the training and development produced is effective.
Over the past dozen years, the author has attempted to reduce to practice many
of the prevailing ISD concepts, philosophies, methods, processes, and practices.
The result is what he calls the PACT Processes for Training and Development.
Three ISD processes?CAD, MCD, and IAD?each
operate at distinct levels of ISD. Each is driven by the analysis methodologies
of performance modeling and knowledge/skill analysis. PACT project and
management philosophies can save organizations from low-value training
and development and steer the resources to training and development with
strategic, business-critical, high-payoff implications.
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