Corporate changes force managers to juggle different views of fairness

Middle-managers can often find themselves trapped between different stakeholders’ perceptions of what fair treatment is, in reaction to corporate changes, shows new research from Aalto University School of Business.

According to Associate Professor Marjo-Riitta Diehl, from the Department of Management Studies, and her co-authors, these managers can often experience uncertainty, anxiety, and reluctance to take action as a result of this.

The research discovered having to navigate the conflicting perspectives of peers, senior management, and subordinates often causes managers to experience guilt over decisions they made which they feel were unjust. 

The researchers also found sometimes managers had to navigate a discrepancy between the organisation’s strategic needs and their duty of care to their individual employees.

In response, they can be, among other things, motivated to discreetly recompense employees they feel they treated unfairly before changing to a role without managerial responsibilities. This is known as “Robin Hoodism”.

The internal conflict managers feel, as the company’s expectations of their managerial role pressure them to make decisions contrary to what they deem to be fair, can have severe consequences. 

Those who cannot reconcile their values with the company’s may choose to leave their employment as a result.

“Organisations must be aware if managers can't reconcile their role with their values, this may result in them trying to establish fairness according to their own rules ‘under the radar’ or even exit the company. 

Some managers, of course, also choose to prioritise the strategic needs of the organisation, aiming to contribute to the company’s survival, or the ‘greater good,’” says Professor Diehl.

Professor Diehl and her co-researchers also found managers varied in their likelihood to justify their decisions by dehumanising people that may have suffered from their decisions, for example declaring laid off employees as “bad apples”.

This research was based on two rounds of interviews with managers in the German branch of an international company shortly before and after restructuring changes. The paper was published in the Journal of Business Ethics.

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12531441.

New book 'Good Work, Great Technology' explores how HR technologies can help ‘humans to be their best’

Featuring valuable insights from 93 experts from 87 different organisations across the HR and people management space, a new book commissioned by HR systems provider Ciphr aims to ‘lift the lid’ on the technology that matters most to HR professionals.

'Good Work, Great Technology: enabling strategic HR success through digital tools', written by award-winning HR journalist Jo Faragher, examines how organisations are employing different technologies to attract, engage, develop, and manage their workforce, and the positive impact that’s making to HR teams and the wider employee experience.

The book presents actionable strategies, research and lessons learned from around the world of work, while making the case for the power of integrated people technology, showing how rather than trying to get every single software solution from a single provider, there are significant benefits to be had from selecting the best technologies for an organisation’s particular needs that can easily link with the people data in their central HR system.

David Richter, director of marketing at Ciphr, says: “A big impetus for Ciphr in commissioning this book was to help HR teams see people technology in a new light, moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach. 

"Our experience of speaking with many HR teams, is, initially at least, that their first preference is to try and procure everything from a single provider. And that's great if you can. Realistically though, no single provider is ever going to be able to keep up with the pace of change and innovation across the entire market and satisfy every single HR technology need.

“Instead, why not focus on having an excellent central HR solution, and embracing the possibilities offered by connecting it to the specialist tools and software that are most important to your organisation – that helps your people in their roles. There is so much smart, useful, and innovative technology out there that HR shouldn't be afraid of experimenting to find what works best for them. Because with integrations you don’t need to shift your entire technology stack you can just integrate with additional, specialist software, depending on your needs.

“Of course, technology is just an enabler. Organisations should never lose sight of why they're using a particular piece of technology and the benefits that they expect to get from it, and plan accordingly. For me, the best workplace technologies are those that are designed to enhance and support people to do great work. And, importantly, help alleviate the evolving challenges that HR and organisations face in a post-pandemic world, with different ways of working.”

Ciphr’s 207-page book is broken down into sections covering: HR administration – charting how the market for HR and payroll technology has evolved to encompass remote working, collaboration technologies, and automation; Hiring showing how the right recruitment technology can support HR teams and enhance the candidate experience; Employee engagement and experience exploring some of the key elements to creating good organisational culture, including how to understand and measure what employees want from a good place to work; Learning and career progression looking at how organisations can assess and fill their skills gaps and build learning into an employee’s ‘flow of work’.

Within each section are chapters on everything from analytics to automation, onboarding, wellbeing, collaboration, performance management, pay and reward, and more.

Author Jo Faragher says: “For me, one of the book’s key takeaways is that there really is no perfect template for technology in an organisation – you always have to be led by the business. The HR tech market is growing at such a pace that many of the areas covered by the book will have evolved yet further by the time you read it. But as with every digital wave that came before, the key is to understand where it is you’re trying to go, and how technology can help you get there.”

'Good Work, Great Technology: enabling strategic HR success through digital tools', is now available to buy in ebook and print versions at Amazon, WHSmith and other online booksellers.

To download a pdf copy of Ciphr’s book, please visit www.ciphr.com/good-work-book.

Ciphr is a specialist provider of cloud-based HR, payroll, recruitment and learning software. More than 600 organisations use Ciphr’s integrated HR and people management solutions to help manage, retain and engage staff more effectively – while reducing the admin burden on busy HR teams.

For more information, please visit www.ciphr.com.

‘Storytelling’ found to be fundamental to HR analytics, new research reveals

‘Storytelling’ as a practice is a frequently-used and effective tool for HR analytics professionals, new research from Trinity Business School, UCD and Maynooth University has revealed.

According to recent research, undertaken by Na Fu, an associate professor of human resource management at Trinity Business School, and Anne Keegan, Full Professor of Human Resource Management at UCD and Steven McCartney, Assistant Professor, Management & Organisational Behaviour at Maynooth University, HR analysts regularly engage in storytelling to aid them in doing their jobs.

Having undertaken 15 semi-structured interviews with HR analytics professionals, the researchers identified two key uses for storytelling practices: storytelling as showcasing, and storytelling as curbing.

“Showcasing HR analytics involves translating the results and insights from HR analytics to different stakeholders to take actions, that is, revising, updating, or initiating new policies,” Dr Na Fu explains.

“Meanwhile, curbing entails the careful curation of projects in the short term, motivated by a desire to protect the quality of implementation, employee interests including privacy, and to establish solid analytical principles based on sound data and systems which their organisations do not currently possess,” she adds.

According to the research team, HR analytics professionals regularly engage in these two seemingly contradictory aspects of storytelling to develop sustainable and legitimate HR analytics.

Reflecting on the findings of the study, Dr Fu stated: “This research also sheds invaluable insights to other professionals who are interested in thriving at work. In order to do so, business professionals need to navigate and combine the showcasing (e.g., promoting a new practice, an intervention, or changes) and curbing (e.g., slowing down, refocusing). Curbing is not to simple step backward, but to prepare our organisations, people and professionals like us, and to get ready for the showcasing - to make it happen."

Dr Steven McCartney added: “Although much has been made about the need for analytical skills in roles such as HR Analysts, this paper illustrates the sometimes underrecognized skill of storytelling in performing HR analytics tasks in practice while highlighting its complexities.

Typically, when we think of the role of the HR Analyst, we are immediately drawn to the multitude of analytical skills required to perform complex data analysis. 

However, we find storytelling is also a multi-faceted concept involving more than just translating and selling HR analytics to stakeholders. This is an important finding for firms as they continue building HR analytics capabilities.

One key takeaway from this research is that firms need to invest in developing HR analytics experts who not only have a fundamental understanding of the technical elements but also, the ability to balance the complex challenges of HR analytics through storytelling.”

The paper, The duality of HR analysts' storytelling: Showcasing and curbing, published in Human Resource Management Journal, can be accessed here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1748-8583.12466.

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