BUS603: Managing People

The comparison of findings to the literature is to identify new elements which emerged from the case study which may add to the current body of knowledge or provide insight to opportunities for further research. 

Topic I: Managing in State Government 

Public organizations differ from private organizations as a consequence of the functions they provide to society. What makes public management distinctive is that the most fundamental politics are at the heart of the enterprise and the external pressures on how public organizations function influences how managers behave in their roles. 

Wallace Ingraham and Getha-Taylor identified the skills and competencies of the political appointees as directors and leaders of large public agencies, noting that they must 

• be policy experts in or have experience in policies administered by their departments;
• have enough managerial and leadership experience to lead a federal agency; and
• be willing to support the policy agenda of the president, or in this case, the governor. 

As administrations change, political appointees are brought in to direct and lead agency bureaucracies. New administrations require organizational redirection to support changing policy direction, which leads to a change in organizational leadership. The appointees play a policy role as well as an organizational leadership role which creates a bifurcated "organization within the organization" model for agencies. This is related to "Abdul's" remarks quoted in Chapter 4 where he described how that concept was played out in the agency in which he worked. "Abdul" referred to an inherent tension that was felt when appointees came in to drive a political agenda, and agency staff must maintain continuity to deliver programs and services. The permanent employees walk a fine line trying to adjust to new leaders and policies and at the same time they are managing within regulations already determined by funding sources. 

Theme 1.1: Public scrutiny of state government raises standards and imposes limitations in the workplace. Working under public scrutiny produced expectations of high ethical standards for state employees who perform as stewards of public funds and services through the work they do. Scrutiny was perceived by managers in Avalon's state government as limiting innovation due to risk of failure, which could be perceived as frivolous or wasteful of government resources. This was underscored by "Tim's" comment that "across state government jobs are visible and high profile; we have to guard state dollars and mistakes just get magnified". Notably, innovation is enhanced by autonomy and support delivered in a positive and safe atmosphere that encourages openness and risk taking. 

While openness and risk taking represents a significant contrast to the environment described by the state government managers, the risk aversion reflects the political nature of state government and the pressures of the external environment. 

Theme 1.2: Managers are dedicated to public service. A study on public employee engagement (M2 Presswire, 2012 which polled over 2,200 US public sector employees, reported 58% were fully engaged with their jobs. Further, 38% of all respondents were reported as very, or somewhat likely to leave their jobs if working conditions didn't improve. Of public employees age 34 and younger, 47% reported they were very, or somewhat likely to change jobs if conditions didn't improve. Specifics on which job conditions needed to change were not defined in the article, however, the higher likelihood of employees age 34 and younger changing jobs reflects experiences managers in Avalon's state government described regarding engagement and job churn with younger entrants in the workforce. 

The most distinguishing engagement factor for public sector employees cited in the IPMA-HR and ADP study was "serving the public with integrity," which was listed at 98% total agreement. The group of public employees age 34 and younger and technology workers of all ages were below average in identifying "making a difference" as a key component in engagement. The article announcing the study also reported that public sector employees who are "fully engaged" are 

• Twice as likely to stay in their current job; 
• 2.5 times more likely to feel they can "make a difference"; 
• 2.5 times more likely to recommend their workplace to others; 
• Three times as likely to report being "very satisfied" in their jobs (n. p).

The IPMA-HR and ADP study was described as a benchmark for public sector organizations and further data were not available with which to compare Avalon's state government. In interviews with Avalon's state government managers, many referenced "working toward the public good," contributing to "public service," and "that's part of the give back of my job". Although these do not draw a direct relationship to serving the public with integrity, they are consistent with commitment to public service, which translates into higher levels of engagement. 

Theme 1.3: Changes in the state workforce requires different practices in attracting, developing, and engaging employees than in the past. Studies on managing generational differences at work have been conducted to help leaders and managers understand workplace attitudes and the behaviors of the incoming workforce; some differences between characteristics of the departing workforce and the incoming younger were noted. 

Researchers Parry and Urwin argued that, despite the existence of strong sociological theory on generational differences, empirical evidence for differences in work values among generations is not conclusive. The researchers asserted that definitions assigned to a group cannot be considered the representative influence on values and attitudes in the workplace. Despite academic disagreement on true definitions of age cohorts or generations and an arguable lack of empirical evidence, practitioners in organizations responsible for managing a span of multiple age groups need to be aware of the characteristics of their workforce and the influence they bring to an organization's policies, culture, and workforce and talent management strategy. Age-related issues were described by managers in Avalon's state government, as noted by "Natalie" who shared concerns that unmet expectations of the incoming younger workforce led to rapid turnover as younger employees "leapfrogged" across agencies into higher level jobs and increases in salary. "Mike" also mentioned that the younger workforce "didn't want to pay their dues" by staying long enough to learn a job before asking for a raise or promotion. 

Topic II: Managers' Practices in Talent Management 

Managers are the interface between employees and the organization. Buckingham stated that, while the job of the leader is to rally people to a better future, the role of the manager is internally focused on turning talent into performance. Buckingham's recommendation is to find what is unique about each person and capitalize on it to get the best out of the person. Ross suggested that defining talent as an input, and success as the output, creates a climate for personal and professional success. Another approach suggests the best managers are coaches, while Caplan's position is that strategic talent development is the best way to engage employees and keep organizations thriving. The focus on singular management practices in the literature implies that an integrated approach to talent management resides with HR, so the findings of inconsistent talent management practices in Avalon's state government in Theme 2.1 are consistent with the singular focus on management practices presented in the literature.

Theme 2.1: Practices in planning, recruitment, development, and engagement are present but not consistently applied. Silzer and Dowell identified the behaviors managers must employ for effective talent management: (a) develop expertise in recruiting, managing, developing, and retaining the right talent to meet business needs; (b) take responsibility and be held accountable for talent decisions and talent development; (c) establish a clear and high standard for talent management; and (d) instill a talent mindset in others. Managers in Avalon's state government were aware of and practice multiple aspects of talent management in varying degrees and many environmental factors were identified as impacting their ability to do more. 

A survey of public sector practices in workforce planning was conducted by the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) - HR committee. Reasons cited by respondents to the IPMA study for lack of planning included: (a) lack of sufficient staff to create a plan; (b) ability to get by with replacement staffing or backfilling; (c) leadership development for future key positions was a higher priority; (d) more immediate issues such as dealing with budget crisis and staff reductions took precedence; and (e) planning was not a high priority for management. The IPMA study participants were asked to identify barriers to workforce planning and the factors reported by Johnson and Brown were both strategic and structural in nature: (a) preoccupation with short-term activities; (b) insufficient staffing; (c) lack of funding; (d) lack of executive support; (e) restrictive merit system rules on hiring; (f) insufficient marketing effort; (g) lack of confidence in planning techniques, and resistance to change. 

Preliminary findings from a recent state government workforce study conducted by Barrett, Green, and Seldon were featured in a teleconference hosted by the National Association of State Government Administrators (NASGA) in January 2014. Interestingly, little had changed for many states in terms of workforce planning since the IPMA survey conducted a decade ago. Government HR departments reported that, impacted by budget cuts, HR focused on more pressing activities in reorganization and layoffs which pushed workforce planning off priority agendas. 

Theme 2.2: Managers were inspired by both good and poor role models in talent management. The research findings on the impact of leadership in organizations presented by Zenger and Folkman are compelling. One variable emerged as the highest predictor of differences between satisfied, engaged, and committed employees and dissatisfied, disengaged, and uncommitted employees: their immediate supervisor. In Zenger and Folkman's research, leadership effectiveness was also shown to have a correlative impact on customer satisfaction, turnover, and the financial bottom line in organizations. 

The external environment in which state government operates influences the internal environment, and can impact how managers behave. Graffy observed that, "the capacity of public managers to build bridges between agencies and citizens flows directly from an understanding of their roles, which largely depends on guidance from one generation to the next". The question is whether managers can act as guides in the absence of "a strong sense of public managers as active stewards of socially constructed, continually evolving institutional arrangements that drive legitimacy and ongoing relevance in part from the fact that people inhabit and cultivate those spaces together". What is needed, according to Graffy, is to support public managers to act as ongoing stewards of human-centered social institutions in concert with the complex political influences and technical expertise requirements. 

Topic III: Factors Perceived as Limiting Talent Management 

Managers in Avalon's state government reported multiple barriers they faced in their daily work as well as system and infrastructure factors which they viewed as restricting their ability to identify successors, to cross-train other staff, or to pass on critical organizational knowledge. 

Theme 3.1: Barriers to workforce planning and talent management were identified as lack of time, budget, and sufficient staff. The State Government Workforce report findings were very similar to the findings of the Avalon's state government case study. The report noted that the lack of public sector workforce planning was due to insufficient resources including time, staff, expertise, and other immediate pressures on HR that had relegated planning to a back burner. Likewise, reductions in succession planning, recruiting, and leadership development activities were attributed to recession-related state budget cuts in recent years. The HR perspectives on the reasons for limited practices in workforce planning presented in the Barrett, Green, and Sheldon study, combined with the IPMA survey findings, are consistent with the findings presented in the case study of Avalon's state government. 

Theme 3.2: Outdated systems, lack of infrastructure, and varying agency HR practices were considered primary factors limiting talent management practices. The roles of HR in helping organizations achieve competitive advantage through the strategic acquisition, engagement, development, and retention of talent has been well documented. Managing and measuring the talent management function is pivotal in achieving the organization's strategic objectives. These activities include (a) being a subject matter expert on attracting, developing, and retaining talent; (b) staffing HR with professionals who understand the link between talent and business strategy; (c) acting as a change agent for building and sustaining an effective talent management approach; (d) helping executives and managers make better talent management decisions; and (e) using valid metrics to monitor talent management effectiveness. The data on HR practices and infrastructure generated from interviews with managers in Avalon's state government coalesced into its own theme because of the frequency and depth of examples. While HR was not the focus of the study, managers identified the systems, services, and partnership they hoped to see from agency and enterprise HR offices. The literature on HR's role in talent management compared to the themes of the study points to gaps in system alignment with organizational goals and strategy. 

Topic IV: Elevating Talent Leadership in State Government 

Successful workforce planning cannot be accomplished in a vacuum; leaders must integrate the planning process and the management of the ensuing employment relationships as the plans are brought to fruition. In the National Association of State Government Administrators (NASGA) teleconference in January 2014, both Pennsylvania and Connecticut reported progress in workforce planning during. Both states presented workforce data and planning tools during the NASGA teleconference; both also provided examples of workforce data analysis that aided in informing strategy development and the ensuing implementation of talent management programs. 

Pennsylvania, like many states, faced an aging employee population and loss of institutional knowledge with the retiring Baby Boomers. A retirement projection tool depicted retirement eligibility by agency, organization, and job classification over a four-year span. The tool could be used to predict future workforce shortfalls, identify knowledge transfer goals, and plan succession efforts. Pennsylvania conducted analyses to identify employee preferences and systemic issues that led to employee turnover and trend identification; the data were used to inform recruitment and retention strategies. Further integration occurred with a standardized employee onboarding system, a classification study, performance management automation systems, and several employee development initiatives designed to fill talent pipelines in targeted classifications. The report on Pennsylvania's activities reflected many of the same initiatives reported underway in Avalon state government's strategic plan for implementation of an integrated approach to talent management. 

Connecticut's report in the NASGA teleconference identified workforce challenges similar to other states and included: an aging workforce with retirement eligibility, salary compression, and a somewhat flat organizational structure that offered little career movement. Risk analysis was conducted through impact assessment of vacancies in key activities and functions, underdeveloped successors in the pipeline, poor assimilation into a job or employment, and poor deployment of talent against organization goals. Integrated planning and strategy development drove changes in statewide systems and processes designed to increase the state government's capacity to attract, develop, and retain talent. 

Businesses have sought to outperform rivals in the marketplace through the strategic differentiators of cost leadership, differentiation, customer intimacy, or innovation. Aligning talent management with strategy is the new differentiator for organizations in achieving goals and fulfilling their missions. Based on the reports from other states, government is also competing for talent. Faced with challenges in filling key positions with individuals possessing the right capabilities and skills, Nagran noted that organizations experience constraints to the organizational structure in which they are "forced to operate at less than full effectiveness in its mission". Participants in the Avalon's state government study expressed strong beliefs about the state's need to address talent management in a strategic and holistic manner. 

Theme 4.1: Developing talent management abilities is a high priority for managers. 

Managers are the primary lever for significant employee engagement as they are the front line of communication with employees. They plan and delegate assignments and remove barriers, identify resources to complete work, and guide employee performance. 

Organizations most successful in attracting and retaining talent are investing in management development programs – such as General Mills' Great Manager program – ranked #1 in Best Leadership Development Programs by Leadership Excellence magazine. A core belief of the program is that talent and leadership development is intrinsic to the company mission; one of the organization's five stated core values is developing and investing in its employees. Senior executives teach the classes, and program effectiveness is evaluated through alignment with key business strategies and metrics. 

An initiative in the federal government called PeopleFirst was an employee-led employee engagement initiative designed to develop talent leaders across the agency. PeopleFirst reflected its purpose in its name and was designed as an employee engagement initiative to address deeply rooted structural and cultural issues that may interfere with effective talent management practices. Inherent to the transformation were shared values – organizational practices; shared goals – performance management; shared knowledge – learning and professional development; and one community – organizational culture. The results of the initiative led to new models of decision-making, new leadership roles regardless of rank in the organization, different approaches to problem-solving, and increased organizational commitment and citizenship. 

While every organization takes a different approach to talent management, each is similar in several important aspects: organizational commitment to development; alignment with organizational strategy; and performance measurement. What the organizations in Rivera and Flink's study recognized was that the success of the organization resided in their employees; they adopted a "talent mindset" and an integrated set of practices to support managers in their work of attracting, developing, and retaining employees for better organizational results. 

The findings in the Avalon case study suggested that developing skills as talent leaders was a high priority for managers. Statements such as, "how do you recruit, attract, select, deal with problems, and [learn] specifics on pay plans….how do you use coaching before it becomes discipline…". were representative remarks expressed by managers. Other comments noted the importance of mentoring, peer coaching, and ideas exchanges through communities of practice. The literature defined managerial behaviors and roles in talent management, and managers in the study expressed understanding of their roles in talent management. There is a gap between the literature and managerial talent management practices in Avalon's state government which managers in the study ascribed to limitations in systems, policies, and resources. Alignment between organizational goals and approaches to management development is a challenge that remains in Avalon's state government. 

Theme 4.2 System change in enterprise HR is focused on integrated talent management. A strategic approach is supported by Silzer and Dowell who wrote that talent management is "a systems approach to thinking about talent". In their research, Silzer and Dowell sought to identify differentiators between effective and ineffective talent management systems. The resulting DIME Model of Talent Management Success described four success factors that characterized the most advanced and successful talent management efforts in organizations: Driven by business strategy; Integrated with other processes; Managed as a core business practice; Engrained as a talent mindset. The interviews with managers in Avalon's state government illustrated the need for a more comprehensive and integrated approach to talent management in the state, and the strategic plan reflected movement toward that goal. 

The literature is clear on leadership as a critical factor in generating a shared understanding of where an organization is headed and positioning the organization for success. Ulrich and Smallwood also noted that leadership influences the brand identity of an organization and is the basis for an organization's culture and talent mindset. Leadership commitment is central to an organization's internal and external reputation as an employer and ensuring effective talent management practices at all levels in the organization. 

One of the goals reported in the enterprise HR strategic plan in Avalon's state government was to strengthen its brand as an employer. The result of integrated talent management systems and effective leadership is a strong employer brand. Avalon's state government enterprise HR is in the early stages of strategic plan implementation which includes efforts to (a) align talent strategy with business needs; (b) align policy and practices with talent strategy; (c) implement infrastructure upgrades; (d) secure further funding from the legislature; and cultivate a talent mindset throughout state government. Each of these efforts represents herculean tasks when considered individually.