Benchmarking the human side of the business enterprise

Citation

Roy, M.H. and Dugal, S.S. (2005), "Benchmarking the human side of the business enterprise", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 12 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2005.13112caa.001

Benchmarking the human side of the business enterprise

This special issue of Benchmarking: An International Journal invites a discourse on the question of a benchmark by which the culture-performance link can be measured and/or judged. The manuscripts included are truly international in nature with analysis involving companies in Australia, China, the UK and the USA. A benchmark is a yardstick, a standard, against which to compare and measure one’s performance; the object being to attempt to do everything a little better tomorrow than it was done today. The cultural value underlying this notion is that continuous improvement is the path to a higher standard of performance.

Kyriakidou and Gore’s analysis of 89 case studies of small management enterprises in UK found that the cultural values of involvement, cooperation, learning and sharing have a strong impact on performance. The small businesses were broken down into hotels, restaurants, pubs, visitor attractions and leisure operations. The massive undertaking involved personalized visits by the researchers to each business. A semi-structured interview was devised to explore the content of organizational culture in the best-performing enterprises.

McKay and Chung in their study, “Benchmarking for entrepreneurial survival,” propose shifting the focus from benchmarking performance outcomes to benchmarking processes. Evaluating everyday activities avoids straying from organizational goals and develops competencies to raise standards of performance. They offer suggestions for developing appropriate benchmarks in four processes that contribute to entrepreneurial viability, namely: cooperation, sharing founder’s vision, time management, and developing organizational competencies. Their paper also highlights two instruments that may be useful in following this train of research.

Tyler, in her paper examines the use of benchmarking as a management technique in the Australian non-profit sector. She asks the question, why is it not being used more often? Possible reasons for the limited use of benchmarking to date are outlined and a plan of action is then suggested for promoting this technique to non-profit organizations.

Kowalski and Swanson focus on benchmarking, the alternative work arrangement of teleworking. They describe teleworking as, all work arrangements where employees conduct some or all of their work away from the office. They suggest that companies that wish to have a world-class teleworking program may want to undertake a benchmarking study to determine the best teleworking practices. They introduce a framework of the critical success factors including support, communication, and trust that should be examined while benchmarking telework programs. In order to address both macro and micro levels of analysis, their framework outlines critical success factors at the organizational, managerial, and employee levels.

Recently, businesses have been altering employee reward systems by decreasing traditional pay for performance schemes and increasing group pay for performance mechanisms. Gainsharing is the fastest growing non-traditional pay for performance reward system. In their paper, Roy and Dugal attempt to build on current research by providing a general model of factors that determine whether a particular gainsharing effort will increase organizational effectiveness. Gainsharing and benchmarking share the same philosophical underpinnings; a belief in constant improvement. Roy and Dugal make the case that gainsharing plans are better suited for building a culture that aligns the wishes of all stakeholders. Building on their general model, they discuss specific aspects of gainsharing that interact to determine effectiveness. A summation of the empirical literature to date provides support for the contention that gainsharing plans improve organizational effectiveness.

Garg and Ma’s study on benchmaking culture and performance in Chinese organizations is based on three types of organizations operating in the Jiangsu province of China:

1. 1.

   Foreign owned organizations or foreign multinationals;

2. 2.

   Joint venture organizations; and

3. 3.

   Chinese owned and operated companies.

A total of 48 companies were studied across the three categories. Their study employs a survey questionnaire that contains 15 items measuring cultural manifestations as perceived in the form of management systems, leadership and style. They found significant differences in culture of the three types of organizations that contribute to varying sets of managerial systems and styles. Their results indicate that there are indeed differences between Chinese and non-Chinese management styles. Consequently, different benchmarking practices are required.

In her research, Flory found that when self-managed teams are implemented in organizations, even with the help from outside consultants, there is a high chance of disappointment. She suggests a critical reflexive dialogue where personal experiences are not avoided and where “taken for granted assumptions” can be explored. Without a trained conscience, an individual will find it difficult to see the difference between the path of the single standard and the slippery slope of expediency. A trained conscience is developed through personal reflection. However, without a commitment to the truth, personal reflection results only in rationalizations which are subsequently dismissed as fads. Disciplined reflection does not take time away from work; it sustains the spirit and increases the intensity and quality of work and is something to be strived for.

In their paper, McKay and Chung suggest that transformational leadership provides a framework for considering cultural benchmarks because this kind of leadership is necessarily inner-directed. Through actions and words, the transformational leader embodies the organizational vision and culture. Consequently, it is a person who takes on the task of “internal marketing” to create an internal climate which encourages employees to see each other as being on the same “team.”

Adequate time each day needs to be given to activities that are “not urgent but important: such as values clarification, relationship building and empowerment”. Starbucks has come up with the unique idea that employees can and should monitor whether management is abiding by the ideals envisioned in the mission. Everyone employed by Starbucks is a member of the “mission statement police”.

If imperfect imitability is a necessary condition for sustainable competitive advantage (McKay and Chung) then, organizational competency in, how processes work, is a competitive resource. This is both behavioural and cognitive. It centres around how people make sense of particular skills and assets. And, how they use them to transform actions into outcomes. It is easy to capture behavior of a successful organization, but it is the culture of doing things that can not be imitated. Consequently, a benchmark for creating shared meanings is going to remain a challenge both for theoreticians and practitioners.

Matthew H. RoyAssociate Professor of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. His research interests are varied, but focus on small group development, trust building, and communication strategies for organizational success. He has published and/or presented over 100 referred scholarly manuscripts.Sanjiv S. DugalAssociate Professor of Management at the University of Rhode Island. His research focuses on social construction, self reflection, and the intersection of all things in producing meaning.