How Tacit Knowledge can be used to improve organisational performance.

stoik musah,
LBS,Leicester.
stoikmusah@gmail.com

This essay will describe how tacit knowledge management practice can be utilized in an organisation to improve its organisational, market and financial performance alongside how there is more competitive value to its practice as opposed to explicit knowledge. With emphasis ascertaining the application of the various model/framework to tacit knowledge management practice in the organisational context. With reference to the above, the way business and organisational activities are carried out is increasingly changing, as recent years has seen an unprecedented growth in the speed of product and service change as a result of the application of information (Gulati and Zajac 2000). This increasingly turbulent environment has forced organisation to become more interested in new ways of gaining and sustaining competitive standing in the product and service they offer. Firms tend to devise continual strategic change process to manage and mobilized its resources through time for a competitive response. In this situation, the capacity of a firm to identify and understand the nature of competitive force and how they change with time will contribute to its competitive standing (Hosley, Lau etal 1994).Similarly the increase efficiency resulting from the process cited above allows for firms to specialize in the value creation activities supported by their own distinctive competence and knowledge (Janillo 1988,Langlois and Robertson 1995,Park 1996).To effect this process organisation engage in backward integration of breakthrough innovation in its human capital resources for deeply held and highly personal form of knowledge emerging most often, from the creative power of the mind(Mascitelli 2000).It is believed that a firms capability of effectively utilizing this source of knowledge to provide insight for creating value for customers need will provide significant impact on its market and financial performance.


However this concept of value has been given different shades of meanings by authors as Hakasson and Snehota (1995),Norman and Ramirez(1993),Porolini(1999) and Porter(1985). The central core issue among these various literature studies on this subject is in the area of in-depth knowledge on the value system and activities provided by organisations resources and to what extent can these value activities be effectively utilized. As value activities are essentially based on knowledge –the value of determination and motivation from employees is also related to the level of codification of that knowledge .The aspect of how well known, the capabilities underlying the value activities is related to- how easily the underlying knowledge can be assessed and shared among employees. Although such original thinking may manifest itself in a variety of ways .This has caused both scholars and Human Resource Practitioners to dig deeply into the source of creativity and insight. The works of Mascitelli (2000) reveals evidence of studies that highly creative artists, scientist, mathematicians etc often displays exceptional intelligence most often when confronted with a task. Mascitelli(2000) provides a plausible explanation for exceptional intelligence as above with reference from the works of Polanyi (1996) on “Tacit Dimension”. Polanyi(1996) argues that the portion of individual knowledge that is readily accessable to us is only a small fraction of the totality of our knowledge.The writer asserts that, in a sense, the knowledge that we can express in speech and in writing is only the tip of the entire human intellectual framework. Beneath the surface of conscious thought lies a vast proportion of tacit knowledge derived from a lifetime of experience ,practice ,perception and learning .

To Polanyi(1996), the essential nature of tacit knowledge embodies a lifetime of experience, indwelling by the innovator ,with the particulars of his chosen field, such that it becomes an intrinsic part of his mental makeup. This particulars, impact a kind of vision of things not yet known. In a sense, tacit knowledge allow you to see solutions without the conscious ability to explain your vision to pursue your aspiration by your action. From the standpoint of the firm, tacit knowledge problem solving skill is evident and seen in the multidisciplinary problem solving skills of Senior Researchers and Project Team leaders to develop visions that transcends precise details and subjects, thereby enabling the fusion of multiple facets of scientific knowledge for practical purposes and work processes. In the same way Quinn(1992), in his work on “Managing Proffessional Intellects” posit that pure invention most often is in the area of specialty of such highly capable individual. This is because they are best able to recognize the interrelationships among technologies required for value creation and move in the direction to visualize and provide complete solution to it. This is contrary to the views of the relationship between action and tacit knowledge explored by Hedesstrom and Whitley(2000), who argues that tacit knowledge is merely difficult to explore by the knowledge bearing expert to provide solutions to managerial concerns. What they put forward as a basis for their argument was that tacit knowledge almost from its definition can not be codified, in essence: because of where it is –typically in the minds of individuals. To them tacit knowledge is the knowledge you never see. This claim emerge from a similar distinction made by Sutton(2000) in his work on” knowledge and Conscious Execution of Task”. Sutton distinguish between the human state in conscious execution of a task and the human state in unconscious execution of same task. To Sutton unconscious knowledge cannot be directly assessed. If this being the case, how do you trust judgement from such human mental state .To Sutton how does reason prevail to make sense out of such judgement. Clarification was given on the above assertion by Zander and Zander(1993)that they maybe, infact possibilities of directly accessing this unconscious knowledge when it is converted to other form,so as to utilize the specific action in it, which an organisation can benefit from under certain conditions i.e management routine practice, specific human interaction context, when the pace performance is slow and pace variations are tolerable by the individual and when a standardize controlled context for the performance is assured( Zander and Zander 1993 cited in Howells 1999).

Similarly other related ideas were drawn from the works of Collins and Kush(1998) who in Hedesstrom and Whitley sense argue that, since tacit knowledge is personalised, and it resides in the mind of an individual. Once it is processed in the mind of individuals it becomes information. When this information is articulated or communicated to others in the form of data via computer output or written words then the conversion process can occur as discussed in the works of Zander and Zander (1993).Under this circumstances, in the organisation context, informations that are express in the above form is said to appear in explicit form or source of explicit knowledge.In the organisation, explicit knowledge is technical and carefully codified in a hierarchy of database or manuals (Smith 2001).For example explicit knowledge implies factual statements about issues as material properties, technical information, and routine manual instructions. Unlike tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge has the potential to explain why things work. As a result of the ease to communicate and store explicit knowledge in the organisation, there is little chance of losing explicit knowledge stored in files, since it is available in organisational repositories. Such knowledge can be accessed and used easily by anyone in the organisation unlike tacit knowledge(Grant1996).In this regard Hall and Andrrani(2003) argued that explicit knowledge is internally safe. However, plausible as this seems, explicit knowledge management practice in the organisation amidst heavy market competition involves heavy investment in electronic systems (Eginton 1998; Sbarcea 1998).Alternatively if that being the case, a vast space is needed to keep documents. In this regard Boral(2002) argues that this involves excessive documentation. Far greater than this is that, there is a high risk of imitation –if competitors gain assess to these document; leading to the loss of actual competitive advantage. In this situation explicit knowledge is externally vulnerable(Hall and Andriaini 2003).At this end, if we contend that the knowledge base of an organisation between the two ends over emphasis one at the expense of the other – a paradox exist, which leads to the question of which among tacit and explicit knowledge there is more competitive value in facilitating its exploration and management in the organisation, amidst the accelerating dynamics of market environment. Following this reasoning several scholars argued that tacit knowledge occupies the centre stage in the development of more competitive value (Nonaka 1991).

These authors offer analogies between breakthrough innovation and artistic creation. They affirm that the relationship between these two forms of knowledge expression is truly intimate. But still innovators, often have a difficult time expressing in words a vision derived from years of experience and indwelling- which brings to the fore again, the distinction among the two knowledge forms. They(Innovators) often experience a compelling desire to express themselves to pursue a hidden truth that demands talents to be revealed .To this end creating value in future market may become increasingly dependent on the ability of innovators to exploit tacit knowledge as a medium for forming deep connection with customers needs. This is because, the merging of tacit knowledge logical insights with an emphatic understanding of human needs has the potential to capture market attention and inspire customer loyalty. In practice when this singular act is reinforced by appropriate managerial actions, the capacity of employees to merge multiple sources of tacit knowledge into a breakthrough product can represent a truly unique competitive advantage and value to the organisation (Mascitelli 2000).


Strategically from the standpoint of the firm , the tacit knowledge content in the heads of employees can be a powerful source of great insight to creativity. The ability of the organisation to nurture such knowledge source may be more important to longterm competitive value than the benefits of even the most successful business product line of the organisation. Recent literature studies has emphasise the importance of this form of knowledge assets(Quinn 1992;Burton 1995). Quinn (1992) posit that tacit knowledge intangibles as know how, design expertise, market insight e.t.c largely determine the value of most product .A good illustration of such knowledge base tangibles and its antecedent effect is the significant effect company loyalty card take part in , among major UK retailers operations today. Contrary to the popular belief that Tesco Plc competitive advantage in the UK is its economy of scale- is that the clubcard which conveys an array of material benefits across virtually every discipline of its business is Tescos most potent weapon in the UK retail industry(Financial Times 11/12/2006).With the loyalty card which was introduce by Tesco ,you can gain insight on a customers shopping habit and you can judge his/her social class. Brand managers can track who is buying their products or responding to promotion and in turn make better decision.

This was a strong concept generated by creative minds from the companys knowledge assets which was first treated with scepticism by other retailers when it was first introduced by this company. By the time other retailers realized that the loyalty card is the big brother of the shopping world –the company was far ahead of these retailers. Although the concept has being copied by other retailers-core capabilities as well spring of innovation as the above concept from employees, are so steeped in the tacit cultural social and intellectual environment of a firm that they cannot be discern by outsiders (Leonard Barton 1995).In his work on “The Wellspring of Knowledge” Leonard Barton (1995) quoted a company CEO of suggesting to take his rival competitors on a detail tour of his facility and give away nothing, this is because they cannot take the knowledge and insight home with them. Infact the major drawback for the case of explicit knowledge as a useful competitive knowledge tool is its vulnerability to being transferred easily. Unlike tacit knowledge that is difficult and costly to transfer, making it considerable less mobile than explicit knowledge, as a result firms can possess unique capabilities that are hard to copy and invisible to outside observers. This can be carried out by personalising or codifying this particular type of knowledge using information technology support tools depending on the balance of series of competitive strategic knowledge management options applied by organisation (Alavi and Leidner 1999).The application of the codification strategy allows knowledge to be distinct and independent of individuals. While knowledge management strategy as personalisation allows the channelling of individual strategies to the right place when it is needed. Knowledge management strategies involving codification can be well facilitated by technologies as database. For example Accenture Knowledge Space System Database -where descriptions of management consultant interventions and outcomes are described, alongside Xeros Eureka Database System –where the experiences of service engineers are captured is a good illustration of the above knowledge management strategy practice by organisations(Quin, Andersen etal 1996). Similarly the popular Mckinsley Institute Development Network Database which is utilized by its users and members to facilitate organisational learning still fall under this category.


By contrast the personalisation of tacit knowledge are often sparingly supported by technology because of the nature of its form –they have a greater emphasis on specific human interaction and relationship building(Connell,Klein etal 2003).The works of Alavi and Leidner (1999) on “Knowledge Management System Challenges” highlight clarifications on the above subject.They argued that for one persons personalised knowledge to be useful to another, such knowledge must be communicated in such a manner as to be interpretable and accessible. Since knowledge management is a systemically organized process of acquiring, organising and communicating tacit knowledge of employees for usage and accessability by other employees for effective work functions. Put differently this suggest that if a cognitive intellectual activity to tacit knowledge management practice is adopted, Brown(1998) argues that; then the issues facing those responsible for its management are less related to creation, innovation and value added but more concerned with capture and integration. Such a perspective is contrary to the definition of knowledge management from a systemic view and its transfer perspective. On the other hand if knowledge cannot be shared , it will inevitably have limited organisational value. However Daveport and Prusak (1998) considers issues as these cited by Brown(1998) can be redressed by attending to cultural issues eminent within the organisation .They emphasised that, this can be facilitated by making knowledge more visible in the organisation by developing and encouraging activities such as knowledge sharing. For instance Ernst and Young Incentives to stimulate knowledge sharing are used in routine work performance reviews. Employees who spend a lot of time helping each other and adding to the corporate knowledge base are openly rewarded and recognized (Wah 1997).Besides Merrill Lynch rewards its employees for sharing knowledge with others based on how much direct help they give colleagues. The degree of high quality person –to-person dialogue a partner has with others can represent as much as one quarter of his or her annual salary (Quinn,Anderson. etal 1996; Hansen, Nohria. etal 1999).In the same way Andersen worldwide shares its knowledge among its customers anywhere in the world through its ANET electronic system links of 82,000 people operating in 360 offices in 76 countries (Quinn.,Andersen,etal 1996). Similarly to add value in an organisational context , tacit knowledge utilization management process, involves stimulating creativity and innovation within people and intergroup function ( Harrison 2002).It involves putting knowledge source (people) in the right direction , developing their commitment to listening to the voice within , and providing data to demonstrate the improve result achieve( Harrison 2002).

However there are different and relative model framework to which tacit knowledge can be utilized to add value to the organisation. Perhaps the most revealing works on tacit knowledge was performed by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), and a similar work was also performed by Talcott Parsons (1951) in organizational learning systems model and general theory of social action. One peculiar aspect among these models is the emphasis on specific organisational factors which gave the models significance in their application. These factors- if when influenced by effective knowledge management practice in line with organisational human resource management practice in the work place, will help enhance the capability of the whole organisation to make significant progress. This factors are further categorised into factors within the individual(knowledge source) and situational factors outside the individual. Factors within the individual comprises of intangible resources as memory, communication, and motivational system while situational factors outside the individual consist of issues as leadership style and organisational culture, in other words factors which more or less describe the situation in which tacit knowledge is utilized(.Koshinen 2003). Memory system consist of ones experience, mental models and intuitive ability. It is believed that multi faceted experience of an individual increases his or her possibilities to solve problems arising in a task. That is, the capability of an individual to solve a problem is dependent on the richness of his or her existing knowledge structure(Lyles and Schwenk 1992; Bower and Hilgard 1981).The mental model on its part, provides the context to view and interprete new material information(Argyris 1989,Kim1994).Mental models can be developed in the workplace if there are constant provision for teamwork where participants engaged in cross fertilization of ideas. Similarly it is also important to know that the tacit knowledge resource of an organisation rest within the mental models of its personnel. From the aforementioned analysis discussed so far, what is critically important in the application of these factor is –if it is well identified by human resource practice in the workplace .This will be of valuable help to make a perfect fit to what is required from the work environment to bring about innovative ideas of value.

Intuition on its part is the end product of tacit knowledge acquisition (Reber 1989). It operate to assist an individual to make choices and to engage in a particular class of action –to have a sense of what is right and proper, and “to get a point” without really able to verbalize what it is that one has gotten (Reber 1989). For example innovators have rich intuitions about complex problems which they can not explain how they come about the situation in details (Stahle and Gronroos 1999;Cooper and Sawaf 1997).Individuals with deep insight as the above are common in most organisation. It is believed that records and experience will help to identify these individuals and engage them in organisational roles which will help them stimulate these qualities, particularly organisational roles in operational research and development. Similarly the practice of interaction through face to face communication allows organisation personnel to get to know each other through building and maintenance of strong social networks that generate trust and commitment. Put differently, through constant communication people learn to trust each other. Koskinen (2003) stress that they can depend on one another, regardless of the situation. This kind of relationship build organisation social capital, which provide the foundation for sharing tacit knowledge that creates the conditions necessary for high task performance. In the same way (Weick 1995) stress the need of close proximity to foster communication in his works on “Collective Mind in Organisation”. He posit that if people want to share meaning it needs to be carried out in a place they choose where they can talk about their shared experience in close proximity. Architectural design and physical building which regulate this social interaction should be removed. Furthermore factors such as commitment and trust are important functions and motivational components that affect the willingness and openness of people in harnessing tacit knowledge in an organisation (Senge 1990). Several literature studies of motivational theories abound in organisation behaviour study, where employees can be bounded to work task /duties by the organisation, and these are content theories, process theories, and equity theories(Pionton 2006).Within these theories, knowledge creation is anchored in the commitment of its holder and receiver. This implies that knowledge is related to human action stemming from individuals level of motivation to the task(Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995).

Furthermore the possibilities and willingness of people to share tacit knowledge in the organisation in a way which will be of valuable benefit to the organisation financial and market performance is for the organisation to provide them with an environment that allows learning and innovation to flourish (Drucker 1993). This is made possible when the organisation leadership style connotes support for emerging processes with collaborative altitudes and skill towards reinforcing reciprocal relationships that facilitates dialogue and learning(Nonaka 2000, Jones 1996). In the light of the above it is believed that the leadership that create new knowledge is largely a matter of giving the people creative freedom within a framework devise by the leader (Koskinen 2003).In addition the cultural web theory highlight in precise terminologies the underlying ways of life of people in an organisation, alongside the set of management practice and behaviours that both exemplify and reinforce these ways of life in the organisation(Denison 1990). For this reason organisational culture has a major role in facilitating how tacit knowledge in an organisation can be an added value to organisation overall performance. Within this concept emerge the organisations shared values and visions –which is vital for the organisation .This is because they provide the focus and energy for knowledge creation. On the basis of the above discussion, it can be asserted that organisational culture stabilizes a firms way of operation which inturn supports the initiative and effort of individuals in their work( Marijosola 1991).


Consequently as product and service becomes increasingly knowledge intensive, the means of making profits and competing in the marketplace is to become an effective learning organisation- profit and product remain the goal, but it is continous learning that enables growth (Owen 1991). To achieve and sustain competitive and added value requires organisations to learn better and faster amidst ever changing market environment. For this reason the knowledge base of a learning organisation should continuously engage in Tacit knowledge learning processes to acquire, capture and re use knowledge. This process of knowledge is integral to work activities to improve processes and results. Recognizing the dynamic nature of this phenomenon involves all those internal and external factors previously discussed, in the models to the application of tacit knowledge in the organisation .Accordingly, the intense competition in the corporate landscape and critical academic literature studies on this subject introduced in this essay cannot help, but reveal the increase attention paid to tacit knowledge in todays corporate world of business. Tacit knowledge makes work go smoothly, it increases the quality of the work and it often characterizes a master of his/her profession. For this reason, the critical task for Human resource development is to develop resourceful humans able to access and use the tacit knowledge learning resources around them. Together these factor create understanding on how the organisation knowledge management process in relation to tacit knowledge creation can be effectively utilized.














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Stoik Musah writes from LBS.
stoik_joy@yahoo.com

Why Organisations Engage in Corporate Social Responsibility.

Stoik Musah
LBS, Leicester,
shamsmusah@gmail.com




Responsibility results when an individual or organisation accepts a certain duty , and follows up by endorsing that duty with corresponding behaviours. In the case of social responsibility by an organisation the corresponding behaviour will be manifested in its corporate , legal, and economic systematic actions in recognition of a given societal responsibility and its attempt to meet that social need ( Oosterhout and Heugens 2006). This essay intends to explore why organisation might get involved in Corporate Social Activity- and even seek to demonstrate the extent organisation legitimize their CSR potentials in the eyes of critical outside audience by adopting formal CSR ethical programmes and policies to influence CSR practice.

Much academic work conducted ( Carroll 2000, Bovens 1998, Goodin 1986, Lantos 2001) in this subject area, would agree that the corporate social responsibility concept is about the societal duty of business organisations in general. Carroll (2000) define corporate social responsibility as the economic , legal,ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of an organisation at any point in time. In a more broader terminology of the concept, the Worldbank(2004) define corporate social responsibility as the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development – working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve the quality of life, in ways that are good for business and good for development. Overall the basic idea of the literature studies in the concept is that corporate social responsibility is rooted in the recognition that businesses are an integral part of the society, and it would seem common sensical they have the potential to make a positive contribution to social goals and aspirations (Jones, Comfort etal 2005).

From the above definitions, it can be very well imagined that the notion of corporate social responsibility in the academic field of business and society is a vague term which can mean anything to anybody. The CSR concept literature studies not only seek to define CSR in these vague terms but also stretch to develop the framework to understand more systematically , the complex network of factors that lead companies to engage in CSR initiatives. For instance there is an increasing public demand on business leaders to include social issues as part of their strategies in the present day social and political business climate (Lantos 2001). Managers continually meet demands from various stakeholder groups to devote resources to CSR. Such pressures emanates from constituencies as employees, consumers, communities and environment( McWilliams and Siegel 2001). Employees pressures includes the increasing public recognition of certain employee rights in the workplace , including non-discrimination in hiring, firing and promotion. Similarly consumer pressure includes production of safe products and greater amount of consumers information. While community and environmental pressure encompass investing in pollution abatement equipment and ensuring that the business operations do not threaten the safety of local community etc. With reference to the above highlighted stakeholder groups, the pressures from internal actors as employees was highlighted in the works of Aguilera, Rupp etal (2005) analysis on examining how employees might push corporations to engage in CSR initiatives. Their findings suggests that CSR perception shapes employees altitudes and behaviours towards their firms. Infact the perceived fairness of any working environment do impact employee well being (i.e job satisfaction , stress and emotion) as well as other internal organisational considerations as absenteeism, and employee commitment (Collquit 2001). In effect where fairness is perceived , employees are happy and hardworking.

Equally pressures from external actors as consumers and community usually exercise their CSR demands using voice and social movement strategies, such as impose sanctions and demonstration as in the case of the anti-genetically engineered food and crops campaigns in the E.U, the anti-Nike activist demonstration in the US or the anti-Shell activist demonstration in Ogoni, Nigeria (Paine and Moidoveanu 1999). Smith(2002) observed that these organisations are sceptical on the possibility that product boycott announcements is associated with significant negative stock market reaction, and this affect investors belief on sales both directly and indirectly, through harm to the firm and brands reputation.

For example , the criticism of Shell-BP by environmentalist on the companys operation in Ogoni-Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and the company apparent failure to use its influence to prevent the death penalty sentence passed by the Nigerian authorities on Ken Saro-Wiwa and others protesting Shells environmental damage to Ogoniland has resulted in the widespread negative publicity of the British company in that country(Aguilera, Rupp, Williams etal 2005).For this reason a critical consideration of CSR by many firm is the reputational risk, heightened by criticism of corporate practice as the above (Shell Nigeria experience),particularly by NGOs- as a result the business case for CSR is much stronger. This consideration has forced companys to realise that being socially responsible is not only the right thing to do, it can also distinguish a company from its industry peers. In this case - in a highly competitive market, CSR might provide a valuable basis for differentiation; this is seen as more firms now include environmental claims within their advertising instruments (Drumwright 2000).

On the contrary, the subject academic debate entails those critics who question the greater attention of the concept application of shareholders fund to the CSR community initiatives, without regard for the likely effect on companys profits and organisations future opportunities for research, innovation and expansion. Kapstein(2001) in his work on “ False Notion of Corporate Social Responsibility” reiterated the ideas of the neo-classic economist Milton Friedman(1962) that business only social responsibility is to use its resources to engage in activities designed to increase its profit, so long as it engage in open and free competition without deception or fraud. Friedman (1962) concept of business and societal relationship was strictly centred on the latter producing the needed goods and services at prices the former can afford. Friedman reasoned that a departure from this business role amount to spending some one else money, and placing the firm at a competitive disadvantage. He question whether managers were competent to engage in social issues, and saw no reason this group of individuals should carry out the role of government in the society.

However the accuracy of the ideas in Friedman economic model in separating business and society in the present day economics of business is widely contested, since the strategic decisions of large organisation inevitably involves social as well as economic consequences (Mintzberg 2002), invariably there is no such thing in the agenda of most organisation as purely economic strategic decision any more. Yet many managers still find some element of Friedman ideas appealing. This is seen in most organisations action programme on CSR initiatives, that is- there is often little real substance to what some firms claim to do. Klein (2000) argued that in some instances, the amount spent promoting a firm CSR achievement is often more than the amount spent on the CSR activity itself. Furthermore if eventually organisations decide to commit to such initiative, the expenditure is often viewed as investment which will yield financial return in the near future (McWilliams and Siegel 2001).These long term benefit might not immediately show up on a firms financial statements, but this bank of goodwill on the part of the organisation can be of future benefit when the organisation come under public criticism or other image/reputational risk.

To illustrate this point, Ford Motors spent millions of dollars on an advertising campaign to convince parents that most 4-8years old children should rise in booster seats, which raise children in auto seats, so that adult seat belt fits better. The company gave away 1million such seats (Kiley 2001). The goodwill generated among customers, government regulators and consumer advocates from such effort might likely justify the investment someday. For this reason strategic CSR initiative as the above can result in those helped feeling grateful and indebted to the organisation and would reciprocate in various ways, by giving it their business , recommending it to others, asking government regulators to stay at bay and so on (Brenkert 1996).This makes good business sense as it is in line with Friedman(1962) organisation profit maximization concept -for owners of capital, by promoting societal CSR initiative.

Furthermore, far greater than the longterm financial security and profit maximization CSR provides for the firm are organisational considerations at the operational level. For instance business imperatives like cost and efficient work process seems to be the key drivers of CSR initiatives, that is- CSR initiative as environmental issues (energy savings, reduced CO2 emission etc) designed to reduce CO2 emission and global warming is also seen to businesses as an avenue to reduce cost (i.e the cost of maintaining fleet of delivery trucks). In a similar way, social issues focusing on good working environment and conditions, health and safety at work discussed previously all help to promote stability, security and efficiency within the workforce (Jones and Comfort 2005).

Another organisational motive in line with the above illustration result from the natural resource based view and dynamic capabilities application theory of a firm (Barney 1991). This theory maintains that the ability of a firm to perform better than its competitors depends on the interplay of human, organisational and physical resource over time. The rationale behind this theory entails that; resources, most likely - that will lead to competitive advantage are those that meet four criteria-VRIO(Value, Rare, Inimitable and Organisation). Based on this perspective some authors ( Petrick and Quinn2001) identified social resources which can be a source of competitive advantage such as the process of developing proper relationships with primary stakeholders as employees, customers, suppliers and communities using CSR initiatives.

In addition to the above in the CSR debate, there emerge alternative theoretical framework in the practice of legitimizing and economising the concept theories in the eyes of critical outside audiences. For this reason, the adoption of formal programmes of ethics is hard to deny that organisations increasingly try to influence ethical CSR practice within industries using formal CSR ethical programmes and policies (Weaver, Trevino etal 1999). Today the adoption of formal programme of ethics is popular in the contemporary business world, ie The DowJones Sustainable Index(ISO9000 and ISO9001), The Influential KLD Research and Analytics Inc(Domini 400 Social Index, DSI), Quality and Environmental Standards(ISO14000 and ISO14001) and others. Such programme involves the adoption of ethical codes to set organisational norms and guide concrete behaviour in CSR organisational practice. This involves formalised procedures for auditing and evaluating ethical standard (Godfrey 2005). Godfrey (2005) in his works on “The Relationship Between Corporate Philanthropy and Shareholders Wealth” posit that in most organisation, formal ethics programme described as the above is often adopted as some kind of risk management tool. The writer argues that-again, this make good business sense for managers on the consideration that – by improving the ethical climate of the organisation, managers may seek to avoid excessive costs associated with risks like employee theft, fraud and bribery. Likewise this ethics programmes often serve as small investment in preventive measures, which are deliberately made in order to avoid much greater liabilities in the court room (Trevino, Weaver etal 1999).

In addition to the aforementioned ethical considerations an organisation may adopt an ethics programme when powerful stakeholders like financiers threaten to discontinue their support to the organisation if it would not do so (Frooman 1999). Another plausible account of this demonstration may result from the coercive demands of institutional actors like the state or the profession (Professional Institutes or Chambers of Commerce) or from the examplinary behaviour of high status peers in the industry (Haveman 1993). By this, the organisation without such programmes, who look up to the state and these high status companies are likely to imitate these successful companies- again with coercive institutional pressure from the state, ethical falsibility on the part of organisations is most likely expected. This demonstrates that ethical considerations are mere ceremonial qualities by industry actors to legitimize their CSR potentials in the eyes of critical outside audience.

Overall, given this broad analysis explored on business and its relationship with the society, and considering the diverse links of CSR that cuts across a broad range of activities carried out by organisations - previously know under diffused labels as corporate philanthropy, corporate community involvement, ethics, sustainability management, cause related marketing as well as stakeholder integration, it is hard to deny that there has being nothing appealing to organisations on the notion of CSR (Oosterhout and Heugens 2006). For this reason if management leadership is interested in moving the CSR agenda forward, it will require management awareness in these subject areas, to help inform better judgement of the main issues on the concept to facilitate drastic organisational change initiative. In consequence, management must understand that- at the moment CSR drives companies, to achieve competitive advantage. They should understand that it is their behaviour that serves as a model and message – sender to all, in the course of driving this change programme forward, therefore their commitment is the key to reinforcing these values, alongside the commitment from other top management, ie marketing unit as well as the support of the board of directors(Lantos 2001). Similarly to implement this change programme,it is the role of management to innovate and communicate a few simple shared values and visions that form a common ground upon which CSR activities can stand, by proclaiming these values continuously and demonstrating devotion to it through (i)actions (ii)encouraging employees to invent and innovate new CSR ideas that conform to these values and visions and (iii) rewarding every attempt to advance these values and visions(Lantos 2001). Moreover, measurable and achievable goals should be set in each of the CSR activities, including expected benefits to every stakeholder.

Consequently, wide academic research studies exist to unearth the greater sentiment that continues to underpin business thinking why organisations get involve in CSR. However the previous discussion reveals the analogy that organisation, is extremely liberal in giving is misleading. Although it is expected of business to be liberal in their contribution to societal good - in the real world of business this is not so, what is commonsensical to remain competitive is how you make do with the resources and opportunities available to you, and not what would be the ideal practice in your actions. This is because businesses are formed for limited economic purpose and competitive market resources are so efficiently applied to business initiatives, that it would be impossible to attain fairness in CSR initiatives without making some other persons (shareholders) worse off. Nevertheless the verdict today is that CSR is increasingly expected from organisation by the society, and this can be rewarding for both societal stakeholders and the firm if a clear, strategic and measurable CSR agenda is put in place by the organisation as spelt out previously in the role of management leadership in moving the CSR agenda forward.


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Evaluating The Extent to Which People and Performance AMO Model has Contributed to the Strategic Human Resource Debate.

Stoik Musah,
LBS.Leicester,
shamsmusah@gmail.com



Strategic HRM system can be seen as an investment. This focuses on developing and maintaining a firm’s strategic infrastructure (Becker et al. 1997). The role of HRM can help the organisation achieve competitive advantage through their people. This is an advantage the organisation has that leads to superior performance relative to current and potential competitors. This therefore produces a significant relationship between HR systems and performance, where HR systems contribute to organisational performance. The ‘bundles’ of integrated HR practices are at the centre of High Performance Work Practices (HPWP). These practices include comprehensive employee recruitment and selection, incentive compensation and performance management, employee involvement and training. These practices will result in improving the knowledge, skills and abilities of the firms’ current and potential employees. This will lead to enhance employee motivation consequently a strategy to retain high quality workforce (Huselid, 1995). The best practice model emphasises the importance of horizontal alignment and vital role of managers in recognising the commitment of their employees which in return will lead to enhance performance, however, best practice approach tends to neglect the external environment on factors that can hinder or enhance organisational performance. The configurational approach has had a major influence on organisational performance as the approach firstly tends to look at the needs of the business and then designs its HR on a continuum to help deliver the business strategy, therefore, enhancing organisational performance.

Barney (1991) Resource Based View claims that HR can be the source of sustained competitive advantage; however, there are four criteria that have to be met. Firstly, the HR system has to add value to the firm production process; therefore, the level of individual performance has to be taken into consideration. Secondly, the skill the firm seeks has to be rare, this will help the firm maintain competitive advantage as this will cause the skills difficult to imitate and reproduce my competitors which is the third criteria of non imitability. Hence, investing in firm specific human capital will decrease this. Lastly, the firm specific skill should not be substitutable by other methods such as technology if it is to maintain a competitive advantage and continuously lead to high level of performance. Wright and McMahan (1992) claim that although these criteria are important in sustaining competitive advantage. The crucial factor is the actual creation of firm specific competitive advantage and then look at how the firm can capitalise on this to potential source of profitability.

High Performance Work Practices have to be tailored to meet an individual organisations specific context to produce high levels of performance. Therefore, in order for these practices to have an impact on organisational performance there needs to horizontal and vertical alignment where HRM systems support the business priorities (Golding, 2007). Support for this comes from Appelbaum (2000) AMO theory of performance. This theory states that performance is the function of employee ability, motivation and opportunity. The theory claims that people will perform well when they are able to do so (because they have the necessary knowledge and skills to the job), they have the motivation to do so (they will do the job because they want to) and finally, there will be enhance performance if their work environment provides the necessary support (for example through functioning technology).

It is therefore important for HR to be ‘fitted’ to business strategy. This can be done in a number of ways take for example the influence HRM practices have on employee skills through the acquisition and retention of the firm capital. Recruitment strategies often include an attempt to sell the organisation as an attractive place to work as this will reach out to a pool of applicants. However, in order to be effective this has to be paired with reliable and valid selection processes to capture high quality staff into the organisation, therefore, increasing the chances of higher profitability and other high performances such as high standard of customer service. Formal and informal training is also necessary in order to further develop the workforce such as coaching, mentoring, on the job experience, management develop can all aid personal as well as business growth. However, these types of training programmes can only be implemented by Walton (1999) refer to as Strategic HRD where there is a supportive learning culture. This will means that HRD will have to take on a more influential role by helping individuals to develop and innovate through activities such as team working. Yet, in order to successfully tap into the tacit knowledge of individual employees there has to be trusting relationships within the organisation, as knowledge is not only a competitive resource for the organisation but also for the individual. By converting tacit knowledge into explicit, this can lead to threats of unemployment for the individual concerned. If anything the firm needs to make sure that strategies are implemented to retain these high quality individuals within the firm as they have the skills and knowledge for innovation which could lead to high levels of performance as well as sustaining competitive advantage in the long term.

Yet it can be argued for these employees to want to share their knowledge as well as continuously performing to high standards, these individual employees need to have some kind of motivation. Employers need to find ways to motivate staff not only to work harder but also smarter. This can be assessed through forms of performance appraisal which will direct employers to evaluate how well individuals or groups are performing. These appraisals can be linked in with incentive compensation schemes that can be aligned to the interest of the employee such as ESOP. Another common form of financial incentive from the best practice model is contingent pay, when an organisation is performing well employees are rewarded accordingly. However, there have been cases where senior managers of poor performing organisations have been rewarded with large pay-off, therefore, eliminating the purpose of the scheme (Golding, 2007). High performance is often initiated when employees work together in teams as they can share high ideas and this can lead to innovation. But tension may arise which has to be managed effectively when trying to implement these schemes within the organisation, as those who traditionally earned good bonuses on an individual systems of performance related pay, do not welcome team based production systems (Appelbaum, 2000).

It is often difficult to see how organisations operating in highly competitive markets, with tight financial control and margins would be able to invest in HR practices that promote best practice model. This can be overcome by implementing non financial strategies such as matching individual skills and potential to the skills that are required by the job. That way even the firms that have limited resources are able to increase high levels of employee satisfaction and commitment which will naturally lead to lower levels of turnover and high levels of performance from these individuals. This is also supported by the balance score card (Kaplan and Norton, 1996) which also contributes to the development of SHRM. The strategy involved is establishing goals and measuring cause and effect relationships as well as the shared understanding between different areas of the business. However, the balanced scorecard has been criticised as it does not have a direct link to productivity therefore, require the acknowledgement of the multidimensional nature of the organisational performance.

Although there has been is a link between SHRM and performance, there is a question of the validity of the research methods that has been used to gather the data such as questionnaires and self reports. This can lead to high levels of subjectivity. Also Wall & Wood found that in 25 of research studies, 21 of the studies had used single respondents as the sole source of data. This again is highly subjective and does not really get a holistic representation of the influence SHRM has on performance. Wall & Wood (2005) argue that in the relationship between SHRM and organisational performance should depend on using large scale, long term research in partnership between research, practitioner and government communities. There is also a lack of empirical evidence for many organisations to implement high commitment model and best practice, as this can be problematic due to the short-termist driven economy, where most organisations are just looking to increase return on shareholders value. Therefore, long term performance is not the focal point for many organisation, only looking to increase performance in the short term, hence integrated SHRM is of little value to these organisations.

In conclusion, SHRM can be seen as an investment and can help the organisation achieve a competitive advantage against current and potential competitors. This superior performance indicates that there is a significant relationship between HR systems and performance, with bundles of integrated HR being at the centre of High Performance Work Practices. These practices must have an impact on organisational performance through horizontal and vertical alignment. However, in order to be highly effective AMO theory of performance needs to be applied within practices, where the employee ability, motivation and opportunity for performance are taken into consideration. This can be achieved through bundles of HR such as training and development, recruitment and selection, reward and recognition. Although these factors play a crucial part on high performance it is also important to ensure that there is a supportive organisational culture and all key stakeholders are involved. The RBV claims that there are four criteria have to be met in order for HR to have a sustainable competitive advantage: HR systems have to be valuable, non imitable, non substitutable as well as be rare to ensure that high performance is maintained and to ensure sustainable competitive advantage.

What Makes Human Resource Development “ Strategic”.

Stoik Musah,
LBS,Leicester.
United Kingdom.
Stoik_joy@yahoo.com



Human resource development is defined as a set of intentional activities by an organisation to increase employees skills, abilities or knowledge, and direct these skills and abilities for the company’s benefit (Marsick and Watkins 1990).The term refers to the planned procedures through which the human capital of the organisation grows- to people behind that function or to the outcomes of developmental procedures i.e. growth in the skill and knowledge reserve (Marsick and Watkins 1990).Traditionally, within this concept understanding, the existence of different dimensions of strategy, perspectives ,contents and process-helps strategist avoid the pitfall of a single isolated practice on its impact on organisational performance. This essay therefore sort to describe what makes human resource development strategic within these divergent literature perspectives, with particular interest in the systematic logic in its application with organisations internal components issues and people related matters.

Similarly some evolution has taken place in this frame of reference. This entails that for scholars to contribute to the richness of the strategic significance of the concept, the strategic requirements of the organisation need to draw research design from multiple theoretical perspective- this has caused, the focus on internal resources and processes, to be a large part of the discussion. For this reason it can be stated that only the recognition of the internal component has made it possible for issues of adding value to business performance, issues of knowledge skill and ability to meet business objective, issues of gaining synergy from human resource process and practice through horizontal alignment etc, among other people related issues to truly find their way into the strategic arena (Ulrich 1997). Although some other parts of the literature studies see human resource development as a philosophy of management (Beer and Nohria 2000).
Moreover a one central feature to human resource development among these studies is its strategic logic in its application. This has made several authors adopt the findings of the study of Human resource development also from the view point of strategy models. For example Schuler (1989) and Walton (1999) have created integrated frameworks to cover different aspects of human resource development by using a certain approach to business strategy. Here strategy is seen generally as an idea of how a company reaches its goals. This is carried out through the implementation of strategic planning and systematic processes.

In another direction, within the concept literature studies ,another common feature by many writers (McCracken and Wallace 2000, Boxall and Purcell 2000) is the tendency to create one model which is then applied to all people related activities within the organisation (Recruitment, Training, Development, Appraisal etc). This entails an underlying assumption that all these human resource activities share the same basic nature and play a similar kind of role in relation to strategic management. Although there are exceptions, if we wish to analyse the contribution of Human resource development as a whole, to business performance; each activity deserve its own consideration. For this reason human resource development has many applications in modern literature.

But also well represented in the human resource development literature within this definition is Luoma (2000) works on: (i) The Traditional Approaches that can be formed based on conventional views on the strategic role of human resource development and (ii) Organisational Approach to internal capabilities as a central source of competitive advantage to the concept (HRD) application. Within this Luoma (2000) traditional approach to human resource development, it is assume that; (i) human resource development is driven by development needs within the organisation and that (ii) some concept of the subject have their interest in the outer world of the firm. Mabey and Salaman (1995) reiterated this position that a general view of the role of human resource development in relation to strategy within this framework is to see strategy as a means to assess and address skill deficiencies in the organisation. In other words, the task that is being carried out in the organisation has been further broken down into certain roles, and that a competence profile has been identified for each of the role. The company can then pursue its strategy if it’s entire people live up to their roles and possess the appropriate competencies. On the contrary, the reverse will be the case when people fail to accomplish their roles; they face a skill performance opening. This requirement can be closed with the help of human resource development (Pettigrew and Whipp1991).

The adoption of human resource development as the above demands constant monitoring of factors affecting the expected performance of people issues and processes within the organisation. For example a change in any area has to be translated into new competences profiles and any noticeable failing area is closed by human resource development initiatives (Torraco and Swanson 1995). The strategic logic behind this process (HRD) implies that the development within these internal arrangements is being driven from the objectives of the organisation rather than from those of individual personnel. Robinson and Robinson (1990) stressed that since the development is driven by the organisations objective, the approach often tends to be rational, deliberate and a sequential process, starting from the needs assessment and ending in the phase of evaluation-were the results achieved are compared with the learning objectives set earlier in the process. This is strategic in the sense that unless the emerging needs are being taken care of (Organisations Interest), the implementation of the strategy can be compromised by the organisation. This development need approach within the organisation gives human resource development a vital role in the strategy implementation of the situation. Consequently when the company is forging ahead towards its objectives, and the critical parts within the organisation face a lack of appropriate competence, human resource development is used to close the performance skill requirement and so assisting the progress.

Furthermore some literature studies on human resource development also have their strategic logic influenced by interest in the outer world development trends (Beer 1980, Butler et al 1991, French and Bell 1990). In contemporary business environment, those responsible for human resource development unavoidably encounter a constant stream of external developmental options available. The continous supply- from the environment, of this developments, form trends that organisations find very difficult to ignore. The reflections of these trends are (i) Total Quality Management (ii) Teambuilding (iii) Empowerment (iv) Management Development Programmes etc. This trends, Jackson and Schuler (2003) suggest; that synergies can be achieved when bundles of its practices are horizontally aligned with the organisations set objectives- this position the writer re-emphasized; can contribute to a define set of behaviours and performance expectations within the organisation. Likewise, and most recently Guest (2002) strengthened this position that in addition to the above, it is important to have functional and process integration to achieve the economies of scale expected from the application of these practices. The strategic functional integration both writer suggest, emphasize the need to have a high quality human resource development process mechanism to ensure enormous strategic impact. However the strategic rationale behind this horizontal alignment with human resource practices is not only in the direct benefit organisations get for their businesses, but also in the risk of losing in competitiveness, if these trends were ignored.

In addition to the aforementioned illustration, human resources development can be a part of the organisations strategic planning exercise by facilitating the learning process itself as suggested by Agyris (1989). According to Agyris (1989) the internal learning process can be seen as a set of learning experiences to shape employees behaviour where participant are required to make use of skills related to solving problems and interaction between individuals etc. This set of strategic learning activities (as critical reflection, tacit learning and action learning) are designed to facilitate organisational learning. Garavan (2007) posit that the capacity of the human resource development plans to focus on these learning activities is dependent on its capacity to cultivate a working environment of openness with accessibility of information and involvement of individuals at all levels in the organisation.

Furthermore, some writers (Burgoyne 1988) see this strategic learning perspective of human resources development as one of the ultimate level of the strategic integration of management development and business planning. Alternatively, this thinking has led to the second element of Luoma (2000) works on the idea of organisational approach to the internal capabilities as a source of competitive advantage introduced earlier at the onset of this discussion. According to the theorist (Prahalad and Hamel 1990, Pfeffer, Ghoshal and Bartlett 1998) arguing for this theoretical perspective the strategic management literature has traditionally emphasised factors within the organisation about the way people act, and that these factors, when harnessed, will be very difficult for competitors to copy. This is because they constitute knowledge, skills and processes developed over time into workable combinations within the context of a particular organisational setting (Long and Vickers-Koch 1995).It is assume here that the term organisational setting in this respect stands for two important aspect required for the strategic process of human resource development; and they are (i) The Organisational Structure and (ii) The Human Resource Strategy applied. The relationship between these two important aspects of strategic human resource development has been discussed extensively in many notable writings Mintzberg 1990, Galbraith and Lawler 1993, Dalton et al 1996 among others too numerous to mention) on strategic management.

That is to say, in this theoretical perspective, the decisions on structuring are based on the nature of competencies required in different operations. These studies presented frameworks for using the resource based theory in aligning organisational structure with strategy. The central debate within the literature studies emphasize the role of organisational capability as a critical source of competitive advantage- and thus as the determinant of structural decisions. Moreover other research studies on the strategic nature of human resource development process in an organisation structure, is close to Beer et al (1984) age long Matching Model distinction between strategy and organisations structure- that structure follows strategy . The underlying assumption behind this theory is that human resource development strategy and an organisations structure follow and feed upon one another- and this is influenced by environmental forces. The environmental influence the writer assert emerge from the fact that- there must be a fit between competitive strategy, internal human resource development policies and a fit among the elements of human resource practices( ie action learning etc). This relationship is said to be reactive in the sense that human resource strategy is submissive to corporate strategy (Boxall 1992). As Boxall (1991) emphasis; that human resource development cannot be conceptualise as a stand alone corporate issue, strategically it must flow from and be dependent upon the organisations structure- it is therefore seen as strategic by virtue of its alignment with business strategy, organisational structure, and internal consistency.

Furthermore, the other important element of organisational setting consideration in the strategic logic behind human resource development is the human resource strategy. The strategic significance of the human resource development in this direction is to effectively feed the targeted individual behaviour with all those human resource practice that guide employees behaviour in the organisation. For the most part, issues relating to competences emerge in the course of facilitating this process- but even at that, this is not enough to provide the organisation with the requirement, of the capabilities we search to introduce in the understanding of the strategic nature of human resource development. The competences has to be processed to turn into capabilities, alongside sustained and reinforced with the help of other aspects of human resource management i.e. Selection, Appraisal, and Reward (Ulrich and Lake 1990). For this reason human resource development gives the guideline for these practices and thus create a framework for human assets to be exploited and developed (Schuler 1992). This makes the strategic nature of the human resource development concept apparent again. Since at first, human resource development can be used for creating organisational capabilities, that calls for the alignment of other HR practices and secondly it can also be used for the modification of organisation structure to generate desired behaviours, it follows that according to this capability driven approach, human resource development thus support strategy by making the process of strategy happen.

Similarly strategic action process is required to institute the work habit and culture required for the implementation of human resource development policies. For this reason and to effectively shape the organisation working culture in line with strategic human resource development systems; the key to implementing this internal consistency is to institute the visions and values to develop the desired work habits within the organisation- and an effective leadership structure will be the platform to set the scene for this process, like Garravan (2007) suggested in the dynamic framework for strategic human resource development: that leaders set the agenda for the organisation by conferring legitimacy on human resource development policies through strategic action processes, their strategic influence to the human resource development course will be concern with showing bottom-line results i.e. Creating employee commitment to the vision, establishing the fit of all those SHRD systems introduced previously with organisations processes, people and resources.

Consequently, the beauty of these analogies is that, to understand the strategic significance of human resource development , one has to search in depth, the thinking, theories and research studies on the concept(SHRD), and then try to connect these postulations with our understanding of the concept application. The main premise of this reflective exercise is to unearth the strategic logic in the notion of human resource development, and also to comprehend that its application process consists of a multi- level concept whose contribution to the organisation is to enhance its performance in the long-term. This Human Resource Systems processed, can be rewarding if a clear, measurable SHRD systems is put in place, alongside the right leadership structure and culture by the organisation – for this will go a long way to facilitate this process.





















REFERENCES

• Agyris .C. (1989) Strategy Implementation: An Experience in Learning. Organisational Dynamics, Vol18, pp14-15.
• Beer. M. (1980) Organisational Change and Development. Scott-Foresman and Co Publishers.
• Beer. M. and Nohria. M. (2000) Cracking the Code of Change. Harvard Business School Publication.
• Beer. M et al (1984) Managing Human Assets. Free Press, New York.
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• Burgoyne, J. (1988) Management Development for the Individual and the Organisation. Personnel Management, June, pp40-4.
• Butler J et al (1991) Strategy and Human Resource Management. South-Western Publishing, Cincinnati. OH. Chicago.
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• French. W and Bell. C (1990) Organisational Development: Behavioural Science Interventions for Organisation Improvement 8th Edition, Prentice-Hall.
• Galbraith. J and Lawler. E (1993) Organising for the Future, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco CA.
• Garavan. T (2007) A Strategic Perspective on Human Resource development. Advance in Developing Human Resources Journal, Vol9, No1.
• Ghoshal. S and Bartlett. C (1998) The Individualized Corporation. Heinemann, London.
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• Jackson. S and Schuler. R (2003) Managing Human Resources Through Strategic Partnership. 8th Edition, Cincinnati. OH.
• Johnson.G and Scholes. K et al (2006) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice-Hall.
• Long. C and Vickers-Koch. M (1995) Using Core Capabilities to Create Competitive Advantage. A Journal of Organisational Dynamics, pp7-22.
• Lundy.O and Cowling.A (1996) Strategic Human Resource Management .Thompson Learning.
• Luoma M. (2000) Investigating the Link between Strategy and Human Resource Development. Personnel Review, Vol29, No6, pp769-790.
• Mabey C. and Salaman G. (1995) Strategic Human Resource Management, Blackwell, Oxford. Management Journal, Vol35, No4, pp433-52.
• Marsick .V and Watkins K. (1990) Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace. Routledge, London.
• Marsick V and Watkins K. (1993) Sculpting the Learning Organisation: Lessons in the Art and Science of Systemic Change. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco CA.
• Mazzucato.M (2001) Strategy for Business. Sage Publication, London.
• McCracken. M and Wallace. M (2000) Towards a Redefinition of Strategic Human Resource Development. Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol24, No5, pp281-290.
• Miles.R and Snow.C (1984) Designing Strategic Human Resource Systems. A Journal of Organisational Dynamics.Summer,pp36-52.
• Mintzberg H. (1990) Strategy Formation: School of Thought, In: Fredrickson, J. (eds) Perspectives on Strategic Management. Harper Business, New York.
• Pettigrew A. and Whipp, R. (1991) Managing Change for Competitive Success. Oxford; Blackwell.
• Pettigrew.T and Whittington.R (2001) Hand Book of Strategy and Management. Sage Publication, London.
• Pfeffer. J (1994) Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force. Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA.
• Prahalad. C and Hamel G. (1990) The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp79-91.
• Robinson. D and Robinson. J (1990) Training for Impact. Jossey-Bass Publication, San Francisco CA.
• Schuler.R (1992) Strategic Human Resource Management: Linking the People with the Strategic Needs of the Business. Organisational Dynamics, pp18-32.
• Schuler, R. and Jackson, S. (1999) Strategic Human Resource Management. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
• Torraco. R and Swanson. R (1995) The Strategic Roles of Human Resource Development. Human Resource Planning, Vol18, No3, pp311-35.
• Ulrich. D (1997) Human Resource Champions. Harvard Business School Press. Boston MA.
• Ulrich. D and Lake. D (1990) Organisational Capability: Competing From The Inside Out. Wiley Publication, New York.
• Walton. J (1999) Strategic Human Resource Development. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall.


Special tribute and thanks to Luomo.M, Who contributed greatly to my studies on this subject.
Stoik Musah writes from LBS leicester.Tel:07737251501,01162516339.

A Critical Analysis of In-depth Qualitative Interview in Organisational Research Studies,

By
Stoik Musah.
LBS.Leicester.
United Kingdom.
Stoik_joy@yahoo.com





This essay seeks to obtain knowledge on the research methodology literature studies of indepth qualitative interview. It also sought to critically evaluate its practical application process in an academic journal article, whose report findings was derived using this data collection method. With reference to the above, an indepth qualitative interview is a dialogue between a skilled interviewer and an interviewee. Its goal is to elicit rich, detail material that can be used in research analysis (Lofland and Lofland 1995). The dynamics of this process is similar to a guided conversation, where the interviewer becomes an attentive listener who shapes the process into a familiar and comfortable form of social engagement (Patton 1990). In other words, qualitative indepth interviews typically are much more like conversations. In this type of conversation, the researcher explores a few general topics to help uncover the participants views, but otherwise respects how the participant frames and structures the responses. That is to say, the participant perspective on the phenomenon of interest unfolds as the participant wants, not as the researcher views it. In other words, the task for the qualitative researcher is to provide a framework within which people (interviewee) can respond in a way that represents accurately and thoroughly their point of view on the subject of the interview. By this, both parties behaves as though they are of equal status all through the period of the interview- whether or not this is actually so (Fontana 2002).

In sociological terms, the above illustration often brings about complexities on how the interview framing is being done. This means that; whether the interviewer is just trying to be a nice person or is following a format- these techniques can be varied to meet various situations. Here, Dezin (2004) notes that traditional techniques as the above tell us that the researcher is involved in an informal conversation with the respondent, thus the researcher must maintain a tone of friendly chat while trying to remain close to the guideline of the topics of enquiry the researcher has in mind. That is, the researcher begins by “breaking the ice” with a general questions and gradually moves on to more specific ones, while also – intelligently asking questions intended to check the veracity of statements made by the respondent. As this process continues, the researcher avoid getting involved in a real conversation in which the researcher, provides personal opinion on matters discussed- instead the conversation should entail a real “give and take”, alongside emphatic understanding from the perspective of both parties(Douglas 1985). This particular aspect of indepth interview makes the interview more honest, morally sound and reliable. This is because, it treats the respondent as equal, and it allows the respondents to express personal feelings on the subject of the interview.

In addition to the above Gordon (1980) also noted that effective indepth qualitative interview entails creating a shared concern for each other, in which both the interviewer and the respondent understand the contextual nature of the interview. For instance listening to others without taking notes or trying to direct the conversation is also important to establish rapport and immerse oneself in the conversation realm, while gathering a store of tacit knowledge about the people and the culture being studied (Fine and Sandstrom1988). The point to note in this line of thought is that, to effectively carry out an indepth qualitative interview the researcher must adapt to the world of the individual studied and try to share their concern and outlooks- only by doing so can the researcher learn anything at all. Some researchers use several methods to accomplish this task, while others apply a combination of different methods as the conversation elapse (Fine and Sandstrom1988).

For this reason, Britten etal (1995) in their work on “Qualitative Research Methods in General Practice and Primary Care” emphasis that the most widely used methods in this context, is the structured indepth interview, unstructured indepth interview and semi structure indepth interview. A structure interview is an interview in which questions to be asked and detailed information to be gathered are all predetermined (Dezin and Lincoln 2003). In a structured interview, the interviewer asks all the respondents the same series of pre-established questions with a limited set of response categories. Put differently, there is- generally, little room for variation in responses among the respondents, except where open ended questions may be used. That is, the interviewer controls the pace of the entire conversation by treating the questionnaire as if, it were a planned script to be followed in a straight forward manner. Under this circumstance, all respondents receive the same set of questions asked in the same order by an interviewer who has been trained to treat all interview situations in a like manner – thus there is very little flexibility in the way questions are asked, nothing is left to chance – there is simply little room for error. This is as a result of the inflexible, predetermine nature of the interviewing –which makes the interviewer have relatively minor impact on the response quality (Gordon 1992). However one major drawback in the literature study, the advocates of this method- are unaware of, is that; the interview takes place in a social interaction context and that its influence by that context. As Denzin and Lincoln (2003) observed that good interviewer recognised this facts are sensitive to how interaction can influence responses. In other words, interviewers should comprehend that interviewing skills involve a high order combination of: observation, emphatic sensitivity to these environment response and intellectual judgements.

Furthermore qualitative interviews can also be carried out in an unstructured manner in order to contrast them with the above highlighted form of interview method. An unstructured interview is a spontaneous conversation, not a set of questions asked in a predetermined order (Herman and Bentley1993). Here you have a focus and you welcome information on different aspects of the subject question from the interviewee. In this type of qualitative method of interview, you can direct your conversation in any direction- that is to say: you proceed in an order that is natural. The important point to note, in this type of interview method is to gather and record information on every aspects of the subject in question. Besides you can always return to an earlier subject that you did not explore at the time it was mentioned, to ask more about certain topics that require clarification (Herman and Bentley1993).Unstructured interviews are simple, informal and saves time when preparing for the interview. It provides a general understanding of the important concepts, relationships and general rules on the subject content, and this make way for problem solving strategies that can guide future enquiries in the course of the conversation. This informality aspect of the unstructured interview helps the researcher to get quickly to the basic structure of the subject domain. On the contrary this form of interview generally lacks the organisation that allows for preparation as the previously discussed structured form of interviewing. Besides both parties –in the course of the conversation- usually find it very difficult to express some of the important elements of their knowledge. In the same way the data acquired from an unstructured interview is often unrelated; existing at various levels of complexity and its difficult for the interviewer to review, interpret and integrate (Bashir and Besim 1997).Accordingly, many studies employ a combination of these two types often called a semi structured interview. This kind of interview combines both methods to bring forth the foreseen information- and also apply open ended questions- to elicit unexpected types of information. Semi structured interviews are flexible as well, unlike the structured interview which have a set of questions. In this method of interviewing, the interviewer may have a framework of themes in mind, at the onset- to explore, like it is in a structured interview, but as the conversation commence- a different method of interview, new questions and clarifications can be brought up as a result of what the interviewee says.

Consequently, the above excerpt gives a concise, yet informative synopsis of what an indepth interview entails- what is important now is to lay out the primary issues that selecting this method demand. For instance indepth qualitative interview is usually based on sample sizes (Minichielli etal 1991), and the most common form of sampling techniques used in indepth interviews is most often snowballing sampling and theoretical sampling. The snowballing sampling involves interviewing initial contacts in the organisation and then asking these contact persons who they think is appropriate to interview- to gain insight on a particular subject issue (Rubbin 1995). On the other hand the theoretical sampling involves the generation of conceptual or theoretical categories during the research process(Bowling 1997).The principles behind this method application process, is that sampling aims to locate data and to develop or challenge emerging hypothesis –this process stops when no new analytical insights or hypothesis is forthcoming.

Turning to another line of thought in this subject, that is similar to the above excerpt - is the question of having a valid research indicator to measure a concept. That is, would other researchers reach similar conclusions if they apply the same method in their research analysis? For this reason indepth interviews arguably have the greatest problems with validity of any research method(Remenyi etal 1998).In other words, while an individual may hold a matter as true and valid it may not correspond across the whole population or even among other researchers in that area of study. However, the most striking aspect in this area of validity and measurement of concept in many papers reporting the results of qualitative research is the absence of detail accounts of methodology and data analysis to describe exactly what was done in the research work. For this reason Bryman. and Burgess (1994) argues that journals need assessors who are properly equipped to evaluate qualitative reports using criteria appropriate to the methods used. In particular, an example of this application process is a critical assessment of Fang Lee Cook study entitled “Outsourcing of Public Services and Implications for Managerial Knowledge and Careers” in the Journal of Management Development Dated 00/05/ 04. The purpose of this study was to explore how the nature of work and career prospects may have changed for managers in both the public and the private sector under the public/private outsourcing relationship. It investigates managers new roles, problems, new relationships and multiple principal-agency relationships they confront, as a result of this public/private organisations outsourcing practices.

Notably, one positive outcome of the research findings was the insight in revealing interestingly unexplored issues confronting managers in these outsourcing relationships. The researcher discussed in depth the impossibility of the outsourcing provider to function properly in the outsourced firm without making use of the tacit knowledge of experience employees; who as a result of their length of work experience with the organisation have social and technical knowledge of how processes within the outsourced organisation are managed effectively- this fact reveals that management knowledge is often context specific and cannot be easily codified and transferred as some literature on knowledge management postulate(explicit knowledge)-something most of the literature studies neglect in their research analysis.

With reference to the above critical analysis on the content of the aforementioned article, reference should be made first; on the source of findings, such as the interview with the principal people in the outsourcing provider firm. That is to say, the researcher failed to provide more informations, from the interview; on the reason why these outsourcing providers fail to train their own managers as alternative to these experienced employees (in the outsourced organisation) to take over this newly acquired businesses . And to also find out from the principal staffs interviewed ( from the outsourcing provider company), if there was other reason they refuse to train these managers other than cost and the time frame involved in the process. For the most part, this should have been an interesting area to explore and understand the problems these outsourcing providers confront from their own end, in the course of the business relationship. This is because the literature studies on outsourcing most often fail to extend further, their research analysis on this subject issue. In most cases what you find in academic text is that: after portraying outsourcing companies as solution providers to complex issues confronting big businesses– they conclude and do not extend further in their analysis: to provide insight on the problems these outsourcing providers encounter in the course of managing these extensive portfolio from different client organisations.

Furthermore, the hypothesis drawn from the research work tends to be a bit focus on what the research was about. In other word, although the research question of “The Changing Role of Managerial Workers in Managing the Public/ Private Outsourcing Relationships” tend to contain what the reader expects from the researched work- yet the understanding of the question tend not to be a closed question but a question making way for a mass of loosely linked descriptive issues, that are very broad in their own making, if one wants to further explore them individually. Nevertheless, with its loosely linked nature, it becomes more focused as the study progresses. Moreover from a critical perspective on the heart of the principal line of thought in this article- the understanding of the nature of strategic alliance, management task( as define in the article), and interorganisational relationships, demands more detail analysis than that derived from the use of this method (Indepth Interview). Under this circumstance, it is not surprising that it did have been appropriate to use both qualitative and quantitative method together in a complementary fashion to bring about indepth understanding of these organisational phenomenons. This is because the loosely linked issues that emerged in the course of the research, requires quantitative analysis to dissect their constituent form to help understand their nature more. For instance, clarification on the issues underneath the rationale behind the quotation below would have been better explained using both method (qualitative and quantitative method).

“Supervisors in housing benefit are now taking – work – home, in their spare time, whereas before “they switch off” once they finish work for the day. This new approach to work gives a sense of ownership and satisfaction, but the invisible pressure is constantly presents as one supervisors said: you feel that you have to make an impression on the company”.

A formal quantitative testing of the root causes of the above excerpt would have helped standardise and evaluate the robustness of this causal hypothesis. Another critical area in question, in the use of this method in the article is in the generalisability of the representative sampling which strengthen the claims and findings in the article. For instance in page 272, the writer asserted that the source of most of the data inherent in the research findings was from over 60 semi structured interviews, carried out with senior managers, junior managers, middle managers, supervisors, trade union representative and other staffs. Moreover a total of 27 managers were interviewed face-to –face. In addition to the above, the writer described the categories of the managers interviewed: that 12 of those interviewed were senior or middle managers. But the researcher failed to provide more information on this group of individuals interviewed- more information as (i) How long have they been with the organisation and (ii) How long have they served in management positions within the organisation. In this way the researcher, thus allows the reader to note the similarities and differences between the settings, which is analysed, in the research.

On the contrary, the researcher has carefully taking into account clarity in describing the methods used to sources the research findings- one area the researcher has demonstrated to the reader that careful considerations has been given to the above subject, in this method of interview, is the way and manner a pragmatic categorisation of the three managerial groups interviewed was singled out for the research interview (Page 273). It was a perfect segmentation of the particular individual whose nature of work and career prospect has been affected by this inter-organisational relationship (outsourcing). The impact of this careful selection process- to some extent, has contributed to the robustness of many new flag up issues introduced in the course of the research findings; that was never discussed in most outsourcing literature studies. For this reason, in qualitative research literature studies, readers needs to know how the data sourced, were categorised for analysis. In particular Britten etal (1995) reiterated that readers need to be reassured- that the researcher did more than glanced through their field note and transcript, and then look for examples which will confirm those ideas. Readers are looking for evidence of rigorous and systematic analysis. That is, the reader should be confident that where researchers wants to make a claim on the basis of their data- there is evidence in the study that this data was sourced systematically.

Above all, in all research methods, the ability to present ones method and findings clearly and succinctly is of central importance. This means that clearity in the categorisation of the data sourced, clearity in the data analysis, and clearity on how this data was chosen- like for example, if quotations were properly referenced providing clarification on the source of the statement etc. In the same way, just as quantitative researchers present the data in their report in the form of tables and statistics so also do qualitative researchers present their datas in the form of quotation from transcript or excerpt from field note (Nicky etal 1995). A good description of the above illustration in the article is the quotation below.

There is no real love in between the trust and the private firm but we still scratch each others back and try to get the best out of each other… middle managers are often the scape goat and get sacrificed when things go wrong ( A Supervisor).


With the introduction of raw data as the above in the article, the researcher has to some extent demonstrated understanding in thinking clearly on the above subject by skilfully referencing the particular source in the organisation who made this statement – no name was attached. In this way it has been possible for the reader to tell who made that statement, and what is the source authority- within that organisation to come up with such claims- usually failure in this area of writing clearly demonstrates the analysis has not been sufficiently well developed.

Furthermore, the findings generated from this research work has to some extent demonstrated the significance of its result and how this apply to particular practical /theoretical problems in managerial capacity within an organisation- surely this to some extent, did contribute to the literature studies on this subject(outsourcing). In particular the study provides evidence that the adoption of information technology in management of organisational activities as seen as major cause of recent demise in middle management (Scarbrough and Burrell 1996) is not sufficiently true and valid. Infact, technology to some extent serves as a good source of competitive advantage but the tacit knowledge of managerial workers is more – a core competitive source of advantage that organisations will do all they can to acquire, retain and develop these individuals and their body of knowledge to add value to the organisations performance.

Consequently wide academic research literatures exist to demonstrate the practical application of indepth qualitative interview in organisation research study. However as has been discussed in the dynamics of its application process. It is the researcher that holds the balance of power in managing the outcome of the conversation, it must be their role, in the course of the conversation and the method of interview applied- which gives direction to what the interviewee says, and ultimately the strength of the research findings.Accordingly, success in this area will involve having to make a number of adjustments (as it applies to the article discussed previously) to the detail accounts of methodology applied, data analysis and assumptions they bring to carry out their research.


















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