MP 2010-04

The Allis Chalmers ‘G’ tractors have long been favorites with market gardeners because the model combines excellent toolbar visibility, overall maneuverability, and good fuel economy in a relatively simple mechanical design. Unfortunately, the tractor’s small size and unique style make it a prime target for tractor collectors. This means that buying repair parts for the model ‘G’s can be expensive, since the suppliers cater to the hobbyist-restoration market rather than those using the machines on working farms. Conversion of the tractor to electric power eliminates the excessive costs involved in repairing the engine with original parts. The farmer who originally converted a conventional Allis Chalmers ‘G’ to a solar-powered cultivating tractor received partial funding through a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Grant. He was very happy with the re-powered tractor and developed a website describing both the process of conversion and the resulting tractor (www.flyingbeet.com). The conversion of an Allis Chalmers ‘G’ to an electric (and ultimately solar-powered) cultivating tractor provides several benefits for the University of Alaska’s Matanuska Experiment Farm: ▷▷ 1) The Agricultural Experiment Station plays a leadership role in developing sustainable farming practices appropriate for Alaska, and using a tractor that does not operate on limited fossil fuels provides a working example of sustainable agricultural practices. ▷▷ 2) Among other duties, the tractor is used to cultivate inside 30’ x 96’ high tunnels where carbon monoxide would be a hazard to the operator. ▷▷ 3) The price of the conversion kit was only slightly more expensive than a replacement gasoline engine, and repair of the electric engine is considerably cheaper than repair of the gasoline engine

Toward a Strategic Human Resource Management Model of High Reliability Organization Performance

In this article, we extend strategic human resource management (SHRM) thinking to theory and research on high reliability organizations (HROs) using a behavioral approach. After considering the viability of reliability as an organizational performance indicator, we identify a set of eight reliability-oriented employee behaviors (ROEBs) likely to foster organizational reliability and suggest that they are especially valuable to reliability seeking organizations that operate under “trying conditions”. We then develop a reliability-enhancing human resource strategy (REHRS) likely to facilitate the manifestation of these ROEBs. We conclude that the behavioral approach offers SHRM scholars an opportunity to explain how people contribute to specific organizational goals in specific contexts and, in turn, to identify human resource strategies that extend the general high performance human resource strategy (HPHRS) in new and important ways

Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace Agility Through Workforce Scalability

Dynamic organizations (DOs) operate in business environments characterized by frequent and discontinuous change, They compete on the basis of marketplace agility; that is on their ability to generate a steady stream of both large and small innovations in products, services, solutions, business models, and even internal processes that enable them to leapfrog and outmaneuver current and would-be competitors and thus eke out a series of temporary competitive advantages that might, with luck, add up to sustained success over time. Marketplace agility requires the ongoing reallocation of resources, including human resources. We use the term workforce scalability to capture the capacity of an organization to keep its human resources aligned with business needs by transitioning quickly and easily from one human resource configuration to another and another, ad infinitum. We argue that marketplace agility is enhanced by workforce agility because it is likely to meet the four necessary and sufficient conditions postulated by the resource based view (RBV) of the firm – valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable – if it can be attained. Our analysis therefore concludes by focusing on the two dimensions of workforce scalability – alignment and fluidity – and postulating a number of principles that might be used to guide the design of an HR strategy that enhances both. Throughout the paper, key concepts are illustrated using the experiences of Google, the well-known Internet search firm. Because the analysis is speculative and intended primarily to pique the interest of researchers and practitioners, the paper ends with a number of important questions that remain to be clarified

ILR Impact Brief - Workforce Alignment and Fluidity May Yield a Competitive Advantage

[Excerpt] The authors postulate that workforce scalability is the key competency necessary for ongoing marketplace success. Workforce scalability encompasses two factors: alignment and fluidity. The former is an ideal target that calls for the right number of the right type of people in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. The latter is the means by which organizations hit the target, and specifically refers to the speed and ease with which employees are moved around and adjust their behaviors to suit changing business requirements. A set of operating principles facilitates the simultaneous attainment of workforce alignment and fluidity

Achieving Marketplace Agility Through Human Resource Scalability

[Excerpt] Increasingly, firms find themselves, either by circumstances or choice, operating in highly turbulent business environments. For them, competitiveness is a constantly moving target. Many, it appears, are satisfied to enjoin the struggle with patched up business models and warmed over bureaucracies. But some, convinced that this is a losing proposition, are aggressively exploring and even experimenting with alternative frameworks and approaches. The monikers are many -- kinetic (Fradette and Michaud, 1998), dynamic (Peterson and Mannix, 2003), resilient (Hamel and Valikangas, 2003) and our favorite, agile (Shafer, Dyer, Kilty, Ericksen and Amos, 2001) -- but the aim is the same: to create organizations where change is the natural state of affairs. Clearly, this quest poses a number of major challenges for our field (Dyer and Shafer, 1999, 2003), one of which, optimizing human resource scalability, is the subject of this essay

Uncovering And Exploring The Mobilization And Launch Phase Of High And Low Performing Project Teams

As part of a larger study, this analysis, first, uncovers a previously alluded to, but heretofore un-explicated, phase of project team development (PTD) -- dubbed mobilization and launch -- and, then, explores the ways in which activities and outputs of this phase relate to project team effectiveness (PTE) by comparing them across three high and three low performing teams. The analysis shows that the former used this formative period: (1) to actuate a comprehensive mobilization strategy that was carried out relatively rapidly and resulted in well informed, as well as fully and competently staffed, teams and (2) to hold highly participatory launch meetings from which team members emerged in general agreement about what needed to be done and how and by whom it would be done. Low performing teams, in contrast, basically squandered this potentially valuable time and, thus, emerged from this phase totally unprepared to move to and effectively through subsequent phases of PTD

Human Resource Management Practices, Workforce Alignment, and Firm Performance

Small business leaders are charged with delivering high levels of company performance. There is no shortage of potentially fruitful investments available for consideration; these include developing new products or services, improving product or service quality, and enhancing marketing and sales. Another possible investment - improving the way a company manages its people - tends to receive less attention. This is somewhat surprising, however, when one considers that the human resource management practices a company uses can dramatically impact the bottom-line. One study of large publicly traded firms, for example, found that companies using high performance human resource practices have market values that range from between $16,000 and$40,000 per employee higher than firms that do not use such practices. A study of high tech start-ups showed that for firms going public with a high level of human resource value, the probability of survival is .79; for firms going public with low levels of human resource value, however, the probability is only .60. So, what human resource management practices foster small business success? The problem in answering this question is that prior studies often disagree about which human resource management practices are effective and which ones aren\u27t. Furthermore, even if scholars could agree about which practices are best, there is no reason to believe that the practices used by large Fortune 500 firms or small high-tech start-ups would translate to many (if not most) small businesses. After all, small businesses (i.e., those with fewer than 200) employees, typically compete in areas other than high-tech, and are generally unlikely to go public any time soon. The Cornell University/Gevity study of human resource management practices in small businesses is the first study we know of to provide definitive answers to two critical questions facing small business leaders: (1) Do people contribute to the success of small businesses?, and (2) What human resource management strategies (and practices) can the leaders of small businesses employ to foster firm success? The results of the study are presented as follows. First, we provide a visual depiction of the study\u27s findings. Second, we show that workforce alignment is strongly related to small business success. Third, we demonstrate how various employee selection, management, and motivation strategies affect workforce alignment. Fourth, we present four key takeaways from the study. Finally, we provide a section that allows you to compare your company\u27s results on all study variables to those of the other 250 companies that participated in the study

A Qualitative Investigation of the Human Resource Management Practices in Small Businesses

This report provides a summary of our findings from the first phase of our study on human resource practices in small businesses based on qualitative interviews with top managers and owners of small businesses. Below we include a brief description of the sample and an explanation of the hurdle that we experienced when using the terms human resource management practices. On the following pages, we report the main findings of the qualitative phase of our study. The findings are organized into three main sections around the areas of management philosophies, employee management practices, and key employee outcomes that link management practices to firm performance. The overall findings from this first report are summarized in a research model depicted in Figure 1. Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University and Gevity, is a provider of comprehensive human capital management solutions to small and medium-sized businesses

A Qualitative Investigation of the Human Resources Management Practices in Small Businesses

This report provides a summary of our findings from the first phase of our study on human resource practices in small businesses based on qualitative interviews with top managers and owners of small businesses. Below we include a brief description of the sample and an explanation of the hurdle that we experienced when using the terms human resource management practices. On the following pages, we report the main findings of the qualitative phase of our study. The findings are organized into three main sections around the areas of management philosophies, employee management practices, and key employee outcomes that link management practices to firm performance. The overall findings from this first report are summarized in a research model depicted in Figure 1. Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University and Gevity, is a provider of comprehensive human capital management solutions to small and medium-sized businesses

Research Report On Phase 3 of the Cornell University/Gevity Institute Study – Employee Outcomes: Human Resource Management Practices and Firm Performance In Small Businesses

[Excerpt] Improving company performance is something of interest to all small business leaders. Small business leaders have many tools at their disposal — from finance to marketing to customer service — that could potentially improve the performance of their company. Among these tools is the way that small business leaders manage their people. As has been mentioned in previous reports, research has shown that people management does indeed impact company performance, even at the financial level. Studies show increases in value per employee of up to $40,000 and survival rates for IPO firms as much as 20% higher for companies that effectively manage their human resources. The Cornell University/Gevity Institute study of human resource management practices in small businesses is attempting to answer two important questions faced by small business leaders: 1. Do people contribute to the success of small businesses? 2. What human resource management strategies and practices can small business leaders employ to foster firm success? In phase two of the study, we found that employee management practices help small employers improve workforce alignment, which was defined as having the right people with the right skills in the right jobs. Firms with high levels of workforce alignment experience higher performance than firms with lower levels of workforce alignment. Building on these findings, the third phase of the study addresses the positive employee outcomes that can result from effective people management and seeks to understand which employee outcomes or behaviors tend to lead to different types of performance outcomes important to small business leaders. The results for this study were taken from a sample of 111 small companies where responses were received from both the top manager as well as the employees. Companies ranged in size from 10 to 165 employees with an average size of approximately 30 employees representing a broad range of industries. The results of the study will be presented as follows: First, we briefly discuss what is known about how human resource management impacts performance through employees. Second, we discuss the performance outcomes, and employee outcomes and behaviors that were studied as well as the specific employee behaviors and outcomes that seem to drive the different kinds of performance. Finally, we present some key takeaways from the results of this study