Monthly Archives: April 2011

Performance Dichotomies: Defining Performance

As discussed in the last post, numerous business principles possess dichotomies.  However, it is important to consider the validity of overriding the human inclination that dichotomies are opposites and look for the shared elements present in much of what we … Continue reading

Posted in Leadership, Organizations, Performance | Tagged | 28 Comments

Dichotomies: Dangerous Twins of the Workplace

An organization that I have worked with for several years met with me recently to discuss how their organization was performing.  The leadership team summarized their situation this way: We are a strong organization, but we have been struggling lately … Continue reading

Posted in Development, Leadership, Organizations, Performance | Tagged | 31 Comments

Perceptions and Phases of the HR Function

Over the last several posts, we have discussed that the size and the composition of the human resource staff changes as the function evolves from being transactional to more strategic. Although this evolution is not the sole factor that impacts … Continue reading

Posted in HR Operations, Organizations | Tagged | 24 Comments

HR Staffing: Who Do We Need?

Just as the size of the staff in the HR function presents a dilemma, so does the composition of the staff.  Over the last several years, I have been asked numerous times if it makes sense to use generalists or … Continue reading

Posted in HR Operations, Organizations | Tagged | 39 Comments

HR Staffing: Pulling It All Together

Our discussion to this point has shown that a variety of factors impact HR staffing size: service level, offerings, degree of automation, organizational size, industry, and phase of development.  Overall, the results have indicated that there is not a deterministic … Continue reading

Posted in HR Operations, Organizations | Tagged | 29 Comments

More HR Staffing Differences? Industry and Phase

As we discussed in the last post, there are a variety of factors that impact the size of the HR staff.   We focused on service offering and level, degree of automation, and organizational size as factors that play a key … Continue reading

Posted in Development, HR Operations, Organizations | Tagged | 23 Comments

Human Resource Staffing: The Magic Number

Most human resource (HR) operations from time to time contend with “right sizing” of its staff.   Moreover, the need to reduce staff to realize cost savings many times targets various “back office” functions and human resources is not immune.  On … Continue reading

Posted in HR Operations, Organizations | Tagged | 48 Comments

Communication between Peers

One of our readers recently commented that he would like to see more discussion of the intricacies of communication between coworkers.  He made a very valid point that supervisor communication is different than peer communication and most organizations spend a … Continue reading

Posted in HR Operations, Leadership, Organizations | Tagged | 14 Comments