Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage

Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage

Released April 2008
Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 9780787998387

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Book description

The source of competitive advantage has shifted in many organizations from reliability to innovation and flexibility. But what does it take for an organization that innovates to then manage effectively? In this follow-up to Built to Change, Ed Lawler argues that it is a combination of the right structure and the right people. First, organizations must decide what structure they are: are you a high-involvement organization that has products and services that require a high level of coordination and cooperation among employees? Or do you have a more global competitor structure in which you are constantly bringing in new talent and technological expertise? Are you a mixture of both? Lawler outlines the unique human capital strategy for each approach, shows what it looks like in action, and provides the foundation and tools for creating competitive and innovative organizations.

Table of contents

  1. Praise for Talent
  2. Copyright
  3. Foreword
    1. Why?
    2. What
    3. How
    4. Who
    5. So What?
  4. Preface
    1. Acknowledgments
  5. 1. Talent Matters
    1. 1.1. Competitive Realities
      1. 1.1.1. Talent as a Competitive Advantage
      2. 1.1.2. Organization as a Competitive Advantage
      3. 1.1.3. Performance and Change
    2. 1.2. The HC-Centric Organization
    3. 1.3. Need for HC-Centric Organizations
  6. 2. Making the Right Management Choice
    1. 2.1. Structure-Centric Organizing
    2. 2.2. HC-Centric Management
      1. 2.2.1. Global-Competitor Approach
    3. 2.3. Making the Choice
      1. 2.3.1. Choosing an HC-Centric Management Approach
      2. 2.3.2. Combining Approaches
    4. 2.4. After the Choice
  7. 3. Designing Organizations
    1. 3.1. The Star Model
    2. 3.2. Strategy
    3. 3.3. Competencies and Capabilities
      1. 3.3.1. Implications
    4. 3.4. Structure
      1. 3.4.1. Implications
    5. 3.5. Processes
      1. 3.5.1. Implications
    6. 3.6. Rewards
    7. 3.7. Implications
    8. 3.8. People
      1. 3.8.1. Implications
    9. 3.9. Identity
      1. 3.9.1. Implications
    10. 3.10. Design Differences
  8. 4. Managing Talent
    1. 4.1. Management Priorities
    2. 4.2. The Employer Brand
      1. 4.2.1. Perquisites
      2. 4.2.2. Fit
      3. 4.2.3. Actions that Hurt
      4. 4.2.4. Attracting Customers
      5. 4.2.5. Wal-Mart's Efforts
    3. 4.3. Employment Contracts
    4. 4.4. Individualized Deals
    5. 4.5. Critical Skills
    6. 4.6. Picking the Right People
    7. 4.7. Development Opportunities
      1. 4.7.1. Enabling Career Self-Management
      2. 4.7.2. Enabling Work Changes
    8. 4.8. Retaining the Right Talent
      1. 4.8.1. Know the Market
      2. 4.8.2. Meet or Beat the Market
      3. 4.8.3. Sell the Employment Contract
      4. 4.8.4. Know the Individual
      5. 4.8.5. Focus on High-Performance Talent
    9. 4.9. What Is Needed
  9. 5. Managing Performance
    1. 5.1. Defining Performance
    2. 5.2. Developing Employee Skills and Knowledge
    3. 5.3. Managing Motivation
    4. 5.4. Performance Management System Design
      1. 5.4.1. The Organization Conducts Appraisals Top-to-Bottom
      2. 5.4.2. Appraisal Delivery Is Evaluated for Effectiveness
      3. 5.4.3. Goals are Set in Advance
      4. 5.4.4. Frequency Fits Rate of Change
      5. 5.4.5. Input is Part of the Process
      6. 5.4.6. Objective Performance Measures are Used
      7. 5.4.7. Measures Are Strategic
      8. 5.4.8. Ratings Are Meaningful
      9. 5.4.9. Pay For Performance and Development Discussions Are Separate
      10. 5.4.10. The Organization Has (or Is Building) a Skills Database
      11. 5.4.11. Ongoing Performance Feedback Is the Norm
      12. 5.4.12. Team Performance Is Managed And Measured
    5. 5.5. Getting Pay For Performance Right
      1. 5.5.1. High-Involvement Organizations
      2. 5.5.2. Global Competitors
    6. 5.6. What Is Needed
  10. 6. Information and Decision Making
    1. 6.1. What Should a Human Capital Information System Look Like?
      1. 6.1.1. Information About Individuals
      2. 6.1.2. The Next Level: Information About
      3. 6.1.3. Analytics
      4. 6.1.4. Impact of Public Reporting
      5. 6.1.5. Information Sharing
    2. 6.2. Knowledge Development
    3. 6.3. Information And Knowledge Meet Decision Making
    4. 6.4. What Is Needed
  11. 7. Reinventing HR
    1. 7.1. The Current State Of Hr
      1. 7.1.1. Administrative Demands
      2. 7.1.2. Hr Staffing
      3. 7.1.3. Corporate Boards
    2. 7.2. What Hr Should Do
      1. 7.2.1. Hr Administration
      2. 7.2.2. Business Support
      3. 7.2.3. Strategy Development And Implementation
    3. 7.3. Staffing Hr
    4. 7.4. Organizational Design And Human Resources
      1. 7.4.1. Centers Of Excellence
      2. 7.4.2. Organizational Effectiveness
    5. 7.5. What Is Needed
  12. 8. Governing Corporations
    1. 8.1. What A Board Needs
      1. 8.1.1. Power
      2. 8.1.2. Knowledge
      3. 8.1.3. Motivation And Performance Management
      4. 8.1.4. Information
      5. 8.1.5. Opportunity
    2. 8.2. Executive Compensation Is Critical
    3. 8.3. Boards For Different Types Of HC-Centric Organizations
    4. 8.4. What Boards Should Do
  13. 9. Leading
    1. 9.1. Leaders, Managers, Or Both?
    2. 9.2. What Managers Need To Do
      1. 9.2.1. Look To The Future
      2. 9.2.2. Manage Attention
      3. 9.2.3. Manage Performance
      4. 9.2.4. Manage Talent
      5. 9.2.5. Confront Performance Problems
    3. 9.3. Challenges Facing Executives
    4. 9.4. Reward Differences
    5. 9.5. Imperial Ceos
      1. 9.5.1. Effective Communications
      2. 9.5.2. Developing Managers
      3. 9.5.3. Leaders Developing Leaders
    6. 9.6. Creating Shared Leadership
    7. 9.7. How Global-Competitor And High-Involvement Leaders Should Differ
    8. 9.8. What All Managers Should Do
  14. 10. Managing Change
    1. 10.1. Why Not?
      1. 10.1.1. Inability
      2. 10.1.2. Unwillingness
    2. 10.2. Moving Toward An HC-Centric Organization
      1. 10.2.1. Change Management
      2. 10.2.2. Four Types Of Change
      3. 10.2.3. From Structure-Centric To Hc-Centric
    3. 10.3. Strategy And Flexibility In HC-Centric Organizations
    4. 10.4. The Future Belongs To The HC-Centric Organization
  15. Epilogue
    1. The Societal Perspective
    2. Pace Of Change
    3. The High-Involvement Approach — A Tougher Sell?
    4. Importance Of Size
    5. Future Of Management
  16. Notes
  17. References
  18. The Author

Product information

  • Title: Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: April 2008
  • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
  • ISBN: 9780787998387