Sunday Seminar 3: One Cup of High Performance Climate, Spice With Engagement, and Stir: Using Linkage Research to Bake Organizational Change
Scott Brooks
Kenexa
Joe Colihan
IBM
Employee surveys are ubiquitous. The internal customers and users of surveys are becoming both increasingly savvy and increasingly time pressed. The demand—and the opportunity—to demonstrate how survey topics are linked to organizational outcomes is high. Fortunately, both the science and practice of linkage research are also growing increasingly sophisticated. This session focuses not primarily on the conduct of this research itself but on the use of linkage research as a tool for organizational change.
To fulfill its potential, linkage research needs to be more than a measurement exercise. It must be integrated with organizational development efforts. In fact, it must be remembered that the methodological and statistical concerns are subordinate to the OD and change objectives of an organization. Statistical validity and a sound scientific foundation are required for both measurement and OD objectives, yet OD efforts must also satisfy other requirements in order to be successful. In particular, a focus on executive buy-in and clear, compelling stories told from the data are critical. Linkage research much be conducted not simply to convince the researcher but to convince leadership (and these two stakeholders become convinced in very different ways). Too often, linkage research stops at the analytical phase, without crafting a compelling story that can influence an organization’s leadership to alter or refine its strategy. Linkage research needs to be considered as an organizational development activity, not strictly a model-building exercise.
Following this session, participants will be able to:
• Describe the strategic goals of employee opinion measurement and how linkage research may help reach those goals
• Identify key workplace climate constructs (e.g., customer orientation, engagement, clarity of direction) and where each is likely to be more potent in impacting organizational success
• Conduct linkage research not simply as a statistical project but as an organizational change effort
• Apply the broader lessons and findings of 20 years of linkage research, whether the research is conducted locally or not
• Involve executive leadership through compelling stories that inspire buy-in
• Integrate linkage research lessons into the broader context of measurement and change efforts (e.g., scorecards, annual business cycles)
Scott Brooks is the San Francisco practice leader for Kenexa. In August 2006, Kenexa acquired Gantz Wiley Research where Scott had spent nearly a dozen years in employee and customer survey consulting. Throughout his tenure with Kenexa and Gantz Wiley Research, Scott’s focus has been to help organizations understand and act on the views of their employees and customers. Scott has over 15 years of experience in survey research working in numerous industries, including retail, healthcare, and service industries. Prior to working with Gantz Wiley Research, Scott worked in organizational development for the retailer Mervyn’s, formerly a division of Target, Inc. He has authored many presentations and publications on linkage research and employee measurement topics. Published in 2006, he coauthored two book chapters in SIOP Professional Practice Series, both relating employee surveys to organizational outcomes. Scott earned his PhD in I-O psychology from The Ohio State University.
Joe Colihan began his career in 1991 in IBM’s selection and testing group. There he worked on various hiring projects including the Manufacturing Selection Test used to help select new hires into manufacturing. He left IBM for a year to work with HRStrategies (now Aon Consulting Group) before returning to IBM in 1994. Since then he has been working as part of IBM’s Workforce Research team. His responsibilities have included managing IBM’s Global Pulse Survey program, helping to build a survey registry database and process, and serving as the IBM representative to the Information Technology Survey Group and Mayflower, two consortiums of companies cooperating on employee survey research. He has also conducted research in the areas of organizational culture and effectiveness, motivation and job satisfaction, leadership competencies, retention, teamwork, and linking employee attitudes to customer satisfaction, brand image, and financial performance measures. Joe was coauthor of a book chapter on managing employee absenteeism and turnover and journal articles on topics such as job stress, role ambiguity, job analysis, job families, telecommuting, and work–life balance. He has presented several papers at national conferences on employee selection, job stress, and job families, telecommuting, work–life balance, training evaluation, and linking employee workplace climate measures to critical business outcomes. Joe received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 1993.
Coordinator: Kyle Lundby, Kenexa
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