Just for fun, taken from Wordle, a ‘cloud’ of things we’ve talked about on this blog recently!

Nov 25 2011

Continuing our Global working video competition ‘meet the judges’ posts, offering a deeper insight into why we chose our expert panel of judges and what they’re looking for. Today: Global Integration CEO Kevan Hall.

Kevan Hall at Tweetcamp

Can you introduce yourself to readers  in one sentence, please:

I am the CEO of the Global Integration group.

What made you agree to be a judge for the global working video competition?

I thought the competition would be great idea and enable more people to get involved in the topic. I also wanted to see how we could use YouTube and other social media to engage with people.

What’s been your own experience of global working?

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Nov 23 2011

This week you’ll find the Global Integration senior team on just two continents, largely because Thanksgiving is looming!

If you want to hook up with any of them whilst they’re in your neighbourhood – or at least closer than usual – you can find us in Europe as follows….

In Düsseldorf, Germany, you’ll catch Tony Poots, and in Athens, Greece, you’ll find Rod Farnan.

CEO Kevan Hall, Phil Stockbridge and John Bland are travelling to various places across the UK.

Our US based team Tim Mitchell, TH Ong and Robyn Green will be staying close to home and can be located in various spots including Arkansas and Los Angeles.

If you’ll be closeby to any of them, and would like to take advantage for a coffee whilst they’re there, contact your nearest regional office or the team member directly, and we’ll be delighted to try and arrange something convenient.

Nov 21 2011

Continuing with our ‘Matrix Monday’ series, we report back on some of the limited literature available on matrix management. Today we summarise Performance evaluation in a matrix organisation: a case study (Part One, Two and Three) by Steven H. Appelbaum, David Nadeau and Michael Cyr (Industrial and Commercial Training Vol. 40 No. 5, 2008)

At time of writing Steven H. Appelbaum was Professor of Management and Senior Concordia University Research Chair in Organizational Development, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: David Nadeau was Senior Group Leader, CAE-Aerospace, Laval, Quebec, Canada; and Michael Cyr was Vice-President, Lockweld Inc., Candiac, Quebec, Canada.

There is a marked absence of recent or ample research on performance appraisals in a matrix organisation. This three-part paper sets out to understand the most effective method with which to review the functional performance of employees within a matrix organisation.

Part one offers an overall introduction to the stud,y and an overview of what a matrix organisation is as described by the literature.

Part two provides a ‘real time’ case analysis based on CAE, a company which provides simulation and modelling technologies and integrated training solutions for the civil aviation industry.

Part three,In part three, the authors demonstrate the tools, corporate participation and acceptance levels that are required with matrix structures to ensure employee and manager ‘buy in’ and implementation.

The authors conclude that the most effective method by which to measure employee performance within a matrix organisation is through employing a ‘multi-rater system’. Taking into consideration the known risks and challenges in evaluating employees within a matrix organisation, they suggest that this type of system provides the organisation with the most reliable method by which to evaluate its employees.

Nov 20 2011

Below is a great infographic produced by Cisco to show the results of their recent research into workplace views and attitudes to technology of students and younger workers.

Our blog post relating to the reports findings can be found here – The New Workplace Currency: The Surprising – and Unsurprising Results

The Cisco Connected World Technology Report Infographic

Nov 16 2011

When Cisco recently commissioned an international workforce study of nearly 3000 students and young people in the early stages of their careers, it found that one in three college students and young professionals consider the Internet to be as important as air, water, food, and shelter and found that their desire to use social media, mobile devices, and the Internet more freely in the workplace is strong enough to influence their future job choice -  sometimes more than salary.

That some things are more important than money in the workplace comes as no surprise to all but a few of us, but there are two particular areas of note within the survey: the preference for remote working; and their high use of social media.

Preference for remote working

It’s dangerous to assume that all of a single generation will be the same, but we can say with some certainty that these growing trends require careful management – and that management differs from when someone is sitting in the office with you.

Developing trust, community and strong working relationships are more challenging across distance. When competing for someone’s time and attention, these become really valuable currencies for getting things done. Working in, and managing, teams in complex virtual environments requires completely different skill sets and challenges assumptions made in traditional, more hierarchical, face to face working environments.

That some see working flexibly as a right only adds to this complexity. Managing or working with someone when you don’t know where they are or when they’ll be there is harder than knowing that someone will be in an office within set hours.

Desire for Social Media

The big fear around social media for companies is that people will be distracted rather that working. The survey will offer the worriers no comfort: more than 4 in 10 (43%) students from Cisco’s total sample (with considerable regional variations) note that they are typically distracted or interrupted by some type of social media three or more times per hour while they are trying to focus on a project or homework.

Whilst some companies will try hard to ‘control’ people’s use of social media, for the ‘digital natives’ and others who have embraced social media, rules will only be something that people will spend time and energy getting around, and could become a source of resentment and disengagement.

Education is almost always preferable to legislation, and used well in the workplace social media can be a great facilitator. It can only become more so as people work increasingly remotely and/or on flexible schedules. Helping people to tame the technology is an important workplace challenge.

Roughly seven in ten young professionals indicate that they have ‘friended‘ or ‘followed’ their manager and/or co-workers in social media spaces. With the boundaries blurring between home and work, personal and professional lives, the emphasis that HR needs to place isn’t around the distraction levels (which people will need to find ways to manage if they are to remain effective and employed) but in ensuring that people are aware of how to manage the pitfalls, and how to how to maintain a work/life balance effectively.

They will also need to find ways of addressing the problems faced by those who have not had access to high levels of connectivity – the digitally disconnected. The gap is widening by the minute.

The accompanying infographic can be found on a separate  Cisco Connected World Technology Report blog post. To find out more about how to address some of the workplace issues thrown up by this report, please contact your nearest Global Integration office.

Nov 16 2011

Continuing our global working video competition ‘meet the judges’ posts, offering a deeper insight into why we chose our expert panel of judges and what they’re looking for. Today: student representative, Alan Hall

Alan Hall, competition judge

Can you introduce yourself to readers in one sentence:

My name is Alan Hall and I am reading Management with Marketing at Exeter University.

What made you agree to be a judge for the global working video competition?

My course deals a lot with the effects and implications of global working in the business environment. I read a lot about theories and what people have written about how others work in global situations. However, t will be interesting to see other peoples points of view and see how they analyze and would overcome those challenges.

What’s been your own experience of global working?

A lot of my modules have included assessed group work and, with there being a lot of international students at my university, I faced a lot of the problems which I presume would be evident in a global business. There were issues that related to language, miscommunication, culture, and for example if a Chinese student went home for a weekend we would need to find a suitable time to liaise with them despite the time differences. It has been a really challenging but interesting experience.

IF you were allowed to enter (and you’re not – you’re a judge!) what would your own entry look at?

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Nov 16 2011

Our international team of training consultants travel to our customer’s choice of location so that, overall, travel for our clients is minimized and costs held low.

And as companies are rarely on one continent, just being based in a region doesn’t mean you’ll always find our team there. So if you want to catch our senior consultants, where will you find them this week?

Let’s start with Europe, where unusually we find most of the team this week.

CEO, Kevan Hall is working  in Milan, Italy, this week.Much to the amusement of his colleagues Kevan will be working with a fashion company - his namesake is the fashion designer Kevan Hall.

Also in Southern Europe, you may like to catch up with Tony Poots or Phil Stockbridge in Barcelona, Spain, whilst they are there.

John Bland can be found in Luxembourg (officially officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, apparently), TH Ong is training teams in Paris, France, and Rod Farnan will be in London, England.

Outside of Europe, in the UAE (United Arab Emirates),  Tim Mitchell will be in Dubai,  and Robyn Green is in Montreal, Canada.

They won’t all be there all week, but if you would like to catch up with any of them whilst they are in your city/country, please contact your closest Global Integration office or reach out to them directly: their contact details can found through our training consultants profile pages.

For your chance to win $15,000 (or £10,000 or 12, 000 Euros) visit our Global Working Video Competition.

Nov 14 2011

Continuing with our ‘Matrix Monday’ series, we report back on some of the limited literature available on matrix management. Today we summarise ‘Motivation by project and functional managers in matrix organisations’ by Steven C Dunn (Copyright American Society for Engineering Management, June 2001)

Functional managers within a matrix are normally seen as responsible for managing the well-being of an individual on a project team, while project managers are normally seen as responsible for managing project objectives, with little responsibility to employees’ behavioural needs. This study wanted to test whether this clear delineation actually exists or whether project managers do have some influence over the higher-level needs of an employee.

The research investigated and compared the relationships between project manager and project team and functional manager and project team, using  ’motivation-hygiene’ factors developed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg to address job satisfaction. It examined how employees are influenced by functional and project managers and the data surveyed 222 individuals in 18 matrix organisations.

Although differences existed between organisations and depended upon the amount of time spent in project work, the study concluded that job satisfaction needs related to work attitudes are being provided for by a combination of functional and project managers.

Generally, it was found that while functional managers are responsible for the ‘factors avoiding job dissatisfaction, ‘hygienes. project managers are responsible for the ‘motivators’ (or factors leading to job satisfaction) – clear evidence that project managers do bear a significant responsibility for the well-being of project team members.

This article is one in our ‘Matrix Monday‘ series. If you have a literature review to contribute, or would like to know more about Global Integration’s matrix training and consultancy, please contact us.

Nov 14 2011

Tim Mitchell, Global Integration - rewarded this year for twelve years service.

Tim Mitchell, Oregon-based training consultant, has recently been awarded his Global Integration long service award. We caught up with him for a sixty second interview:

How did you come to join Global Integration?

Serendipity! I had just moved back to the UK after eleven years in Asia and I’d decided to take a year off. I saw the Global Integration advertisement in the Sunday Times the weekend I left my old role.

Any stand out moments?

My screening interview with Kevan. [ed: Kevan Hall, Global Integration's CEO]

I was wearing a suit, he was dressed in shorts and a floral shirt.

Favourite quote: “Just wanted to make sure you weren’t a pratt.” [ed: Kevan is English - the word is used there to mean idiot. Which, we're pleased to report, Tim turned out not to be.]

How have you found travelling so much and having a relatively young family? What tips would you pass to others to help get the balance right?

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Nov 11 2011