eePulse News
Fall 2002
Welcome to this quarter’s newsletter containing the
latest eePulse,
Inc. surveys, research and news.
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Surveys/Research
HR Implications of the Attack on
America:
One Year Later
eePulse recently conducted a joint survey with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to evaluate changes in the workplace since September 2001. With responses from 7,466 human resource professionals, the survey looks at the changes employers have made in the workplace as a result of the attacks.
Here are some highlights of findings from the
survey. All percentages are
of human resource professionals who responded on behalf of their
organization.
Organization prepared to return to “business as
usual” to a great or very great extent following attacks:
-
73% in 2001 survey
-
41% in 2002 survey
Organization efforts toward employees over the past
year:
-
59% - Open door policy with management to discuss
any concerns -
56% - Allowing employees to postpone or cancel
business travel -
54% - Offering Employee Assistance Plan (EAP)
services and encouraging EAP use
Changes in the workplace as a result of last year’s terrorist attacks:
-
52% - Organizations have put higher security
provisions in place -
43% - Employees have been more caring toward one
another -
33% - Business travel has been curtailed
In addition to the
statistics, over 14,000 comments were received from survey respondents
around the country. “Regardless
of geographic location, respondents cited ways that relationships between
people at work changed since September 11th,” said Dr.
Theresa Welbourne, CEO of eePulse, Inc.
“Some respondents said their employees were more caring; others
said employees were more focused on family and friends, and another group
indicated an overall sense of loss that resulted from 9/11, the anthrax
scare, and the overall downturn in the economy.”
Business execs rate study of
ethics a must for CEO success, but just not their own
While most top executives say the study of business ethics is important
for the success of CEOs, only 15 percent rank it among the top three
fields of study crucial to their own success, according to research by the
University of Michigan Business School and eePulse Inc., a technology and
management research firm.
In a new study of nearly 250 senior business managers, all of
whom took part in the U-M Business School’s Executive Education program
in the past five years, the field of business ethics ranks behind only
business strategy as the most important area for study by successful CEOs. But when the study participants
were asked to list the top three fields that were critical to their own
personal success, business strategy (62 percent), human resource
management (58 percent) and communications (29 percent) were most
frequently cited.
“When forced to rank only three fields, business ethics
fell off the radar screen,” says Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D., adjunct
professor at the U-M Business School’s Zell-Lurie Institute and CEO and
president of eePulse Inc. “This may be due to the fact that ethics is
not as well developed a field of study in most business schools.”
Business strategy was rated as the single most important
field of study for CEO success, in general, with 98 percent of the survey
respondents saying it is “very important or critical.” Ethics (84
percent), communications (75 percent), finance (71 percent) and human
resource management (59 percent) rounded out the top five (among 15
different fields of study).
“With the recent recession, many businesses have gone back
to the drawing board to re-craft their strategies,” Welbourne says. “Thus,
as a basic building block of any business, it’s not surprising to see
that knowledge of strategy is valued as critical for the CEO job. Business
strategy also is the one academic field that pulls all of the other
business subjects together.”
While more than three quarters of the survey respondents
ranked fields such as general management, entrepreneurship, organizational
behavior, marketing and operations management as “important, very
important or critical,” more than a third said that the study of sales,
business law and accounting were not important for CEO success.
In addition, more than 60 percent of the study participants
ranked management consulting as not important. In fact, some even said
that it might have negative career effects.
“Given the collapse of Arthur Andersen and the current skepticism
of consultants, this is not surprising,” Welbourne says. “Given the
interest that most MBA students have in consulting careers, this will be
an interesting trend to watch over the next few months and years.”
The study also asked respondents what advice they would give business school deans and faculty to help them better educate students and business executives in the critical skills defined as essential for success. Overall, responses focused on offering classes that go beyond finance and accounting and emphasized “real-world” applications with advanced training in strategy, human resource management and ethics. In addition, the survey suggested that faculty have a strong background in corporate business with current, “real-world” experience, and to use case studies rather than recite theory alone.
News
The Wall
Street Journal,
September 17, 2002
"Pricking
One More Bubble: Outlandish CEO Enrichment"
Personnel Today, September 17, 2002
"A
finger on the pulse"
USA
Today.com, September 12, 2002
"Snapshot:
Workplace changes since 9/11"
Personnel Today, September 19, 2002
"US
firms put staff first in aftermath of attack"
Hart's E
& P,
September 2002
"Know
your organization's pulse"
HR.com,
August 19, 2002
"The Paradigm
Shift - Data-Driven Leadership" by Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D.
Ideas
With all of the
news about business ethical standards, did you know that you can use
eePulse’s Measurecom™ solution as a second form of audit data? By regularly obtaining employee
feedback, comments and suggestions, acting upon and recording this data,
you have an internal record of current business activities derived
directly from the employees themselves.
Know what’s
really going on within your organization and promote this information to
the government, media members, and the employees themselves to improve
your company’s reputation and employee morale.
The Society for Human Resource
Management and the Council of Public Relations Firms recently conducted a
study in which 91% of employees and 98% of HR professionals surveyed felt
that a company’s reputation is linked to employee job performance.
“Employees felt the single most important factor in building a company’s credibility among employees is communications – good news and bad; management would be well advised to regularly revisit and strengthen their employee communications programs,” said Kathy Cripps, president of the Council of Public Relations.
For additional information, please feel free to contact us.