Unlocking Organisational Talent

If only . . . we could unlock the full talents of our staff and channel them for business benefit

Over recent decades, many techniques have been championed, introduced and discarded in the quest for improved organisational performance and sustainable competitive advantage. In one form or another, these have tended to use the twin levers of technology development and management control to effect the desired changes:

• the technology route has sought to 'design people out', replacing manual effort - and more recently intellectual input - by capital equipment and improved information management
• management control has placed the emphasis on organisational structures, systems and processes, with its aim being to match the resources available to the organisation's needs effectively, efficiently and economically.

The use of technology and restructuring has often been accelerated and magnified by resurgence in the use of mergers and acquisitions as a means of seeking rapid growth in shareholder value. These approaches, embedded in such techniques as Business Process Re-engineering, Total Quality Management and IT-based Knowledge Management, have generally delivered short-term performance gains but have been accompanied by significant job losses in the affected organisations; and the long-term effects on performance have often been disappointing.

Technology development and management control both stem from a view of organisations as machines. This sees them as rational enterprises, designed and structured to achieve predetermined ends as efficiently as possible, using "the one best way" to organise. From this perspective, people - with their idiosyncrasies, emotional 'irrationalities' and unpredictable behaviours - are, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, a barrier to organisational performance. However, extra-ordinary performance requires managers to take a more enlightened view of people and their potential contribution.