Managerial competences, engagement and productivity - developing positive relationships

越来越多的证据表明，管理不善是生产率低下的主要原因之一。英国政府最近的工业战略指出，“我们的管理人员平均来说不如许多竞争对手熟练”，因此有人认为，如果我们要解决“生产力难题”，提高基本的管理能力至关重要。然而，各级管理人员面临的挑战正变得越来越复杂。特别是，当代强调更强有力的方法来管理业绩，使管理人员更有可能发现自己不得不进行“困难的对话”，并与员工发生冲突。工作场所冲突不仅普遍存在，而且可以说通过占用宝贵的组织资源来抑制工作场所的生产力。CIPD的一项调查发现，超过三分之一的受访者最近在工作中经历过冲突，据估计，员工平均每周花费1.8小时处理冲突，每年损失3.7亿天。与此同时，管理人员处理冲突的方式可以通过影响参与程度对组织绩效产生重大影响;如果员工觉得自己得到了公平的对待，并参与了影响他们的决策，他们就更有可能投入工作。尽管直线经理在塑造工作体验方面发挥着至关重要的作用，越来越多的证据表明，他们缺乏有效管理人员以及查明、处理和解决棘手的人事问题所需的技能。因此，旨在提高他们处理冲突能力的培训方案，可以成为确保提高雇员参与度和提高生产力的一种方式。不幸的是，一直没有强大的定量学术研究，在这一领域，很难建立一个有说服力的商业案例，投资于冲突管理capability.This建议的目的是填补这一空白，提供了一个详细的评估参与和生产力的“冲突能力”。这将通过一项旨在发展私营和公共部门一些组织的直线管理人员解决冲突技能的培训干预措施的工作场所试验来进行。该项目将与咨询、调解和仲裁处密切合作，试行两个层次的技能发展。第一个方案将包括一个为期一天的讲习班，目的是向第一线管理人员提供解决冲突的技能。第二个项目将增加一个组成部分，提供一个为期两天的更高级讲习班，使高级领导人做好准备，在管理人员设法解决棘手的人事问题时向他们提供支持和辅导。研讨会将采用调解模式，通过倾听、沟通、影响、重构和谈判、困难对话和辅导等关键技能，培养管理人员的冲突驾驭能力。每项干预措施的影响将在12个月内通过评估管理人员的能力和信心、他们管理的员工的经验和态度，处理冲突的效率和组织生产力的衡量标准。这将通过访谈和焦点小组来研究生产力提高的过程以及组织面临的潜在障碍。该项目将为培训和发展冲突解决技能的影响提供宝贵的证据基础。它不仅旨在对案例研究组织内的管理能力产生实质性影响，而且还将支持开发可以在一系列组织环境中复制的培训工具。此外，将通过一个全面的传播和参与方案，与从业者和决策界分享研究成果。

There is a growing body of evidence that poor management is one of the main causes of low productivity. The UK government's recent Industrial Strategy noted that 'our managers are, on average, less proficient than many competitors' and therefore it has been argued that improving basic managerial competences is crucial if we are to solve the 'productivity puzzle'. However, the challenges facing line managers are becoming increasingly complex. In particular, the contemporary emphasis on more robust approaches to the management of performance makes it more likely that managers will find themselves having to have 'difficult conversations' and in conflict with their staff.Workplace conflict is not only widespread but arguably inhibits workplace productivity by tying up valuable organisational resources. A CIPD survey found that over one-third of respondents had recent experience of conflict at work and it has been estimated that employees spend an average of 1.8 hours a week dealing with conflict, an annual loss of 370 million days. At the same time, the way in which managers handle conflict could have a significant impact on organisational performance by influencing levels of engagement; employees are more likely to be engaged if they feel that they are treated fairly and involved in decisions that affect them.Although line managers play a crucial role in shaping experiences of work, there is growing evidence that they lack the skills needed to manage people effectively and identify, address and resolve difficult personnel issues. Therefore, training programmes designed to increase their capacity to deal with conflict could be one way of securing higher levels of employee engagement and improved productivity. Unfortunately, there has been no robust quantitative academic research in this area, making it difficult to build a persuasive business case for investment in conflict management competences.This proposal aims to fill this gap by providing a detailed evaluation of the impact on engagement and productivity of 'conflict competence'. This will be conducted through a workplace trial of training interventions designed to develop the conflict resolution skills of line managers in a number of organisations in the private and public sectors. Working closely with the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) the project will trial two levels of skills development. The first will comprise of a one-day workshop designed to develop conflict resolution skills delivered to first-line managers. The second will add a further component by providing a more advanced two-day workshop to prepare senior leaders to provide support and coaching to their managers as they seek to navigate difficult personnel issues. The workshops will use a mediative model to develop the conflict competence of managers through key skills including listening, communication, influencing, reframing and negotiation, having difficult conversations and coaching.The impact of each intervention will be tracked over a 12 month period by assessing the competence and confidence of managers, the experiences and attitudes of the employees they manage, the efficiency with which conflict is handled and measures of organisational productivity. This will be contextualised by interviews and focus groups to examine the processes through which productivity improvements are secured and also the potential barriers facing organisations.The project will provide a valuable evidence base regarding the impact of training and development in conflict resolution skills. It not only aims to have a substantive impact on managerial competence within the case-study organisations but will also underpin the development of training tools which can be replicated in a range of organisational contexts. Furthermore, insights from the research will be shared with practitioner and policy-making communities through a comprehensive programme of dissemination and engagement.