Annette Sinclair, Barbara Agyeman

Barbara Agyeman, Roffey Park Institute, Horsham, UK.

Human Resource Management International Digest
Volume 13 Number 4 2005 pp. 5-8
Copyright © MCB University Press ISSN 0967-0734

Maneuvering across a global landscape, spanning diverse countries, cultures, regulations, customers and time zones, presents global organizations with challenges and opportunities that differ from operating nationally. How global leaders respond to these challenges is critical to the success of their business.

Organizations need to understand what makes global leadership effective in order to identify talent, focus development initiatives and provide support and processes to encourage and facilitate appropriate leadership. But many organizations appear to be unclear about what the development of global managers actually means.

We set out to understand what is required for effective global leadership in an increasingly complex global marketplace through understanding the challenges that global organizations and leaders face. We sought to identify how global organizations can develop and support effective leadership. We collected data through case studies of five prominent global organizations - GlaxoSmithKline, IKEA, The Body Shop, Lend Lease and an anonymous financial-services organization - and identified practical strategies for developing and supporting effective global leadership. Here we present an abridged version of The Body Shop case study.

The Body Shop in focus

A values-driven, high-quality skin and body-care retailer, The Body Shop has more than 2,000 outlets in more than 50 countries. It has expanded through establishing its own outlets and licensed franchise partners. It is also diversifying into new markets and product groups, including e-commerce and party-ware.

In the early years the global brand grew informally with each franchise developing its business differently. More recently, greater emphasis has been placed on introducing a global brand and standards, while still allowing local flexibility to ensure market sensitivity. At global-leadership team forums, franchise heads and country executives engage with strategic direction, planning and implementation strategies. There are also monthly executive-committee meetings where the chief executive and regional heads focus on steering strategy, reviewing global activity and direction.

The creation of a regional structure - covering the UK and Irish Republic; the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and the Asia Pacific - has increased the levels of decentralized decision-making in the areas of customer expertise and market knowledge. Local tactical activity is encouraged to help the business to learn, but at the same time the company ensures that such activity is carried out in a way that does not harm the global brand and strategy.

Global leadership-development program

The Body Shop runs a global leadership-development program, which focuses on development for senior management below executive level. A total of 16 senior managers are invited to participate each year. The program includes key modules and an action-learning project that helps to develop theoretical and practical capabilities.

Senior executives formally review the performance of global leaders annually. The top 16 performers receive further development investment. The Body Shop has chosen not to limit intake on to key development programs to those typically described a "high potentials." Instead, it focusses on "who is critical and needed in the business going forward."

The Body Shop's formal global-leadership capability framework includes categories on risk taking, entrepreneurship, raising standards, earning respect, vision and communication, strategic thinking, resilience, global retailing and having a multi-channel perspective. Areas highlighted as being of particular importance include: strategic thinking, which refers to a full understanding of the global business and the impact of decisions being made; having high levels of consultation and interpersonal skill; and being able to work effectively across a range of stakeholder groups.

Recently, less emphasis has been placed on charisma and more on leadership that is process orientated and values rigor and discipline in the management of the business. A challenge exists in emphasising the latter while retaining the strengths of the company's entrepreneurial roots.

The Body Shop rates the importance of a predefined list of global-leadership capabilities for its global leaders as shown in Table I.

The assessment process

As part of its new focus on performance leadership, The Body Shop has implemented a rigorous strategic and objective-based assessment process for all its top managers, but especially its global leaders.

The executive team reviews global leaders' assessments annually. Performance as a global leader is therefore very visible at executive level and higher levels of accountability are placed on its global leadership as a consequence. Significant elements of the performance-assessment process include business key-performance indicators, an appraisal process that includes objective setting and twice-yearly reviews that affect pay and reward.

The annual 360-degree process, as well as informal feedback, encourages a culture where providing feedback is a regular feature. An adjunct to this is the annual objective-setting and review process, which provides the base individual performance data used in the executive process.

Team leadership is a growing feature of the way global leadership operates in The Body Shop. It is seen at executive level through the regular executive-committee meetings where strategic direction of the whole global business is developed and steered with the involvement of key functional heads and regional heads. At senior-manager level, matrixed working and high degrees of collaboration facilitate formal and informal engagement with other global leaders in the development of operational plans and new developments.

Global leaders highlight communication and relationship building as intertwined goals. They see making the time to travel in order to invest in relationships as a constant challenge. The practical challenge of working across multiple territories includes dealing with the reality of not always being able to get hold of people when you want and therefore having to develop strategies to reduce any impact. Developing cultural understanding that enables leaders to be sensitive to where people come from and how they work is another demand that global leadership makes.

Global leaders point to huge personal development gained from working in different parts of the world, learning about markets and commercial issues, as well as customs and culture. Working globally offers a wealth of ideas. Global leaders see huge creative opportunities and stimuli from customers, store staff and suppliers from different countries. Some leaders indicate that new ideas can be tested in smaller markets to see what works. Indeed, transferring what works in one part of the organization to another, and being able to talk with authority using actual case studies, is seen as an opportunity to capitalize on.

Global leaders' strategies to improve effectiveness

Global leaders at The Body Shop use a range of strategies to improve their effectiveness. Self-development strategies include: regular travel to enable learning on the job and to facilitate networking; building self-awareness; reading business books; having and working with a mentor; voluntary work; and keeping in touch with other internal-change initiatives. Strategies at the organization level include: maximizing in-house development opportunities; multicultural training and 360-degree global feedback; and using organizational opportunities for external training and development.

Overall, global leaders indicate that The Body Shop provides significant support and opportunities to develop and grow as global leaders. However, they point to a culture that requires global leaders to be active in making the most of what is available. Balancing the pressures of getting the job done and creating development space add to the demands of a stretching role.

Key capabilities required for effective global leaders

Global leaders at The Body Shop emphasize the importance of open mindedness, having real passion for communicating and being good at talking regularly with people, and multicultural competence. The company offers a specific multicultural module to develop these skills in global leaders and their teams.

Global leaders rate the importance of a predetermined list of global-leadership capabilities in relation to what they consider important for their global-leader roles on the ground as shown in Table II.

Leading cross-cultural teams

Cultural diversity is a regular feature of teams in The Body Shop and has evolved over time. Active recognition of the contributions of cross-cultural teams is highlighted through the high investment made by global leaders to travel to different parts of the world to engage with staff, customers and environments in order to learn and experience what matters in different places and how things work. Global leaders actively draw from cross-cultural teams as a source of learning and wealth of ideas.

Global leaders find that, while stakeholder consultation is required in any change process, in implementing global change this requirement becomes even more pronounced to achieve success.

Corporate citizenship

In the early days, The Body Shop not only lived its values but also campaigned on a range of social, environmental and ethical issues. Today, that corporate responsibility and The Body Shop's values are primarily manifested in the individuals it employs. Corporate citizenship and the active demonstration of organizational values are a fundamental part of a global leader's role. They describe their approach as "almost second nature - it's what we do, but we also challenge each other on it." For example, they have debates about whether using particular packaging is the right environmental thing to do.

Challenges for the future

Looking ahead to the next two to three years, global leaders identify the following challenges that need to be addressed:

• increasing the transfer of knowledge globally through managing country swaps from region to center and vice versa;
• spotting winning ideas and what works, and sharing and implementing these more widely across the organization;
• working in multiple teams in the regions and center, working with franchises and building more constructive relationships that leverage business;
• developing skills in leaders so they have the ability to adapt in a global working environment;
• raising the visibility of the organization's "personality," which has taken a back seat in the process of building internal processes and discipline to enhance performance; and
• increasing The Body Shop's presence in India and South America.

Don't sit idly by if you want your staff to stay

---

Justin Lewis

---

Article type: Viewpoint.

Keywords: Work study, Job design, Human resource management.

---

Human Resource Management International Digest
Volume 13 Number 4 2005 pp. 3-4
Copyright © MCB University Press ISSN 0967-0734

---

"Downshifting(回游)" "protirement," "work-life balance:" all have joined the lexicon of the HR director and manager. But are these simply new buzz words or do they reflect a change of outlook among employees that requires HR directors fundamentally to question how their organizations operate?

As a stockbroker long habituated to arriving early every morning and leaving late in the evenings, I have noticed a sea change in the City of London. Unlike the powerhouse 1980s, when money and status and that latest Porsche carried the most cachet, today's rather less avaricious City professional wants a challenging career but also time to enjoy life outside of the office. In simple terms, money is not everything.

This means that HR directors can no longer even countenance offering pay rises or more senior job titles as the quickest fix for mid-career blues.

I realized I was not alone in noticing this change of employee attitude when I witnessed the success of a book by the editor of The Idler magazine, Tom Hodgkinson. His philosophical lifestyle book - How to be Idle - was written about widely in the press. The favorable reviews clearly meant that Hodgkinson's appeal for people to take their careers and jobs far less seriously was going down well with the public. He advocates the pleasures to be gleaned from inactivity rather than activity.

Revolution in the workplace is also being fomented in France. Top of last summer's French best-seller lists was Bonjour Paresse, or Hello Laziness, by Corinne Maier, an economist at state-owned Electricité de France. Dubbed "the slacker's bible" and the antithesis of every US management tome, the book is an anarchic plea to French middle management to cast off the shackles of careerism. By focusing on the right uniform, the jargon, the pointless meetings and sucking up to the powers that be, but doing work of little real value, managers have traditionally assured themselves of career progression. But her sub-plot is essentially: "Why are we just selling our souls for little or no reward?" In essence, it is a similar stance to Hodgkinson's.

Although the advice from both authors is partly tongue-in-cheek, the favorable reception for both books suggests this is possibly the biggest issue facing employers today. It is, moreover, an issue they ignore at their peril, as more and more employees prioritize the pursuit of their real dreams above climbing the career ladder or accumulating material wealth.

It is vital that employers do not put the rise of the idler generation down to simple laziness. In fact, the cause is totally different; it is actually about a change in values, even among those who work in careers with traditionally long hours, such as stockbroking, banking, medicine, the law and the media.

These changing values are already reflected in a new regulatory environment. European Union legislation has shortened the working week, maternity rights are improving and paternity rights have become enshrined in law.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," might be the repost from indignant bosses. But with the UK economy performing well, the country is almost at levels of full employment. Employees can afford to step away from hell's kitchen and give up their job without having already lined up a replacement. Employees have far more room to bargain than they had in the 1970s and 1980s. UK employers must recognize that, for the time being, they are in a seller's job market. Consequently, employers need to do more to hang on to good people and keep a willing workforce happy with its lot.

So, what should employers think about doing to combat the rise of the "idler" generation? How do they retain staff on whom they have spent time and money nurturing their development and whom they have come to rely upon?

The place to start is with the recognition that the marketplace has changed and that younger staff, say those under 30, are much more likely to resent having to work permanently long hours. Of course, professionals are usually willing to put in the hours needed to get the job done, but this is not the same as regularly having to work beyond the legal maximum.

Reducing working hours may sound easy in theory but doing it in practice is often not quite so straightforward. It certainly cannot be achieved without planning and usually some extra costs. It is particularly difficult to reduce working hours in very busy, successful organizations. This calls for iron discipline from HR managers. They must monitor output and hours and ensure that staff are not being put upon, and that directors are organizing their own time properly and not thoughtlessly demanding "just one more thing" from someone hoping to go home on time.

Those running client-driven advisory businesses that organize their work through account teams must be particularly careful because different account directors often do not make allowances for other teams' workloads.

I believe that it is every line manager's duty to know who is busy (and who is not) and to ensure that everyone has an even workload. If a member of staff is underperforming, this must be tackled immediately, and this is where the skill of the HR manager is invaluable. He or she will realize and counsel against opting for the easy route, which is to reallocate the load to a more capable and harder-working colleague. This is not a solution; it is a quick fix and will not address the real problem.

It is an affliction that affects public as well as private-sector managers. A "superheadteacher" I know has a dictum in his targets-driven primary school: "Always give more work to the busiest teacher." This action is short-termist and definitely not a permanent solution. It overburdens diligent staff, while failing to tackle the root of the problem, which is why their colleague is not performing adequately.

The HR director or manager can look at the problem as a whole, generally having a bit more distance from daily operational matters. He or she can help to put in the structures that ensure all staff are working efficiently and fairly. With the right structure, coupled with regular monitoring and "policing," if needs be, enormous amounts of time will be liberated in the organization, enabling staff either to reduce their working hours or take longer holidays, or both.

There is also a balance to be struck in giving employees the right amount of responsibility. They should have enough, so that their judgment and intelligence are fully used, but not so much that they feel overburdened and are unable to relax after work.

Legal issues should also not be forgotten - for example, a requirement to protect staff from stress. Although stress is hard to measure and its effects vary enormously from person to person, it would be easy to fall foul of the law if staff were stressed out by regularly working too-long hours or failing to take proper holidays. Any employer not taking the appropriate measures to minimize workplace stress can now be sued and forced to pay for negligence. In many cases, avoiding stress is a major cause of people downshifting.

When it comes to holidays, many people with busy careers regularly fail to take their annual allowance. A well-organized firm that needs to retain its talent must not allow this to continue. Ensure that appropriate cover, such as summer temporary staff, is made available. Nothing disheartens a valued employee more than returning from a well-earned break to find a mountainous in-tray that colleagues have not bothered to deal with.

In sum, while retaining staff might incur costs, it is a lot less expensive than losing valuable employees to a Welsh hillside as they take up sheep farming rather than stockbroking.

      说起来，我在公司前后也有四年多了，相对来说，自己的悟性比较好，学点东西也快，所以对公司很多的东西，甚至是技术专业的东西我都比较了解； 另一方面 ，现在自己在自己的专业也有所领悟，并已在人力资源这一行混着，照理说我应该很满意了，但不知道是自己要求高，还是现实真就是那么不如意，我觉得我没有发挥自己的所长。对于这种情况我选择了忍耐，我发现我真的是一个忍耐力比较好的人，但不知道还需要等多久。。。。。。。

    最近迷上了打帝国时代4，其实从帝国第一代我就开始打了，是经朋友的介绍，觉得还不错，当然我不算铁杆迷，更不是高手，只是自娱自乐而已，不过很能打发时间，通过这个游戏可以让我回想起很多以前的时光，可怀念的人、事、场景。。。。。。。

     前两天去看了一部音乐剧，我觉得很不错，我本人是非常喜欢HI POP音乐和舞蹈，而这一部影片就是把传统的芭蕾和HI POP结合起来而创作的，既有柔软感，又超有动感，特别里面的男主角真的好好好帅哦。。。。。。

    想写东西想了很久，每一次想到一个题材，总是对自己说：这一次一定要记住把想写的东西写下来。可能我性格就是这样，随性！IDEA一个接一个蹦出来，生活也因此丰富很多，少了灵感，等于什么都没有，有时候觉得自己也应该适合做MARKETING策划类的工作，而不是面对着一成不变的工作，但现在的生活模式和做事方式已把自己完全束缚了，变成了一个默守成规的乖下属、好同事！而且自娱自乐型的，有时候因为现有的生活方式，错失灵感，也就懒得把自己的题材写下来了。

    这次借ANNIE的光，我想我一定借她从而宣泄自己的内心最矛盾的东西。 ANNIE，市场部秘书，聪明，做事灵活，又熟悉英国环境，英语非常好，有一个英国男友，前一阵子刚办下UNMARRIED家属签，便顺顺利利地找了一个HR的工作，是英国本土公司，作为朋友还是挺为她高兴。可能自己曾经也是行政秘书，在这个公司做秘书是什么滋味，这种辛苦我很能体谅，但以前我还算做得非常开心，有一群非常玩得来的同事，和一个非常好的领导。现在呢，也许她，或者说她们这一帮秘书们日子难过多了，原因有四：一是，大家的工作做不完，很多外派都是被人宠坏的孩子似的，需要大家把他们从头到尾地侍候。第二，在这里，人际关系复杂，越是在地区部总部，没是没完没了的利益关系，领导难处，当然，这样夹在中间的当然不仅仅是她们做行政的人；第三，工作开展中，中国总部强文化严重地影响了我们在这里推广相关政策，明明不合理的政策却要大家强推，难度可见；再者，加上我们是当地中国人特殊身份，个中滋味，一人一番苦，比如比真正的当地员工会低一些薪水，工作却是他们的DOUBLE，采用的要求也是和外派人员一样，可是外派的福利，我们却一个享受不到，真是两边靠不着；最后，地区部要搬德国了，很多地区部当地员工不会跟着去，后面是去是留，公司一直也没有正面的说法，就连我们HR内部可能都不了解，虽然我们部门不存在这个问题，但这种不透明的管理方式让不少员工人心惶惶，不得不另谋出路。ANNIE就是在这种情况下选择离开，大家朋友一场自然少不了去喝酒吃饭，其实她不是第一个走的人了，人说工作场合上没有朋友，也许是我们的生活圈子小（我相信也就是在华为才会有这样的环境），我们还是有一些谈得来的朋友，朋友离开，当然不会开心，但是对于他们的前景来比较，我们还是表示祝贺，和以往的leaving party一样，安排在一个小酒吧里，在这个小PARTY上大家相约都穿紫色的衣服，因为在英国久了，文化上已是有一点偏西方，所以玩起来比较疯，可能照中国传统一点的人来看，还有一点不雅呢，其实who cares?

   因为走了好几个当地中国人，也因为关系比较好，我很了解大家的心情，每一个人的离开都有着自己的无奈，这里引用一个离开了的朋友的话，这里就表达了太多太多的无奈：“我们都是中国人，在海外很不容易，中国有这样的企业走到世界上，我们也很自豪，我们也希望是中国公司工作，毕竟环境熟悉，但是我们留不下来，环境不允许，我们只能选择走。”这种无奈，也许旁人不在其位，是无法体验的，上述五个原因已表面化的问题暴露了，更深层的呢，就更多了，这需要好好的悟一下，比如公司从来没有信任过我们当地员工，机密工作不会安排我们，职业晋升也有限； 大家都是在海外念的大学，很多人却被要求做操作类工作，如秘书、订机票。真的是海外留学人员不强、不能干吗？不是，他们很多人很能干，特别是来了那么多的外派作对比后，我更坚信这一点，能力是肯定没问题的，业务经验也许少一点，但就对当地的熟悉，是无可比拟，加上原来读的书，SENSE比较好，一听一看就会，悟性比较好，但是发展总是有限的。

        也许有人问，那到底是什么是我内心的矛盾呢？简单概括地说也就两点：

1．        我真的很想离开公司，因为我和离开的人一样不喜欢公司不人性化的管理，但是我没有选择，我的签证被公司限制了，他们的无奈也是我的无奈；

2．        我也想回国发展，但又少了一种勇气和目标性，因为我暂时不想离开英国，却又不得不在不喜欢的环境里生存；

    一直以来，不少人羡慕我这样在海外工作着，其实只不过是表面风光而已，围城现象。旁边的朋友最小的和我一般大，大的也比我大5岁了，有的才刚结婚，有的还和男友同居着，结婚还上议程，有的，还和男友一个中国，一个英国地远程交流感情，还有的，结婚也好几年了，一直还没考虑生孩子，不知道是我们这一代思想有问题，和传统的不一样，还是到底是我们的生活不稳定而造成的，反正我从来不急，也不觉得这一些是什么问题，只要过得开心就可以了。可远在中国的父母却觉得这是一种非常不正常的生活，希望我能从这样的环境出来，我有这样的勇气吗？

     是啊，我就是在矛盾中生活着，没有勇气从这个环境里脱离，上个月我从绩效考核岗换到HR GENERALIST的岗位，照理说，这是跟着领导做副手的活，做整个HR团队管理，这个工作应该不错，可是我不喜欢，一方面我想做专员，另一方面我的不喜欢也是有一定的原因的，这和领导有关，也和大的生存环境或者说企业环境有关，我考虑后觉得这个岗位在目前环境来说并不好做，我选择了一种方式生存，就是低调，安排什么就做什么，不强势，顺其自然，更不用理会那一些复杂的人际关系，这样，日子好过一点，就是这样我也一样可以学习我想要的东西。但这似乎也不像我的做事风格，仔细想想，在这一点上也是我所学到的----森林大了，什么鸟都有，要学习在不同的时期，不同的环境，采取不同的生存方式，所以，我坚持：人可以什么都犯糊涂、装笨，但绝对不能愚蠢到看不清内部形势，一切明白就好，尽自己的责，学自己想学的东西，释然就好，学着在这种艰难环境生存。否则必须有勇气打破格局，重新选择一个新的生活，像ANNIE一样。