Equity Skills News & Views
Volume 4, Issue 12, 30 June 2005
Registered as an electronic newspaper: ISSN 1684-5722

In This edition

1. From HR Professional to Businessperson
2. Innovative Talent Management Strategies
3. Good Managers Focus on Employees' Strengths, Not Weaknesses
4. Case Law & Legislation Review: Arbitration Award - Review
5. Book Reviews
6. Downloads: Affirmative Procurement Policy
7. Web Reviews: Business Ethics
8. Unsubscribe & Moving Soon

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1. From HR Professional to Businessperson*

By Michael Andrew who can be contacted at Michael Andrew

From the June edition of WPSMag.com 

What's more apt to keep a CEO awake at night? Thinking about business performance, growth and the company's key strategic imperatives? Or, wondering if the leadership competencies defined by HR are being developed, and whether the gap between the goal and the actual level of leadership competencies is narrowing? Though leadership competencies are important, they're not high on the executive team's priority list. And when things are not high on a CEO's priority list, they're apt to get cut or deferred when times get tough. Even when times are good, they are not viewed as mission-critical. They are, at best, viewed as nice to do-not as business imperatives.

If HR is going to move from the back room to the boardroom, it's time to establish a chief development officer who focuses on improving the capabilities critical to the success of the organization.

Since the early '80s, numerous books and conferences have covered the topic of HR as a strategic business partner, but for the most part, this has not happened yet. Why have other support functions like finance or marketing been able to take center stage, while HR is often left behind? How can HR become that business partner to the executive team? It is about making painstaking efforts to focus on the business, rather than the traditional functions of HR or organizational development. It is about speaking the language of business, not the language of HR.

It's About the Business

You may remember the mantra from Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992: "It's the economy stupid." For the HR and organizational development community, it's about the business. More specifically, it's about partnering for value and making an impact on business results. Kirkpatrick's well-defined and logical levels of measurement for training are generally accepted, but they do not all have significance for executives.

Level 1 represents the "smile sheets." It tells us how people rated a training experience. Level 2 measures what was learned (typically via pre- and post-classroom testing. Level 3 measures behavior change, typically via post-program assessment a few months down the line. It is Level 4 that should be the focus: What is the business impact? This is the level that CEOs care about and want to see demonstrated.

Typically, HR approaches the CEO or a member of the executive committee with a plan to recognize and develop specific leadership competencies. It is assumed that these competencies, after they are assessed and then developed for improvement, will somehow have an effect on achieving the company's business goals. Who can argue with categorized leadership skills, such as cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, influencing skills, conflict skills, communications skills, financial skills, change management skills, agility skills, planning skills, being courageous, etc.? These are all definitely nice things to develop. Chances are, executives will politely approve ("nice to do"), but they will not be hooked, and their blood will not be stirred, because there is no clear or direct integration to the business and to the issues with which they are concerned. Are these executives really going to worry about whether these skills are being developed? Will they genuinely care whether the gaps between the aspired and actual levels of competence are closing? Do they really see the connection to executing their strategies and ensuring that the business goals are achieved at the end of the year? Of course these skills are nice to develop, but they are not saliently linked-the nexus is not identified-to the business and the front-of-mind issues of the executive team.

HR and organizational and leadership development professionals must take a strategic and business-focused approach to development if they want to make an impact on the business, and in the process build the efficacy of their contribution to the company. A CFO from a leading IT services management company recently said that it is "important to have development integrated into the business strategy" and that "HR initiatives need to be integrated into strategy and business priorities." Demonstrate how you and your organization can affect the capabilities necessary to help the company achieve its business goals and strategic imperatives.

Roger Enrico, former chairman and CEO of Pepsico, once said, "I have two jobs. The first is to grow the business, the second is to identify and develop the people who will help me achieve objective number one." Lou Gerstner, retired chairman of IBM, wrote a book titled "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" which focuses on IBM's historic turnaround. Gerstner writes about the significance of culture inside an organization, saying, "Culture isn't just one aspect of the game. It is the game." He adds that, "In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value." These assertions by leaders of some of the top businesses in the world are an open invitation for HR to lead the charge and mobilize the organization to create value through relevant talent strategies and by affecting the necessary culture to achieve these important aspirations.

Elevate Your Role

Taking a top management perspective has a lot to do with asking key executives the right level of questions. In fact, before holding discussions with the CEO or members of the executive staff, do your homework and make sure you could answer these questions with your own personal insight. Focusing on the business is about having keen sense and insight into the company's overall context, including fluent knowledge of its products and services, the nature of its industry, its market and its customers. Here is a recommended approach for engaging executives in relevant, credible and substantive business discussions:

External Conditions: What are the key external factors that have your attention? Competitive issues? Industry trends and forces? Regulatory issues? Technology issues? Global challenges, and opportunities? Why are they of such concern? Are they causing pain? What is the (quantifiable) impact to the company? What if there was a way to distinguish ourselves relative to this issue? Can the company influence any of these factors?

Corporate Considerations: What are the key goals you are striving for? What are the key strategies to achieve those goals? What are you optimistic about and why? What are you concerned about and why? How well defined, articulated and understood are the goals and strategies? Are they linked to the issues, concerns and opportunities discussed above (with the external factors)? What needs to be done (or what needs to be done better or differently) for the company to achieve its goals and execute its strategies? Be prepared with some insightful questions from the latest company balance sheet or income statement. Look at key financial metrics (ROE, ROA, profit margin, gross margin, current ratio, inventory turns, debt/equity ratio, cash position, working capital position, earnings per share, etc). If you don't know these, then learn (or relearn) them. The metrics by themselves don't mean much unless they are compared in to past performance and trends, and to competitive performance. The result is to find the key financial metrics that distinguish your company and shows where your company is at risk.

Internal Capabilities: Based on everything discussed (external conditions and corporate goals and strategies), what capabilities is the organization strong or unmatched in that it can and should leverage? Where is the business vulnerable when we look at our capabilities? What caused or is causing this vulnerability? What is the impact of not addressing this vulnerability? Again, the appropriate "what if" question may arise. For example, "What if we leveraged our global services capability to a new, unmatched level?" Or, "What if we were to increase our customer loyalty metric by another 15 percent?"

Now you can ask yourself, as well as key stakeholders, How does all of this translate to the capabilities the organization needs to develop (improvement) and leverage (building on strengths)? This is the foundation for a relevant, high-impact organizational development strategy. It is focused on the business context of the company, it is based on the concerns and strategic issues facing the CEO and the top management.

So What?

Once executives engage in these types of discussions, they will see the strong business and strategic focus of your role. They will understand the strategic significance of building and developing the right capabilities. They will see the connection to the business.

This goes a lot farther than proposing a leadership development program built around some nicely defined leadership competencies-especially when those leadership competencies did not go through the rigors of relevant business discussion.

Want Proof?

I have held these types of discussions with CEOs and senior executives of Fortune 50 and Fortune 100 firms. In one instance, the CFO, who was expected to be tough to convince to support the leadership development effort, ended up being one of its biggest supporters because we were able to ask him specific questions about key financial ratios, comparative financial (i.e., business) performance over the years and key issues around cash/liquidity, debt and gross margin (simply revenues minus cost-of-goods sold). He was hooked and became an active sponsor to this leadership development initiative. The leadership development initiative focused on the key strategic, long-term issue of building new growth platforms for this venerable world leader in a specific retail segment whose product had stopped growing. After 110 years, it needed to identify new growth platforms by leveraging the brand developed over all those years with one product line. Was the CEO interested? You bet. In fact, the chairman was so interested that he became actively involved in the design.

A few years ago, Prudential Insurance was preparing to demutualize after a hundred or so years as a successful private mutual company. You can imagine the discussions around the external factors, the resulting corporate direction and the impact on capabilities required to have everyone (in this case, the top 600 executives) aligned, ready-to-go, on the same page and understanding the leadership implications of managing and leading in a public business environment.

The same can be said at Amoco, where a leadership initiative was built for the top 3,500 executives worldwide around the chairman's key strategic initiative. Consistent feedback held the approach to be business-focused, relevant, high-impact and even a "home run."

Before its acquisition by HP, Compaq Global Services was recognized for global services capability. Each year, the general manager and senior vice president goaled the leadership team (vice presidents) to play an active role in a business-focused leadership program. I was the facilitator, and they were the teachers. Each year, we focused on a key business issue (e.g., "growth"). These programs were not hypothetical or academic in nature. Taught by the VPs, they leveraged a critical mass of 600 to 800 key services managers and executives around the world. It was an opportunity to hear firsthand and unfiltered the issues and ideas from the corporate VPs. The VPs, in turn, would learn from the field about the acuity and realism of their initiatives. The result was a series of substantive conversations about the business with input from global field leaders around the soundness of ideas, trade-offs, implementation challenges, business rationale, etc. Because it was so focused on the business, the effect was palpable. The business saw the effect as well, as the services organization continued to meet their financial goals even when the industry was being hit hard.

Summary

HR and other staff functions are in existence to support the business, so distinguish yourself and the HR function as business people who happen to work in HR. Elevate your role as the company's chief development officer. The CEO and the executive team need all the help they can get to deal with their pressing issues. They will value this level of partnership. Being a businessperson first is a prerequisite for being a business partner. Take the passion you have in your function and distinguish yourself by applying it visibly in your company's business context.

*Reprinted by permission of WPSMagazine.com

IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: MANAGING CHANGE & TRANSITION IN THE NEW WORLD OF WORK

An Intensive and Practical 2- DAY WORKSHOP FOR HUMAN RESOURCES AND LINE MANAGERS TO DEVELOP THE CONFIDENCE AND COMPETENCE TO PLAN FOR AND LEAD TEAMS THROUGH CHANGE & TRANSITION. Enhance your ability to plan for and lead a team through the transitions triggered by a continuously changing world of work. Contact Jeff Sacht to request a workshop flyer and to arrange an in-company workshop customised to your requirements. Facilitation is charged on a realistic daily rate and not a per person cost. Also available as a web download for self-delivery/in-house use under license agreement. Contact jeffs@worldonline.co.za

2. Innovative Talent Management Strategies*

By Nick van Dam who can be contacted at nvandam@clomedia.com

From the June edition of Chief Learning Officer Magazine

Despite a 5.2 percent U.S. unemployment rate, there is an acute shortage of talent. That talent consists of researchers, manufacturing specialists, engineers, educators, executives and others who can produce between 10 percent and 20 percent annual growth, or make the difference between profit and loss, according to a recent study from Deloitte Research. These individuals are critical, driving a disproportionate share of their companies' business performance. They possess highly developed skills and deep knowledge. Without these people, organizations could not achieve their business goals.

Critical talent is scarce and about to become even scarcer. Four industries in particular will suffer a mass exodus of employees: health care, manufacturing, energy and the public sector. More than 80 percent of U.S. manufacturers face a shortage of qualified machinists, craft workers and technicians. There will be a shortage of more than 1 million nurses by 2012.

The shortage is not just a function of retiring baby boomers. Not enough students are pursuing science and engineering studies. While 42 percent of students in China earn undergraduate degrees in science and engineering, only 5 percent of U.S. students do so. In other areas of specialized education, such as information technology and nursing, schools simply can't meet demand. Perhaps the most disturbing factor is the decline in educational standards. Many schools are not keeping pace with increasing complexity and the rapid technological changes organizations face today. Only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduate, and only 32 percent leave high school qualified to attend four-year colleges.

When labor markets get tight, most organizations hunt for external candidates to fill their most critical jobs and try to convince employees to stay. However, both of these strategies can be shortsighted. A focus on acquisition alone is expensive. The average cost to acquire an employee averages one-and-a-half times the salary that employee will earn. New candidates can take a year or more to master their jobs. Moreover, a company that focuses on external talent can erode the commitment of internal candidates.

Common retention strategies also are problematic. Often, they are driven by simple metrics, such as turnover. But while the churn may fall from 10 percent to 5 percent, it can obscure the fact that the most valuable employees are pouring out the door. Furthermore, the numbers say nothing about why people leave. In exit interviews, those leaving frequently resist giving the true reasons for their departure for fear of burning bridges. Finally, turnover does not measure people's commitment to the company. When jobs are scarce, it is easy to retain a non-committed workforce.

As competition for critical talent heats up, organizations must rethink the actions they take to retain and attract talent. To begin, they must identify the segments of the workforce that drive current and future growth. Then, they must focus on the things that employees care about most: development in a way that stretches individual capabilities, deploying into work that engages their heads and hearts, and connecting with the people who will help them achieve their objectives.

This develop-deploy-connect model is the core of a strategic approach to talent management. It focuses on areas critical to performance improvement, thereby delivering business results while addressing the career aspirations of individual knowledge workers. Much of this is the work of CLOs and their teams, working in collaboration with HR and business leaders. It requires innovative approaches and applications to produce:

>> Alignment: Connecting people to work that is motivating.

>> Commitment: Providing coaching and mentoring.

>> Capability: Developing critical skills to ensure success.

By focusing the energy of talent management on these three things, attraction and retention largely take care of themselves.

Nick van Dam is Deloitte's global chief learning officer and learning consultant in the Human Capital Practice, and is author of "The E-Learning Fieldbook." For a complete copy of the Deloitte research on talent, or for more information, e-mail Nick at nvandam@clomedia.com nvandam@clomedia.com

*Reprinted by permission of CLOMedia.

IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: MANAGING FOR DIVERSITY

An Intensive and Practical 2- DAY MANAGEMENT/ SUPERVISOR WORKSHOP to develop insight and self-knowledge about intercultural competence and enhance your capacity to work with a diverse workforce. Contact Jeff Sacht to request a workshop flyer and to arrange an in-company workshop customised to your requirements. Facilitation is charged on a realistic daily rate and not a per person cost. Also available as a web download for self-delivery/in-house use under license agreement. Contact jeffs@worldonline.co.za

3. Good Managers Focus on Employees' Strengths, Not Weaknesses*

By Marcus Buckingham who can be contacted at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

Marcus Buckingham knows enough about good management to know he's not a good manager.

Before launching a career as a management consultant and author of such books as First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently and The One Thing You Need to Know...About Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success, Buckingham served as head of The Gallup Organization's strengths management practice. He was a manager, and he didn't much care for it. "I wasn't terrible, but I had no appetite for it," said Buckingham, who spoke about management and leadership at the Wharton Leadership Conference on June 9. The conference was sponsored by Wharton's Center for Leadership and Change Management and Center for Human Resources.

According to Buckingham, the best managers share one talent -- the ability to find, and then capitalize upon, their employees' unique traits. "The guiding principle is, 'How can I take this person's talent and turn it into performance?' That's the only way success is possible." And yet not everyone has that knack, Buckingham said. If he has learned anything from his years spent interviewing the best minds of the business world, it is this: Truly great managers, and truly inspiring business leaders, are rarer than many think. "Some of you in this room may not have that talent," he said. "If not, management can become a thankless task."

Checkers vs. Chess

How to tell a good manager from a bad manager? According to Buckingham, it's simple: Bad managers play checkers. Good managers play chess. The good manager knows that not all employees work the same way. They know if they are to achieve success, they must put their employees in a position where they will be able to use their strengths. "Great managers know they don't have 10 salespeople working for them. They know they have 10 individuals working for them .... A great manager is brilliant at spotting the unique differences that separate each person and then capitalizing on them."

It may sound elementary, but a quick glance around the business world indicates that many companies have yet to grasp this simple concept of putting people's strengths to use, Buckingham said. That's because the business world -- and the world at large -- is obsessed with weaknesses and finding ways to fix them. Buckingham cited a recent poll that asked workers whether they felt they could achieve more success through improving on their weaknesses or building on their strengths. Fifty-nine percent picked the former.

"A great manager sees the folly in this," said Buckingham, who has interviewed some of the business world's most successful leaders for his books. "A great manager knows he or she will get the most return on investment by working on strengths." Buckingham has seen this management style work. He just doesn't see it often enough, and he believes too many workers spend too much of their time doing things they don't like to do or simply aren't good at doing.

Buckingham co-authored his book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, in hopes of kick-starting a management revolution that will push mangers to focus on strength. In the book, Buckingham and co-author Donald O. Clifton describe 34 distinct worker profiles -- "Learner," "Achiever" and "Developer," among others -- and offer advice on how those personalities can best be put to use. "Most people are not using their talent at work at all," Buckingham said.

So how can managers tap into the talent they have in their organizations? Buckingham said a good first step is to determine what employees are good at. The tasks they learn quickly, the talents they naturally exhibit and the jobs they feel good about doing are hints about their inherent strengths. Once those strengths are uncovered, a good manager will put them to use. "You can only win as a company when you get your people into positive numbers," Buckingham said.

Optimism and Ego

Managing employees successfully is a rare talent. Even rarer, Buckingham said, is the ability to lead. And all good managers are not necessarily good leaders.

"I do think there is a rather keen and distinct difference between managing and leading," Buckingham said. The chief responsibility of a leader, for example, "is to rally people for a better future. If you are a leader, you better be unflinchingly, unfailingly optimistic. No matter how bleak his or her mood, nothing can undermine a leader's belief that things can get better, and must get better. I believe you either bring this to the table or you don't."

Along with that optimism, great leaders can also bring big egos -- and that's not a bad thing. While some have blamed the business world's recent string of scandals -- Enron, WorldCom and others -- on bloated executive egos, Buckingham disagrees. It's not ego that ruined Ken Lay, but rather a lack of ethics. There's a big difference, Buckingham said. And considering the responsibility facing business leaders to build a future for their companies, a big ego might be what is needed.

"If you are going to lead, you better have a deep-seated belief that you should be at the helm, dragging everyone into that better future," he said. "Virtually nothing about a leader is humble. I'm not saying they are arrogant, but their claims are big." Buckingham said successful leaders must find a "universal truth" to rally their followers. These universal truths stem from the basic human needs, fears and desires that unite all people, across all cultures. They also happen to be great tools for leadership.

Take, for example, one of the great human fears -- fear of the future. "We all share a fear of the unknown," Buckingham said. "The problem for the modern-day leader, of course, is that you traffic in the future." Buckingham says some the best leaders can overcome this fear -- and build confidence among their followers -- with a weapon of their own: clarity.

By presenting a clear message, and backing up their message with actions that support it, top managers of such companies as Tesco, Best Buy and Wal-Mart have rallied employees to their cause and enjoyed bottom-line success as a result, Buckingham noted. "The best way to turn anxiety into confidence is this: Be clear. Clarity is the antidote to anxiety. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear." Former New York City Mayor Giuliani provided a good example of effective leadership through clarity, Buckingham said. When Giuliani took office in 1993, he could have turned his attentions just about anywhere; America's largest city certainly had its share of problems.

But Giuliani set one specific, clear and focused goal for his administration. He would reduce crime and improve quality of life for residents. Then he laid out three simple ways he was going to start making that happen: He announced he would get rid of the window washers who pestered New York City drivers; clean subways of graffiti and then keep the vandals away; and make all cab drivers wear collared shirts. The issues were, on their surface, minor. But they were relevant to his citizens. And by setting three immediate goals -- and then achieving them -- Giuliani was able to build trust among residents and respect among his workers. That trust carried over as he tackled larger challenges, and within a few years of his arrival, the FBI named New York the safest big city in America. "You can do a lot worse than pick just a few areas you want to take action on right now," Buckingham said.

Clarity of purpose has also been a driving factor in the success of Tesco, the British food giant that has more than 2,000 stores and 360,000 employees worldwide. When Terry Leahy took over as CEO in 1997, he decreed the company's focus would be, from that point forward, to serve the housewives of the world. Then he went out and did something to prove he believed in his focus: He added more checkout lines in all his stores, a move that led to significantly higher labor costs but also won over his customers and sent a message to his employees that they were there, as Leahy had proclaimed, to provide courteous, efficient service.

"That kind of clarity builds confidence in people," Buckingham said. Today, Tesco is one of the three largest retailers in the world, and Leahy's success provides a handy leadership lesson. "When you want to lead, start with the future." Buckingham said. "Get specific. And get vivid."

*Reprinted under license agreement with Wharton Business School, University Of Pennsylvania.

IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: EMPLOYMENT EQUITY COMMITTEE TRAINING

An Intensive 2-Day In-Company programme For ELECTED EMPLOYMENT EQUITY (EE) MEMBERS & CHAIRPERSON To Competently & Confidently Represent Co-Workers. Contact Jeff Sacht to request a workshop flyer and to arrange an in-company workshop customised to your requirements. Facilitation is charged on a realistic daily rate and not a per person cost.

Also available as a web download for self-delivery/in-house use under license agreement. Contact jeffs@worldonline.co.za

4. Case-Law & Legislation Review: Arbitration Award - Review

By Gary Watkins who can be contacted at

www.caselaw.co.za ; www.workinfo.com

LEBOHO V CCMA & OTHERS

Case No: JR689/04

Judgment Date: 14 April 2005

Jurisdiction: Labour Court, Johannesburg

Judge: Musi J

SUBJECT: Arbitration award: Review

ISSUE: This is an application for the review and setting aside of the arbitration award made by the Commissioner. The court held that he committed a gross irregularity in re-opening the hearing and calling and re-calling witnesses without the consent of the parties. The perception that the arbitrator was bent on finding in favour of the employer is one that ought to have been avoided. The award was set aside and the matter remitted for arbitration afresh before another Commissioner.

The employee had been employed by the South African Revenue Services as an assessment officer at the Johannesburg International Airport. On 30 August 2002 a passenger of Chinese descent alighted at the airport. As he went through an airport customs checkpoint, the passenger was searched. On him was found a number of passports that he had apparently brought along for friends and relatives. The customs officers told the passenger that it was a serious offence to carry other people's passports and that he could be jailed for it. They literally extorted money from the passenger through the threat of incarceration and they were given 600 American dollars. Subsequently, the passenger reported the incident to the authorities and the police responded by arresting the employee in this matter. He was charged with bribery and/or fraud but the case was withdrawn because the complainant had in the meantime left South Africa and could not attend court to testify.

The employee was also charged with misconduct by his employer and was brought before a disciplinary enquiry wherein he was found guilty and dismissed. He then took the matter to the CCMA, alleging unfair dismissal. The award was challenged on 2 grounds, firstly, that the Commissioner based his decision on hearsay evidence and further he committed a gross irregularity when, the hearing having been concluded with closing arguments on 26 November 2003, he reopened it and mero motu called further witnesses on 26 January 2004. The employee argued that, on the evidence before him on 26 November 2003, the Commissioner would have been obliged to find in favour of the employee. He therefore called for further evidence in order to avoid that finding. It is also contended that in thus calling for further evidence, he exceeded his powers.

SUMMARY OF JUDGEMENT: In a civil trial, a presiding officer can only call witnesses with the consent of the parties. A civil court has the power to recall witnesses that have already testified before it for purposes of further examination or cross-examination. It can do this at any stage of the proceedings before judgement. However, this is done not by the court mero motu but upon application by one of the parties. A civil trial is not a matter for the public but one essentially between the parties involved, and the court is not expected to help the parties or take sides. If there is inconclusive evidence on the issues involved, the court merely asks itself whether the party on whom the onus rests has discharged it. It is not for the court to get out of its way to establish the truth. It only decides on the truth on the basis of evidence before it. However, in arbitration the proceedings should be conducted with the minimum of legal formalities, with the only requirements that the procedure must be fair and not prejudice any of the parties. In this matter, the Commissioner decided to re-open the hearing and call certain witnesses. He did not consult with, neither sought the consent of the parties involved.

The effect of the evidence of the witness recalled by the Commissioner was to patch loopholes in the version of the employer. The new witnesses called by the Commissioner also assisted the case of the employer. Before these witnesses were called the case of the employer was inconclusive, but the effect of the additional evidence lead by the Commissioner was to discharge the onus on the employer. This created an impression with the employee that the Commissioner was assisting the employer. The perception that the arbitrator was bent on finding in favour of the employer is one that ought to have been avoided. In addition, the employee was not given an opportunity to respond to the new evidence. At least one of the witnesses called by the Commissioner featured prominently during the hearing, but both parties declined to call him.

The court found that the Commissioner committed a gross irregularity in re-opening the hearing and calling and re-calling witnesses without the consent of the parties. The award was reviewed on that ground alone.

The court further criticised the Commissioner for quoting from the disciplinary hearing while the record of the disciplinary hearing had never been placed before him and for remarking that: "The representative from the union quoted case law in respect of Early Bird Farms (Pty) Ltd v Mlambo (1997) 5 BLLR 541 LAC. I find absolutely no connection in this case that is of any relevance to this particular dispute. Is it just a question of case law just to impress their members?" The court found that these arguments did indeed contribute to resolving the issue and concluded by saying that "The record of the arbitration proceedings teems with longwinded, repetitive and irrelevant arguments. It is an unfortunate situation that, unfortunately, can only be avoided with the engagement of suitably qualified people in these sorts of matters. The award was set aside and remitted to the CCMA for arbitration before another Commissioner.

5. Book Reviews

# Winning

By Jack Welch with Suzy Welch, Harper Business, 2005

To purchase this book click on: http://www.kalahari.net/e-trader/referral.asp?toolbar=mweb&linkid=5&partnerid=293&sku=316435

Winning on Jack Welch's terms means winning in business. All other prizes start from corporate success. "When companies win, people thrive and grow. There are more jobs and opportunities everywhere and for everyone," he writes with coauthor Suzy Welch, his wife and the former editor of Harvard Business Review. His high energy optimism and faith in the positive power of business fuel Winning, delivered in an as-told-to style as a follow-up to his 2001 autobiography, Jack: Straight from the Gut. The result is part pep talk, part reflection on his GE years and their travels together since his retirement, and part unblinking self-promotion. Winning is also a lively read, making it one of the few management books that instantly crossed over into the mainstream.

The chapters are grouped into four categories: underlying values and attitudes; company; competition; and career. You'll find a lot of sensible career advice to absorb and tuck away for future reference. In the chapter "That Damn Boss," Welch advises that if you are saddled with a damn boss you should ask yourself the following: Why is my boss acting like a jerk? What's the endgame for my boss? What will happen to me if I deliver results and endure my bad boss? Why do I work here anyway? "And as you start your next job, remember exactly what made the bad boss bad and how it made you feel-so that when the time comes for you to be a boss, you won't do the same."

Welch also ventures into the topic of work-life balance under the caveat that no one, including himself, would ever mistake him for an authority. He then gives an employer's perspective that is bracingly honest. A company's priority is competitiveness, according to Welch; you can earn chits to spend on work-life balance so long as you exceed performance expectations. Work-life balance looks nice in a recruiting brochure, he continues, but in reality, employees who fuss about it are likely to be pegged as slackers.

The blunt statements are refreshing, but we would have liked Winning to contain more detail and reflection. The last few years have been rough for business. Welch discusses layoffs, but only in the context of economic downturns. What about layoffs due to poor strategic decisions? How should managers give and earn loyalty when the days of spending an entire career at one company-as he did-are gone forever? What are his thoughts on lavish executive compensation and perks? On the widening gap between earners at the high and low ends of a company? How else should business be a good citizen in society besides winning over its competitors? We will look forward to his next book

# Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic

By Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2005

To purchase this book click on: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1843769336/workinfo/104-4809392-6912769?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2

What makes despotic leaders tick? How do they become despots? On a lesser (but far more common) scale: why are some people ruthlessly abrasive in the workplace? Why do some business leaders appear to lose their sense of humanity? How and why do they create a culture of fear, uncertainty and doubt in their companies? Lessons on Leadership by Terror attempts to discover what happens to people when they acquire power, and whether the abuse of power is inevitable. Manfred Kets de Vries examines the life of the nineteenth-century Zulu king Shaka Zulu in order to help us understand the psychology of power and terror. During his short reign, Shaka Zulu established one of the most successful regimes based on terror that has ever existed, from which the traits of despotic leaders are illustrated. Shaka's life history is a study in the psychology of terror, and he can be a proxy for the behavior of any despot, be it from antiquity or modern times. From his leadership behavior fifteen cautionary lessons are derived, offering valuable principles for contemporary leaders. The book also explores the characteristics of totalitarian states, and discusses what can be done to prevent despotic leaders from coming to the fore. Clear parallels are drawn between Shaka's behavior and that of other, more contemporary, leaders including Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein.

Part I describes what is known or supposed about Shaka's personal biography, historical setting, and society at a time when southern Africa endured internal turmoil and also faced increasing incursions from colonialists. Part II is an earnest but admittedly speculative attempt to psychoanalyze Shaka by looking closely at such mental states as "paranoia, the disease of kings." Part III puts his leadership role in context today by discussing the tactics that contributed to his solid but short-lived success. (As the author points out, Shaka won short-term gains by compelling his warriors to dehumanize their enemies; however, he also destroyed trust with and among his own followers by punishing and killing them arbitrarily.) Part IV is a broader discussion of despots and institutions today, such as the International Criminal Court.

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6. Downloads: Affirmative Procurement Policy

An Affirmative Procurement Policy ensures that your organisation gives due consideration to issues of Employment Equity in any procurement process. This policy requires employers to review the employment equity profile of its suppliers and evaluate their compliance with the provisions of the Employment Equity Act. This evaluation will be based both on the internal workforce profile of the supplier as well as their black empowerment.

As an extra download, we have included a pro forma Broad Based Black Empowerment Questionnaire as well.

To download these policies, visit http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/180.htm 

7. Web Reviews: Business Ethics

This is an impressive list of Web resources devoted to the subject of ethics! Site creator Sharon Stoerger, who is both a librarian and an MBA, links to literally hundreds of sites that have something to say on the subject. You'll find articles and publications from many sources, case studies published by business schools and others, links to professional organizations and associations, resources and centers (who knew Google had a directory page dedicated to the topic?) and a sample of Corporate Codes of Ethics both used and proposed. Every entry is annotated, and every entry is available via the Web.

View the website at http://www.web-miner.com/busethics.htm

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