About High Performance organizations

1. The High Performance Organization
&
Self Realization
Dr R Ramakrishnan
ramarkish54@gmail.com
Cell: 9952669656

2. The High Performance Organization
 Questions.
– What is a high performance organization?
– What are the management challenges of high
performance organizations?
– How do high performance organizations
operate?

3. What is a high performance
organization?
 High performance organizations (HPOs).
– HPOs intentionally designed to:
• Bring out the best in people.
• Produce organizational capability that delivers
sustainable organizational results.
– HPOs place people first.

4. What is a high performance
organization?
 Emphasis on intellectual capital.
– Intellectual capital is the foundation for HPOs.
– To utilize intellectual capital, HPOs often
organize work-flow around key business
processes and use work teams within these
processes.

5. What is a high performance
organization?
 Key components utilized in HPOs.
– Employee involvement.
– Self-directing work teams.
– Integrated production technologies.
– Organizational learning.
– Total quality management.

6. What is a high performance
organization?
 Employee involvement.
– The amount of decision making delegated to
workers at all levels.
– Employment involvement can be visualized on
a continuum.
• No involvement or parallel involvement.
• Moderate involvement or participative
management.
• High involvement or employee empowerment.

7. What is a high performance
organization?
 Self-directing work teams.
– Empowered to make decisions about planning,
doing, and evaluating their work.
– Sometimes called self-managing or selfleading work teams.
– Important in HPOs due to:
• Need to tap employees’ expertise and knowledge.
• Need for employees to manage themselves.

8. What is a high performance
organization?
 Integrated production technologies.
– Focus on providing flexibility in
manufacturing and services and involves job
design and information technology.
– Key components:
• Just-in-time systems.
• Use of computers.

9. What is a high performance
organization?
 Organizational learning.
– A way for organizations to adapt to their
settings and to gather information to anticipate
future changes.
– HPOs are designed for organizational learning.

10. What is a high performance
organization?
 Total quality management (TQM).
– A total commitment to:
• High-quality results.
• Continuous improvement.
• Meeting customer needs.
– TQM is a a tightly integrated part of HPOs.
• Encourages all workers to do their own quality
planning and checking.

11. What are the management challenges of
high performance organizations?
 Challenges of environmental linkages.
– HPOs are open systems influenced by a
rapidly moving external environment.
– Open systems components.
• Inputs: worksite problems and opportunities, and
vision, mission, and strategy.
• Transformation processes: five HPO components.
• Outputs: individual, group, and organizational
effectiveness, and contributions.

12. What are the management challenges of
high performance organizations?
 Challenges of internal integration.
– Challenge of integrating five HPO
components.
– Top-down and bottom-up decision making in
HPOs.
– HPO islands.

13. What are the management challenges of
high performance organizations?
 Challenges for middle manager roles.
– Helping implement HPO components.
– HPO changes may alter middle managers’
jobs.
– Dealing with employee resistance to selfmanaging teams.
– Resolving tensions among HPO components.

14. What are the management challenges of
high performance organizations?
 Challenges for high level leadership.
– Deciding how far to go in becoming a HPO.
– Internationalizing United States business
practices.

15. What are the management challenges of
high performance organizations?
 Challenges of greenfield sites versus
redesigns.
– Greenfield sites start from scratch at a new
site.
– Redesigns start as more traditional
organizations and change toward HPOs.
– Greenfield sites result in better financial
performance for organizations.

16. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– HPO component: employee involvement.
• Flat and lean hierarchy.
• Heavy team emphasis throughout organization.
• Paper work minimized.
• Rapid decision making emphasized.
• People were empowered to do “whatever it takes”
to get the job done.

17. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– HPO component: self-directing work teams.
• Longer term service teams.
• Ad hoc teams for given projects or duties.
• Culture promotes cooperative activities.

18. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– HPO component: integrated production
technologies.
• Integrated use of information technology in
distribution, order entry, crew pairings, dispatching
of flights, revenue management, schedule
planning, and parts replacement.

19. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– HPO component: organizational learning.
• Deeply rooted in Southwest’s culture.
• Letters and newsletters about company business.
• Managers encourage workers to spend time at jobs
other than their own.
• Southwest’s “University for People.”

20. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– HPO component: total quality management.
• “Southwest Spirit” focusing on a strong work
ethic, a strong desire for quality work, going
beyond the call of duty, helping others, and doing
the “right” thing.
• TQM qualities are reinforced by empowerment,
learning, and communications devices.

21. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– Other HPO considerations: vision/direction
setting package.
• “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication
to the highest quality of Customer Service
delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness,
individual pride, and Company Spirit.”
• Strategic elements in direction setting.
• Core values.

22. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– Other HPO considerations: the people.
• Attitude reflecting “Southwest Spirit” is a key
hiring requirement.
• Attitude more important than other hiring
qualifications.

23. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– Other HPO considerations: compensation.
• Flight attendants paid by the trip.
• Incentives for employee performance.
• Pilots’ salaries are comparable to other airlines but
they fly 40% more hours.
• Profit sharing and pension plans.
• Usual airline fringe benefits.

24. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– Other HPO considerations: dealing with the
environment.
• Southwest flourishes in a deregulated environment.
• Southwest’s HPO attributes serve it well in dealing
with a highly competitive environment.

25. How do high performance
organizations operate?
 Southwest Airlines as an HPO.
– Other HPO considerations: outcomes.
• Highly satisfied employees.
• Strong commitment to the company.
• Low turnover.
• Strong performance on various productivity
measures.
• Active in contributing to the communities in which
it operates.