WORKPLACE CONTEXT AND ITS EFFECT ON INDIVIDUAL COMPETENCIES AND PERFORMANCE

IN A WORK (PROJECT) TEAM

Chief Supervisor: Prof. C.F. Cheung (ISE)

Co-supervisor: Prof. Eric Tsui (ISE)

Mikhail ROZHKOV

Hong Kong, 2013

Summary of the study

PROJECT PURPOSE

This study aims to investigate the potential benefits of considering the relationships between workplace environment and employees preferences to achieve improvements in personal professional performance, work climate and satisfaction.

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Hypotheses

• H1. Organizational Culture, Organizational Climate, Team, Manager and Task characteristics significantly influence Employee competencies.

• H2. The higher matching between Employees’ characteristics and project (work) context, the higher shown competencies, job satisfaction and levels of personal and team performance.

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What is “competency”?

The observed behavior

Motivation

Knowledge and skills

Personal traits

Competency

*adopted from presentation of Gregory Finkelshtein, ECOPSY Consulting

Figure 2 – What is competency? 4

Literature Review Competency Management

• Characteristics of competencies (McClelland, 1973; Boyatzis, 1982; Spencer & Spencer, 1993a): – Underlying characteristic (fairly deep, integral part of personality),

– Causally related to and can predict behavior and performance,

– Criterion-referenced (based on specific criterion or standards),

– Have complex multi-dimensional structure: • Intensity or completeness of actions involved

• Complexity of factors taking into account

• Time horizon (planning or taking actions to anticipate future situations)

• Breadth of impact (number of people affected)

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Work context

Organization environment

Workplace context

Manager

Person

Team

Task

Culture

• Corporate (organizational) culture is

– “a pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration" that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems” Schein (2010, p.18).

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Literature Review Climate

• Organizational climate (Denison,1990) is a relatively enduring quality of the internal environment of an organization that

a) is experienced by its members,

b) influences their behavior,

c) can be described in terms of the values of a particular set of characteristics (or attitudes) of the organization”.

• Assumptions about organizational climate concept (Stringer, 2002): – people feelings about their work has a powerful influence on how they

work,

– climate determines the performance of an organization,

– climate is directly linked to motivation.

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Culture and climate determinants and characteristics

Strategy

Organizational Arrangements

Management Practices

Team Behavior

Culture

Past States (Historical

Forces)

Consensus (Cons)

Intensity (I)

Organizational Values

Person Values

Content (C)

Climate

Structure

Standards

Responsibility

Recognition

Commitment

Support

Conceptual Model

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Culture

Climate

Individual Performance

Employee Motivation

Employee Competencies

Employee Values

Manager Competencies

Manager Values Task

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Team Competencies Team Values

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3

1

4

5

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Research Project Variables

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Independent Variables 1. Organizational Culture 2. Organizational Climate 3. Manager Values 4. Manager Competencies 5. Team Values 6. Team Competencies

Dependent Variables

1. Employee individual competencies

2. Employee Individual performance

Extraneous Variables 1. Age 2. Gender 3. Education 4. Task (Occupation/Job

Family) 5. Experience 6. Industry 7. Team Size

Mediating Variables

1. Employee Competency Profile

2. Employee Motivation 3. Employee Values 4. Employee Satisfaction

Research deliverables

Decision support model for competency management in organization units and project teams

Simulation platform for scenario-based analysis and prediction of project team performance

Tools for individual and team performance improvement

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References

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International Conference on Modelling and Simulation, UKSim 2010, Cambridge. 311-316. doi: 10.1109/UKSIM.2010.65 19. Spencer, L. M., & Spencer, S. M. (1993). Competence at work :Models for superior performance. New York: Wiley. 20. Stringer, R. (2002). Leadership and organizational climate :The cloud chamber effect. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. 21. Westergren, U. (2011). Opening up innovation: The impact of contextual factors on the co-creation of IT-enabled value adding services within

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Please, contact me!

Mikhail ROZHKOV PolyU, PhD (FT)

E-mail: mnrozhkov@gmail.com

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Especially if - you have interest to solve related problems in your company! - you do research in similar topic - you have data related to this topic