gmtPLUS09 | live from Seoul

Corporate culture may be more difficult to change than policies or
processes, but a  concerted change-management program that taps into
personal motivations can have dramatic effects in a relatively short
time.

*Chart from the McKinsey Quarterly - April 2005

Yet another post regarding organizational behavior, leadership, and the individuals who make our lives miserable.

Links: Lessons in a voiding assholes, part 1 and part 2.

Stocks of the public companies on FORTUNE’s “100 Best Companies to
Work for” list produced more than 3 times the gains of the broad market
over the last seven years, according to a study released by Great Place
to Work Institute and Russell Investment Group. The study suggests a
strong link between workplace culture and a business’s financial
performance. “Great workplaces have significant competitive advantages
as a result of the high trust relationships between employees and
management,” says Amy Lyman, Ph.D., President and Co-founder of Great
Place to Work Institute, the firm that selects companies for the
FORTUNE list. “Trust can contribute to higher levels of cooperation,
greater commitment, lower employee turnover, decreased use of sick time
and improved customer support.” Russell analysts compared the
performance of a stock portfolio based on the “100 Best” list to the
performance of the Russell 3000 Index (representing the broad US equity
market) and the S&P 500 (representing large-cap investments). The
study found that the “100 Best” portfolio, adjusted annually to reflect
changes to the list between 1998 and 2004, provided a cumulative return
of 176%, compared with lesser gains of 42% for the Russell 3000 and 39%
by the S&P 500.

I looked up the Great Place To Work’s database for Best Companies in Korea in 2003, it was the latest release. I question the objectiveness of the Korean partner Eltech who spearheaded the study. In 2003, the Best Companies included  companies within the Hyundai conglomerate who are infamously known for their organization-wide hold-no-prisoners, boot camp code of conduct. And because of this, there are no foreign or female executives, and the absence of performance-based promotions.

Where is Samsung? As a conglomerate it ,too, has organizational flaws, but they compensate better than any other Korean-owned company.

Where is Posco? OR NHN (Naver)?

Just what is factored into Eltech’s research and process? Better yet, how thick were the "white envelopes" (bribes)?

Link: BusinessPundit: Good Work Environment = Higher Returns.

A really great article detailing how incompetent managers are promoted and can hold onto their jobs so long. Found through Noise Between Stations - Avoiding toxic co-workers.

I can personally vouch for this: When an inept manager is promoted, the
person who is the promoter usually has no idea about his/her alter-ego
and ill-treatment toward subordinates.

How do they reach these levels?
Politics, connections, and clever tactics. In "bootlickocracy", the
most incompetent can propel themselves into a supervisory role.

Who is to blame?

• The fool who promotes him. "It’s like people who get mad at a dog because the dog is out running around the neighborhood," says Lisa McNary, a management professor at       Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. "It’s not the dog’s fault."
• And the people who don’t do anything about it. High-tech executive Paul Kedrosky once had a sales manager who called weekly meetings, asked all the wrong questions, told his subordinates they were idiots, and spent the rest of the week frantically making sales himself to cover for his "incompetent" staff. The man was still in the job 10 years later.

Why are they promoted?

• A large amount of companies do not reward for management skills.
  As a result, people get promoted because they have some skill that gets
  found out and recognized early on, and that becomes the very foundation
  they ride into their careers.
• Sometimes a supervisor promotes an incompetent manager because he
  figures the manager will not replace him. Think of it this way, an
  idiot has to get an idot for a boss.
   

Why these bosses are able to last so long in their current position?

• An incompetent boss has as a lieutenant who is a workaholic or is capable.
• But the biggest reason why incompetent managers are able to last
  so long is because the people who promoted them can’t admit their error.

I just read this post and it quickly jolted out memories of my stay at Hyundai Motor. I had even branded my team manager as a Kim Jong-il clone. Anyway, Burnham was very descript about the working conditions of Wall Street, which is very close to what foreigners face when working for a Korean conglomerate (read: Samsung, LG, Hyundai).

• “Try to imagine this: Your e-mail and phone calls are constantly
  monitored by a group of people who can at any time block your
  communications for any reason they see fit.”
• “You can not speak to many outsiders, especially members of the press,without having an official “minder” present. You can not even speak to many of your own co-workers without first getting official permission and even when you get that permission you must still have an official “minder” present to oversee the conversation.”

Link: Burnham’s Beat: North Korea Comes To Wall Street.