New research launched today by people management experts the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), at its Annual Psychology at Work conference, and based on interviews with over 1000 employees, proves categorically that front line manager* (FLM) behaviour is a critical factor in developing organisational commitment. The higher the employees rated their FLM in terms of the way they managed people, the more satisfied and committed they were. This in turn resulted in higher performance.
The report builds on earlier CIPD work this year which provided evidence to show that organisational success is dependent on having the right mix of HR policies in place. In successful organisations such policies stem from what the researchers have termed the AMO model - Ability, Motivation and Opportunity.
In other words, the capacity to recruit people with the right ability, to motivate them and to provide them with the opportunities to use their skills in well-designed jobs.
This latest research Bringing Policies to Life: The role of front line managers in people management argues that it is the way these policies are implemented that makes the critical difference.
The authors of the report call this ìorganisation process advantageî and this is about how FLMs carry out tasks such as performance appraisal, coaching and development, involvement and communication, absence management, discipline and grievances and increasingly recruitment and selection.
The study focused on 12 organisations including Jaguar Cars, Nationwide Building Society, Selfridges and Tesco and in each case a unit of analysis was selected (for example a sales force or a department store). In each unit detailed face to face interviews were carried out and repeated 12 months later.
All companies showed a significant correlation between ìrelationship with FLMî and employee attitude - including commitment, motivation and job satisfaction.
CIPD Adviser on Organisation Resourcing, Angela Baron said: ìOnce upon a time we talked about ìforgotten supervisorsî; the layer of staff who were not quite managers but no longer workers, stuck in the middle and often neglected.
ìMuch of course has changed in organisations - but this research underlines the importance of giving FLMs respect, attention, training and policy tools to deliver better staff relations and ultimately performance.î
Recommendations:
* FLMs need a good working relationship with their own managers. This was by far the most important factor influencing their own levels of commitment to the organisation and includes being treated with respect and a sense of job security.
* FLMs need time to carry out their people management roles as there is a tendency for these ìsoftî parts of the role to be driven out in favour of other duties such as controlling, budgeting and monitoring.
* FLMs need to be carefully selected with more attention paid to behaviour competencies such as communication and emotional intelligence.
* FLMs need the support of strong organisational values which give emphasis to the fundamentals of people management and show clearly those leadership behaviours expected, and those not permitted.
* FLMs need proper skills training in activities such as communications and handling discipline and grievances.
* FLMS need a sense of career opportunity - any feeling of being stuck in a dead end job will see a huge drop in commitment.
New CIPD evidence proves leaders make the difference
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