High performance working in i-Level (a digital media advertising company) and Pannone and Partners (a legal firm)

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published 1/4/2014

0.1  INTRODUCTION

Numerous researches have noted that organizational work practices changed between the 1980s and 1990s. The main pioneer of such change has also been pointed out as increase in globalization  and advancement of information technology which resulted in managers having to rethink the way the work, and it has resulted in an increased in adoption of innovation, high performance working, new and flexible workplace organization(Thomas, 2004).

High performance working organization is mainly characterized by a change from the original Tayloristic work organization which is mainly based on task specialization, pyramidal hierarchical structure and centralized responsibility, to a more Holistic structure that features flat hierarchical structure, inter-department functioning, multi-tasking, decentralized decision-making process, self-responsible team and horizontal communication channels (Thomas, 2004). The main objective behind such workforce is to create a more innovative working environment were the workforce are comfortable with working in the system and are willing to utilize all their potential to power the organization high.

This leads us to the main objective of this research paper which is to study and elaborate on the high performance working of two companies based on a comparative analysis. For this research, i-Level (a digital media advertising company) and Pannone and Partners (a legal firm) both from the United Kingdom are chosen. The main reason for choosing companies from different industry is to understand how high performance work practices differ amongst industries.

In that case, this research paper is basically divided into three sections with the first section presenting a background overview of high performance working practices in organizations, while the second section is an analyses of the company based on their high performance working practices as an attempt to understand what they have done right, difficulties faced and how they have resolved these difficulties. The final section is a comparative analysis of the two companies and recommendations on the way forward as well as presentation of insights on the possible limitations to this research paper.

1.0 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

High performance working is defined by the UK commission as a general approach adopted in managing organization which aims to stimulate more effective employee involvement and commitment with the aim of achieving high levels of performance. It is designed to enhance the discretionary effort that employees put towards their work in order to fully utilize their potentials (Belt and Giles, 2009, p3).

A common challenge for modern day companies is to deliver more quality products faster and in a flexible way, in order to better meet the ever changing demands of their clients across the globe. Traditional workforces are characterized by specialization and standardization where work is divided into different segments, from preparation to support roles and workers are put to specialize in certain areas in order to maximize efficiency. While standardization has been viewed as suitable where constant demand of a specific product is applicable, it is believe that it is not suitable for fast changing demand and it can even lead to issues in coordination of the system. This led companies to seek an alternative for standardization in order to enhance their organizational efficiency (Delarue and De Prins, 2004).

High performance working focuses on increasing the influence of people on the organization, and also the impact of processes, methods, environments and technologies that are used to enhance their works (Burton et al, 2005). It is based on holistic organizational approach which features flat hierarchical structure, rotation of job, self-responsible teams, multi-tasking, and decentralization of the decision-making process.

Organizations that practice high performance working practices have been known to invest heavily in their human resource and support the technical, social and innovative skills of their workforce as a means of promoting good interpersonal relation within the workforce, which will eventually be of numerous benefits to the company.

HPWPs operates by (a) increasing employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities, (b) giving employees an opportunity to act, and (c) encouraging them to do so (Becker &Huselid, 1998; Becker et al., 1997; Delery&Shaw, 2001; Huselid, 1995). Through this means, they are motivated to act and are very careful about their decisions as they accept sole responsibilities of all actions that are based on their decisions.

2.0 WITHIN CASE ANALYSES

2.1 COMPANY 1:  I-LEVEL UK

In comparison with other advertising firms in the industry, i-level is a new player but already have 25 awards in the last 5 years and a recent accolade as the Agency of the year from Revolution magazine and one of Sunday Time’s Top 50 SMEs to work for in 2004. This has made the vision of its founders Charles Dobres and Andrew Walmsley to come true(Johnny and David, 2011).

The foundation of i-level is an emergence of two separate ideas which started when Walnsley found from his MBA research that there is a huge gap between what advertising media buyers are demanding and what the market can actually offer. Dobres on the other hand was not happy with the inadequate treatment offered by conventional advertising agencies for online customers(Johnny and David, 2011). This also led to the company’s objective of specializing in digital media advertising by targeting customers via e-mail, mobile phone and the internet, with a vision to be the generation defining media agency.

It very focus on media advertising resulted in an almost instant success in the industry which i-level helped defined. Their success was marked with the signing of easyJet and other companies such as Yell and Smile. Currently, i-level is the representative of other famous companies such as Coca-Cola Enterprises, BT, VSO, Specsavers, William Hill and COI communication(Johnny and David, 2011).

2.2 HIGH PERFORMANCE WORKING PRACTICES IN I-LEVEL

2.2.1 Creating an environment for success

The company has five guiding principles which are humanity, openness, diligence, enthusiasm, and integrity. They were created with the main objective of ensuring a better internal and external fit in i-level.

Internal, it has resulted to a complete redesign of the way people undertake their tasks in the company. The company views hierarchy and the physical arrangements that support hierarchy as an obstacle to communication, creativity, teamwork and organizational values. In traditional advertising companies, people are put in boxes and rooms that hinder communication, and Dobres believes such hierarchical practices create a degree of separation in different ways. Thus, i-level designed its office in such a way that staffs at the office conduct their day-to-day activities in an open hall were everybody is made available(Johnny and David, 2011).

Dobres describes that such open office in which every staff is made available and allowed to work around as much as they wish creates an ambient knowledge were problems are solves more easily and ideas generated faster(Johnny and David, 2011). The open system also limits the power bestowed on the senior staffs that have more experience and it is an easier means of conducting employee survey and determining performance appraisal approach as the works of all staffs can be seen by their colleagues within the industry.

Their performance appraisal is based on 360 degrees approach which involves one single staff being reviewed by all other staffs and all their performance appraised in relation to the degree which they were undertaken. This is done once a year and the senior staffs acknowledge that this is good but the employees are constantly being appraised every day by their colleagues for every single helping hand they offer(Johnny and David, 2011).

2.2.2 Organizational performance linked with passion

It was noted that from a functional point of view, the difference between traditional advertising agency and modern advertising agency is specialization, but from the emotional point of view, the difference is passion. Dobres said that passion cannot be created, rather it must be possessed. And once you possess the passion, it will lead you to find the right market for your business(Johnny and David, 2011).

The connection between performance and passion urges in an interesting angle in the company’s recruitment strategy. The potential recruits does not necessary need to have the required skills, rather the company is seeking employees that are ready to have a change in their job and not just those who want to work because they like online advertising. Dobres explained this by saying that the company is in search of people who like to try new things and are commitment enough to go for things they like(Johnny and David, 2011).

While passion is the main force in determining a potential new recruit, i-level wants to build a diverse workforce in order to increase their stream of innovation and creativity which is the building block of the company’s success. While passion is considered essential, the company understands that pay is also important and as such they set aside 15% of its annual pretax profit for rewarding performance. However, is not the main motivating factor for recruitment as the new recruits are always to accept certain standards of payment while benefit joy of working for i-level (passion)(Johnny and David, 2011).

2.2.3 Supporting performance through creativity and innovation

i-level encourages innovation and creativity through different competitions such as the monthly levelers award. This is an award given to the best performing staff as voted by other staffs, and Dobres believe that such an award will help the winner and other staffs to performer better in the next month as to become the winner for the next month.

They also enroll their staffs in external competition such as advertising easy writing which involves compiling a whole advertising program and summering into an A4 paper. Junior staffs are enrolled into the test and they are advised to consult senior staffs for ideas on how to do so. Through this means, the company is able to keep its workforce updated with latest advertisement ideas and increase their intellectual capita(Johnny and David, 2011).

Another internal competition called “pitch competition,” is also conducted between teams. It involves giving certain advertisement issues for all the teams to tackle and notable internal staffs are invited to judge the competition. The winning time is then awarded with prices and gifts.

The company also has a wild way of increasing creativity and innovation in their workforce with their training and development allowance. Each employee is paid to acquire new skills that are not related to their business undertakings and in so doing, Dobress believe it will widen their stream of knowledge and thus create a wild flow of information which will eventually lead to new innovative ideas(Johnny and David, 2011).

2.3 PROBLEMS FACED BY I-LEVEL AND HOW THE COMPANY RESOLVED THEM

While the company has seen tremendous success over the years, they have also faced numerous problems during the course of their business undertakings. These problems are as further discussed below.

2.3.1 Uncertainty about success of the business – the initial stage of the company’s foundation saw numerous uncertainties about the success of the business because they are the first of its kind and not sure about what exactly to offer. This was resolved by research. Walnsley conducted a research on the advertising agencies to understand their business dealings, and he found out that there is a huge gap between what advertisement buyers wanted and what the market offered. On the other hand, Dobress was not pleased with the insufficiencies in the way conventional advertisement agencies with treating their customers and these finding lead to a better understanding of their business components and thus foundation of a business that undertakes the faults they found.

2.3.2 Pay package – the company as discussed above had the issue of pay package as customers are not always moved by passion alone, rather by what the company is also willing to offer monetarily. The company solved this problem by allocating 15% of their pretax revenue for employee appraisal and cultivating spirit of passion within their workforce and also seeking new recruits that are moved by passion rather than monetary benefits. Thus, this made more a less determining factor within their workforce(Johnny and David, 2011).

2.3.3 Issue of innovation and creativity - for a new company such as i-level, their level of success is highly determined by their level of creativity and innovation and the company understood this to a great extent. They solved this issue by building a diverse workforce and training their employees in different areas of life and business undertakings in order to increase their level of creativity(Johnny and David, 2011).

From the analyses, it can be seen that high performance working has never been easy for i-level but the company is committed to do whatever it takes as they understand the benefit of such culture. In effect, it has been the building block for its tremendous success over the years.

3.0 COMPANY 2: PANNONE AND PARTNERS UK

It was reported by Manchester online in May 2004, that while most of the legal firms in Manchester found growth hard coming in what was considered a difficult year for the industry, Pannone and Partners was the fastest growing legal firm in the Northwest of England, with 20% return growth in turnover and 22% profit growth(Johnny and David, 2011).

Their growth is based on a balanced growth strategy adopted by the firm. This strategy is largely in contrast with that of their competitors in the industry. Pannone and Partners’s balanced growth strategy is based on two principles. First, the company maintains its growth in both the commercial and private sectors, while their competitors focused more on the lucrative commercial sector thus ushering in room for growth in the private sector(Johnny and David, 2011).

Secondly, the company chose a single site strategy as their own people culture. This involves all their stages being based in their Manchester office, as opposed to that of their competitors who are building branches in other states. This single site strategy helps to build and maintain a more effective and coherent workforce (Johnny and David, 2011).

3.1 HIGH PERFORMANCE WORK PRACTICES IN PANNONE AND PARTNERS

3.1.1 Creating performance through work-life balance and retention of good staffs

As part of their people culture, maintaining a work-life balance is consider essential in the company. Pannone and Partners was told by recruitment agencies that such is the quality sought out by employees from their potential employers, and is they can cultivate such quality, then they stand a chance of not having to pay high wage package to attract workers.

Pannone and Partners offer high workplace flexibility were employees are also permitted and encouraged to put their own life issues into consideration rather than being forced to stay put with the company’s quotas. The manager described the benefit of this practice by stating that they don’t go out to look for employees in the market anymore as people are always willing to work for them. This culture also encourages sharing as each employee is see as the pillar of the company and their opinions are taken into full consideration towards managing the company(Johnny and David, 2011).

3.1.2 Fair play and fair pay

Team work is essential in legal firm, and it is usually organized around specialism. At Pannone and Partners, it includes commercial litigation, insolvency, personal injury, family and intellectual property. The company judges performance on fair play which is based on how well a job is undertaken rather than the billing of that job.

This is because, is performance was judge by billing, lawyer would just pick the jobs that have potential for huge bills in order to get a higher pay and it would cause problems between individuals in a teams and eventual reduce the overall quality of their jobs. Fairness is but in play at all level of their department and amongst all staffs were everybody is given equal right to earn whatever they so deserve. For instance, a four year workers in one department earns exactly the same salary as another four year worker in another department(Johnny and David, 2011).

3.1.3 Supporting performance with openness and communication in the workplace

Joy Kingsley the top management executive elaborated on this by stating that she is in support of an open system that promotes communication and knowledge sharing within the company and Pannone and Partners adopts this as a means of increase their information flow. Employees from one department are put through with data details of other departments in order to increase their level of understanding about the overall organizational management(Johnny and David, 2011).

One visiting legal practitioner was once marveled by the extent a layer knows all financial details of Pannone and Partners as opposed to himself in relation to the compare he works. His curiosity was explained when we was told that the company practices information sharing and every staffs is allowed to seek any kind of information that is related to the company in order to increase their overall understanding of the company and enhance their management skills.

3.2 PROBLEMS FACED BY PANNONE AND PARTNERS AND HOW THE COMPANY RESOLVED THEM

While Pannone and Partners has enjoyed successful year while other legal firms was reported to be in economic ruins, the company also faced problems during the cause of their business success. These problems are as discussed below.

3.2.1 Maintaining both the private and commercial customers – while other legal firms chose to focus on a single customer segment, Pannone and Partners decided to maintain their presence in both segments and serve their customers no matter what their needs might be. This became an issue to them as they had to develop a means to ensure that all their customers are satisfied. The company resolved this issues by building a more coherent and effective workforce with their single site strategy. Because all their workers are positioned in Manchester, the company has a better control of its workforce and designates responsibilities as appropriate(Johnny and David, 2011).

3.2.2 Issues of reward system – reward in the legal industry is very difficult to measure as it is a profession with numerous sophisticate and unpredictable outcomes and it was a problem for the company. However, the company resolved this issue by rewarding employees based on a job well done later than the billing of such. This is because, if the company has rewarded its workforce based on the billing, lawyers would have gone for jobs with potentials for high billing and it would have resulted in chaos within the system(Johnny and David, 2011).

From the above analyses, it has also been illustrated that while high performance working created room for profitable growth in Pannone and Partners, the concept was not easy to adopt and the company also faced numerous problems within the course of their success, but their ability to develop solutions to these problems has been the key for its sustained growth.

4.0 COMPARATIVE CASE ANALYSES OF BOTH COMPANIES

While both companies are different from the industries they operate in, the case study analyses illustrated that they maintain certain similarities in their high performance working practices. This is further discussed below.

4.1 PEOPLE CULTURE

Both companies encourage a people culture where the workforce is seen as being above and more important than the company. In this spirit, they both earn to increase the level of creativity and innovation in their system through information sharing and openness within their workplace. i-level practices this through their open business hall which makes all staffs available, and Pannone and Partners on the other hand practices such with their information sharing amongst department and helping staffs to balance their work-life.

4.2 FAIR REWARD SYSTEM

The way a company threat its employee in the presence of their colleagues can influence the workforce’s motivation either negatively or positively to a great extent. From this case study analyses, both companies understand this fact and thus adopts an open and fair reward system that encourages other staffs to put out their best performance in order to standard a chance of being recognized. In i-level, this is done through their monthly leveler sward for the best performing employee of the month as well as other competitions and Pannone and Partners adopted this same practice through their “fair play, fair pay” polices that rewards employees on job well done.

4.3 FOCUS AND DIFFERENTIATED BUSINESS

This is another aspect of high performance working that helps position a company in the center of the market were customers are on the plenty. Just like other aspects discussed above, both companies also adopts focused business and differentiation of their business offerings from that of their competitors. i-level found gaps between the business offering of the advertisement agencies and capitalized on this gap. While it helped catapult the company to success, it also helps in differentiating it from their competitors. Pannone and Partners did the same by focusing on maintaining both their private and commercial customers while their competitors preferred the more lucrative commercial market.

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS AND PROPOSALS

From the case study analyses, they are noticeable areas that both companies will have to improve in order to maintain both their business performance and high performance working practices. They include their reward system, information sharing practices and flexibility. Thus, it is proposed that:

5.1 BOTH COMPANIES SHOULD REVIEW THEIR REWARD SYSTEM

While passion and commitment from the site of the employee are essential in determining their motivational levels, nothing rewards more than pay package within an organization. Employees want to feel that they are being paid what they worth and low payment signifies low value. In that case, both companies will find it difficult to stop their star employees when other companies come calling with high pay wage. Paying a competitive price is considered appropriate as a wage in line with the market price can reduce the chances of high employee turnover.

5.2 INFORMATION SHARING IS HIGHLY RISKY IN AN ORGANIZATION

While it is necessary to share information between employees in order for them to increase their innovativeness and creativity through provision of faster solutions to a problem, it is also risky in the sense that it can lead to business trade mark being exposed to competitors and employees can go out and establish their own businesses based on gathered information, thus, eventually ending up as competitors.

5.3 FLEXIBLE WORKFORCE IS UNFOCUSED WORKFORCE

From the case study analyses, it was highlighted that both companies consider flexibility in the form of inter-departmental function a source of creativity and innovation in their system. This is arguably true, but the fact is that is reduces employs specialization in a given areas, and when an employee starts to develop interest in another area or department, it can reduce his or her motivation and commitment on his or her job. Thus, it is recommended that both companies should control the level of flexibility within their workforce.

6.0 CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS

Modern day organizations value high performance working practices to a great extent because it has high potential of improving the overall performance of an organization. This is because, HPW empowers employees to gain new skills and encourages them to use these skills towards building a better organization.

From this research paper, this was demonstrated with two companies. i-level is a UK based media advertising firm which saw gaps between the demands of advertisement buyers and the supply of the market and capitalized on these gaps as the base for its foundation. Since its establishment, the company has implemented numerous high performance working practices such as openness and information sharing, fair reward system and training and development which eventually helped the company to achieve tremendous success. Pannone and Partners, the second company reviewed also implemented similar strategies which are open and knowledge sharing system, helping staffs to balance work-life and basing of all their staffs in one site. This also helped Pannone and Partners as much as it helped i-level in reaping huge financial profit while their competitors within their industries were facing difficulties.

However, there are also limitations to this research. While the contents of this research paper are considered, the time frame when the high performance working was conducted on the two companies discussed is in 2004 and it raises questionability about whether these companies are still practicing these HPWs in consideration of the fact that their case are used to analyze their high performance working in relation to present situation.

In conclusion, it can be said that modern organizations seeking to move from their troublesome days will need to adopt high performance working practices. This is because, HPWs helps companies to reap full benefit of employees’ potentials by keeping their motivated through these practices and the employees will be passionate about their jobs in return and it will eventually led to improved productivity in the company.

7.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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