FEATURE ARTICLES

Managing the Costs of Conflict… A Novel Idea
According to the CPP Global Human Capital Report, employees spend an average of 2.1 hours per week dealing with non-productive conflict. These paid, but non-productive, hours cost organisations billions on an annual basis. In tough economic times, no one can afford to waste this kind of time and money, writes Michael Patterson. In this article, Michael shows how to calculate the cost of conflict in your organisation, and shares the five keys for having a “nice” conflict.

Leveraging Human Potential – Mapping Self to Work Culture
People are often frustrated and unhappy at work, particularly, but not exclusively, in those organisations with complex hierarchies and seemingly unhelpful processes and procedures, and where values are not matched by consistent policy in actions. Angus McLeod offers an approach that permits a novel method for exploring these issues by way of similarities and differences, together with a psychological artifice to provide new insights.

What’s Wrong With Executive Succession?
Headhunting and appointing new Executives is a risky and expensive business! The South African Business Times of 22 January 2012 displayed the headline: “Execs do the Shuffle”, showing how a number of South African Executives had moved jobs in the previous week. In almost all cases there appeared to be no obvious internal successor, and the movements were the result of a “crisis” rather than planning, writes Terry Meyer.

Tell to Win and Win and Win: A Cautionary Tale and a Traffic Light System for Business Storytellers…
The storytelling movement in business has really taken off. Hundreds of tertiary educational institutions offer programmes with story modules, a growing number of books on the subject are being published, many more businesses want to use story in their internal and external communications, and corporate narrative practitioners are growing exponentially. This is good news. After all, our cultures and psyches have built-in mechanisms to relate to stories. Stories are natural. We find meaning in stories, and they fulfil many functions, say Graham Williams and Terrence Gargiulo.