AAOM Handbook

Whereas, in an automation system the work that affects the Process performance in undertaken by hardware, in the Business Process Framework the support (management) work is undertaken by people. If you don’t take care of the Process and automation system hardware it will not work effectively for you. Similarly, if you don’t take care of the people engaged in the Production, Service and Support work they will not work effectively for you. In fact they may choose to deliberately work against you. People choose to give their support and effort to an undertaking. The key issue is that it is their choice, and theirs alone. Others can influence, but each individual will make their own decision. How then do we help people to make the decision to give their support and efforts to an undertaking? Understanding and applying some basic human traits will help. As individuals humans are not equipped with greater physical strength, or better offensive or defensive features, than most of the creatures that we share this world with, and compete with for survival. However we have at least two innate traits that have contributed to our success; • greater intelligence, and • an inclination towards trusting and cooperating with others. It is cooperation that allows us to combine our intelligence and strength to survive and succeed. The above observations suggest that a successful survival strategy has selected people who will tend to trust, cooperate with and support others. If this is true, then we need to understand what is likely to stand in the way of our innate tendency to trust and cooperate, and to cause a person to choose not to give their effort to their work? Ian Macdonald, of Macdonald and Associates (MAC), proposes that there are six principal influences on a person’s willingness to give their effort to an undertaking with others. These may be represented as a continuum between two opposites in the values that an individual perceives others to hold and enact. Applying this to the workplace suggests that if an employee perceives that management exhibits values and behaviours that lay to the left of the continua, they will be more likely to give their support and effort. If an employee’s perceptions of management lie to the right of the continua, they will be unlikely to give their support and effort. Values Continua

Caring ------------------------------------------------------------------ Uncaring Respectful ------------------------------------------------------- Disrespectful Fair -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfair Truthful --------------------------------------------------------------- Untruthful Trustworthy ----------------------------------------------------- Untrustworthy Courageous ---------------------------------------------------------- Cowardly