A 'Better' Workforce

Press Release / News

July 8, 2009

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How far should a company go to improve its workforce? What type of "self-improvement" culture should an organization adopt? In The Conference Board Review's Summer 2009 cover story, writer Michael Schrage seeks to address these questions—and the many uncomfortable and provocative issues they raise. "You may soon be forced to rethink everything you thought you knew about improving talent and bringing out the best in people," writes Schrage.

"All over the world, the best-performing people in the best-performing organizations always look to get better at getting better," says Schrage, a research fellow at the MIT Sloan School's Center for Digital Business. "In tomorrow's global markets, being the best will increasingly depend on ready access to the best technologies, the best (and presumably legal) drugs, and the best coaching and mentoring money can buy."

Indeed, most firms think nothing about supplying their workers with free coffee. Is it now time for HR to dole out caffeine pills too? Of course, that's only the onramp to a road fraught with ethical dilemmas. Companies will face far more difficult decisions when it comes to recommending to its executives self-improvement techniques—counseling, coaching, and yes, even drugs.

As it is, "strategically awkward decisions around personal enhancement are found everywhere talent strives to outperform and overachieve," Schrage points out—from concert musicians popping beta blockers to calm anxiety to beauty pageants paying for contestants' breast implants. The corporate realm is no different, particularly with Western companies facing competition from those in less-regulated countries.

Few Corporate Guidelines

While both individuals and organizations claim to encourage self-improvement and enhanced performance, corporate guidelines remain scarce. As a result, executives have traditionally paid for their own self-help. "Employees looking for an edge personally purchased the drug or the surgery or the technology or the coach," Schrage writes. "The firm allowed—encouraged?—employees to effectively subsidize the organization through their own portfolio of performance-enhancement investments."

This has proven to be a win-win situation for leaders who prefer to decide privately how to enhance their performance and companies nervous about pondering potential scandals. But businesses should take notice, as "multibillion-dollar gray markets in performance enhancement will become tomorrow's new normal," cautions Schrage, "with unclear rules, questionable ethics, and uncertain technologies spiraling almost totally out of control."

In fact, they already have in sports, where athletes have access to a range of performance-enhancing substances and resources at their disposal. Elite sports breed high-performance cultures, says Schrage, where the line between respecting rules and testing them is vanishingly small. The same is true at top companies.

Likewise, is there anything wrong with an executive who does what she feels is necessary to be the best at her job? Given that leadership is by example, "Is popping a pill to stay up all night to meet a deadline a leadership choice to be celebrated, accepted, ignored, or discouraged?" asks Schrage. "Does it depend on the talent, or on the result?"

These are conundrums that executives and companies will increasingly face. As Schrage puts it: "The irony here is that tomorrow's business leadership has no choice but to enhance its performance around how it enhances performance—or forfeit its people and best opportunities."

The Conference Board Review (www.tcbreview.com) is The Conference Board quarterly magazine of ideas and opinions for business leaders.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE BOARD

The Conference Board is a global, independent business-membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance AND better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

For further information contact:
Vadim Liberman
(1) 212 339 0214
vadim.liberman@conference-board.org