Consulting approach of Kuroshio HR

Individuals try to get the best and most they want from their work.
An organization tries to get the best and most from the members.

The ultimate purpose of HR & organization management is to realize both happily.

Individuals, Work, and an Organization

Every individual pursues the mix of the 3 elements, although the priority will be different by an individual, and it changes by life stage even in the same individual.

As a minimum expectation, an organization wants the capability of its members to execute its current businesses.

It may be enough for a routinized job, but for realizing the vision, the organization needs also its members’ commitment and ideas.

Thus, the management needs to

fulfill the members’ wants– “meaning”, “growth“, and “sense of security“ as much as possible
convert them into “ideas”, “capability” and “commitment” for realizing the organizational vision

The Obstacles

However, the management faces obstacles on the way to achieving this.

Obstacle 1) Different opinions, different needs, and comparison with other co-workers

Everyone wants to fulfill “meaning,” “growth,” and “sense of security” as much as possible, but the members bother each other;

<Disagreement>

Business, in a sense, is a series of judgments.

As members have different opinions, a lack of explanation and buy-in of each judgment will accumulate feelings of disagreement.

<Uneven division of labor>

A member often feels that another member takes more challenging and interesting roles than him/her, even when the manager assigns the roles very rationally based on the members’ capabilities.

This is another point to accumulate the negative feeling towards the organization.

<Unfairness>

Not only about the salary differences but also allowing various work styles like Work-From-Home makes some members feel that they are treated unfairly.

For example, in a manufacturing company, the factory workers claimed that it is unfair that office workers of their company can work from home under COVID-19.

As a result, the management requires the office workers to commute to the office every day.

Obstacle 2) Gaps between an organization’s plan and the reality

Another obstacle is VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

Even a well-prepared plan sometimes does not work due to the continuous changes of the business environment.

As the reality changes, the management needs different quality and quantity of capabilities as well as different kinds of ideas and information from what they originally planned.

If an organization lacks flexibility to the changes, the management cannot get the necessary ideas and information (lack of ideas).

Also, the shortage or the excess of necessary labor forces continues for a long period (unmatched capabilities), which will result in the loss of opportunities and/or a cost increase.

The worse performance of an organization than the plan may result in less compensation than the members originally expected (inappropriate compensation), which will damage the members’ commitment.

In addition to Obstacle 1) & 2), the 3rd obstacle is time and money constraints.

If the management has enough time, they probably can persuade those having different opinions to agree to the management’s judgment.

The mismatches of capability may not be a big problem if the organization has enough budget.

However, usually, the 3rd obstacle is the most difficult one to solve.

Thus, we should focus on Obstacle 1) & 2).

Directions of HR & organization management

The direction of HR & organization management is flipping the obstacles;

and

Areas detecting solutions

Then, we have to turn the directions into the effective solutions.

We do not have a magic bullet, but it is good to know how to find the solutions.

Each direction usually links closely to a particular HR & organization management area.

These are the areas to detect the issues and develop the solutions;

There are a couple of complementary directions.

The complementary directions also link closely to a particular area of HR & organization management, Areas D), E), & F);

The remaining area, Area G) is Corporate Brand & Leadership.

They can be strong solutions for all the obstacles if

Maintain a strong corporate brand
Always develop or obtain strong leaders

But they are very difficult to achieve, and maybe the results of achieving other directions.

Our framework and approach

Now, we know all the directions and the related HR & organization management areas.

This is our framework.

Using the framework, we will identify HR & organization management issues of each organization and design customized effective solutions.

Individuals try to get the best and most they want from their work.

An organization tries to get the best and most from the members.