Kim W C, Mauborgne R
INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.
Harv Bus Rev. 1997 Jul-Aug;75(4):65-75.
Unlike the traditional factors of production--land, labor, and capital--knowledge is a resource that can't be forced out of people. But creating and sharing knowledge is essential to fostering innovation, the key challenge of the knowledge-based economy. To create a climate in which employees volunteer their creativity and expertise, managers need to look beyond the traditional tools at their disposal. They need to build trust. The authors have studied the links between trust, idea sharing, and corporate performance for more than a decade. They have explored the question of why managers of local subsidiaries so often fail to share information with executives at headquarters. They have studied the dynamics of idea sharing in product development teams, joint ventures, supplier partnerships, and corporate transformations. They offer an explanation for why people resist change even when it would benefit them directly. In every case, the decisive factor was what the authors call fair process--fairness in the way a company makes and executes decisions. The elements of fair process are simple: Engage people's input in decisions that directly affect them. Explain why decisions are made the way they are. Make clear what will be expected of employees after the changes are made. Fair process may sound like a soft issue, but it is crucial to building trust and unlocking ideas. Without it, people are apt to withhold their full cooperation and their creativity. The results are costly: ideas that never see daylight and initiatives that are never seized.
与传统生产要素——土地、劳动力和资本不同，知识是一种无法从人们身上强行获取的资源。但创造和分享知识对于促进创新至关重要，而创新是知识经济的关键挑战。为营造一种员工自愿贡献创造力和专业知识的氛围，管理者需要超越其可用的传统工具去思考。他们需要建立信任。作者们研究信任、想法分享与公司绩效之间的联系已逾十年。他们探讨了本地子公司的管理者为何常常未能与总部高管分享信息这一问题。他们研究了产品开发团队、合资企业、供应商伙伴关系及公司转型过程中想法分享的动态情况。他们解释了为何人们即使在变革会直接使自身受益的情况下仍抵制变革。在每种情况下，决定性因素都是作者所称的公平过程——公司制定和执行决策的方式的公正性。公平过程的要素很简单：在直接影响人们的决策中征求他们的意见。解释决策为何如此制定。明确变革实施后对员工的期望。公平过程听起来可能是个软性问题，但对于建立信任和激发创意至关重要。没有它，人们往往会保留全力合作及创造力。结果代价高昂：想法永无见天之日，倡议也从未被抓住。
