1. 1
SELF-DIRECTED BEHAVIOR IN THE INDUSTRY 4.0 ERA
HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO WORK BY THEMSELVES?
2017
International Conference on Maintenance and Rehabilitation of
Constructed Infrastructure, Seoul, Korea
Jeonghwan (Jerry) Choi, PhD, MBA, ME
2. 2
THE RESEARCHER
Jeonghwan (Jerry) Choi, PhD; MBA; ME, is a people management and people
development expert.
This former engineer and global business strategist aims to cultivate new knowledge of
entrepreneurial and disciplined business talent development for goodness.
He is teaching management courses at Kean University (New Jersey and Wenzhou campus
in China) after completing his PhD in HRD at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Technology
Global Business
Strategy
People
Development and
Management
3. 3
Industry 4.0 initiated by German Government,
which promotes the “fully computerization of
manufacturing”.
Dr. Siegfried Dais has
been deputy chairman of
the board of
management at Robert
Bosch GmbH until 2012
and is partner at Robert
Bosch Industrietreuhand
KG since 2007.
Dr. Heinz Derenbach has
been chairman of the
executive board of Bosch
Software Innovations
GmbH since 2011.
2011
2013
2016
Why not?
BOSCH’s fully computerized & networked Global
production initiative!
Four design principles in Industry 4.0
• Interoperability (e.g. IoT)
• Information transparency
• Technical assistance (e.g. cognitive, physical
support)
• Decentralized decision (e.g Autonomous / Self-
directed work team!)
Klaus Schwab’s
Fourth Industrial
Revolution (4IR) at
WEF 2016 (Jan.)
2017 Oops… Wait!
4. 4
A TENSION BETWEEN SUBORDINATE AND
SUPERVISOR
Subordinates want
more autonomy to
address frontline or
local demands.
Supervisors demand
more self-directed
employee behavior.
• Email interviews & Telephone interview with 33 employees from 18 companies in 6 different countries.
• Interview protocol: What is the most important thing to achieve a high performance?
• Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis System (CAQDAS, Atlas.ti) technique was applied to draw a theme.
• Self-directed employee participation/engagement in work emerged as a critical theme.
What is the most important thing for you
to achieve a high performance?
5. 5
A REAL VOICE FROM FIELD
“You can lead a horse to
water, but you can’t make
him drink.”
(A quote from a manager at a Korean
Automotive Manufacturing Company)
“Employees’ self-directed
participation in work is the
most important thing to
achieve a high performance.”
(A quote from a director at a Korean Automotive
Parts Manufacturing Company)
Introduction
How can we get employees to work by
themselves?
6. 6
ENGINEER ‘HAN’ CASE
Bring new ideas
Taking initiative
Redesigning tasks
even if it is not
required
Going against general
procedures if he think it
helps achieving team/org
goals
Introduction
• In depth telephone interviews with 9 engineers at a R&D team of a large Korean manufacturing company
• Interview protocol: “How to get people work to address a technical problem by themselves?”
• Engineers indicated “Han” as the most self-directed employee.
7. 7
DEMAND FOR SELF-DIRECTED EMPLOYEE
Self-directed employees are the key resource to make
continual organizational successes in recent quickly
changing business environments.
Work nature
change
Technology
advancement
Globalization
Continual
Organizational
Successes
Introduction
8. 8
RESPONSES TO THE DEMAND
Recently many corporations introduce and implement
‘Autonomy Supporting Human Resource Practices’ (Google
20% rule, 3M 15% rule, Result-Only-Work-Environment).
Google employees can spend one day a week
working on their own projects that are not
necessarily in the job description.
In ROWE system, employees can decide
how they work, when they work, and
where they work, all by themselves.
3M allows employees to spend
15% of their time on individual
research or initiative.
But not all business organizations have been able to
reap the benefits of the management practice! Why?
Introduction
9. 9
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
According to the Kurt Lewin’s Field theory, human behavior is a
function of environment and person. Bandura’s social learning
theory indicated that human behavior changes through the self-
regulation process that comes from continual interactions with
personal factors and environmental influences.
Introduction
[P]
Developable Personal Factor
[E]
Environmental Influences at Work
[B]
Human Behavior
B = f (E, P)
Perception of Autonomy from
Self-determination theory
PsyCap from Positive Organizational
Behavior theory
Self-directed behavior from
Self-leadership theory
10. 10
POPULATION & SAMPLE
Method
The target population for this study was employees in large Korean
automotive parts manufacturing companies. 670 surveys were distributed at
six large Korean automotive parts manufacturing companies. 489 (73%)
employees participated in the study. 331 datasets (288 subordinates; 43
supervisor) were analyzed after matching and screening.
Highly collectivistic, hierarchical, and
uncertainty avoidant culture
Equivalent work structure and work process
(e.g. QS-9000 or ISO-9001 Certificated)
Korean automotive parts manufacturing
industry has sustainably grown in global
economy
Individualistic and
uncertainty tolerate
culture
Flexible and flat
organizational
structure
US service industry
(Bank, Education,
Healthcare)
Western/US
11. 11
MEDIATION EFFECT ANALYSIS
Positive Psychological Capital (PsyCap) fully mediates the
relationship between Autonomous Work Environment and
Self-directed Behavior.
Note: Coefficients are unstandardized values. * p < .05; ** p < .01
Result
Subordinate
Self-SDB
PsyCap
AWE
β = .586**
p <.001
β = -.139
p =.053
β = .875**
p <.001
Coefficient p
Indirect effect (Sobel) .513** < .001
Direct effect - .139 .053
Total effect .374** < .001
12. 12
MULTILEVEL MEDIATION EFFECT
Empowered ”Manager” and Positive “Employees”
draw the best Self-directed Behavior.
Coefficient p
Indirect effect .050* .033
Direct effect .627** < .001
Total effect .678** < .001
Level 1(Individual)
Level 2 (Work group)
Supervisor rated
subordinate’s SDB
Subordinate
PsyCap
Supervisor
AWE
β = .627**
P = < .001
β = .222**
p = .001
β = .227
p = .089
Result
13. 13
KEY FINDING
Discussion
Without nurturing the positive psychological capital,
the autonomy supporting management practice would
not work well in promoting self-directed employee
behavior.
Clear goal and
more decision
powers to
supervisors
Institutionalize
self-directed
behavior
Provide
autonomous work
environment
Develop positive
psychological
capital
14. 14
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
• Top management: Delegate more decision powers to supervisors
(Empowerment) to promote self-directed employee behavior.
• HR Manager: Institutionalize the Self-directed Behavior as a key
performance index.
• Provide the PsyCap training program or intervention.
• Frontline manager: Learn how to design and allocate meaningful
jobs or tasks for subordinates to develop subordinates’ PsyCap.
• Frontline workers: Take responsibility in developing and sustaining
personal positive PsyCap (Participating training programs and
Self-directed learning).
The researcher suggests several practical implications for
organizational leaders, HR professionals, and frontline
managers to promote self-directed employee behavior.
Discussion
15. 15
IN SHORT…
Make your people “POSITIVE”
to get them work by themselves !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
Hi, My name is Jerry. It’s my great honor to have a chance to share my research with you.
Simply speaking, I am a people development and management expert in business.
Recently I aim to cultivate new knowledge of “Entrepreneurial Talent Development”
This purpose comes from my former experiences at Technology and Global Business Strategy.
I worked at BOSCH – the world largest automotive parts maker as a Antilock Brake system (ABS) product development engineer more than 6 years. When I lost 200 million dollar project, I got interested in “What is the global business strategy?”
I got two MBA degrees one from a German business school and a Korean business school.
Then, I worked as a business consultant for large technology companies like Dow Chemical in Europe and SK Telecome in Korea.
However, I got to know that the “Quality of People” commonly defines the business successes and failures in many cases.
I joined the PhD program of Human Resource Development at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. And I completed PhD work last Augusts (2014).
This problem has been identified from preliminary studies.
When I interviews with 33 employees from 18 different workplaces, I found out an interesting tension between subordinates and supervisors.
Supervisors demand more self-directed employee behavior while subordinates want more autonomy.
However, both subordinates and supervisors want to see and have high self-directedness.
This study was inspired by real voices from business field. When I interviewed with 33 employees around the world with a question of “What is the most important thing for you to achieve a high-performance?”, A quote stroke me a lot.
A manager at a large Korean automaker stressed the importance of self-directed employees with a quote that “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink”.
In addition, a director (now a CEO) confirmed the importance of self-directed employee by saying “Employees self-directed participation in work is the most thing to achieve a high performance”.
These real voices motivated me to have a question “How can we get people to work by themselves?” in the workplace?.
I conducted in-depth interviews with 9 engineers at a R&D team who shared with the same noise problem in large Korean manufacturing company.
Many engineers reported that self-directed behavior was the most important factor to solve the noise problem.
Especially, engineer “Han’s self-directed efforts were frequently referred by team members.
The engineer brings new ideas, takes initiative for his idea, redesign tasks even if it is not required.
He frequently find a new way of doing if he think it helps achieving team or organizational goals.
In recent rapidly changing business environment, self-directed employees are regarded as the key resource to make continual organizational successes
Because self-directed employees can address the rapid changes of work nature, technology advancement, and globalization more effectively and more proactively.
For this reason, Business organizations make a lot of efforts to acquire and develop self-directed employees.
For example, a few leading corporations such as Google, 3M have implemented “Autonomy Supporting HR Practices” like 20% rule, 15% rule.
Many organizations have tried to emulated the “Autonomy Supporting HR Practices”, but not all business organizations have been able to reap the benefits of the HR Practice (e.g. Best Buy, Yahoo).
Why this kind of thing is happening?
For example, a few leading corporations…
On 2006, Google introduced 20% time policy, and the company could develop many innovative products.
In more recent years, result-only-work environment HR practice gets special attention from many business leaders and HR professionals for it’s innovative approach.
Autonomy supporting HR practice is not new. 3M introduced 15% time rule on 1948. The well-known POST-IT has come from the 15% time on 1974.
However, not all business organizations have been able to reap the benefits of autonomy supporting HR practices.
Because business leaders, frontline managers, and HR professionals do not have sufficient knowledge or understanding how to motivate employees to have self-directed behavior.
For example, many organizations introduced financial rewards for self-directed behavior with little considering intrinsic motivational strategies.
And, this mechanistic replication of the HR practice result in poor long-term performance.
The purpose of this study is to identify and understand the role and impact of AWE and PsyCap that affect SDB in a non-western cultural context.
In order to achieve the purpose, I chose employees at large Korean automotive manufacturing companies as the target population.
I chose the target population because those employees are exposed to a different cultural contexts such as highly collectivistic, hierarchical, and uncertainty avoidant that is contrasting to western culture.
In addition, the equivalent work structure and work process of the target population reduce the variations that are not considered in this study.
670 surveys were distributed at six large Korean automotive parts manufacturing companies, and Total 489 surveys were collected.
And 331 datasets from 43 teams were analyzed after matching and screening.
Hypotheses 1-3 converge into a question of the mediating effect of employees’ psychological capital in the positive relationship between perceived autonomous work environment and self-directed behavior of subordinates.
The mediation effect of PsyCap was tested by Sobel test and SEM.
In summary, this study attempted to identify and understand the role and impact of perceptions of autonomous work environment and positive psychological capital that affect self-directed behavior in a non-western work context.
Results of hypotheses testing showed that“ Without nurturing the positive psychological capital, the autonomy supporting HR practice would not work in promoting self-directed employee behavior.”
Developing self-directed employees is not an easy task for organizations, but it becomes the top priority to get continual organizational successes in quickly changing business environment. Who else will explore new opportunities, bring creative ideas, take initiatives for bright future except for self-directed employees?
I believe that this study can be a foundational stepping stone for further research aiming to develop self-directed employees.
The researcher suggests several practical implications for organizational leaders, HR professionals, and frontline managers to address the problem of inability to reap the benefits of autonomy supporting HR practices.
The researcher suggests several practical implications for organizational leaders, HR professionals, and frontline managers to address the problem of inability to reap the benefits of autonomy supporting HR practices.