Employee Involvement Association:Products

President's Report By Bruce Eppinette
Management Support for EIA Activities

A member of our association recently asked me the following question. "How can I get support from my upper management to attend the annual training conference and other EIA events?" My response to that individual prompted this article. In fact, much of my response has simply been copied and pasted. "The wonders of modern technology..."
Upon receiving the above question, I was immediately reminded of an article in the New Horizons a few years ago, written by Floyd Light. The article addressed using a business plan as a tool to gain management support for conference attendance.
I remember thinking how much sense that made. Most upper managers rarely receive anything from an employee that they do not specifically request. Not only would this business plan establish a need for your program....

A Performance Model Tied to People
By Bernie Sander

Performance
"Performance is the right term. It embodies a family of criteria, each of which must be measured, or a critical piece of the pie in any performance system will be missing: effectiveness, efficiency, quality, productivity, quality of work life, innovation, profitability."
- excerpt from page 163, A Wake-Up Call for Idea Champions (Bernie Sander)
No organization irrespective of it's core purpose, be it for profit, not-for-profit, public or private, large or small, would argue that performance improvement is the bottom line indicator and a good proxy of efficacy, survivability, and health and well-being of the organization.
The Model
Stakeholders - As a first step it is necessary to follow the performance model through the eyes of each of the five stakeholder groups: public, customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders. While there may be relative weights applied...