UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF DISCRETIONARY EFFORT IN ORGANIZATIONS

A MULTI-COMPANY RESEARCH STUDY PROSPECTUS WWW.DISCRETIONARYEFFORT.ORG

INTRODUCTION
INFORMATION FOR INTERESTED ORGANIZATIONS

On behalf of our research team, I would like to invite you to participate in our Research on Discretionary Effort (RoDE). Would you like to be part of the study that helps you identify discretionary effort of employees? Would you like to measure the discretionary effort behaviors and assess how the behaviors lead to your organizational effectiveness? We believe these questions are becoming more and more important for the companies in the future. Companies have already pared costs to the bone, tightened up supply chains, outsourced non-core activities, maximized pricing, etc. What else is left for the companies to reduce inefficiencies and achieve more? We believe the solution lies in the effort that the employees provide beyond their expected role. In other words, to differentiate the performance from other competitors, much of the value added should be coming through discretionary effort. Our scientific model is based on robust empirical studies and our goal is to increase the practicality of our research in a real business world context. By participating, you will gain the access to our models and assessment tools for discretionary effort, best practices cases from high performing companies, and insights to tapping specific discretionary effort issues of your company. You will also receive a free copy of our research result, which would be published in a book. Many multinational companies are currently onboard with us, and we believe your participation would enrich our experience and as well as our end results. For your further information, please visit our website www.discretionaryeffort.org We hope to hear from you soon.

BACKGROUND & STUDY DESIGN

WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH WITH THIS RESEARCH
Why research discretionary effort? Discretionary effort in the workplace has been defined as going the extra mile within or beyond ones role going the extra mile, going above and beyond. Prior research indicates that these behaviors are associated with employees who are engaged, committed and satisfied and who are more productive, collaborative, and innovative. Thus the link between discretionary effort and competitive business performance is intuitively simple. But there are still major empirical questions that still surround the concept: Does an employee engage in discretionary behaviors because of certain factors in his or her work environment (e.g., caring management) or is it more due to the persons genetic make-up? Are there levers in the employees environment that we can pull to enhance discretionary effort? And to what extent does it affect individuals, management, and the bottomline of companies? Answers to these questions will help organizations create the optimal workplace climate for enhancing discretionary effort, and identify employee characteristics that can be used for selection and performance management. Study Design This is a multi-company study with companies representing public, private and non-government sectors. Data will be collected through a web-based questionnaire given to employees. Both closed and open ended questions will be included. The questionnaire is able to be completed in about 30 minutes. The following information will be collected: Demographic Information Discretionary Effort Leadership & Management Job satisfaction Organizational Commitment Organizational Environment o Procedural Justice o Rewards System o Resources In addition to the above attitudinal measures, the survey will also include several scales that will assess certain predispositions of the respondent.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS & BENEFITS

Sample Questions Discretionary Effort Exhibits attendance at work beyond the norm Job Satisfaction How satisfied are you with your job? Personality Conscientiousness: I work hard / am always prepared Organizational Environment Procedural Justice: Decisions that affect me are usually made in fair ways at my company Leadership Self sacrificing: My boss is somebody who shows a lot of selfsacrifice Trustworthiness: Managers have a strong sense of justice Participant Benefits Through the participation of the survey, companies will receive the following for their support: 1. Company report containing DE levels with proportionately allotted demographics as well as performance on the key drivers of DE 2. Benchmarks of other participating companies 3. Best practices from high performing companies 4. Free copy of the resulting book

THE TEAM
The project team is a collaboration between the Department of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at New York University and the writing team of Marc Woods and Steve Coomber. We are a group of people who are passionate about better understanding how people work, what motivates them and how best to encourage them to go the extra mile.

DR CHRIS ROTOLO Dr. Christopher Rotolo is Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology Department at NYU. He has over 20 years of experience in working with organizations better understand key drivers of high performance. His areas of interest include organizational climate and culture, human resource selection, social network analysis, and individual assessment.

MARC WOODS Working extensively with individuals, teams and global businesses, Marc encourages them to develop best practice within their given areas of interest. Approximately 25,000 people each year watch him deliver his inspirational presentations and his current client list includes Barclays, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, GSK, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Visa and Zurich.

STEVE COOMBER Steve writes for the Times, CEO Journal, The Edge, Finance Director, European CEO, World Finance and a variety of other publications. Subjects covered range across the business spectrum from leadership to taxation, from M&As, private equity and collateralized debt obligations to innovation, talent management, and CSR.

QUESTIONS?
CONTACT INFORMATION

For more information about the research objectives, participation requirements, or general questions, please email us at: Tel. + 44 7751 09 08 09 Email: info@discretionaryeffort.org Or visit www.discretionaryeffort.org