Part 3 - The Pyramid Effect of Social Competence

The core of our ethical approach lies in the responsibility of the individual, in self management, which encompasses all areas of life. In business, whoever would like to achieve a culture of learning, promote corporate social responsibility, or implement a value-oriented overall concept needs to acknowledge his own “glasses”. Without self-awareness, no growth in skills that are anchored in the personality is possible. Otherwise, they remain as a suit that does not fit, somehow on your body, but not real or authentic. With growing self-awareness, the ability prevails and falls in all areas of communication, goal-setting, the life balance ... especially, however, of conflict management. The effect that currently occurs is best depicted in the form of a pyramid.

According to our conception, conflict management is not primarily a (learnable and teachable) method, but an element of personality development that is constructed on self-perception. Therefore, conflict management must be acquired in a learning process. No one can learn skills integrated into their personality in a course. And of course it does not work implicitly without learned material, methods and examples. Growth in the area of social competence exacts me as a person — completely. Only in this certainly challenging way is enduring personality development possible. The classic location of the primary procurement of social competence, of the ability to live in relationships and to structure these positively and proactively, is the family of origin.

Personal Illustration

The pressure on this “Educatope” has dramatically increased in the last two decades. The primary social dimension, which is becoming smaller and smaller, is hardly in the position anymore to provide the needed competencies to adolescents in the financial sense, by way of the increasing speed of change, and due to the glaring influence of multimedia-based reality. Therefore, the keyword of psycho-social health will be a core subject in the years to come. But because this primary value-provider is overburdened in many aspects, it is that much more important to address the development of personality competencies. A basic principle is (as can be seen in the following diagram) that growth in soft skills always transfers to increases in self competence. “Wash me — but don’t get me wet” cannot be the motto for up-and-coming leaders. Quite the contrary. Only he who presents himself as a role model to his own personality development and also does this in a clear way will be able to develop his employees on an enduring basis.

Part 2 - ABOUT ETHICS

Ethics is an enigmatic concept. So that the chameleon does not change its colors quite so many times, we should explain in advance what we mean when we say “ethics”. There is no all-encompassing ethic that always applies. The simple, but yet not simplistic, basic question of ethics goes back to Immanuel Kant and gets to the point: How should I act? Being and striving, the motives and consequences of acting are in the focus of ethics. Also that which brings me out of the usual, the routines, and opens new paths is also a core ethical subject. What are my maxims that lead to action?

In daily language usage, we are confronted with the concept of, ethics* in different ways, but basically in three fundamental meanings:

• Ethics and values are simply used as equals. Meaning — we are always ethical and we all have values, which are, however, not primarily distinguished by their being “good or bad”. In this sense, descriptive ethics, which we actually live, are often also seen as the discrepancy between convictions and lived values.

• Ethics as valuation: When someone behaves “ethically”, we also say that he has behaved “well” or “desirably”. In this case, ethics becomes a judgmental concept.

• Ethics as the super-ordinate concept of a scientific discipline (branches: social sciences or philosophy) — see more about this under the topic “Hyphenated Ethics”.

In order to further tackle the conceptual haziness, we still have to define the concepts, namely ethics itself, as well as ethos and morality:

• Morality: the actual norms and rules of a society. It is accepted without reflection and is also primarily culture based and therefore not an active exercise in learning. Motto: “That’s just what is done” — example: Wash your hands before dinner.

• Ethos: Greek: housing, stall, tribe, custom, habit. One speaks of a civil ethos or work ethos (example: the management ethos). Ethos therefore means individual or group-specific ethics. Values and virtues that are derived from morals for an individual or a group of people and which are specified for them. Motto: ”That is how I/we do it” — Example: we, as a family, wash our hands before dinner.

• Ethics: the theoretical reflection of morality that is then reflected in practice. Grounded and reflected norms and values. Motto: Why should I do certain things? Example: You should wash your hands before eating in order to avoid possible infections.

The concept of ethics as we will use it in the context of this lesson script and also within the framework of the lecture, takes all three reflection and development stages into consideration and means:

Definition:

Ethics is … what has become a (generally accepted) rule in an individual’s life due to habit or tradition or by way of the norm: that is my/our lifestyle, that pertains to me, to us. Ethics can be observed, is personal, but never private.

Hyphenated Ethics — A System

The great ethical systems of philosophies and religions have different conditions and assumptions that lead. to certain values (value mindset). Despite all differences, ethical main subjects can be identified:

Personal Illustration

The ethical fields can be divided into three large blocks. The disciplines named above are present in all of them. Two of these subjects are essential to our theme — business ethics and individual ethics:

Personal Illustration

Part 1 - Introduction

Ethics in Business - An Illusory World of Nice Concepts?

 The world’s largest international finance crisis (beginning in 2007) shakes the earth. The grim effects of international interdependence reach from the capital market to the rice bowls of the Nigerian rice farmers. And one economic scandal happens after the next. Not only the names of big managers, but also those of important businesses, ring painfully in people’s cars. Financial misstatements, huge illegal financial transactions, utopian-scale settlements for failed managers, bribery affairs, and pleasure trips at businesses’ expense... the list is long — and fueled the discussion regarding corporate governance. For a long time now, employees only trust the nice-sounding company values, mission statements or tenets — all published on high-gloss paper — with reserve. And if it is true that in German companies, more than 60 % of the employees have already resigned in their own minds, it seems to be high time for action. But the crisis cannot be solved with snap decisions or economic instruments.

 “Human error” is the main cause of economic disorders and spectacular company collapses, such as the collapse of the new economy in the 1990s of the 20th century. It has been clear for a long time that soft skills hold the greatest meaning for enduring success. But how much of that will be directly invested in the areas of education and courses of study?

He who is not satisfied only with insights and critical analysis needs ethical orientation, which reaches the center of economic activity — and he must therefore find a way from conceptual drafts to the heart of his employees. Ethics as a paper tiger degenerates into a bedside carpet. Plausible value orientation that is relevant to real life must be applied internally. Therefore, we will keep the principle ethical questions to a minimum. What promotes the practical advancement of a person’s own social competence will form the core of this section of Operations Insider.

Values Create Value

 This is also true in the reverse case: a lack of value orientation foils successful business management. A comprehensive study by Booz-Allen-Hamilton (2003), brought about by the massive business scandals in the years 2001 and 2002 unearthed clear results. At the end of the shareholder value era, 150 CEOs from leading German companies agreed: in the middle and long terms, value orientation in companies is essential to survival.

 One of the main factors shaping the rapid change in a company’s culture of values is related, last but not least, to a high labor turnover rate, especially in the managerial area. Each new person brings new input with him in the area of value understanding and management style. Integrative work in view of the DNA of value is indispensable.

 What is the most important impact of values in your organization?

Source: http://www.boozallen.com - personal illustration

The implementation and anchoring of value codices offers a heterogeneous picture, according to the Booz-Allen-Hamilton study: to hold values to be right and important on one side, but to have an indifferent picture in view of their roles and overall value, damages the authenticity of the image. Different studies in the German speaking and Anglo-American areas agree — business success is predominately dependent on the social competence of employees, and much less so on cognitive and professional competences. Even if the results of the studies differ —60—80 % of the operational results lead, directly or in- directly, back to soft skills. Therefore, whoever would like to work and live with increasing value needs 1.) increases in social competence, meaning the ability to enhance relationship(s) to himself and to others in an enduring fashion and 2.) clarity regarding his values. Besides these “internal” factors, the question regarding the value-givers is of critical importance. Debates regarding societal values are not new. However, the quality of the loss of orientation is a certainly leftist and bitter analysis by Herbert Grénemeyer (“Keine Heimat” — no homeland) from 1988 gets to the heart of this societal climate change. However, he does not account for a solution to, or the emergence of, the roots of this development.

The family as the basic value and cultureforming entity for social superstructures has been pruned down to its core size. The coldness of seemingly all-powerful capital seems to have driven a systematic robber economy. Frustration tolerance and experiences of aversion, as well as an altruistic tenor can only be learned in the primary reference unit and in “Educatopes” (what a word!) with close relations. Social behavior research has not agreed in this matter since Konrad Lorenz. With decreasing birth rates, not only is the economic damage enormous, the inter-generation contract literally unsustainable, no, primary socialization is also frail. Ultimately, only the options in the multimedia seem to be offered at all or to remain. But who equips the media with values? The pressure for individualization asks too much of the individual with this carousel ride, which only gets faster and faster. Last but not least, 9/11 turned the clash of cultures from being a threat scenario to a bitter reality which, however, does not take place between competing national entities, but which goes right through the middle of them. In the Twin Towers, blacks and whites, Europeans, Asian and Arabs, Christians and Moslems perished. The lapse in the East-West Conflict also contributed to this situation, in that the polarity so important for the individual’s positioning was lost. The market economy knows neither corrective nor factual borders.

The capitalization of all life, homo oeconomicus, standing around lost in the landscape in view of frenzied technical developments, structures becoming more and more complex and interdependence that becomes more and more unclear. The last meaningful questions in existence are transferred to the individual response — a more than straining challenge. Only he who takes on the challenge is in the position of taking on management tasks in the future. The call for ethics is becoming therefore audibly louder and more urgent. Therefore, management competence both calls for and challenges the individual. Without the willingness to engage in a process, there will be no recognizable change. Ethics — these are existential questions — not quickly learned extensions of the spectrum of knowledge. The consequence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) indisputably having become a center of economic-ethical interest is that a business is primarily dependent on leaders whose own ethical competence has been clarified and is equipped with the highest priority.

Psycho-Social Health

We have a growing need for health. In the new work world, the socially and mentally healthy individual is becoming more and more important in order to maintain full performance ability. In the global economy of knowledge, a person must be seen as “holistic” in order to achieve this performance. The related trend is called “psycho-social health”. The background of this trend of the future is the theory of the long waves of the Kondratieff cycles — best represented by Leo Nefiodow. Each phase of economic prosperity can be traced back to central, basic innovations, which generated and expanded entire branches of industry.

Source: Personal illustration

 Currently, we are in transition to a new wave of economic prosperity. The carriers of the next Kondratieff, according to current prognoses, are biotechnology and psychosocial health. Biotechnology gives us a new understanding of health and sickness. For example, in scientific medicine, the soul/ psyche and social environment will be taken into consideration more than before. In psycho-social health, we focus on the inner life of men and we search for happiness, balance, and contentment.

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition, the following elements are integral to the construct of “health”:

1.  a stable feeling of self-confidence

2. a positive relationship to one’s own body

3. friendship and social relationships

4. an intact environment

5. meaningful work and healthy working conditions

6. a knowledge of health and access to healthcare

7. a present worth living and the founded hope for a future worth living.

The point of origin is the multifaceted relationships between people — above, to the side, and below. 'They are the starting point for long-term psycho-social healthy living and working. Psycho-social, healthy relationships — and not only career-related — set the foundation for healthy performance, ability to perform, and therefore also potentially realizable success on the market. A conflict-based business culture and destructive team and management behavior can only last temporarily.

Psycho-Social Health — The Trend of the Future

We think that it is time to use the trend of psycho-social health to shape our future. Globalization demands entirely new ways of thinking and behaving in many aspects, which are still (!) unfamiliar to us. Our physical, mental, and social health will play an important role in how we master the transition to the global economy of knowledge. We want to create from fullness and make an outdated, semi-obsolete boundary flexible — starting in the head: the burdensome split between private and professional life reduces quality of life and fuels frustration, which then is transferred from one area to the next and creates double the stress. Instead of that, we want to integrate all areas of life and combine them into a biographic work of art. One is not reduced to “only” his profession or his private life. Both influence him and both have effects on his “whole” life and work. Therefore, potential from both areas is important in order to generate new ways of seeing and behaving, which influence behavior on an everyday basis. The status quo is well-known. The market is dynamic, complex, and globalized. Knowledge became a strategic success factor and changed our society from an industrial society to an information society, all the way up to a global economy of knowledge. This transformation means immense challenges for many businesses and organizations in view of their own increased flexibility, individuality, and internationalization. How the change takes place and how the personnel pulls its weight is a challenge and the task of systematic organizational and personnel development.

How Good is Your Management Team?

The three driving forces of the post-modern (increased flexibility, individualization, and internationalization) lead to the reassessment of one’s own organizational operations. The goal is to react flexibly to trends or even to be proactive. That demands headroom for the personnel so that they can move quickly and without long chains of command. Accordingly, management must be rethought and must delegate much more responsibility than is often wished on a top-down basis. But do you know how “good” at it you and your business are? Besides the “hard facts”, the “soft” side of the company must also be screened systematically for gaps in motivation, faulty management culture and bad team climate to be able to seek out and work on improvement potential. Such organization evaluations function like a type of “medical yearly check-up” and show very concretely where potential can be gained.

Increasing Social Capital

The make-up of modern social capital differentiates between three types of capital in an organization, which is founded on people: network capital of an organization is determined by prompt, relevant information from the markets for customers, vendors, network partners, etc. and offers the framework for informal, timely action on the markets. Whoever must go through long official channels is quickly passed by “speedsters”. The value capital of an organization is determined by the internal moral, work ethic and politically correct actions on the markets. Social responsibility is not only an outwardly recognizable attribute, but also the figurehead of a business culture that has been consciously thought through and, ideally, also lived — internally. Management capital is determined by motivation levels, team cohesion, employee loyalty, personnel engagement, and many other factors. How socially sensible a management culture proves to be is a critical factor. 

Focus on Psycho-Social Health

Our health programs focus on psycho-social health. Because our society is experienced as becoming faster and faster and more and more hectic and people must deal daily with the flood of information selectively, most people long for an emotional home, for peace and relaxation far from the full-time performance society. Employees in organizations also long for a better business culture, cooperative management, and considerably more stress reduction. Stress between people not only influences subjective performance, but also demonstrably reduces moral integrity and identity. Employees thus reduce their loyalty and resign internally. Such work climates need enduring solutions which are financeable and have a high return on a long-term basis. Psycho-social connections gain special meaning here: the family, the partnership, the circle of friends, personal hobbies and exercise. In our work, we recommend thinking through the private situations of the personnel and tying it into the personnel strategy. Ultimately, the family and the partnership is the most cost-effective, informal place of learning. Social skills can be practiced there without problems or risks for the profession and transferred from one area to the other.

Individual Lifestyle Analysis

Psycho-social health encompasses the social area of the individual lifestyle of a person, as well as the psychological processes, which, for example, take place in work situations. The goal of psycho-social health programs is the maintenance and improvement of individual performance. Cognitive and emotional processes, which take place daily, are of special interest. The resources of a person, which are effectively and efficiently used for coping with everyday life, represent the health capital for other areas in which stress is experienced. In consulting, one identifies such coping competencies and makes them useful for other areas of life and work. In coaching, we identify seven basic life fields and areas:

1. career/ profession

2. family / partnership

3. character / personality

4. spirituality / world view

5. network / circle of friends

6. wellness / health

7. calling/life goal

More Than Work-Life Balance

In Germany, we often think of the inflationary subject “work-life balance” — the best functioning balance between both areas of life. This often deals with the subjects of time management and work technology. Even family-friendly measures, such as company kindergartens, flexible work time or offers of care for older relatives, belong to the standard (not everywhere). In our work-life enrichment approaches, we go one step further. In the Enrichment approach, we deal with the psychological interdependencies between professional and private life. This approach examines which psychological processes between both areas of life take place individually and which of them can be sensibly used for transfer processes to the other life areas. The approach makes use of coping techniques, emotional control competencies and cognitive rational self-management. The skills identified are transferred individually to the requisite other life area. The goal is to understand these mechanisms and to generate more performance and quality of life.