Improving General Manager Development In Bristol-Myers-Squibb And IBM's Approach To Diversity And Inclusion

Bristol-Myers-Squibb (BMS) is a large global pharmaceutical company. A key position in the organization is that of general manager. General managers serve in two main roles:

1. commercial general managers bring products to market in countries around the world, and

2. technical general managers are responsible for the manufacturing and quality of products.

The general manager position is complex, and these individuals have ultimate decision-making authority for their region or location. In the past, it has taken individuals an average of 12 years to reach this position in the organization. Typically, general managers are in a given position for a limited number of years, before they are expected to move to another position or location in the organization.

In the past, the formal development provided to individuals as they moved into their roles as BMS general managers was inconsistent, with some individuals placed in “sink or swim” situations. A BMS General Manager Advisory Council was formed to give direction to a new initiative in developing employees to be effective general managers.

Task:

1. If you were a consultant or advisor to this Advisory Council, where would you recommend that they begin in their efforts to create a new formal development program for general managers? What types of developmental opportunities would you recommend that they consider? What mix of formal and informal developmental opportunities would you recommend, and why? What can BMS do to determine how successful these new developmental programs are?

Go to the IBM website, and look for information on the topic “diversity and inclusion.”

Tasks:

What does IBM mean by “diversity and inclusion?”

What do you think of IBM’s present efforts to promote diversity?

Do you think IBM’s approach to diversity could work in a smaller organization? Why or why not?

Bristol-Myers-Squibb's General Manager Advisory Council

Being a large and global pharmaceutical company, Bristol-Myers-Squibb needs to manage the staffs properly, which is possible with the presence of a good manager. Within the company, both the commercial and technical general managers were responsible for marketing, production and quality maintenance. The formal development procedures could not make any mark and thus the general managers were not appointed properly. As a consultant to the Advisory Council, I checked into the matter and found that the managers followed autocratic leadership, because of which, the employees’ responses and feedbacks were not recorded before making decisions (Bms.com, 2018). It is recommended to focus on a new development program that can improve the interpersonal skills of the managers and make them interact with the employees and obtain their views and opinions.

The formal development program will make the managers understand their duties and guide the employees through motivation. It can raise the morale level of employees and build their confidence, thus making them speak out and express their ideas that are vital for making useful decisions by the managers. There are multiple development opportunities for the employees to gain training and learn to communicate regularly and efficiently across teams, encourage inclusive participation and prevent any forms of discrimination within the workplace of BMS. Management is an essential aspect of business success and so it will be necessary for providing scopes to newer talents appointed within the workforce and have enormous skills. It can reduce the chances of “sink or swim situation” and develop the employees to become effective managers (Landis & Brislin, 2013). The development opportunities include clearly understanding the goals, communication and teamwork.

The informal development opportunities could be the career development where the employees should learn, own and self direct while controlling the learning future. This would enhance their skills and knowledge and maybe even get appointed as higher level manager within the human resource department in the nearby future. At BMS, the workers should be trained for more responsibilities and higher roles through management of values, ethics and culture. Motivated by the goal, the employees can provide inputs , which will improve the organizational culture and values (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). As soon as the program is complete, the employees are required to stay at the office to share about the things learned and perform side by side with the line managers to understand the managerial responsibilities. It enhances the skills and expertise of employee as a manager, furthermore remain on the same page and focus on the actual goal, despite being in different locations. Most importantly, BMS must monitor the performances of the employees’ pre and post training sessions. It will clear out the individuals who lacked certain areas of strengths and select the most suitable employees who can serve the role model and work as a leader and manager of the company (Jehanzeb, Rasheed & Rasheed, 2013).

The Need for Improving Formal Development Procedures

It is seen that Metropolitan Transit System has been facing numerous issues related to the recruitment and selection of the right candidates to serve the roles of managers and inability to perform during the training period. As an advisor to Mr. Das, it is my responsibility to make sure that the training sessions are regularly assessed and the monitoring of employee performance is done for keeping consistent records of their performances. There were complaints from few of the individuals who left that the training sessions were not much effective and adequate related to the concerned job entitled for filling the managerial vacant position at the company (sdmts.com, 2018). The organizational development systems should be implemented after making consultation with the departmental managers and line managers to anticipate the problems at an early stage and undertake recovery measures immediately. Few of the challenges anticipated include lack of effectiveness of the training program and not reviewing the work records of the candidates and annual appraisals to evaluate their performances. There were scheduling conflict as well, because of which, the managers of Rail Operations were not present, which might be considered the selection of employees for the managerial positions could not be successful (Jehanzeb, Rasheed & Rasheed, 2013). The individuals from HR, OD and Rail Operations must be involved to discuss about the areas where improvements and changes should be done. Not necessarily the high performing candidates, but also the low performers should be considered while making any improvements to their skills or designing an exit plan to make way for the likeminded experienced employees. The staffs must be educated about the organizational values, beliefs along with the financial metrics and industry trends to adapt to the corporate culture and perform with perfection (Downey et al., 2015).

What does IBM mean by “diversity and inclusion?”

For IBM, the Diversity and inclusion means to continuously lead and manage the values and beliefs of the organization so that the potential of the company is improved and the workplace efficiency as well. This will also promote teamwork and coordination among the staffs and allow them to engage in a world of inclusion. With the diversified workplace and inclusion of skilled individuals, the company has progressed and developed a leadership position within the field of technology and among the other fields in business. The employees are made a part of the IBM culture, which has made them sense a belonging and engage to promote cooperation, form string teams and deliver the best of performance within the IT industry (Deane, 2013).

IBM's Definition of Diversity and Inclusion

What do you think of IBM’s present efforts to promote diversity?

The present efforts of IBM to promote diversity are leverage of data, information, analytics and implementation of cognitive technology for ensuring greater innovation, inclusion of employees and higher performance. A diversified environment is promoted by the company and enabled advancement for women in the field of business, which has made IBM won the Catalyst Award in the year 2018. It formed a great culture where male and female employees can work together, get equal wages based on the performances and prevent discrimination based on race, religion, creed, ethnicity and culture. There are corporate citizenship programs that have helped IBM to remain committed to education of workers and gaining the power to transform communities, people’s lives and at the same time remain environmentally and economically sustainable. The IBM accessibility helped with Government and regulatory bodies to integrate the business processes and improve the accessibility of employees to the solutions (Barak, 2016). The diversity has been promoted through innovation, which has created a positive organizational culture and ensured development of employees for gaining competitive advantage in business.

Do you think IBM’s approach to diversity could work in a smaller organization? Why or why not?

The IBM’ approach to diversity is used for the past many years and being a large organization with a well recognized brand image, it may be difficult for other small businesses to adopt such approaches. The shared corporate culture is needed for the smaller businesses where the value and beliefs remain central for the success of the business. The diversity of thought has been focused on, which can be effective for other businesses to yield the commitment for ensuring client innovation and remain reflective in the global marketplace (ibm.com, 2018). Moreover, IBM has strategic partnerships in diversity recruitment programs including Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Women in Technology International (WITI), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and others, which may be problematic for the small businesses to form partnership with. Thus, it is believed that the diversity approach could not work in the smaller organizations (Downey et al., 2015).

References

Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Bms.com. (2018). Bristol-Myers Squibb - Global Biopharmaceutical Company. [online] Available at: https://www.bms.com [Accessed 23 Jun. 2018].

Deane, B. R. (2013). Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion (Vol. 33). John Wiley & Sons.

Downey, S. N., Werff, L., Thomas, K. M., & Plaut, V. C. (2015). The role of diversity practices and inclusion in promoting trust and employee engagement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(1), 35-44.

ibm.com. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com  

Jehanzeb, K., Rasheed, A., & Rasheed, M. F. (2013). Organizational commitment and turnover intentions: impact of employee’s training in private sector of Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(8), 79.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Landis, D., & Brislin, R. W. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of intercultural training: Issues in training methodology (Vol. 116). Elsevier.

sdmts.com. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.sdmts.com