TITLE : SCHUSTER REPORT: THE PROVEN CONNECTION BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PROFITS, THE.

Do you want your employees to be more productive? Pay more attenttion to them. A significant relationship exists between attention to employees and superior organizational performance. This is the conclusion of a research study which focused on the management practices of 1300 major firms in America. The study showed a clear relationship between the practices used in managing employees and profitability. Thus, the findings support the productivity through people concept presented by Peters and Waterman in their recent best seller In Search of Excellence.

The Schuster Report presents a strategy for implementing change in an organization's culture to promote innovation, productivity, excellence, and success. The unprecedented conclusions contained in The Schuster Report, which we are able to arrive at thanks to the recently developed meta-analysis statistical technique, are of obvious value. The research itself is described in a comprehensive fashion in the appendix.

But these numbers and other data are only a part of the picture; conclusions, like theories, must be implemented in order to have practical value. Consequently, the greater part of this book is reserved for an explanation of how the findings can be applied, as well as, prescriptions for translating these findings into profits for your

The prescriptions follow a seven-step process called Strategy A, which is referred to many times in the book. Strategy A is designed to serve the needs of executives who desire to lead their organization in a transition from a traditional bureaucratic culture to a participative,motivational culture as emphasized by such organizations as IBM,Hewlett-Packard, and People Express. Strategy A is a framework for such a transition that provides practical step-by-step guidance on where to begin and how to proceed. This book is written for executives and managers, and aspiring executives and managers, in all types of organizations.

The first part of the book is a general outline of the strategy, its origins, its raison d'etre, and some discussion of firms that have inspired and/or implemented its use. The second part outlines specific steps to bring about culture change through Strategy A and gives specific examples of companies using it. An appendix offers the research study, its results, and the statistical evidence reinforcing Strategy A.

Over the past few years a great deal of publicity has been given to Japanese firms, both in Japan and in America, that have used an employee-centered style of management to achieve levels of productivity and quality that far excel those of their American competitors. The Japanese deserve a great deal of credit for so eagerly putting these theories into practice, but the idea of participative management actually had its origins in the United States. Unfortunately it has not been widely applied in this country, in contrast to Japan.

Survival of the fittest dictates that many more organizations in America will move toward the employee-centered style of management. Companies that begin to pay more attention to employees will forge ahead, while others will fail to remain competitive.

As a result, the topic of organizational culture has received unparalleled attention in recent years. It has become apparent that the "unwritten rules of the game" and "shared values" affect performance and morale in numerous ways; as such, there is a critical need to understand how to manage culture. In short, how can an organization's culture be assessed and, if found dysfunctional, changed to a more adaptive one?

Strategy A is not a quick-fix approach to changing organizational culture, or a tack-on gimmick. It is a practical strategy solidly based on empirical research involving the management practices of 1300 major firms. It is a strategy for bringing about a fundamental, bone deep change in an organization's culture.

Strategy A emphasizes attention to the needs of employees as a key F strategy for achieving high productivity. Its objective is to lay out an easy-to-follow, step-by-step strategy for changing the organizational culture to achieve higher productivity.

I would like to thank my editor at John Wiley & Sons, Michael Hamilton, for his helpful suggestions and many other invaluable contributions to this book. I also wish to thank my wife, Elizabeth, for typing the manuscript, for her help with the proofreading and indexing, and for her many other significant contributions. I especially thank my children, Fritz and Hilary, for their patience, love, and inspiration while this book was being written.

FREDEAICK E. SCHUSTER

Boca Raton, Florida August 1986