The Latest News, Tips, and Trends of the HRD Communities
Published by HRD Gateway  for the e-ASEAN Endorsed ATN Project
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CONTENTS

Editorial
Feature Article One: “Psychometric Tests Demystified”
Feature Article Two: “Managing Risks of Engagement in E-business”
Feature Article Three: “Why Strategic Human Resource Planning for the HR Professional?”
Book Review: "Successful Woman's Guide to Working Smart"
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Library Usage
Attitude Vitamins
Links of Interest - Highlights of HRD Gateway and ATN
News and Updates for HRD Gateway 

Editorial

Hi there! Here's the third issue of HRD Gateway -- edited while I'm hiding here at the fishing village of Penang on the mainland side of the state of Penang, Malaysia.

It's been raining steadily the past month of September, and the trees here are celebrating this joyous season with a concerted outburst of chlorophyll oozing merrily out of every leaf, making the entire countryside dance with lush green abandonment. What a sight to behold!

As I write this, it's raining rhythmically, the rain pitter-pattering on the roof, the trees, and the countryside -- and especially on an overturned unused rubbish bin at the backyard, creating a soothing alpha-inducing effect conducive to the production of this ezine....

This brings us to the feature articles In this issue. Our first contributor, Billy Teoh, explains in details about the Psychometric Tests in business setting and some of its applications.

As organizations in Asia and around the world clamor for a place in e-business, issues and challenges arise. In this issue, Cong Phan discusses strategies needed to ensure a smooth transition from business to e-business.

Joma S. De Guzman explores the dilemma of HR departments in today's environment. He believes that "the business of business is HR's business." Read it all in the feature article.

Enjoy HRD Gateway 10-2001!!

Cheers,   
G K Lim

Production Team Members: Joma Guzman, Cong Phan, Azhan Hasan, Thomas Wong   
      

Feature Article One: "Psychometric Tests Demystified"

This article provides insights and information about psychometrics and its applications in the business setting, and is based on materials from the Association of Test Publishers, the American Psychological Association, and the British Psychological Society.

Since the 1920's, psychologists, corporate counselors and human resource professionals in government, education and industry use psychometrics to measure achievement, ability, intelligence, personality, interest, motive, and aptitude in a particular field.

The growth of psychometrics can be traced to "professionally developed tests" that meet the reliability, validity and fairness standards advocated by professional institutions like the International Test Commission, the Association of Test Publishers, the American Psychological Association, and the British Psychological Society. These 'professionally developed tests' generally provide accurate assessments of human capabilities and behavior than those based on observations of individuals alone or through other techniques. 

All "professionally developed tests" must meet the following criteria to be considered as '"sychometric," i.e. the test must be administered in a standardized manner; it must be scored in a standardized manner; it must be interpreted according to a standardized format; & it must be constructed according to psychometric principles. The later being most critical in determining the efficiency & effectiveness of a psychometric test.

Only licensed/approved professionals, who must meet eligibility, competence standards, and rigorous training & practice, must carry out the administration, scoring, interpretation and test feedback of these 'professionally developed tests'. Most psychometric practitioners must meet the requirements set by the Association of Test Publishers, the American Psychological Association (Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing), the American Educational Research Association (Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing), the National Council on Measurement in Education, and/or the British Psychological Society (Code of Good Practice for Occupational Testing). 

Typical Applications

Psychometric tests are used by business organizations in their recruitment & selection, placement & outplacement, promotion & lateral movement, performance management, training & development (and the measurement of how effective training is), career guidance, and organization development processes.

Employers used psychometric tests as a profiling tool to match persons to jobs and/or person to person. Psychometric tests are also used to measure specific abilities, skills, aptitude and competencies. Psychometric tests give an important, quick, reliable, valid and fair information to employers about their employees.

It is common practice for world class companies to use psychometric tests and assessment technologies as there are huge gains in terms of time, costs, fairness, comparability through norms, consistency in administration, and because of its ‘performance predictive properties’. These advantages facilitate good decision making.

More About the Tests

"Professionally developed tests" are constructed responsibly meeting all psychometric properties requirements, and could cost anything from RM500,000/- upwards to develop. The key processes that make a test psychometric, includes full scale standardization and norming to ensure meeting the reliability, validity and fairness standards. It must be constructed on a foundation of research results. All ‘professionally developed tests’ must have technical manuals that include scientific evidence that describe their strengths and weaknesses.  All responsible test publishers utilize research findings of test theory, as their foundation in the development of tests, with the main objective to minimize errors. Most ‘professionally developed tests’ have independent reviews, for example: the following personality assessment instruments commonly available in Malaysia that have been reviewed by the British Psychological Society are 16PF; PAPI; 15FQ; FIRO B; JTI; MBTI; NEO; OPP;  and OPQ. For the full review please contact the British Psychological Society.

The question on why some test questions are personal and may seem simple or pointless is related to exactly what these tests intends to measure. In some applications, personal   and simple & pointless questions are necessary so that important issues are not missed. It is normally designed as such, so that the answers can be compared with a large database to see how problematic or extreme the persons concerns may be.

General Practice

It is the right of the test taker to receive information about the purpose of the test and how the results will be used. It is also the basic right that the test results be kept confidential except for the experts who are authorized to administer and interpret the test, and the individuals who are involved in the decision making process for which the test was administered. Since the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society have standards and code of ethics on the proper use of tests, all test takers have the right to report the practitioner to the appropriate authority of any misuse of test results and have his/her license revoked.

The standard practice is that, no tests can be given beforehand. It is very important that test questions remain unknown until the test is given. At all times the integrity of the tests must be upheld, meaning each set of test questions must be retrieved and accounted for, after test administration.

For a "professionally developed test," outsmarting the test can be a difficult task, as it is likely to be constructed with checks and balances that identify inconsistent or inappropriate answers, with some including a distortion scale in the test itself. In any case, most people do not cheat on test if they are genuinely seeking some kind of help. They probably realize that only candid and true answers will assist practitioners to provide them with the appropriate advice.

The American Psychological Society or the British Psychological Society or the appropriate authorities/publishers normally licenses practitioners of psychometrics. Practitioners have the responsibility to understand the nature of the test they are giving, are aware of the research that validates the test, know the proper administration conditions under which the test should be given, know how to interpret the test results, provides the update version of the test as soon as it is available, and ensures that publishers provide technical manuals, research reports and interpretative guides for the test concerned.

What You Need to Do Before Embarking into Psychometrics

The following concerns should be addressed before you embark into psychometrics:

Ø     You should gather the information you will need to evaluate the psychometric tool that you would be using, essentially determining what you intend to measure, search for reviews about the psychometric tool, and request the practitioner to provide you the technical information about the psychometric tool. You can refer to the American Psychological Association & the British Psychological Society for the materials on Code of Fair Testing Practices; Code of Good Practice for Occupational Testing; and Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests and Manuals.

Ø     You should ask question about what the psychometric tool is used for, for example: recruitment & selection? career guidance?;  and its intended population i.e. general population? graduates? executives? engineers? salespersons?

Ø     The next question you should ask will be in the areas of norm size and on validity (predictive validity adequately predicts performance; content validity refers to the extent to which the psychometric test questions are representative of the skills in the specified domain; and construct validity refers to whether the psychometric test measures the right psychological constructs)

Ø     You will also need to know whether the psychometric tool meets the acceptable standard in terms of reliability.

Ø     Another important issue will be whether the psychometric tool was constructed taking into consideration diversity issues i.e. gender, race, language, disability, etc.

Ø     You may need to know how the psychometric test is to be administered and under what conditions.

Ø     An important aspect is the psychometric test report format, which you would need to know. Some established psychometric tools provide many reporting formats. Bespoke format could provide reader friendly report.

Ø     Assessment feedback is an important factor that must be agreed upon. Normally, a trained professional must carry out feedback.

Ø     The question of investment is the key to whether a psychometric tool is cost effective and value-added. Request for a computation on return-on-psychometric -test ratio. You may need to compare prices in the market. Most corporate practitioners factor-in the costs for  training & certification for their practitioners, licensing rights, administration charges, software charges, and assessment feedback charges.

Should you need further information and the range of widely used psychometrics tools (over 100 psychometric tools for use in business setting) available, you may e-mail the undersigned.

Mr. Billy C H Teoh holds the Certificates of Competence in Occupational Testing & Personality Assessment and is registered with the British Psychological Society, UK. He has been involved in ‘assessment technology’ actively in recent years, having conceptualized and developed competency frameworks, assessment & development centers, and psychometric profiling for individuals, companies, public listed companies, as well as for a multi-billion ringgit public listed group. Mr. Teoh is currently the Managing Consultant of Austin Charles (Training & Management Consultants); and previously Manager, Organisation Development; and Manager, Consultancy & Services for a public listed group. He can be contacted at acdccons@tm.net.my.

Feature Article Two: "Managing Risks of Engagement in E-business"

In order to enhance customers’ values in the twenty-first century and in turn provide corporate revenue and growth, an organization needs to change its business model and engage in e-business to sustain major changes including bypass existing distribution channels to sell directly to the customers, bundling products and services in new ways; integrating the value change tightly with business partners; outsourcing applications and business processes and reengineering industry-wide processes.

2. Identification of risks within e-business

New risks are emerging through moving to e-business as

• Implementation and support for new products, services and markets require a lot of efforts invested across the service chain
• Security is a major concern around the use of public networks and more investments are required to protect company’s computer systems & information
• Tax and legal issues surrounding the internet are still ambiguous in many countries 

Existing risks are also increased by the move to e-business

• Maintaining appropriate controls and governing over core business processes are critical since it is no use to have disrupted internal information system while having a superior one for external exchange of information and data. With a helicopter watch on company cross-departmental business processes, a reasonable deployment of resources is a must to ensure smooth transition to e-business.
• Business continuity planning in a 24x7 environment
• Developing and implementing appropriate plan to improve employee skills through assessment of skill-gaps of current workforce and the requirements of the new e-business environment

3. Risk management strategy

Listed are the common E-business risks quoted from "Executive Guide to E-business" PWC 2000.

A proper risk management strategy is key to assessing the risk/opportunity ratios. Organization undergoing significant changes of engaging into e-business needs framework to manage their risks.  

The framework helps the organization to mitigate necessary risks, to avoid unnecessary ones and to allocate proper resources to managing risks. The framework also allows organization’s executives to establish common languages, approaches and especially common understanding of the organization’s goals and objectives.

Revisit of Strategy & Tactics

To reduce the risk of failure, we have to revisit organization’s strategic direction and to ensure the strategic plan to:

•  Identify the major e-business growth initiatives for all areas
•  Identify gaps in existing practices and develop gap solutions/benefits both qualitative and quantitative means
•  Evaluate the impact of the plan against benchmarking & competitive practices
•  Demonstrate a strong return on investment
•  Establish appropriate organizational drivers
•  Establish clear roles & responsibilities to avoid territorial conflicts
•  Include business partners in appropriate discussions to prevent misinterpretation

Maintain continuous competitiveness

In an e-business environment, organizations aim to leverage the possession of real-time information; hence the engagement process implementing e-business should be able to avoid implementation delays that pose significant risks to the company racing to obtain first-mover advantage. Appropriate resources’ assignment; right business partnership and facilitating change of real-time data and construction of extraprises are indispensable to maintain competitiveness.

Managing outsourcing’s dependency

As organizations in search of business partners extend their business processes beyond their four walls, a shift in the balance of power creates new risks. The dependency on outsourcing should not expose the value chain integrator to greater points of process failure.

Organizations also require to revisit corporate decision making matrix to reflect the new e-business environment, to realign performance measurements and rewards and to maintain a selective network of suppliers to safeguard against some type of availability / distribution disruption

Establishing effective security

In e-business, trust cannot be established in the absence of effective security. Appropriate technical architecture, surrounding processes to provide identification, authentication, authorization, non-repudiation, privacy and accountability are necessary.

Maintain company reputation

Organizations need to manage their web-based contents to ensure the contents completely relevant, interesting and unobjectionable. Other factors as ease of uses and fast-to-load graphics to make strong impact on the visitors through its selling image

Manage change of culture

Engagement of e-business is a major change of an organization. Organization’s employees need significant amount of training to learn how to do their jobs in an e-business environment. Global languages and customs must be understood as organization expands its boundaries overseas. Organization’s internal performing & monitoring and control should be changed to suit new decision making matrix.

Managing technology & operations

The challenges of implementing technology have not changed with engaging in e-business. In order to be successful, organization needs to ensure sufficient network support to boost performance & reliability, the compatibility of hardware & software; adequate training regarding the rollout of any new system; system security and the availability of technical expertise through developing adequate backup resources and contingency plans. Forward planning also needs to take into account scalability.

Managing projects

Every project implemented in organizations requires buy-in from top management and the degree of a project’s success relies on adequate communication among different groups and adequate coordination across locations to leverage all benefits of the proposed system.

Legal & Regulatory

Many legal aspects of e-business are still poorly defined even in developed countries. In order to reduce exposure to legal liability, regulatory sanctions or fines and damage to reputation, organizations require to ensure their actions comply with the most recent legal and regulatory guidelines; standardizing their presence in e-world by creating a consistent global look & feel. Lack of clarity in contract law may lead to the risk of deceptive trade allegations. Organizations should remain compliant with various international privacy laws and trans-border data flow issues such as encryption restrictions and policies and ensure how organization’s name & brand identity is protected on the Internet.

Human resources

The primary function of the human resources department is to manage expectations relating to changes in role and responsibilities; to establish direction to minimize the impact that e-initiatives can have during periods of flux where roles are not clearly defined; to serve as the driver for continuous education; to work out recruiting and aggressive retention strategies and to find creative ways to promote company and keep employees happy in the face of fierce competition for e-skilled employees.

Business process controls

Employing normal business controls that apply in traditional business environment are equally applicable to e-business. Organizations require to establish regular and reliable backup procedures and to improve employees’ level of awareness about managing risks.

Improving organization’s process integrity through close looking at the way organization manages its business. E-business can neither be treated merely as front-end solution, nor an IT-driven solution; it is the result of a corporate-wide commitment to a new way of doing business.

Tax

Tax optimization through locating e-nabled shared service functions in low tax regime, in particular where an in-country economic value-add, rather than just a service for fee.

Currency

Able to deal in multiple currencies, to monitor continuously exchange rates to facilitate purchase/payment transactions and respond quickly to changing financial situations.

4. Summary

E-business provides all players with more information about each other and it changes the form of traditional relationships among organizations, their customers, their suppliers, their distribution channel partners; hence the key of mitigating e-business risks is to develop the closest, most trusting relationships possible with all of the various players at each step of service chain process of delivering value to end customers.

Cong Phan, an IT and Management Consultant, has worked in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Hongkong, Shanghai, and Singapore for the past 20 years (since 1981) with diversified manufacturing and service industries, specializing on Change Management, Project & Program Management, Supply Chain, ERP & ERM, and MES products.  He is an Australian Vietnamese, loves Australia as well as his former country Vietnam, and is eager to contribute to the industrialization of Vietnam, to the 'prosperity' of ASEAN, and to the 'world of management'.  He can be reached at congphansg@yahoo.com.sg.

Feature Article Three: "Why Strategic Human Resource Planning for the HR Professional?"

Business challenges have become more complex due to vastly improved communication and transportation. Just about anything that one organization has to offer the market, there is another organization, physically near or distantly located but globally capable of delivering, that offers the same thing at a greater value for the customer. The big challenge to organizations is how to see opportunities in the future and develop the services or products to seize ahead such opportunities for the competitive advantage of the organization.

Will the current organizational structure, leadership styles, work processes, and talent pools allow the delivery of competitive services and products of the future? Dated as it may be, the decision of General Motors, USA, to form an entirely separate team, operating physically away from headquarters, consisting of new talents with their own visions of competitiveness, to form what was then known as the Saturn Project tells us that existing organizational practices can hamper the development of competitive edge. GM needed to respond to the challenge of small cars and it did that not just by assembling a new talent group but also by allowing them to structure their own work culture. The lessons say, new directions require new ways of coping with the business strategic choices.

Traditionally, business leaders decide where the organization will go and together with finance managers and industrial engineers, they plot the competitive strategy of the organization. They design the new structure of the business, just like constructing a state-of-the-art intelligent building and then tell the HR function to fill it with people who will perform the various tasks that will lead to the delivery of the services and products to the market.  How much lead time does HR really have to bring in the needed talents in place? In current terms, HR find themselves in the situation, “I needed that yesterday”, putting HR in a catch-up mode, or worse, engaging in damage control.

Filling up the new building with talents require attracting the best to join or to stay, developing them to their fullest capability, motivating them to pursue their work creatively and passionately, and protecting them from being poached by competition by constructing a firewall of retention strategies that convince the talents that the current company is the best place ever for them to do the work they like doing and still be rewarded handsomely.

How can HR, practicing specialists functions, respond to such a comprehensive and integrated strategy of assembling the talents needed by the increasing demand of developing the sustainable competitive advantage of the business? The task is more than just forecasting the workforce requirements and identifying the supply mechanisms. With the demand for talent focusing more on knowledge workers who can build the businesses for the organization, how to make the organization attractive to the talents enters the equation of work delivery.

In short, the new business imperatives require that the HR function be able to take a broad view of the business, making the business of business their business, not just the HR business. Borrowing the words of HR guru, Professor Dave Ulrich of the University of Michigan Business School, the new levels of competition among physical or networked giants, require the ‘HR professional to assume the role of a strategic business partner’. HR must develop the discipline to think and act strategically for the business.

Strategic Human Resource Planning (SHRP) involves crafting an HR strategy supportive of the strategic choices of the business leaders. Structure follows strategy, and SHRP proceeds with orchestrating the various HR practices, deploying company resources where they would have the maximum impact on helping achieve business objectives. A clear indication of how global companies value SHRP, or have realized its value, is the decision of the University of Michigan Business School to offer 4 runs this year, from last year’s 1 run, of the 5-day executive development program on Strategic Human Resource Planning. There is a demand for the program. Business needs the HR professional to become its strategic business partner, for the HR function to proclaim that ‘the business of business is HR’s business’.

As the VP of Publications for ASEANET.org, Jose Maria "Joma" S. De Guzman holds a masters degree in social psychology from the Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines) where he teaches part-time in the graduate program for Industrial-Organizational Psychology. He specializes in performance management from organization to individual employee levels, linking business strategies and performance targets. He conducts training programs on human resource planning and on measurement of the outcomes of HR practices. As a research methodologist, Joma diagnoses performance improvement issues and designs evaluation systems to monitor the effectiveness of various HR programs and practices. Joma can be reached at vp-jg@aseanet.org.

Book Review: "Successful Woman's Guide to Working Smart"

Find a niche for yourself, make the most of every situation, add value, and be ready for just about anything.  These are the rules for women in the new workplace.  While the glass ceiling may have cracked, women continue to face challenges in shaping work and personal lives that truly work for them.  With scores of interviews and a thorough review of the best practices of successful working women and leading organizations, Successful Woman's Guide To Working Smart brings to life the strategies and tools that women need to overcome the obstacles and capitalize on the opportunities of today's world of work. 

For more than ten years, author Caitlin Williams has researched the factors that help women succeed at work.  Now she brings fresh thinking to the new ways women can demonstrate their skills, contribute their talent, and take their place at the table where the work gets shaped, strategies get created, and decisions get made.  From Confidence and Self-Reliance to Creativity and Leadership, Dr. Williams take readers on a chapter-by-chapter journey through the 10 strengths most critical to women's success in today's shifting workplace.  Along the way she shares stories and examples, and offers exercises, tools, techniques, and tips to help women at any level of an organization design a professional development plan for success.

Published by Davies-Black Publishing (an imprint of Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.), 2001, $20.95

The book can be ordered from your local bookstore or from Amazon.com.

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Library Usage

The Institute of Southeast Asia Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other specialists concerned with modern Southeast Asia,
particularly the many-faceted problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social change. It's located at 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrance, Pasir Panjang, Singapore 119614. Phone: (65) 870-2447.

The Institute's research programs are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and the Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS).

The Institute is governed by a twenty-two-member Board of Trustee comprising nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic organizations. A ten-man Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operations; it is chaired by the Director, the Institute's chief academic and administrative officer.

Examples of publications: Southeast Asian Affairs 2001 (An Annual Review), ASEAN Enlargement: Impacts and Implications, Regional Outlook: Southeast Asia 2001-2002, Nationalism and Globalization: East and West, Southeast Asian Perspectives on Security, ASEAN Beyond the Regional Crisis: Challenges and Initiatives, Southeast Asian Urbanism: The Meaning and Power of Social Space, and Road to ASEAN-10: Japanese Perspectives on Economic Integration. More titles are available at their online bookshop. To date, they have published over 500 titles. For faster delivery, you can purchase single articles in Adobe pdf format.

The Institute also has a comprehensive library (phone: (65) 778-0955), consisting of 500,000 titles in various formats. Users can access the library for the following fees:
1. Per One Time Access
- Per day: S$50.00 (S$30 for Saturday)
- Per week: S$150.00
- Per month: S$300.00

2. Per Annual Access
- S$500.00 first nominated staff member
- S$350.00 second nominee
- S$250.00 third nominee

ASEANET.org is exploring the possibility of getting a free membership for our members to use this library. If we are able to set up such an arrangement, we will post the benefit under the Membership section on our Web site. 

Attitude Vitamins

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed. -- Booker T. Washington

Action is the antidote to despair. -- Joan Baez

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that is your own self. -- Aldous Huxley

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

The very act of believing creates strength of its own. -- Anonymous

The view only changes for the lead dog. -- Sergeant Preston of the Yukon

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. -- Buddha

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first. -- Mark Twain

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. -- Latin Proverb

Links of Interest - Highlights of HRD Gateway and ATN

Ever wonder who recognize HRD Gateway and our ATN Project and provide a link to them? Listed below are a few examples of the many organizations and bodies that do it:

HRD Gateway
1. HR Indonesia
2. malaysiaHRonline
3. HR Singapore
4. HR Philippines

ATN
1. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
2. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
3. e-ASEAN Task Force
4. American Society of Training and Development
5. ASEAN Review (right bottom corner)
6. AsianConnections.com (top link)
7. Yahoo! ASEAN News Section (bottom part)

For more information about the ATN project plan, please visit our Web site.

News and Updates for HRD Gateway

1. Advisor Raffy Perfecto shared with members about the annual Personnel Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) in Baguio City. This annual conference, which was held on October 10-13, 2001, was attended by about 1,000 human resources management practitioners. It's one of the largest in the Philippines. More info is available at the PMAP Web site.

2. Our VP of Organization Development, Dr James Y Lin, got married to a charming Malaysian lady in Las Vegas in October.  We wish him and his wife a very successful and happy marriage.  Please help James celebrate this great life event by sending him your best wishes. James will be back in Singapore in November, and we will be able to connect with him again.

3. Other news include (a) Our Incorporation (b) ATN Project Reported by Singapore's Education Journal (Aug/Sep Issue, no link), and (c) ATN Mentioned in the Malaysian's Jaring Internet Magazine as a result of Dr. Kim Phaik Lah's, our VP of Programs, presentation at the Infosoc2001 Conference in Malaysia. 
 

Readers, please email comments, news items, and article contributions to news@hrdgateway.org. The editors reserve the rights to use them.

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