Gold Magazine September - October 2013, Issue 30 | Page 67

The 12th HR Management & Human Capital Conference takes place on 13 November 2013 at the
Hilton Park Hotel, Nicosia. It is organised by IMH and PwC Cyprus and sponsored by Cablenet. Academic Supporter: Globaltraining.
IMH: Tel: [phone]./ e-mail [e-mail] / Website: www.imhbusiness.com

what most people seem to forget is that
there are negatives associated with a crisis
but there are also positives. People always
focus on the negatives and forget about
the positives. The societies (or companies)
that have done well in a crisis are those that
were able to put the negatives of the crisis
in perspective (i.e. don’t ignore them but
do not be overwhelmed by them) but then
found ways to exploit the positives of the
crisis in a strategic way. For example, we
know that resistance to change during a
crisis is low so this is the time to implement lots of radical changes. Second, the
most inspiring thing for people in the
middle of a crisis is hope. They need to see
something positive to aim for. Societies
(or companies) that were clever enough to
develop a positive target for their people to
shoot for in the middle of a crisis were the
ones that prospered after the crisis.

the importance of the Organisational
Environment for success. Could you
elaborate on this?
C.M.: In the last 50 years, social psychologists have been asking the question: “What
influences how people behave?” After
fifty years, we think we know the answer:
on average, 30% of the variance in our
behaviours is determined by our personality, education and values but almost 70%
is determined by the “situation” or the
“environment” we find ourselves in. This
implies that, much more than we like to
believe, the environment determines how
we behave. As a result, if we want people
in an organisation to behave in ways that
promote innovation, we should not just
tell them to “be innovative”. Instead, we
should put in place an Organisational

I AM VERY
OPTIMISTIC
ABOUT THE
FUTURE OF
CYPRUS

Gold: You will be talking in Cyprus
about keeping employees motivated and
engaged when times are tough. How
difficult is this when they are facing job
insecurity, salary cuts and more?
C.M.: Needless to say, it is very difficult
to keep people motivated in difficult times
but it is not impossible. In the middle of
the crisis, the employees’ primary concern
will be job security and salary. If you can
offer these two things to them, they will be
happy. But even if you cannot offer them
these two specific things, you should still
try to use other tactics to motivate people.
What you need to remember is that people
get motivated by different things – it could
be money, recognition, independence at
work, job satisfaction, power, a nice working environment, the feeling that their
company is “special”, autonomy and so on.
So it’s not just money. Be creative and keep
trying. Make them appreciate that without
their energy, your organisation cannot
succeed.

Environment that encourages people to
behave in ways that promote innovat