The dynamics of an organization now if compared to an organization in early 1970s would be equivalent to comparing the DynaTAC mobile phones by Motorola to the iPhones we have today. The markets have opened, there is free flow of labour and there are many avenues for capital available to an organization compared to what was available to an organization in 1970s. These factors along with speed of technological change are changing the very DNA of organization. 

In today’s world, the organization that would survive and prosper is the ones who can manage resources. Such resources include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology. Each of the resources is critical but the being from human resource and keeping the subject in mind I would share my views on the human skills as a resource and specifically on the subject of High performers as internal and external brand ambassadors.  

Many studies have concluded on the importance of social capital for the effectiveness and success of an organization. High caliber employees are crucial to the competitive strength of an organization in this global economy, as they have a major influence on organization’s reputation. Corporate are becoming more and more aware of this impact as well as to its brand. This is also evident as we are seeing an increasing trend in organizations transforming their employees into internal as well as external brand ambassadors. This new outlook is transforming the way organizations do various HR activities including recruiting. Employees are no longer recruited solely for their functional knowledge, but compatibility to create a brand for the organization is looked at as well.

Being from manufacturing industry, I have observed a lot of emphasis is put on teamwork. A manufacturing organization is colloquially compared to gearbox and each of its function to individual gears. The gearbox functioning depends a lot on how each of the gears work with each other. The culture is oriented towards system driven and co-dependency of function, which gets extended to individuals.  A manufacturing unit has an environment of Collectivism. 

High performers mostly being individualistic in nature challenge this environment. And this if not handled well, it can cause stress in the organization. On the other hand if a strong authoritative environment is enforced on a high performer then the individual loses his risk taking abilities, which in turn builds dissatisfaction in him. Retaining a high performer in an organization where in the culture is asking them to be conformist, explore their potential is as ambassadors is going to be a daunting task.

It is my personal belief that an organization needs the outliers. They challenge the conventional way of doing things and bring about break through changes. And break through is needed for the long-term survivability of the organization.  High performers as an internal brand ambassadors have high success rate, as they are able to demonstrate performance, which reduces the inhibition of others in trying new challenges. And when they are used as an external brand ambassador they assist an organization to attract similar high performers.  They also help in creating a brand, which the organization intends to create.  And the brand influences how the customers, suppliers, prospective employees and society at large perceive the organization. An organization might have world-class product which only high performers can perceive to create a niche brand in the market.