Page 26 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

❱❱ CREDIBLE ACTIVISM

SHRM encourages HR/OD professionals to be credible activists in their workplaces and
agents of ethical strategic change while remaining allied with corporate business interests.
This new reality of HR and OD professionals as credible activists is extremely different than
the former perception of HR practicing the “dark arts.”
Most HR/OD professionals have encountered company and corporate leaders who don’t
understand what HR/OD is, what HR/OD can be, or how crucial the practice of ethical,
legally compliant HR/OD is to competitive corporate governance and efficient and profitable
operations. They mistakenly think that HR is all about health benefits and facilitating the
firing of employees when necessary. Yet this could not be further from the truth. We in HR
know that much more is involved with our roles. In addition, we know that unless there is
a separate OD department in your company, adding OD to the HR title is now necessary, not
optional icing on the cake. We need all the knowledge and awareness we can get to support
our leaders and companies in order to be as competitive and robust as possible.
Imagine an HR/OD credible activist working for Enron who notices that something is not
quite right. Let’s say this ardent, earnest HR/OD professional says, “Excuse me, boss, but Joe
from accounting just came to me and asked me to relay to you that there are some serious
issues that need to be discussed.” What does the boss say or do? Does the boss say, “Thank
you, credible activist! You’ve helped us avoid disaster. We will investigate, change how we do
things if necessary, and you and Joe in accounting are getting promotions and raises for hav-
ing pointed this out!” Or does the boss suddenly decide that the credible activist’s and Joe’s
job performance are not quite what they needs to be and that they have also been interper-
sonally “difficult” and have used “poor judgment.” Perhaps after giving them poor perform-
ance evaluations, he puts them on probation, until it is time to terminate them.
We know this happens in the real world. We know that protections from retaliation and
whistleblower laws don’t always work to protect well-meaning employees and HR profes-
sionals who speak up about anything that is not being done ethically or lawfully.
So, what is a credible activist to do? This book addresses all of the issues involved. But
for now, your job as a credible activist is to keep your résumé up-to-date, continue cultivat-
ing current and new professional contacts, assess your life now and what you can risk, and
assess how receptive your current workplace is to your being a credible activist. You will
learn to predict your leadership’s responses to your credible activist role. You will need to
keep all of your ducks in a row, always do credible research, and further develop and
practice every communication, conflict resolution, and EI (emotional intelligence) skill
you have.

CHAPTER 1 • W hy Credible Activism? 9