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04.10

Your Ideas Have Been Stolen by Co-Workers

By Terrance Malkinson

According to a recent survey developed by OfficeTeam, a leading global staffing service specializing in the placement of skilled professionals, and conducted by an independent research firm, 29 percent of employees interviewed said that a co-worker has taken credit for their ideas. In some cases, the practice extends to the employee’s supervisor. Why does this behavior occur? Human nature and the increasingly competitive work place are but two of the reasons. Additionally, many work in team settings where individual contributions are not readily recognized. The survey also revealed that 51 percent of these employees did nothing to address the misplaced credit, which may lead colleagues to believe that they can get away with it.

If this sort of behavior is allowed to continue, it can result in employee disengagement, and possibly even more serious consequences. If you feel like a colleague is taking credit for your ideas, before making any accusations, take a step back and assess the incident to determine whether or not the theft was intentional or inadvertent. Speak with the individual privately and in a professional manner to avoid an emotional confrontation. Be prepared to give your colleague the benefit of the doubt, and point out that you simply want recognition for your work.

Strategies that you can use to deal with the behavior include:

• Circulate regular status reports describing your projects, ideas and progress of work. When you communicate your ideas broadly no one else can take credit for them

• Don’t accuse anyone of misconduct until the facts are clear

• Be sure to give credit back to other works when ideas are mistakenly credited to you

• Do not become pre-occupied with idea ownership as this may be perceived as putting self-interest ahead of the good of the organization and this approach may harm your career

• A somewhat bold and creative approach is to “publically congratulate the person on the excellent job they did communicating your idea”

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the community:

• A 2009 American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) poll revealed that 79 percent of 1,179 organizations believed that there is currently a skills gap in their organization. Skills gap refers to a significant difference between an organization’s current capabilities and the human skills it needs to achieve its goals. Without these, the organization can no longer remain competitive. Pat Galagan describes the long-term benefits possible when organizations understand “skills gap” and what it means in today’s global business environment (“Bridging the Skills Gap: New Factors Compound the Growing Skills Shortage,” Training and Development, 64(2):44-49, February 2010). This is the third report published by the ASTD that discusses the importance of human resources to organizations.

• In “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Growing a Stronger Workforce” (Training and Development, 64(2):36-43, February 2010. www.astd.org/TD ), Sheila Murphy provides a detailed report of the experience of the Yuma Private Industry Council (www.ypic.com ) related to growth opportunities created for organizational, business, education and community renewal in Yuma county, Arizona (www.co.yuma.az.us ) by the Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

• Boris Groysberg, Linda-Eling Lee and Robin Abrahams discuss how faulty managerial practices often result in an organization's inability to reap the full benefits from hiring outstanding employees (“What it Takes to Make ‘Star’ Hires Pay Off,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 51(2):57-61, Winter 2010, www.sloanreview.mit.edu). The value and the essential role of high-quality colleagues, as well as five common managerial mistakes are discussed.

• Informal communication networks are frequently used for exchanging of information. Prescott Ensign and Louis Hébert discuss, within the context of R&D employees, how professional reputation is important, along with the importance of the information to be shared with co-workers, in “How Reputation Affects Knowledge Sharing Among Colleagues” (MIT Sloan Management Review, 51(20): 79-81, Winter 2010). This is collaboration is important for the enhancement of creativity and innovation.

• Adrienne Fox discusses strategies to shape your organization for the future by measuring work force needs, analyzing trends, and opening yourself up to new working relationships (“In 2020,” HR Magazine. 55(1):18-23, January 2010, www.shrm.org). Fox suggests that many executives spend only 3 percent of their time thinking about the future. Forces that are driving change, labor gaps and losses, and scenarios of the future are outlined. Interesting ideas are presented, including the assertion that in 20 years, two times the number of people today will legally work outside of their country.

• Issues associated with the increasing practice of employing temporaries in blended work places, where long-time employees work side-by-side with temporary employees, are discussed by Rita Zeidner in the cover story in the February 2010 issue of HR Magazine [55(2):28-33 “Heady Debate: Rely on Temps or Hire Staff?]. An interesting inset provides projections of the top 10 jobs for temporaries 2008-2010. A number of legal concerns that organizations should be aware of are also discussed.

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee, an international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer , editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE The Institute.  He was an elected Senator of the University of Calgary and an elected Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management Society as well as an elected Administrative Committee member of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. He has been the editor of several IEEE conference proceedings, and past editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the author of more than 385 publications, and is an accomplished triathlete. His career path includes being an accomplished technical supervisor and medical researcher at the University of Calgary a business proposal manager for the General Electric Company, an associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research administrator with the School of Health and Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.

The author is grateful to the professional support of the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.