July - August 2005
Research Highlight
Managing Employees For In This Issue
1 Managing Employees for
Workforce Alignment Workforce Alignment
2 Up Close with Kurt Fischer
HR performance boosts small knowledge and skills.  And when of Corning, Inc.
business performance, according to employees act to help their 3 Executive Guest Speakers
new Cornell research on HR companies succeed, people are doing
management practices in small the right things right.” 4 In the News 
businesses.  “The HR practices that a Workforce alignment drives 6 New HR Professor
small company deploys can performance because “aligned 7 Save the Date
dramatically affect its product and companies deliver high-quality
service quality, customer satisfaction products, services, or solutions,” says 8 CAHRS Events Calendar
and financial performance,” says Collins.  “They develop more new
Christopher Collins, professor in products, services or solutions.  They
Cornell’s School of Industrial and have higher growth, profits and
Labor Relations.  “Small companies market share, and their customers are contribution.  Often, they leave
using high performance HR practices more satisfied.” positions open until they find the best
generate sales and profits that are 15 to The research suggests several best and brightest new employees.
25 percent higher than small practices small companies can deploy Strategy 3, stressing person-future
companies that don’t practice high to build the three aspects of workforce fit, leads most successfully to workforce
performance HR.” alignment.  To attract the right kind alignment, according to Collins.
The Cornell University/Gevity of people, they should: Small businesses following the person-
study of human resource management 1. Hire the right types of people in the future fit strategy were nearly 25
practices, which examined 312 small first place.   Companies that match percent more likely to have the right
businesses with less than 200 candidates’ knowledge and skills to the people in place over time, probably
employees, suggests that workforce requirements of specific job openings because the employees that are
alignment is pivotal to corporate enable new hires to perform from the attracted are able to grow and adapt as
success. start, without extensive training. the company’s environment changes.
“A company with an aligned 2. Hire for culture fit.   Companies To ensure its people are in the right
workforce has the right types of attain person-organization fit by place at the right time, small companies
people in the right places at the right focusing on a candidate’s match with can:
times doing right things right,” says its culture and values.  They recruit – 1. Establish formal processes and
Collins. “Employees with the and keep – individuals who can fit procedures.   Clarify employee roles
knowledge and skills to help their within the organization and work well and responsibilities by providing job
company achieve goals are the right with other existing employees. duties and descriptions as well as
type of people.  When employees are 3. Stress person-future fit. regular feedback through a
in the right places at the right time, Successful companies concentrate on performance appraisal process.
companies benefit from their a candidate’s potential long-term 2. Monitor employees directly.
Closely supervise day-to-day
employee activities and control the
pace and schedule at which they
complete their work.
3. Rely on professional standards.
Continued on Page Six
P A G E  0 N E www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
Up Close with …
Kurt Fischer of Corning, Inc.
When most people think Corning, they be: focus on performance, results and
remember Corning Ware cookware and measurements; establish a global mindset;
mom’s green bean casserole.  However, there develop scalable service delivery
is much more to this diversified technology infrastructure and strengthen linkage with
company than nostalgic dishes. Corning has the business.
been enriching lives through research and “We have driven our costs down to 1.4%
technological innovation for over 150 years. of revenue and our goal is 1.1%. That is
Its contributions include the glass for directly tied to the work we have done on
Edison's light bulb and Active Matrix Liquid performance, results and measurement,” says
Crystal Displays and fiber for Kurt.
telecommunications. You likely interact with The globalization of Corning’s business
Corning products daily, even if you never set Kurt Fischer has been significant. Today almost 70% of its
foot in a kitchen. employees are outside of the U.S. “Our business is really
At the helm of HR at Corning is Senior Vice President, strong in Asia and we have developed centers of
Kurt Fischer. He began his career there in 1976 and has excellence in Japan, Taiwan and China to serve those
served in a number of line and staff human resources roles markets.”
and was plant personnel manager in two states. He To meet its need for scalable service delivery, HR has
assumed his current position of Senior Vice President of focused on information technology. “In 2002, we had over
Human Resources this year. 11 different IT systems in HR. We selected PeopleSoft and
Kurt’s wealth of experience throughout Corning’s by end of year, will have every location using it.”
various businesses has uniquely positioned him to lead the Kurt believes that by far, HR’s best work has been about
HR function through significant change. In 2001, at the linkage to the business. “We connect business strategy to
height of the telecommunications boom, during the human capital needs utilizing a planning process.  General
critical hiring and mergers and acquisitions phase, HR managers of every business unit rely on the planning
established four transformation objectives. Those four process to help them know what to do from an HR
objectives provided ideal guidance for a function that perspective, then HR uses that information to set its
would soon face significant transition. priorities.” The next area of focus in this area is
“Halfway through 2002, our revenues dropped over 50% development planning. “We’ll work to take away service
and we started looking for ways to reduce costs,” Kurt delivery tasks from field HR so it can focus on talent
recalls. “Our decentralized HR function represented 2.4% development.”
of revenue.” Corning then began to centralize its HR It’s a full plate, or rather a chock full Corning Ware
function to lower costs, but it didn’t lose sight of those casserole. But with a 150 year heritage of innovation,
previously set goals. engaged senior leadership and a committed and nimble
“Those four transformation objectives became a key HR team, Corning is well positioned to meet its continued
part of the story,” Kurt says. They were, and continue to challenges. 
Corning, Inc. joined CAHRS in 1987, the ‘UP Close With …’profiles feature a Corporate HR view of new CAHRS sponsors.
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  T W O www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
Fall 2004 - Spring 2005
Executive Guest Class Speakers
CAHRS continues to invite Spring 2005 Executive Speakers Northrup-Grumman
human resources executives to the American Express  Sheri Frumer Shell
ILR School to participate in our (formerly with) Sony
classes. The ILR School was pleased Capital One  Mike McDermott StorageTek
to have CAHRS Sponsor Executive & Andy Suh Sun Microsystems
speakers and projects during the Fall Corning  Steve Capper Weyerhauser
of 2004 and Spring of 2005.  GE  Joe Hanlon Each semester, CAHRS serves as a
Participating company HR General Mills  Sandy Ohlsonn broker, matching speakers to classes,
executives were: & Kevin Wilde and helping sponsors to get the most
Fall 2004 Executive Speakers IBM  Rich Calo & Mike Markovits out of their classroom appearances by
Aetna  Raymond Arroyo Lucent  Doreen Petty working closely with faculty to link
& Jim Gould Merck  Dan Guaglianone topics to educational objectives.  We
Bausch & Lomb  David Nachbar Northrop Grumman  Jeff Shuman will be working with the ILR faculty
Bayer  Sam Bidwell Proctor & Gamble  Dennis Schuler to gather a list of topics where guest
Capital One  Matt Schuyler Shell  Teri Mandemaker lecturers and projects will be needed.
Citicorp  Kathy Radatz (via videoconference)
First Data  Mike D'Ambrose StorageTek  Annette Woodham If you would like to participate in our
Gap  Eva Sage-Gavin SYSCO  Ken Carrig upcoming HR courses as a guest lecturer or
Texas Instruments  David Reed project contributor during the fall 2005GE  Brad Greene semester, please contact Dr. Pamela Stepp
& Mary Lee Sharkey Time  Peter Vincent at 607-254-4829 or pls8@cornell.edu. 
IBM  Tom Fleming, Randy Unilever  Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi
MacDonald & Bill Matson Xerox  Bill Strusz
Merck  Marcia Avedon YUM  Dan Adams
Shell  Bill Matson Course Projects
Starbucks  Dave Pace CapitalOne
Sun Microsystems  Ron Cardenas Cornell  Johnson School
Terex  Kevin Barr Corning
Course Projects General Electric
Storage Tek IBM
Sun Microsystems Lucent
Merck
Monsanto Dennis Schuler,
Proctor & Gamble
Dan Adams,
YUM
Sandy Ohlsonn, 
General Mills
Richard Calo, IBM David Reed, Texas Instruments
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  T H R E E www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
IIn  The  News
New Dean of Industrial and Labor Relations Professor Harry Katz - Harry Charles Katz,
the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining and Director of the Institute of Collective
Bargaining at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), has been named
Dean of the school, former Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman has announced. Katz’s five-year
term as Dean began July 1. “Harry Katz has long been recognized as a leading light 
of the School of Industrial 
and Labor Relations. A
Dean Harry Katz
distinguished scholar who
appreciates the special role the school plays in the
larger society, Dean Katz truly understands the
soul of ILR,” said Lehman.  “Professor Katz is a
very distinguished scholar, devoted member of the
ILR faculty and a generous university citizen. His
leadership will be critical to enabling the school
and the university to meet the challenges ahead,”
added Provost Biddy Martin.  “I am honored and
look forward to keeping ILR at the forefront of the
changes occurring at the workplace due to Dean Harry Katz, with students in ILR
globalization and other pressures,” said Katz.  Katz succeeds Edward J. Lawler, the ILR dean since 1997, who stepped
down June 30 of this year. Dean Katz will be the chief academic and administrative officer of the ILR School, which
has approximately 50 resident faculty members and more than 1,000 students. In addition, more than 50 extension
faculty members annually serve more than 30,000 workers, managers, union officials and government and labor
relations professionals throughout the state of New York and beyond.  Katz, whose major fields of interest are industrial
relations and labor economics, joined Cornell in 1985 as an associate professor in the ILR School and in 1989 was
named director of Cornell’s Institute of Collective Bargaining. Katz had been a faculty member at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology from 1977 to 1985. He also was Director of the National Telecommunications Research and
Policy Consortium from 1993 to 1996. He earned his B.A. degree in 1973 and his Ph.D. in 1977, both in economics
from the University of California-Berkeley. He has written, co-written or co-edited more than 14 books and numerous
articles in his field, and is the associate editor of Industrial and Labor Relations Review and a member of the editorial
board of Revista Latinoamerica de Estudios del Trabajo. 
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  F O U R www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
IIn  The  News
Susanne Bruyere Accepts ILR Associate Dean of Outreach Position - In that capacity, Bruyere
will provide strategic guidance to the School's Extension Division, marketing and communication efforts,
and other outreach activities. Bruyere has done a
marvelous job building a dynamic program through the
Employment and Disability Institute (EDI), which she
founded. Bruyere will continue as Director of EDI and
will split her time between Associate Dean and EDI
Director responsibilities. This will enable her to continue
in her role as a principal investigator on a number 
of federal research grants on employment and disability
policy and employer disability nondiscrimination.
Dr. Bruyere holds a doctoral degree in Rehabilitation
Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, and Masters degrees in: Rehabilitation
Counseling, University of Southern California; Public
Administration, Seattle University; and Adult Education,
Seattle University. She is a Fellow in the American
Psychological Association, and Past President of the Susanne Bruyere
Division (22) of Rehabilitation Psychology of the
American Psychological Association (APA), the National Council on Rehabilitation Education
(NCRE), and the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA). Dr. Bruyere currently
serves as a Division of Rehabilitation Psychology Representative to the American Psychological
Association Council of Representatives, the current Chair of GLADNET (the Global Applied Disability
Research and Information Network on Employment and Training), and on the CARF (an international
rehabilitation facility accreditation organization) Board of Trustees. 
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  F I V E www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
John P. Hausknecht
New HR Professor
John Hausknecht joined Cornell’s staff of HR best dissertation in the field of industrial and
Professors this past summer, and will be teaching organizational psychology. His thesis was
ILR’s HR management and staffing courses this entitled “Narrative review, meta-analysis, and
year. His primary research interests are in the qualitative field study of applicant reactions to
areas of staffing and selection, organizational selection procedures.” Dr. Hausknecht has
justice, and employee retention. Professor also presented numerous papers at the annual
Hausknecht earned a Ph.D. in Industrial and meetings of the Academy of Management and
Organizational Psychology from Penn State Society for Industrial and Organizational
University in 2003, with a minor in Psychology.
Management and Organization. John P. Hausknecht Prior to academia, John worked for a San
Prior to his arrival at Cornell, Professor Hausknecht was Francisco Bay area consulting firm in the areas of change
an Assistant Professor at DePaul University in Chicago, management, employee selection, and organizational
where he taught a number of courses at the doctoral, development. He also taught several courses on business
masters and undergraduate levels. His previous teaching research methods at California State University while
experience includes courses on work attitudes, leadership, there. Professor Hausknecht is a member of the Academy
measurement, research methods, personnel selection, and of Management, the American Psychological Association,
introductory industrial/organizational psychology. Dr. and the Society for Industrial and Organizational
Hausknecht also served on a number of thesis and Psychology.
dissertation committees within the department. John and his wife Suzanne moved from Chicago to
Professor Hausknecht’s research has been published in Ithaca this summer. They look forward to the mild winters
the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personnel Psychology. of upstate New York.
In 2004, he received the S. Rains Wallace award for the
Managing Employees for Workforce Alignment
Continued from Page One
Grant employees the discretion to right things right.  Small companies can: most effective to workforce alignment,
monitor their own performance and 1. Create a family-like community. according to Collins.  “Compared to
trust them to get the job done right Foster responsibility to other the other strategies, companies that
the first time without direct oversight. employees and the company by focus on building family-like
4. Emphasize culture and peer sponsoring social events and outside communities are more than 30 percent
pressure.  Expect employees to track activities, to enable people to know more likely to have employees who
each other’s work and provide feedback each other. Share company were always willing to do what is in
to one another about job performance. information with employees at the best interest of the company,” he
Formal processes and procedures regular company-wide meetings. says.   “The research suggests that
and professional standards build 2. Provide interesting and rewarding companies following this strategy
workforce alignment most successfully, jobs.  Offer employees challenging required fewer supervisors because
according to Collins.  Companies work opportunities and chances to their employees tended to think and
following either of these strategies learn and grow. act like the organization’s owners.”
were approximately 30 percent more 3. Compensate fairly.  Motivate For more information regarding this research 
likely to have enough employees with employees by paying higher wages please contact Dr. Chris Collins via email:
the right skills to carry out the current than competitors. Use incentives to cjc53@cornell.edu, or Tel: (607)255-8859. This article references research from the CAHRS
workload of the company. attract, reward and retain people. Working Paper #05-05, which can be found on
To motivate their people to do the Creating a family-like community is our web site: www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/paper.html 
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  S I X www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
SAVE THE DATES
Executive Briefing Profiling Tyco International
October 24, 2005 • Doral Conference Center, Princeton, NJ
In early 2003, Tyco International had no company-wide Talent Management processes; no strategy for HR
Services Delivery; ineffective Diversity initiatives and needed to completely overhaul and redesign its Incentive
Compensation structure virtually overnight.  The meeting sessions will address the unique challenges faced in build-
ing most aspects of a “start-up” enterprise-wide HR function for Tyco International, a 250,000 person corporation. 
In building many key HR process elements nearly “from scratch,” the HR function needed to confront the
challenges of deciding what aspects to preserve and which to change.  The session will focus on how companies can
learn from, select and adopt best practices, while remaining equally clear and intentional about what conditions and
outcomes the enterprise must not create.
This briefing will be hosted by Laurie Siegel, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and CEO Edward Breen
as the keynote speaker.
Information and on-line registration form can be found on the CAHRS web site at:
www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/TycoBriefing.html
Please check the site for continued updates.
Inquiries, please contact:  Jo Hagin, Program Coordinator
Cornell University, CAHRS 187 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 USA 
Phone: 607-255-9358; Fax: 607-255-4953; Email: jap7@cornell.edu
CAHRS Fall Sponsor Meeting
“HR Challenges For Achieving Rapid, Profitable, and Sustainable Organizational Growth!”
November 9-10, 2005 • Statler Hotel, Ithaca, NY
M e e t i n g  I n f o r m a t i o n
With recent global economic expansion, many corporations, some of which experienced reengineering
initiatives and downsizing in the 1980’s and 1990’s, are now experiencing rapid organizational growth. However,
unlike in the past when the focus was on top-line growth with markets rewarding such firms with unusually high
valuations, this time the emphasis is on achieving a more sustainable and profitable growth. 
In the quest for a more enduring growth trajectory, organizations are facing certain critical human resource
challenges. Apart from the most visible and salient issue of talent acquisition and retention, organizations are
confronted with increasing complexity in the entire continuum of people processes. 
Be sure to check our web site for updates.
An On-Line Registration Form is available at: www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/fall2005registrationform.html
H o t e l I n f o r m a t i o n
We have set up a block of rooms at the Statler Hotel for you to make reservations under “ILR/Spring Sponsors
Program ‘05.” To reserve a room at the Statler Hotel in Ithaca, NY, please call 1-800-541-2501 and reserve a room
under “ILR/Fall Sponsors Program ‘05.’
V e r y  I m p o r t a n t
PLEASE NOTE that the block of rooms will be released to the general public at the end of the work day,
Wednesday, October 12th, so please make sure you have your reservations made well in advance.
Inquiries, please contact: Jo Hagin, Program Coordinator 
Cornell University, CAHRS  • 187 Ives Hall  • Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 USA 
Phone: 607-255-2790; Fax: 607-255-4953; Email: jap7@cornell.edu
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  S E V E N www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/
2005 - 2006
ILR Orientation and CAHRS Executive Roundtables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 23, 2005  Ithaca, NY
CAHRS Executive Briefing Profiling Tyco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 24, 2005  Princeton, NJ
CAHRS Fall Sponsor Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 9 - 10, 2005  Ithaca, NY
SHRLOE Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 11, 2005  Ithaca, NY
CAHRS Spring Sponsor Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 10 - 11, 2006  Ithaca, NY
ILR Orientation and CAHRS Executive Roundtables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 22, 2006  Ithaca, NY
CAHRS Fall Sponsor Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 1 - 2, 2006  Ithaca, NY
Other ILR Events
American Express Custom Program:
Global HR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 15 - 16, 2005  New York, NY
HR Strategy: Creating Competitive Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 25 - 30, 2005  Ithaca, NY 
Through People 
American Express Custom Program: Leading Globally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 4 - 5, 2005  Fontainebleau, France
Talent Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 27 - 28, 2005  New York, NY
Managing for Impact: HR Metrics and Firm Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 3 - 4, 2005  Arlington, VA
American Express Custom Programs: 
HR Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 30 - December 1, 2005  New York, NY
HR & Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 19 - 20, 2006  New York, NY
HR Transformation: Partnering to Achieve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 30 – May 5, 2006  Ithaca, NY
Functional Excellence
For more information, contact Jo Hagin at 607/255-9358 or email: jap7@cornell.edu, or visit our website at: 
www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/Calendar.html
hrSPECTRUM is published by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, 
School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York 14853-3901 
Phone: 607-255-9358 
Fax: 607-255-4953 
Dr. Patrick Wright, Director 
Dr. Pamela Stepp, Managing Director
hrSPECTRUM July - August 2005 P A G E  E I G H T www.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrs/