Obtain a copy of the following article: John H. Fleming, Curt Coffman, and James K. Harter, “Manage Your Human Sigma,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2005, pp. 107–114 (available at https://hbr.org/2005/07/manage your-human-sigma). The authors of this article state (p. 114): “Ask any CEO to list his or her most pressing business challenges, and you will no doubt hear concerns about customer and employee retention, authentic and sustainable growth, eroding margins, and cost efficiencies. . . . We are confident that measuring and managing two simple factors—employee and customer engagement—can lead to breakthrough improvements in all aspects of your business.” Required After reading the above-referenced article, answer the following questions:

1. What is the general issue addressed by the authors of this article? That is, what managerial problem are they discussing?

2. How, conceptually, is the Human Sigma approach developed by the authors of this article similar to or distinct from Six Sigma? What is the connection between this discussion and the role of the management accountant (i.e., why is the topic relevant to management accounting)?

3. How do the authors propose to measure the effectiveness of the employee–customer encounter? What evidence do they offer regarding the predictive value of the performance metric they are proposing?

4. Developing appropriate performance metrics is one component of effective performance management system design. The other key component is developing ways to deploy (implement) such metrics successfully. According to the authors, what strategies can an organization use to improve the quality of employee–customer interactions, as measured by the performance metric referenced in requirement 3?