Larissa Terra <larissa@tvfilme.com.br> says:
>I'm interested in rotation as LO. Does anybody know references about
>this???
I found Gibson, 1991 and Minami 89 when I was searching for stuff
connected to LO and org socialization - which is my mid-career doctoral
topic. I found some other stuff too but is generally related to
expatriate career stuff - e.g. the oil companies - and oil execs moving to
exotic places with their families and experiencing significant stress as a
result and there being a very high failure rate post experience.
However I support - (through my literature search research and my
ethnographic data) the notion of LO being advanced by rotation - as does
"visionary" (Built to Last) Co's like P & G / HP, etc, who empirically
have demonstrated success with job rotation - tho along with many other
impacting variables and forces in the system. There is one critical thing
though that I believe is not well recognized- as spelled out in Denise
Rousseau's book on psychological contracts - that unless the new
experience is significantly different and provides a significant re-frame
of experience there will not be the "switching on" of active questioning
and the associated potential deep discovery of previous mental models /
assumptions, their validity in the new environment, etc ... In some ways
it reminds me of the various "controlled chaos" situations we set up for
our Outward Bound students in order to boost team learning and discovery.
There is often an attempt to reduce dissonance and "wrap" newcomers up in
cotton wool so as to reduce their anxiety etc. Taken to an extreme this
attenuates the benefits of job rotation and the inherent re-socialization
process. Clearly there is a need to provide some genuine support though I
would suggest this is best done through stretch objectives and the
provision of resources AND avoidance of micro management. Like dialogue
there is a value to the depth of the wallowing ....! (Whilst of course
there are skilled and compassionate leaders ensuring no damage occurs).
Best of luck,.
Tony
Tony Kortens
Practitioner
tkortens@silcon.com
Action and Learning in Organizations
Ph/fax (510) 939 4177
--Tony Kortens <tkortens@silcon.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>