At 01:54 PM 10/19/97 -0600, you wrote:
Measuring is very important to the success of an organization. What is
measured is important. How is important. But more important is why. If
management is measuring to get some one then it is a waste and
destructive. If it is to rank people than we have trouble.
The viable purposes for measuring are:
1. Help managers carry out there resp[osibility to workers and
customers. A manager's job is to provide effective process for workers to
serve customers. With out measures A manager can not carry out that
responsibility.
2. Find areas for improvement and areas to eliminate waste.
3. Help workers know what is important to the success of the
business. And requires managers to reflect on that and decide. as opposed
to just letting it happen as has been normal.
If the management is trying to be cause behavior with complex little money
reward system the value is short term and full of pitfalls. Piece work and
sales incentives are examples of measuring that caused behavior management
did not expect, did not want and did recognize for years.
Gene
>Managing by numbers. . .mmmm. . .
>
>Numbers are important and have their place. They are a record of history,
>not a snap-shot of the present moment. And, I suppose, there is really no
>way (at least that I can think of) of measuring a given moment.
>Measurement, by it's very nature, implies a review of history. .
>.something had to have happened for it to be measured. (I'm sure there are
>those who will argue this point, and I'm interested to hear those
>arguments, as I feel a bit myopic at the moment.)
>
>One of the things I wrestled with as a Quality Manager was our measurement
>system. I have permanent scars around my neck, because I was beheaded so
>much for challenging our measurement system.
>Benjamin B. Compton
[...quote of prev msg trimmed by your host...]
Eugene Taurman
interLinx ilx@execpc.com http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
What you are is determined by the thoughts that dominate your mind.
Paraphrase of Proverbs 23 Ch7
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>