Dear Ben,
Re your comment on Roxanne's metaphor quoted below-
>"I've been waiting for you to suggest that ranking is another example of
>Square Wheels. Yes, they work, but they also create a very uncomfortable
>ride for everyone on the wagon."
>
>The desire to make everyone involved "comfortable" seems to be the implied
>motivation for not ranking employees.
-I am not convinced your understanding of the square wheel metaphor is
sustainable even if legitimate. The question really is, "why use square
wheels on a wagon when round wheels work better and give a more
comfortable ride?" The idea of designing a deliberately uncomfortable
ride just for the heck of it seems just a waste of time to me I am afraid.
The first implication for ranking systems design from your interpretation
of the metaphor is that it is good to make things rocky for people because
that is in itself a good thing. I hesitate to say it, but my feeling is
that your view is stereotypically "American:" that is macho, tough and
competetive is without a doubt the the only way. Well, good luck to you
Ben!! (Now I have offended all the Americans on this list.)
The second implication is that those who don't necessarily believe in
"uncomfortable rides" for the thrill of it are soft and unable to take it.
We each live with the consequences of our value systems Ben and I can
assure you that it is hard both ways mate...
My experience of organisations is that these days they are often
uncomfortable enough without an uncomfortable performance management
system thrown in.
As for-
>The discomfort that comes from the inequality of two or more people is good.
>It encourage competition, personal growth, and creativity. It leads to
>higher levels of performance across all segments of employees, from the
>lowest performer to the highest performer.
>
>Trying to evade this type of discomfort is a short road to destruction.
>Here's my reasoning. There is a natural discrepancy between each person's
>abilities. There will always be those who are the top performers.
-in one sense what you say is self evident: people come with different
talents and skill sets. What is not self-evident is that ranking systems
are value-neutral and that those at the top of the bell curve as you so
delightfully put it, are there on strictly objective, explicit criteria;
that systems do not self-select and mirror the values of those who design
them - often to the detriment of the poor buggers at the arse-end of the
bell curve!
For example I remember at one stage IQ tests always seem to rank
Afro-Americans at the lower end of the bell curve until the professors
admitted they were testing literacy and history not intelligence.
I quote from an article on Craig Parr a manager for GM who speicalised in
turning around factories. See p 90 of Sloan Management Review 39:2:
"Many of the salaried people who stayed on a Pontiac-Central (after
closure had been announced) had been formally and informally classified as
"dregs" or "bottom of the barrel" by their managers...Parr refused to
accept these assessments but demanded that the remaining employees prove
GM wrong...Once the star employees had departed, the remaining salaried
and hourly workers acheived record levels of quality and productivity and
in the process, became stars themselves."
There we are, right from the heart of corporate America folks. I know
proving causal relationships is impossible, but maybe the "stars" were
actually getting ahead at the expense of the "dregs" and when the stars
had jumped the sinking ship, as stars are often want to do, the dregs had
their performance barriers removed...what a wonderful thought.
Philip
Philip Pogson
Manager Organisation Development Unit
University of Sydney
Margaret Telfer Building, K07
NSW 2006 Australia
ph: +61 2 9351 4218
+61 2 9351 3177 (direct)
fax: +61 2 9351 4951
Training Program URL:- http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/stafdev/
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied
in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly,
affects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King Jnr
--Philip Pogson <P.Pogson@perspolicy.usyd.edu.au>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>