Rol, and others, may miss the point that some call "the hidden agenda": in
education it's called the hidden curriculum.
Let me illustrate with the culture of education.
1. Karl Shapiro's poem called "University" begins this way
"To hurt the Negro
And avoid the Jew
Is the curriculum"
Now, the intention of those who created the frat and sorority system, and
numerical quotas for races and religions did not necessarily intend to hurt
Negros and avoid Jews. The "hidden curriculum" are those "unintended
consequences" not designed or desired, but retrospectively inevitabe, as in
the case of the creators of the "horseless carriage" who did not intend to
create today's highway system and traffic jams and air pollution.
2. So those in schools and colleges who want to "rank" students want to do
all the good things you want from employee ranking systems. They want
students to accept "grading on the curve," the college version of ranking,
to be accepted by students as being in their best interests, as well as in
the best interest of the institution , the nation, and the global economy.
What is unintended, of course, are all of the consequent evils of the
"grading" system: studying for grades rather than for learning; students
who compete with each other rather than cooperate--hiding their exam
papers from prying eyes lest their fellow students do as well as they do
on the exam--and so on, all the unintended negative impacts of this
ranking system.
Again: the likely outcome of ranking on the organization's culture is
competition rather than collaboration: on the hoarding of knowledge rather
than the sharing of knowledge, since my sharing knowledge with you my
diminish my place in the ranking system.
Steve Eskow
Dr. Steve Eskow
President, The Pangaea Network
288 Stone Island Road
Enterprise, Florida 32725
Phone: 407-321-8770; Fax: 407-321-4861
http://www.durand.com/pangaea
dreskow@durand.com
>> What does the learning organization learn from ranking?
>
>It learns who is not learning. Who is not moving forward -- continuously
>improving -- as fast as his or her peers. It learns who is -- using
>Deming's criteria -- operating below the normal range of acceptable
>performance. It learns where to invest additional resources, where to
>focus more attention, where to do some problem-solving, where to possibly
>invite some dialog and reflection with the person about causes, about
>potential need for personal help (EAP), about drug counseling, about
>marriage counseling, and so forth. It is merely the first step in the
>process of helping each other.
...big snip by your host...
>I sense fear of evaluation from quite a few of the opponents. My advice
>is to fear the ignorant or ill-informed manager who misuses the system,
>but not the tool itself. You can hurt yourself with a hammer, but that is
>not its purpose. It drives nails far better than your naked hand will.
>
>Rol Fessenden
--"Dr. Steve Eskow" <dreskow@magicnet.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>