Rol Fessenden wrote "...this is where the paradox comes in. Companies
cannot be creative or committed, only their employees. How does one get
creativity and commitment from an employee whose career at one company is
7 years, and he or she knows it? I don't think it's likely."
This is a tough one. It may not be likely, but it seems to me that things
like creativity and commitment are like the luggage people bring with 'em.
(I seem to recall a thread on another group debating whether motivation
was intrinsic or extrinsic to the individual; came down to differentiating
between external 'motivation' and internal 'willingness.') I don't think
you can bring in an uncreative person and re-invent them, even without the
seven-year window. Commitment is a bit trickier, but I suspect it will be
less troublesome as industry moves farther and farther from the lifetime
employment model. That is, as professionals enter the workforce expecting
that they will change jobs/careers/employers with regularity, "commitment"
may be redefined both by the worker and the employer in terms that
accommodate the short term employment contract as well as the employee's
own transferability needs. Perhaps part of that two-way dialog will
include a commitment by the employer to help workers skills that are
transferable.
-- Regards, Ron Dickson Intel Corporation Ron_Dickson@ccm.ch.intel.com