William Hobler responded to Dave Birren, David Reed, and Virginia Shaefer
about rating individuals and rating jobs.
The one one thing I found missing in all these discussions was the
'systems' perspective. Individuals were discussed as if the system(both
technical and social) had no effect on their behavior.
IMHO, you can NOT rate a person a 1, 2, or 3 or whatever without
considering the interdependent system they are embedded in. Jobs also
cannot be viewed in isolation from their contribution to delivering
products and services to customers. The importance of a job can easily
change(often temporarily) as the environment changes and requires the
internal organizational systems to adapt.
My first job out of graduate school opened my eyes to the importance of
embeddedness. I was an HR analyst with an assignment to automate and
improve a succession planning system in one of the Big 3 automakers. I
started this assignment about 9 months after a new management team had
taken over. I got to see individual ratings from the 'old team' and was
there to see the ratings from the new team. Very little correaltion!!!
Some people who were in the dog house, all of a sudden were 'high
potentials' and many 'fair haired boys' were relegated back to life with
us mere mortals. Some people retained the same, or similar ratings. The
new management created a new environment with a new view of what was
important.
Like I've said here often, "It's the connections!" We need to know how a
person is connected[embedded] into the system that surrounds him/her. The
structure(both formal and informal) around an individual provides both
opportunities and constraints. As the environment changes, the structure
adapts, and the opportunities and constraints change -- all in a very
non-linear way. I don't see any simple 1-2-3 answers.
Valdis Krebs
Krebs & Associates
Los Angeles, CA
inflow@eworld.com [going away soon!]
inflow@concentric.net
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