I agree completely, Beth, with your thoughts about management's putting
"their money where their mouth is" and rethinking compensation programs.
You made mention of something which takes me in a somehwat different
direction....
You typed this:
"Once upon a time, the ultimate reward for a job well done was a promotion
through the ranks, maybe into management. Along with promotion came more
income."
It seems to me that this "once upon a time" remains in place everywhere,
and often produces deleterious results. Specifically, I refer to hard
workers, experts at what they do, contributors to the organization, who
are promoted into positions because of their serious dedication. But they
are promoted sometimes into positions for which they have not been trained
and for which they lack expertise, especially in the area of people
skills. And there is no intention of providing that training--perhaps
because the organization has neither intention nor resources, perhaps
because the need is not even recognized (with this reply to you, Beth, I
AM recognizing it; it's an assumption I have about training needs).
These certain promoted people are not given the people management tools
refered to so well in recent LO postings. Without the training, such
employees MAY alone rely on traditional approaches of politics (use of
power) to mask deficiencies. The job advancement could be viewed by such
an individual as a reinforcement of the status quo.
Mind you, I'm being careful not to generalize about everyone who is so
promoted. I wonder, actually, if modern, end-of-millenium upheavals in
work force composition and deployment are changing attitudes, making what
I described a bit more difficult to come about, making it a "once upon a
time"?
And what of differences from culture to culture across the shrinking
boundaries on our planet?
Thanks for your response to my thoughts, Beth, and best regards,
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com