Mary Apodaca asked for feedback on the statement:
"It is traditional wisdom in the business world that a coporation is only
as good as the people it employs."
And Joan Pomo replied:
"I would not put such a statement in writing because it sounds like
blaming the troops for management errors. "
I think Joan has hit a big nail on the head here. I have a quote posted
over my desk which says, "There are no bad people in companies - just good
people being asked to do the wrong thing." (source unknown) I see a link
with the philosophies of Peter Scholtes who opposes individual performance
appraisal because it supports the (mis)concept that the company's problems
or successes are attributable to the individual performance of individual
employees. Focusing on the individuals ignores the existence of
_systems_, which the likes of Deming, Scholtes, Senge et al define as the
source of an organisation's performance.
Interesting discussion...
Cherry
Cherry Vanderbeke, Wang New Zealand Limited
Email: ckv@wang.co.nz
"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot
do"
--Cherry Vanderbeke <CKV@wang.co.nz>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>