DailyDirt: Minimizing Pointy-Haired Bosses

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Over the past century, there have been dozens of management philosophies that have been touted as "the way" to keep employees motivated and encourage excellence and productivity. But it's far from a solved problem. Stack ranking (aka vitality curve) has fallen out of favor a bit, and a trend of self-managing has appeared that could keep employees more satisfied with their bosses -- because if you're managing yourself, you only have yourself to blame. Some companies are trying to quantify various metrics for organizational behavior to make it more objective and fair. Maybe we'll know how it all works in a few more decades, but in the meantime, check out these HR experiments.

• Zappos issued a kind of ultimatum to its employees -- accept its experimental new management system or take a severance package. Over 200 employees (about 14% of the workforce) chose to leave the company, which doesn't necessarily mean that all of these former employees didn't like "Holacracy" -- but it suggests that self-management policies aren't for everyone, either. [url]
• Google experimented with a flat organization circa 2002, but it ended after a few months when a flood of mundane managerial details overwhelmed the few people with obvious authority at the company. Since then, Google has continued with a data-driven culture to help develop its management techniques and policies -- finding that engineers hate technical micromanagement, but really like to be closely managed when it comes to career guidance. [url]
• If a company's org chart is flat, there's presumably no promotions for many employees, so how can flat organizations keep employees happy? Okay, a growing company can still offer expanded roles with more responsibilities, but a large, stable company may need to design stock option plans and bonuses to keep people around. But if money isn't a great motivator.... [url]

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Filed Under: careers, employment, holacracy, hr, human resources, jobs, management, motivation, organizational behavior, reviews, stack ranking, tony hsieh, work
Companies: google, zappos

DailyDirt: Herding Cats For Profit

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Organizational behavior can be a complex subject, and the fruits of research on the topic can range from curious phenomenon like the Hawthorne Effect to abolishing stack ranking (or instituting stack ranking). If you're interested in trying to avoid becoming a pointy-haired boss, you can brush up on some HR experiments and check out these links.

• What's it like working at a company where everyone's salary is known to everyone else at the company? Apparently, it can lead to some difficult discussions when employees change roles or take on new responsibilities, but it's not as crazy a policy as it might sound. [url]
• The annual performance review may not be as effective as encouraging managers to have more frequent "check-ins" for more informal coaching and feedback. Adobe seems to be experimenting with this strategy, but replacing a formal system with an informal system may simply hide the problems behind closed-door discussions. [url]
• There are lots of pitfalls to managing a new venture at a large company. Far more than six mistakes, but careless staffing and picking the wrong metrics to assess performance should definitely be on the short list of things to avoid. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: employment, hawthorne effect, human resources, jobs, management, organizational behavior, performance reviews, salary, stack ranking, work
Companies: adobe