Rank-and-Fire Management Isn't So Hot After All

•  
  fttmeditator04/05/07 Report as spam
  1

  Duh!!

  It is fortunate that the subject of the article links "rank-and-fire" with "management" because there is very little logic to link "rank-and-fire" to anything but insensitive management. It would have been much more interesting to have looked into whether "leadership" has any correlation with "rank-and-fire" results. As for tapping Jack Welch as being "famous" - yes, perhaps for his attempt to create an egregious retirement plan from GE. Ah, but then what does one want to be seen as being "famous" for?

•  
  iowaspindoctor@...04/05/07 Report as spam
  2

  Forced Ranking Forces Fear

  The following is an excerpt from several postings on the topic at my blog - www.cenekreport.com
  
  Two visionary management gurus, Ed Lawler and Jeffrey Pfeiffer, have consistently excoriated this practice, calling it misguided, destructive, and outright antithetical to sound leadership. Lawler aptly pointed out the statistical disconnect – i.e., smaller organizations and departments can not have a normal distribution of talent unless employees are randomly selected. While the typical selection system used in many organizations is pretty suspect, it’s certainly more valid than flipping the coin!
  
  Research by Scullen, Bergey, and Aiman-Smith (2005) has brought some clearer thinking to the continuing discussion over this GE-inspired management fad. They found that forced ranking systems noticeably improved workforce performance in the first few years, but then quickly tailed off and eventually produced no further returns to organizational efficiency. The researchers questioned the usefulness of the technique given these results and the possible negative side effects from the use of forced ranking.
  
  America ’s work settings have enough systemic stressors – global competition, high health costs, fear of layoffs, workplace violence and the push for quarterly results. Adding another stressor, the fear of forced ranking, seems counterproductive to building a higher level of teamwork in the settings where it’s employed. It may be better to heed Deming’s call to drive fear out – and not into the workplace.