The following information was presented by James R.Crow at the KMWorld conference in October 2001. At the time, it highlighted why so many knowledge management systems fail. These days, it's introducing social media to your organisation that faces the same old obstacles.
What do the following systems have in common:?
- Performance appraisals
- Reward and recognition
- Rankings
- Contests
- Quotas
- Management by Objectives (MBOs)
They are all popular programmes used by management in the belief they will improve performance. They also create winners and losers, which is counter-productive to team work and makes it difficult for any knowledge management system to be effective.
The Performance Appraisal
Theory
| Reality
|
- Reward exceptional performers
- Identify poor performers
- Determine pay rates
- Feedback on job performance
| - Creates an internally competitive system
- Takes focus away from the customer
- Measures most recent performance
- People similar to the appraiser tend to receive
higher appraisals
|
Reward and Recognition
Theory
| Reality
|
- Good performance should be rewarded
- Bad performance should be punished
- Motivate employees by tying pay to
performance
| - Selection process can cause conflict within the group
- Money is not a motivator, it is at best a satisfier
- Any positive impact on performance is short-lived
|
Contests, Rankings, Incentives
Theory
| Reality
|
- We reside in a economy which is based on
and benefits from competition
- We will benefit as an organisation by making
competition the way we do business internally
| - Creates winners and losers - and there are
always more losers than winners
- Ignores (and can damage) the interdepencies
within and between internal systems
|
Quotas
Theory
| Reality
|
- Quotas increase sales because
people will strive to meet them
- Without a quota, nobody will sell
or produce anything
| - Sales tend to peak at the end of the
month/quarter/year
- Sales reps tend to limit sales to slightly above the
quota and use excess as cushion for next period
|
The objective should always be for the organisation to win, not component parts.
Management needs to move its thinking from individuals to systems and processes
Will we ever learn?
"Desipte the evident popularity of this practice, the problems with individual merit pay are numerous and well documented. It has been shown to undermine team work, encourage employees to focus on the short term and lead people to link compensation to political skills and ingratiating personalities rather than to performance."
- Jeffrey Pfeffer, "Six Dangerous Myths About Pay", Harvard Business Review, Spring 1998
References:
Tags: people | productivity | HR
