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1 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Chapter 6 Learning and Performance Management In This Chapter, You’ll Find: Chapter Overview Learning Outcomes Key Terms PowerPoint Guide Review Questions and Answers Discussion and Communication Questions and Suggested Answers Ethical Dilemma Self-Assessments—What about You? Issues in Diversity Experiential Exercises Additional Examples Case Study and Suggested Responses: Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success Video: Profile on Barcelona Restaurant Group Student Handouts: Ethical Dilemma What About You?: Task Goal Attribute Questionnaire What About You?: How do you Correct Poor Performance?

Issues in Diversity: Race and Rewards at the Harlem Police Department Experiential Exercise: Positive and Negative Reinforcement Experiential Exercise: Correcting Poor Performance (Instructor’s Guidelines for the Exercise) Experiential Exercise: Correcting Poor Performance Experiential Exercise: Correcting Poor Performance Experiential Exercise: The Death of Management Case Study: Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success

Chapter Overview This chapter begins by describing the behavioral theories of learning such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and reinforcement theory. The chapter discusses learning in organizations as facilitated through reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Bandura’s social learning theory and Jung’s personality approach to learning are also discussed. Next, the chapter deals with goal setting at work, defining and measuring performance, rewarding performance,

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and correcting poor performance. The next section defines performance and identifies the tools used to measure it. This is followed by a discussion on the importance of performance feedback and how it can be effectively delivered. The last two sections of the chapter discuss ways through which managers can reward performance and strategies for correcting performance.

Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, students should be able to do the following:

1 Describe behavioral theories of learning.

The behaviorist approach to learning assumes that observable behavior is a function of its consequences. Behaviorists argue that learning stems from classical and operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning is the process of modifying behavior by pairing a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit an unconditioned response. Operant conditioning is the process of modifying behavior by following specific behaviors with positive or negative consequences. Reinforcement theory holds that reinforcement enhances desirable behavior, whereas punishment and extinction diminish undesirable behavior.

2 Describe social and cognitive theories of learning.

Albert Bandura’s social learning theory offers a complementary alternative to Pavlov’s and Skinner’s behaviorist approaches. Bandura asserts that learning occurs when people observe other people and model their behavior. Central to Bandura’s social learning theory is the notion of task-specific self-efficacy, an individual’s internal expectancy to perform a specific task effectively. The cognitive approach to learning is based on the Gestalt school of thought and draws on Jung’s theory of personality differences. The personality functions of intuition, sensing, thinking, and feeling all have learning implications. Each person has a preferred mode of gathering information and a preferred mode of evaluating and making decisions about that information.

3 Explain how goal setting can be used to direct learning and performance.

Goal setting is the process of establishing desired results that guide and direct behavior. Goal setting can serve three functions: • It can increase work motivation and task performance.

• It can reduce stress caused by conflicting or confusing expectations.

• It can improve the accuracy and validity of performance evaluation.

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4 Define performance and identify the tools used to measure it.

Performance is most often called task accomplishment, the term task coming from Fredrick W. Taylor’s conception of a worker’s required activity. Performance management is a process of defining, measuring, appraising, providing feedback on, and improving performance.

Performance appraisals give employees feedback on performance, identify their developmental needs, and influence promotion, demotion, termination, selection and placement decisions. Many performance-monitoring systems use modern electronic technology to measure the performance of vehicle operators, computer technicians, and customer service representatives. Goal setting and MBO are results-oriented performance appraisal methods that do not necessarily rely on modern technology.

5 Explain the importance of performance feedback and how it can be delivered effectively.

Good performance appraisal systems develop people and enhance careers. They should explore individual growth needs and future performance. However, in order to coach and develop employees successfully, the supervisor must establish mutual trust. This means she must be vulnerable and open to challenge from the subordinate while maintaining responsibility for the subordinate’s best interests. Good supervisors are skilled, empathetic listeners who encourage employees to discuss their aspirations. Effective performance appraisal systems have five key characteristics: validity, reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, and equitability.

6 Identify ways managers can reward performance.

While pay and rewards for performance have value, so too do trust, fun, and meaningful work.

Individual reward systems foster independent behavior and encourage creativity, problem solving, and distinctive contributions to the organization. Individual reward systems directly affect individual behavior and encourage competition within a work team. Too much competition, however, may create a dysfunctional work environment. Team reward systems solve the problems caused by individual competitive behavior in that they encourage cooperation, joint efforts, and the sharing of information and expertise. Some organizations have experimented with individual and group alternative reward systems. At the individual level, these include skillbased and pay-for-knowledge systems that emphasize skills or knowledge possessed by an employee beyond the requirements for the basic job. At the group level, gain-sharing plans emphasize collective cost reduction by allowing workers to share in the gains achieved by reducing production costs.

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7 List several strategies for correcting poor performance.

According to Harold Kelley’s attribution theory, managers make attributions, or inferences, concerning employees’ behavior and performance. The attributions may not always be accurate. Supervisors and employees who share perceptions and attitudes tend to evaluate each other highly. Those who do not share perceptions and attitudes are more likely to blame each other for performance problems. Kelley’s attribution theory proposes that individuals make attributions based on information gathered in the form of three informational cues: consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency. Certain combinations of cues suggest an internal attribution, while other combinations suggest that the cause of the poor performance is external. On the basis of the informational cues, the supervisor makes either an internal (personal) attribution or an external (situational) attribution. Internal attributions might include low effort, lack of commitment, or lack of ability. External attributions are outside the employee’s control and might include equipment failure or unrealistic goals. Figure 6.5 presents an attribution model of supervisors’ responses to poor performance. Supervisors may choose from a wide range of responses. They can, for example, express personal concern, reprimand the employee, or provide training. Supervisors and coworkers are often more effective guides than formally assigned mentors from higher up in the organizational hierarchy. Consequently, they have important coaching, counseling, and mentoring responsibilities to their subordinates. In either case, supervisors can play a helpful role in employee problem-solving activities without accepting responsibility for the employees’ problems. They may also refer the employee to trained professionals.

Key Terms Learning (p. 85) Classical conditioning (p. 85) Operant conditioning (p. 85) Positive consequences (p 86) Negative consequences (p. 86) Reinforcement (p. 86) Punishment (p. 87) Extinction (p. 88) Task-specific self-efficacy (p. 88) Goal setting (p. 89) Management by objectives (MBO) (p. 90) Performance management (p. 92) Performance appraisal (p. 92) 360-degree feedback (p. 94)

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Consensus (p. 97) Distinctiveness (p. 97) Consistency (p. 97) Mentoring (p. 98)

PowerPoint Guide Introduction Slide 2—Learning Outcomes LO1 Describe behavioral theories of learning.

Slide 3—LO - 6.1 Slide 4—Behavioral Models of Learning in Organizations Slide 5—Reinforcement, Punishment, and Extinction Slide 6—Figure 6.1: Reinforcement and Punishment Strategies LO2 Describe social and cognitive theories of learning.

Slide 7—LO - 6.2 Slide 8—Bandura’s Social Learning Theory Slide 9—Table 6.2: Personality Functions and Learning Slide 10—Beyond the Book: Innovation in Education LO3 Explain how goal setting can be used to direct learning and performance.

Slide 11—LO - 6.3 Slide 12—Goal Setting at Work Slide 13—Figure 6.2: Goal Level and Task Performance LO4 Define performance and identify the tools used to measure it.

Slide 14—LO – 6.4 Slide 15—Evaluating Performance LO5 Explain the importance of performance feedback and how it can be delivered effectively.

Slide 16—LO – 6.5 Slide 17—360-Degree Feedback Slide 18—Effective Appraisal Systems LO6 Identify ways managers can reward performance.

Slide 19—LO – 6.6

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Slide 20—Individual or Team Rewards Slide 21—Power of Earning LO7 List several strategies for correcting poor performance.

Slide 22—LO – 6.7 Slide 23—Kelley’s Attribution Theory Slide 24—Figure 6.5: Attribution Model Slide 25—Mentoring Slide 26—Beyond the Book: Mentoring in the White House Slide 27—Barcelona Restaurant Key Terms Slide 28—Key Terms Summary Slide 29–31—Summary

Review Questions and Answers 1.

Define the terms learning, reinforcement, punishment, and extinction.

Learning is a change in behavior acquired through experience. Reinforcement is a strategy to cultivate desirable behavior by either bestowing positive consequences or withholding negative ones. By contrast, punishment is a strategy to discourage undesirable behavior by either bestowing negative consequences or withholding positive consequences following an undesirable behavior. Extinction is a strategy to weaken a behavior by attaching no consequences (either positive or negative) to it.

2.

What are positive and negative consequences in shaping behavior? How should they be managed? Explain the value of extinction as a strategy.

Managers have access to positive and negative reinforcement strategies to assist employees in their pursuit of goals in the workplace. Positive consequences are the results that the person finds attractive or pleasurable. Negative consequences are the results that the person finds unattractive or aversive. The recipient of the consequences defines them as positive or negative. Therefore, individual personality differences as well as gender and cultural differences may be important in their classification. Extinction is a strategy to weaken a behavior by attaching no consequences (either positive or negative) to it. This strategy may require time and patience, but the absence of consequences eventually weakens a behavior.

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3.

How can task-specific self-efficacy be enhanced? What are the differences in the way introverted and extraverted and intuitive and sensing people learn?

There are four sources of task-specific self-efficacy: prior experiences, behavioral models (witnessing the success of others), persuasion from other people, and assessment of current physical and emotional capabilities. Prior success can also enhance one’s self-efficacy.

Introverts need time to study, concentrate, and reflect on what they are learning. They think well when they are alone. Extraverts need to interact with other people and learn best by exchanging ideas with others. An intuitive thinker prefers to analyze data and information, looking for the meaning behind the analysis and focusing on the big picture. A sensing feeler prefers to learn through interpersonal involvement and focuses on details and practical applications.

4.

What are the five characteristics of well-developed goals? Why is feedback on goal progress important?

Well-developed goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Goal acceptance is thought to lead to goal commitment and then to goal accomplishment.

Feedback helps employees assess how well their efforts lead to the accomplishment of their goals.

5.

What are the purposes of conducting performance appraisals? What are the benefits of 360-degree feedback?

Accurate appraisals help supervisors fulfill their dual roles as evaluators and coaches.

Performance appraisals give employees feedback on performance; identify their developmental needs; and influence promotion, demotion, termination, selection, and placement decisions. 360-degree feedback is based on multiple sources of information to improve the accuracy of performance appraisals. The 360-degree feedback provides a wellrounded view of performance from supervisors, peers, followers, and customers.

6.

How can managers and supervisors best provide useful performance feedback?

Both supervisor and employee should try to make performance feedback a constructive learning experience, since feedback has long-term implications for the employee’s performance and for the supervisor–employee working relationship. American Airlines follows three guidelines for providing evaluative feedback. First, supervisors refer to specific, verbatim statements and specific, observable behaviors displayed by the employee.

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This specificity enhances the acceptance of the feedback while discouraging denial. Second, the feedback focuses on changeable behaviors, not intrinsic or personality-based attributes.

Third, the session is planned ahead of time and the person who will receive the feedback is notified so that both parties can be ready.

Supervisors should start coaching and counseling sessions with something positive. Once the session is under way and rapport is established, the evaluator can introduce more difficult and negative material. No one is perfect, so everyone can learn and grow through performance feedback and review sessions. Critical feedback is the basis for improvement.

Managers should be aware, however, that although specific feedback can improve initial performance, it may also undermine the learning needed for later, more independent performance.

7.

What are the two possible attributions of poor performance? What are the implications of each?

A number of problems trigger poor performance. These include poorly designed work systems, poor selection processes, inadequate training and skills development, lack of personal motivation, and personal problems intruding on the work environment.

If the poor performance can’t be attributed to work design or organizational process problems, then supervisors should examine the employee. The problem may lie in (1) some aspect of the person’s relationship to the organization or supervisor, (2) some area of the employee’s personal life, or (3) a training or developmental deficiency. In the latter two cases, poor performance can be treated as a symptom rather than as a motivated consequence. In such cases, identifying financial problems, family difficulties, or health disorders may help the employee solve problems before they become too extensive.

Poor performance may also stem from an employee’s displaced anger or conflict with the organization or supervisor. In such cases, the employee may be unaware of the internal reactions causing the problem. Such angry motivations can generate sabotage, slowdown work, and cause work stoppages. The supervisor might be attributing the cause of the problem to the employee while the employee is attributing it to the supervisor or organization. Supervisors must treat the poor performance as a symptom with a deeper cause and resolve the underlying anger or conflict.

8.

How do mentors and peers help people develop and enhance their careers?

Success in the mentoring relationship depends on openness and trust. This relationship may

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help address performance-based deficiencies or personal problems. Mentoring offers protégés many career benefits. The relationship can significantly enhance the early development of a newcomer and the midcareer development of an experienced employee.

Peer relationships can also enhance career development. Executive coaching is increasingly used to outsource the business mentoring functions. Informational, collegial, and special peers aid the individual’s development by sharing information, career strategies, job-related feedback, emotional support, and friendship.

Discussion and Communication Questions and Suggested Answers 1.

Which learning approach—the behavioral approach or Bandura’s social learning theory—do you find more appropriate for people?

Students’ answers will vary. This answer may have to do with how much importance students place on the task-specific self-efficacy aspect of Bandura’s theory. It is obviously a more complex set of dynamics to consider. Instructors should encourage students to consider the type of learning (e.g., level of complexity) as another variable.

2.

Given your personality type, how do you learn best? Do you miss learning some things because of how they are taught?

Students’ answers will vary. Students will often be able to determine what they do not like about learning opportunities more readily than they can identify how they would learn more comfortably. It is interesting to ask students whether grading completely through group grades would change their view of individual studying and learning. Many college classes are taught by Intuitive-Thinking (NT) instructors, who use a particular style. Instructors should have students discuss what the NT teaching/learning style is and how it affects other learning styles.

3.

What goals do you set for yourself at work? In your personal life? Will you know if you achieve them?

Students’ answers will vary. Instructors should encourage students to discuss this question beyond the obvious, “complete a business degree.” They can evaluate their goals using the characteristics of effective goals, and discuss how they get feedback on their goal progress.

4.

If a conflict occurred between your self-evaluation and the evaluation given to you by your supervisor or instructor, how would you respond? What, specifically, would you do? What have you learned from your supervisor or instructor during the last reporting

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period?

Students’ answers will vary. The key is to gather as much information as possible about the other’s position. A key in approaching differing views is preparation. Instructors should suggest to students that they respond only after thinking through the information for a day or so. Students can use their knowledge of the perceptual process to analyze this question.

5.

What rewards are most important to you? How hard are you willing to work to receive them?

Students’ answers will vary. Instructors should encourage students to develop a gradual rating of the rewards. Not all of the rewards are necessarily worth the cost. They may have some ethical issues related to high performers.

6.

Have students prepare a memo detailing the consequences of behavior in their work or university environment (e.g., grades, awards, suspensions, and scholarships). Their memos should include their classification of these consequences as positive or negative.

Tell students to be prepared to discuss whether the organization or university should change the way it applies these consequences.

Students’ answers will vary. In response to the final question (Should your organization or university change how it applies these consequences?), students should provide supporting evidence, based on material from the chapter, why changes should or should not occur.

7.

Develop an oral presentation about the most current management practices in employee rewards and performance management. Find out what at least four different companies are doing in this area. Be prepared to discuss their fit with the text materials.

Students’ answers will vary. Based on the fit between current management practices identified and text materials, students can discuss how successful they believe the various management practices will be.

8.

Interview a manager or supervisor who is responsible for completing performance appraisals on people at work. Ask the manager which aspects of performance appraisal and the performance appraisal interview process are most difficult and how he or she manages these difficulties.

Students’ answers will vary. This is also a good opportunity for students to share experiences (both positive and negative) that they have had as employees being appraised. The

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contrasting perspectives of the managers/supervisors and the students (as employees) should provide for some interesting discussion.

Ethical Dilemma The purpose of Ethical Dilemmas is to encourage students to develop their awareness of ethical issues in the workplace and the managerial challenges they present. The dilemmas are set up to present situations in which there is no clear ethical choice. The goal of the instructor is to guide students through the process of analyzing the situation and examining possible alternative solutions. There are no “right” answers to the questions at the end of each scenario, only opportunities to explore alternative generation and generate discussion of the appropriateness of each alternative. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide.

1.

Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Margaret’s options.

Margaret’s options are to insist that her sales team use the company’s preferred process for completing expense reports or allow them to continue with the process that they are currently using. In other words, Margaret should use a new, more time-consuming process that is more accurate but eliminates the “extra money” that they are accustomed to getting, or she should leave the current process in place even though it is less accurate and not the process that the company wants them to use.

Consequential Theory The sales team might not prefer to use the new process because it is more time consuming and eliminates the extra money that they receive when the old process is employed.

However, it will make Margaret and her sales team comply with the company’s desired process for expense reports, thus saving the company money. Margaret and her sales team might still prefer to employ the old process as it will enable them to keep receiving extra money, but it might keep Margaret and the sales team from complying with the management’s wishes.

Rule-Based Theory Margaret’s obligation is to comply with the company’s desired method of completing expense reports. She has no obligation to appease her sales team by continuing to use the old method.

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Character Theory According to the scenario, Margaret has employed the current method of completing expense reports because it is the method that she learnt when she was new to the company.

In other words, she has not employed the old method out of any particular loyalty toward her sales team. But she does seem to care about pleasing her supervisors, and this can be observed by her insistence that the sales team complete expense reports on time and her gratification that they do so. If she employs the new method, it would also please her boss, but if she does not do it, she may damage her relationship with her boss.

2.

What should Margaret do? Why? Based largely on the rule-based theory but also to some extent on the consequential and character theories, Margaret should switch to the new method for completing expense reports. Her sole obligation in this scenario is to comply with the company’s desired method for completing expense reports. Moreover, it would be unethical for her to continue using a method that results in employees getting more money than they are entitled to in travel reimbursements. Additionally, she can save the company money by changing to the new method, which benefits the entire company, and her desire to please her bosses will be best met by changing to the new method.

Self-Assessments—What about You? 6.1 Task Goal Attribute Questionnaire This exercise is designed to give students an insight into their goals at work or school by examining the importance they place on the task-goal attributes of participation in goal setting, feedback on goal effort, peer competition, goal specificity, and goal difficulty. It provides a useful introduction to the topic of goal setting and once completed allows students to share results and personal experiences of goal setting with the class. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide.

6.2 Do You Learn From The Consequences Of Behavior?

Reinforcement and punishment represent the positive and negative consequences of behavior.

Positive consequences are the results that the person finds attractive or pleasurable. They might include a pay increase, bonus, promotion, transfer to a more desirable geographic location, or praise from a supervisor. Negative consequences are the results that the person finds unattractive or aversive. They might include disciplinary action, an undesirable transfer, a demotion, or harsh

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criticism from a supervisor. The recipient of the consequences defines them as positive or negative. Therefore, individual personality differences as well as gender and cultural differences may be important in their classification.

For this exercise, students should create two lists. One for the positive consequences of behavior that they have experienced and the other for the negative consequences of behavior that they have experienced. Students should compare these two lists and explain why a behavior was connected to a consequence. Then, students should suggest ways to modify their behavior such that their behavior attracts more positive consequences than negative consequences. The student portion of the activity is provided on the review card in the student edition of ORGB. 6.3 How Do You Correct Poor Performance?

The experience of poor performance is universal; everyone has performed poorly at one time or another. The real significance of poor performance is found in correcting it—understanding why the poor performance occurred and developing plans to prevent similar poor performance in the future. The first step is describing the event in detail, including an assessment of how the performance came to be labeled as “poor”. The second step involves listing all the possible contributing causes of the poor performance. In doing so, students should consider internal as well as external factors. The rest of the process is largely useless if no plan is developed to ensure better performance in the future. This exercise can be followed up later in the semester by asking students to discuss the effectiveness of their plans, once they have had the opportunity to implement them.

As students list contributing factors to their poor performance, it is important that they consider internal as well as external factors. As a follow-up to this challenge, instructors should ask students to summarize the effectiveness of their plan once they implement it. The student portion of the activity is provided on the review card in the student edition of ORGB and on a handout at the end of this chapter guide.

Issues in Diversity Race and Rewards at the Harlem Police Department Off-duty police officer Omar J. Edwards was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer on May 28, 2009. Edwards was chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem, New York and had drawn his gun when the incident occurred. While accidents such as this are unfortunate, they are not unusual, especially in the line of police work. This particular accident, however, would affect rank-and-file minority police officers in a very significant way. After the accident, Police

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14 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Commissioner Raymond Kelly vowed to increase the number of minority officers in top-level Harlem police department positions. By all accounts, Commissioner Kelly is “a fair-minded leader of a hierarchical organization,” so why the emphasis on promoting minority officers, and why now?

For one thing, the off-duty police officer was black and the shooter was white. This fact “resurrected the volatile cross section of race, politics, and the use of deadly force by police officers.” Conventional wisdom suggests that public servants should represent the community in which they serve so that they might have a better understanding of the residents and vice versa.

While the number of blacks and Hispanics at the rank of captain or higher has risen significantly since 2001, whites make up the majority of the Harlem Police department’s executive corps.

Harlem Police department’s reward system operates in almost the same way as it does in all police departments. Promotion of rank-and-file officers to captain depends on their performance in the civil service exams. Promotions above the captain rank are discretionary. While Commissioner Kelly admits that minority officers have enjoyed a quicker promotion than white officers of the same rank, Roy Richter, the president of the Captain’s Endowment Association, points out that “[T]his police commissioner rewards performance regardless of race or gender.”

1.

How will Commissioner Kelly’s vow to increase minority representation in the top command affect the rank-and-file officers?

Given the statement that Commissioner Kelly is widely regarded as fair-minded, in the absence of blatant discrimination, rank-and-file officers are likely to perceive his efforts to increase minority representation in top levels simply as an effort to make his organization better reflect the community. If discrimination becomes apparent, rank-and-file officers will probably become frustrated and motivation will decline within the organization.

2.

Should service organization managers consider their “market” when promoting employees to higher levels? Why or why not?

Service organization managers should consider their market when they promote employees to higher levels; EEOC guidelines require that organizations’ workforces reflect the populations in which they are located as much as possible with regard to diversity. However, managers must also avoid not only blatant discrimination but also the perception of discriminatory practices. Managers have a very fine line to walk in accomplishing the kinds of things Commissioner Kelly wants to accomplish—not violating EEOC guidelines while easing tensions among the local populace.

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15 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercises 6.1 Positive and Negative Reinforcement Instructor’s Notes: The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate the effects of positive and negative reinforcement on behavior change. This exercise is useful when a class seems unruly and needs a change of pace. It is similar to the childhood game most students have played. Students will become very vocal and typically animated. Instructors may want to take care in selecting the volunteers. A description of the steps of the exercise are provided on student handouts at the end of this chapter guide.

Discussion Questions: 1.

What were the differences in behavior of the volunteers when different kinds of reinforcement (positive, negative, or both) were used? Most of the time the individual receiving positive reinforcement will have a number of gestures and nonverbal indicators of success.

2.

What were the emotional reactions of the volunteers to the different kinds of reinforcement?

3.

One of the ways to give volunteers time to reflect and to get out of the spotlight for a moment is to have them go to a board or flip chart and list a series of words that described how they felt. Typical for volunteer #1 will be embarrassment, frustration, quit, etc.

Volunteer #3 may have feelings like confusion, frustration, and ambiguity.

4.

Which type of reinforcement—positive or negative—is most common in organizations?

What effect do you think this has on motivation and productivity? Students’ responses will depend on their exposure to specific instances.

6.2 Correcting Poor Performance Purpose: This exercise provides an opportunity for students to engage in a performance diagnosis role-play as either the assistant director of the Academic Computing Service Center or as a member of a university committee appointed by the president of the university at the request of the center director.

Group Size: Form the class into groups of five or six students, and either ask the group to select who is to be the assistant director or assign one group member to be the assistant director.

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16 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

A description of the steps and the roles are provided on student handouts at the end of this chapter guide.

Performance diagnosis, especially where some poor performance exists, requires making attributions and determining causal factors as well as formulating a plan of action to correct any poor performance.

Role Descriptions: Assistant Director, Academic Computing Service Center You are the assistant director of the university’s Academic Computing Service Center. You are a skilled information systems software engineer with twenty years of experience at two different universities. You assumed your current job about three years ago. Within the first year you became very familiar with the entire information systems infrastructure at the university and developed a highly successful relationship with all of the technicians and support staff under your supervision.

With a notable downturn in enrollment since you came, it has been a struggle to obtain the financial resources necessary to complete all of the upgrades you think are required for a first rate center and to procure all the latest hardware sought by the faculty, research, and teaching staff across campus. The center services a wide variety of university customers, such as the hard science requirements in engineering, physics, and chemistry for massive data analysis and networking with other universities; the social science requirements in psychology, business, and social work for specific types of statistical analysis packages; the administrative requirements of the registrar and financial services offices; and finally the unique needs of the medical school.

Because of the differing needs of these customers, the center experiences conflicting pressures and demands. These customers are not information systems experts, and you take a lead role in attempting to educate them about the competing demands and limitations the center faces.

You report directly to the new director of the ACS Center who has been on the job for about seven months. Although the director appears friendly, she also does not seem to be a real information systems expert with the technical expertise you would like a director to have. You are scheduled to meet with a university committee of faculty and staff, although you are not exactly sure why, you have heard rumors there is some discontent among the center’s customers.

University Committee Members

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You are members of a university committee of faculty and staff that the new director of the Academic Computing Service Center has asked the president to form. You understand that the new director is a rather new graduate of an eastern university with an M.S. degree in information systems and some prior computing and information systems experience, going back to graduate school. She has been the director for about seven months, and the declines in enrollment which preceded her arrival by several years have taken a toll on the financial and human resources of the university. At the same time, advances in information systems technology have increased demand for system upgrades and advances across campus.

The assistant director of the ACS Center has been in the vice of these forces for several years.

The assistant director is a talented, highly proficient information systems expert who grew up through the technical ranks after getting an undergraduate business degree in information systems and management science. His technically superior attitude is apparently evident to the diverse disciplines across campus that see him as increasing the tensions and conflicts flowing from declining resources and increasing demand. The new director seems a little puzzled as to how to sort out all the issues and make appropriate attributions to the behavior and actions of the various parties involved. A key responsibility for her is getting a clear picture of the performance of her assistant director, who does seem to have some poor performance problems.

6.3 The Death of Management Instructor’s Notes: Since this is an editorial page, this is a logical assignment for students to read as homework. A technique that works to aid in getting to the issues quickly in class is to have the students highlight the most important issues for their position. A student handout is provided at the end of this chapter guide.

Divide the class into five groups that will discuss this topic with the speaker when he visits the campus. Each group will submit, within 20 minutes, what their issue and discussion question will be and who their designated debater is. The instructor takes the position of the editorial writer, Robert Samuelson*. (You may want to let 5 students take his position and debate for him).

During the debate, students may request assistance from their group, and they will need to refer the book for their support.

• • • •

Decide who in your group will be the five students to debate this topic.

Decide which particular point you wish to refute.

Back up you argument with specific references to this chapter.

Prepare your group by defining what you believe Samuelson means by the following

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18 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

words: o Pseudo skills o All-purpose executives o General managers o Skills •

What would Mr. Samuelson say about the concepts in this chapter?

* SOURCE: Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek, May 10, 1993, 55.

Additional Examples Aggressive Goal Setting…And More The history of the Korean automotive industry has been a “rags to riches” story beginning with the establishment of Hyundai Motor Company in 1967 to assemble American designed cars for local consumption. By 2005, it had become the sixth largest automobile producer in the world and a major competitor to GM, Ford, and Toyota. The company used a practice of internally generated crises as a catalyst for organizational resilience, rebounding from failures and using aggressive goal setting. HMC also set demanding production targets as goals for its manufacturing workforce and set stringent quality benchmarks as goals for its vehicles. Learning from experience became a key enabling mechanism for the aggressive goal setting and the ultimate success of the company.

The Effects of Accuracy in Performance Evaluations Studies involving both laboratory and field research on performance evaluations that included self-evaluations and, in some cases, evaluations from an external authority, produced an interesting pattern of results that showed the effects of accuracy in performance evaluation on subsequent task performance. The main finding was that when individuals more accurately evaluated their performance on a task, the better was their performance on a subsequent task. In addition, the first study found that for those individuals who overestimated their performance on a task, the lower their performance on the next task. Interestingly, underestimating performance on a task had no apparent effect on performance of the subsequent task. The second study found that these effects were dampened by the presence of an external authority. Specifically, when individuals received feedback from an external authority, the effects of the inaccuracy of their own self-performance evaluations had a reduced effect on subsequent performance. Therefore, accuracy in self-performance evaluation has a positive effect on the next task performance, and overestimation in self-performance evaluation has a negative effect on the task performance that

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19 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

follows. However, both of these effects are reduced, though not eliminated, when there is an external authority engaged in the role of performance evaluation.

SOURCE: S. Ellis, R. Mendel, and M. Aloni-Zohar, “The Effect of Accuracy of Performance Evaluation on Learning from Experience: The Moderating role of After-Event Reviews,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 39(3) (2009): 541–563.

Tri-Mentoring: New Spin, Old Practice Tri-mentoring is a formalized peer-mentoring system that recognizes implicit learning in organizations. Employees can and do learn from each other in the normal performance of daily tasks. Tri-mentoring formalizes this experience with a process in which three employees get together and share their tacit and implicit knowledge to build organizational capability. The trio offers flexibility, healthy discussion, and covers overlaps. Managers provide direction and experts assess outcomes.

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20 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Case Study and Suggested Responses Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success Linkage of Case to Chapter Material This case describes James Dyson’s unusual and challenging path to entrepreneurial success with the design and marketing of the vacuum cleaner bearing his name. Dyson’s life journey is one based on a desire to solve problems and learn from mistakes and to persevere and excel. In the late 1970s, Dyson began developing a vacuum cleaner based on the belief that “people actually wanted to see the dirt that they were collecting.” [I]nspired by an industrial cyclone at a timber mill,…[Dyson] created a vacuum that used centrifugal force to separate the dust and dirt. No bag, no clogging, no loss of suction. It didn’t look great, but it worked. After five years of testing, tweaking, fist banging, cursing, and more than 5,000 mistakesor prototypes, as engineers call themit was there.” Dyson says, “[e]ach iteration of the vacuum came about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th…I love mistakes.” Dyson’s life experiences in being willing to experiment and run the risk of making mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, to persevere in light of daunting circumstances, and to achieve excellence relates very directly to the learning and performance management concepts discussed in Chapter 6.

Suggested Answers for Discussion Questions 1.

Why is the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes crucial to learning?

Although success is positively reinforcing and therefore helps people in learning, failure can play a valuable role as well. Success demonstrates what a person does well; failure identifies what an individual does not do well and therefore needs to learn. Failure helps to define one’s current limits and identifies the areas where further competency development is needed. People who do not experience failure are not fully aware of their developmental needs.

James Dyson was well aware of the value of making mistakes and learning from them. This was made clear to him in his first job. Dyson recalls that his first boss, Jeremy Fry, taught him that if people are allowed to make mistakes, they will learn very quickly. Fry also taught Dyson to mistrust experience, especially the experience of entrenched individuals and organizations because they tend to loathe innovation. Often innovation comes about as a consequence of failuresometimes repeated failures.

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21 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

2.

How can the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes contribute to performance improvement?

Making mistakes enables a person to discover firsthand what works and what does not work.

Direct experience with making mistakes is a more powerful learning force than observing others make mistakes. It can also provide for more powerful learning than perpetual success.

Making mistakes also serves to identify one’s developmental needs. If people are fearful of making mistakes, they will not take risks, they will not innovate, and they will not experiment. By avoiding risk-taking, innovation and experimentation may make a person feel safe, but he or she is unlikely to improve performance substantially. However, risk taking, innovation, and experimentation are more likely to create the potential for sustained performance improvements.

James Dyson, reflecting on his arduous, mistake-laden development of the Dyson vacuum’s dirt collection system, states, “[e]veryone said that the clear bin would repulse people. By that point I’d stopped listening to everyone and went with my instinct. I’m particularly adept at making mistakesit’s a necessity as an engineer. Each iteration of the vacuum came about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th…I love mistakes.”

3.

What advice do you think James Dyson would give to a recent college graduate who is just starting his/her career?

James Dyson probably would emphasize two things: • Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them • Persevere, even when the conditions or odds are unfavorable With regard to learning from mistakes, the students could cite case information that has already been brought up in the suggested responses to Questions 1 and 2. First, Dyson recalls that his first boss taught him that if people are allowed to make mistakes, they will learn very quickly. Second, in recalling the arduous development process of his vacuum cleaner, Dyson, states, “By that point I’d stopped listening to everyone and went with my instinct.

I’m particularly adept at making mistakesit’s a necessity as an engineer. Each iteration of the vacuum came about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th…I love mistakes.”

The advice regarding perseverance can also be drawn from his experience with making mistakes. Clearly, persisting despite making over 5,000 mistakes is a powerful lesson in

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22 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

perseverance and so is the insight that Dyson shares regarding his childhood passion for running. Quoted on the company’s website, Dyson recalls, “I wanted to give up almost every day. But one of the things I did when I was young was long distance running, from a mile up to ten miles. They wouldn’t let me run more than ten miles at schoolin those days they thought you’d drop down dead or something. And I was quite good at it, not because I was physically good but because I had more determination. I learned determination from it.”

Dyson also says, “A lot of people give up when the world seems to be against them, but that’s the point when you should push a little harder. I use the analogy of running a race. It seems as though you can’t carry on, but if you just get through the pain barrier, you’ll see the end and be okay. Often, just around the corner is where the solution will happen.”

4.

What advice do you think James Dyson would give to someone who is in charge of training people and evaluating their performance?

The response to this question should build on the suggested response to the preceding question. Most importantly, James Dyson would likely advise trainers and evaluators to give people the freedom to make mistakes and to learn from them. He would also advise trainers and evaluators to encourage people to work hard and to persist in developing their competencies and achieving their goals.

SOURCE: This case solution was written by Michael K. McCuddy, The Louis S. and Mary L. Morgal Chair of Christian Business Ethics and Professor of Management, College of Business, Valparaiso University.

Video Profile on Barcelona Restaurant Group At Barcelona Restaurant Group it’s about more than food: it’s about an experience. Cuisine is only 50 percent of the total Barcelona experience; the other half is made up of intangibles such as lighting, clientele, atmospherics, background music, and conversation with managers and wait staff. For Barcelona to be successful, each employee must deliver the European tapas ambience night after night. To achieve consistent quality, Barcelona gauges its performance with the help of multiple feedback loops. First, the establishment participates in a Secret Shoppers program.

Next, the restaurant solicits comments from regular patrons, and every comment card and e-mail goes straight to the owner. Finally, managers monitor activities through restaurant surveillance cameras and by walking the floors to interact with customers.

Discussion Questions and Solutions

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23 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

1.

According to Barcelona owner Andy Pforzheimer, why do so many restaurants go out of business?

Andy Pforzheimer says that restaurants go out of business because they fail to effectively and accurately measure their own performance. They fail to define success, and they fail to appraise themselves in a thorough, ongoing manner. Quantifying service is especially important in the restaurant industry where customer satisfaction depends on intangibles such as pleasant servers, food preparation, and short wait times.

2.

What tactics do leaders at Barcelona use to help measure and control the restaurant’s financial performance?

In the video, Barcelona uses multiple methods of controlling financial performance. First, managers hold weekly meetings in which chefs and general managers review key financial data. Group members review P&L numbers for the restaurants, and owner Andy Pforzheimer confronts managers if they let food costs rise above 25 percent. Second, each of Barcelona’s seven restaurants generates monthly financial statements, and managers track their financial progress against the financials of the other Barcelona restaurants. Competition between Barcelona restaurants motivates managers to improve food and service while maintaining low overhead costs.

3.

How does Barcelona reward managers and chefs?

In the video, Chief Operating Officer Scott Lawton says that Barcelona managers receive a financial bonus for achieving profitability. In fact, Barcelona offers a 12 percent bonus on annual restaurant sales earned above the company’s base operating profit. The bonus money is significant and can be adjusted upward or downward slightly to reflect the scores from Secret Shopper reports. Lawton says the company does not provide financial bonuses to chefs because chefs would inadvertently compromise quality by having to pinch pennies.

During group meetings, Barcelona’s owners offer praise to employees that stand out for good performance as measured by customer feedback and meeting financial targets.

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24 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Student Handouts Ethical Dilemma Margaret Dawson supervises a team of six salespeople within Smith & Yardley, Inc., and she’s been with the company for five years. As her team was assembled, Margaret worked assertively to make sure everyone was clear on how to complete the sometimes complicated expense report forms. Since her sales force was on the road for approximately 60 percent of the time, filling out expense reports completely was essential. The sales people were dependent on getting reimbursements quickly for living expenses and the extensive mileage accrued; the accounting team needed to process the forms quickly in order to avoid a critical back-log of debt. Margaret’s team consistently submits their reports on time, a fact that pleases both Margaret and her boss.

The team receives their reimbursements promptly, which meets their needs.

For her entire time with Smith & Yardley, Inc., Margaret has used a rounding system to make the numbers reconcile more easily when inputted into the excel spreadsheet expense report. She has consistently shared this procedure with her salespeople as a method of reconciliation that also quickens the process. Margaret is also aware that when her subordinates complete their reports this way, they often get a little extra money in their reimbursement check. Since that’s the procedure Margaret was taught when she was new to the company, she feels comfortable passing that information on.

At the last managers’ meeting, Margaret’s supervisor, Henry, reviewed the correct procedures for completing expense reports. She learned that the rounding system that she was taught and has consequently taught to her sales force isn’t exactly the way the company would like outstanding expenses reconciled. The way in which Margaret and her team complete their reports isn’t specifically wrong, but it does err in favor of awarding the employees extra money. Margaret has to decide if she should gather her team and inform them that expense reports have to be completed in a new, more time-consuming manner, or if she should simply allow the team to keep submitting the forms in the way in which they’ve all become accustomed.

Questions 1.

2.

Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Margaret’s options.

What should Margaret do? Why?

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25 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

What about You? Task Goal Attribute Questionnaire Listed below is a set of statements that may or may not describe the job or school objectives toward which you are presently working. Please read each statement carefully and rate each on a scale from 1 (agree completely) to 7 (disagree completely) to describe your level of agreement or disagreement with the statement. Please answer all questions. _____ 1. I am allowed a high degree of influence in the determination of my work/school objectives. _____ 2. I should not have too much difficulty in reaching my work/school objectives; they appear to be fairly easy. _____ 3. I receive a considerable amount of feedback concerning my quantity of output on the job/in school. _____ 4. Most of my coworkers and peers try to outperform one another on their assigned work/school goals. _____ 5. My work/school objectives are very clear and specific; I know exactly what my job/assignment is. _____ 6. My work/school objectives will require a great deal of effort from me to complete them. _____ 7. I really have little voice in the formulation of my work/school objectives. _____ 8. I am provided with a great deal of feedback and guidance on the quality of my work. _____ 9. I think my work/school objectives are ambiguous and unclear. _____ 10. It will take a high degree of skill and know-how on my part to attain fully my work/school objectives. _____ 11. The setting of my work/school goals is pretty much under my own control. _____ 12. My boss/instructors seldom let(s) me know how well I am doing on my work toward my work/school objectives. _____ 13. A very competitive atmosphere exists among my peers and me with regard to attaining our respective work/school goals; we all want to do better than anyone else in attaining our goals. _____ 14. I understand fully which of my work/school objectives are more important than others; I have a clear sense of priorities on these goals. _____ 15. My work/school objectives are quite difficult to attain. _____ 16. My supervisor/instructors usually ask(s) for my opinions and thoughts when determining my work/school objectives.

Scoring: Place your response (1 through 7) in the space provided. For questions 7, 12, 9, and 2, subtract

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26 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

your response from 8 to determine your adjusted score. For each scale (e.g., participation in goal setting), add the responses and divide by the number of questions in the scale.

Participation in Goal Setting: Question 1 _____ Question 7 (8 – _____) = _____ Question 11 _____ Question 16 _____ Total divided by 4 = Feedback on Goal Effort: Question 3 _____ Question 8 _____ Question 12 (8 – _____) Total divided by 3 =

= _____

Peer Competition: Question 4 _____ Question 13 _____ Total divided by 2 = Goal Specificity: Question 5 _____ Question 9 (8 – _____) Question 14 _____ Total divided by 3 = Goal Difficulty: Question 2 (8 – _____) Question 6 _____ Question 10 _____ Question 15 _____ Total divided by 4 =

= _____

= _____

Interpreting your average scale scores: 6 or 7 is very high on this task–goal attribute. 4 is a moderate level on this task–goal attribute. 1 or 2 is very low on this task–goal attribute.

SOURCE: Adapted from R. M. Steers, “Factors Affecting Job Attitudes in a Goal-Setting Environment,” Academy of Management Journal 19 (1976): 9. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

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27 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

What about You? How do you Correct Poor Performance?

At one time or another, each of us has had a poor performance of some kind. It may have been a poor test result in school, a poor presentation at work, or a poor performance in an athletic event.

Think of a poor performance event that you have experienced and work through the following three steps.

Step 1. Briefly describe the specific event in some detail. Include why you label it a poor performance (bad score? someone else’s evaluation?).

Step 2. Analyze the poor performance. a. List all the possible contributing causes to the poor performance. Be specific, such as the room was too hot, you did not get enough sleep, you were not told how to perform the task, etc. You might ask other people for possible ideas, too.

1. _________________________ 2. _________________________ 3. _________________________ 4. _________________________ 5. _________________________ 6. _________________________ 7. _________________________ b. Is there a primary cause for the poor performance? What is it?

Step 3. Plan to correct the poor performance.

Develop a step-by-step plan of action that specifies what you can change or do differently to improve your performance the next time you have an opportunity. Include seeking help if it is needed. Once your plan is developed, look for an opportunity to execute it.

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28 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Issues in Diversity Race and Rewards at the Harlem Police Department Off-duty police officer Omar J. Edwards was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer on May 28, 2009. Edwards was chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem, New York and had drawn his gun when the incident occurred. While accidents such as this are unfortunate, they are not unusual, especially in the line of police work. This particular accident, however, would affect rank-and-file minority police officers in a very significant way. After the accident, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly vowed to increase the number of minority officers in top-level Harlem police department positions. By all accounts, Commissioner Kelly is “a fair-minded leader of a hierarchical organization,” so why the emphasis on promoting minority officers, and why now?

For one thing, the off-duty police officer was black; the shooter is white. This fact “resurrected the volatile cross section of race, politics, and the use of deadly force by police officers.”

Conventional wisdom suggests that public servants should represent the community in which they serve so that they might have a better understanding of the residents and vice versa. While the number of blacks and Hispanics at the rank of captain or higher has risen significantly since 2001, whites make up the majority of the Harlem Police department’s executive corps.

Harlem Police department’s reward system operates almost the same way as it does in all police departments. Promotion of rank-and-file officers to captain depends on their performance in the civil service exams. Promotions above the captain rank are discretionary. While Commissioner Kelly admits that minority officers have enjoyed a quicker promotion than white officers of the same rank; Roy Richter, the president of the Captain’s Endowment Association, points out that “[T]his police commissioner rewards performance regardless of race or gender.”

Questions 1.

2.

How will Commissioner Kelly’s vow to increase minority representation in the top command affect the rank-and-file officers?

Should service organization managers consider their “market” when promoting employees to higher levels? Why or why not?

SOURCE: A. Baker, “Police Commissioner Plans to Put More Minority Officers in Top Posts,” The New York Times (June 26, 2009); A. Gendar, E. Pearson, B. Paddock, and L. Standora, “Black Cop Killed by White Officer: Horror in East Harlem as Off-Duty Rookie Is Shot Pursuing Suspect,” New York Daily News (May 29, 2009).

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29 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise Positive and Negative Reinforcement Purpose: To examine the effects of positive and negative reinforcement on behavior change.

1. Select two or three volunteers to receive reinforcement from the class while performing a particular task. Ask the volunteers to leave the room.

2. Identify an object for the student volunteers to locate when they return to the room. (The object should be unobtrusive but clearly visible to the class. Some that have worked well are a small triangular piece of paper that was left behind when a notice was torn off a classroom bulletin board, a smudge on the chalkboard, and a chip in the plaster of a classroom wall.)

3. Specify the reinforcement contingencies that will be in effect when the volunteers return to the room. For negative reinforcement, students should hiss, boo, and throw things (although they should not throw anything harmful) when the first volunteer is moving away from the object; students should cheer and applaud when the second volunteer is getting closer to the object; and if a third volunteer is used, use both negative and positive reinforcement.

4. Assign a student to keep a record of the time it takes each of the volunteers to locate the object.

5. Ask Volunteer #1 to come back to the room, and instruct him or her as follows: “Your task is to locate and touch a particular object in the room, and the class has agreed to help you.

You may begin.”

6. Volunteer #1 continues to look for the object until it is found while the class assists by giving negative reinforcement.

7. Ask Volunteer #2 to come back to the room, and instruct him or her as follows: “Your task is to locate and touch a particular object in the room, and the class has agreed to help you.

You may begin.”

8. Volunteer #2 continues to look for the object until it is found while the class assists by giving positive reinforcement.

9. Ask Volunteer #3 to come back to the room, and instruct him or her as follows: “Your task is to locate and touch a particular object in the room, and the class has agreed to help you.

You may begin.”

10. Volunteer #3 continues to look for the object until it is found while the class assists by giving both positive and negative reinforcement.

11. In a class discussion, have students answer the following questions: a. How did the behavior of the volunteers differ when different kinds of reinforcement (positive, negative, or both) were used? Most of the time the individual receiving positive reinforcement will have a number of gestures and nonverbal indicators of

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30 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

b.

c.

success.

What were the emotional reactions of the volunteers to the different kinds of reinforcement? One of the ways to give volunteers time to reflect and to get out of the spotlight for a moment is to have them go to a board of a flip chart and list a series of words that describe how they felt. Typical for Volunteer #1 would be embarrassment, frustration, quit, etc. Volunteer #3 may have feelings like confusion, frustration, and ambiguity.

Which type of reinforcement—positive or negative—is most common in organizations? What effect do you think this has on motivation and productivity?

Students’ responses will depend on their exposure to specific instances.

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31 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise Correcting Poor Performance This exercise provides an opportunity for you to engage in a performance diagnosis role-play as either the assistant director of the Academic Computing Service Center or as a member of a university committee appointed by the president of the university at the request of the center director. Instructors will divide the class into groups of five or six students and either ask the group to select a person who will be the assistant director or assign one group member to be the assistant director.

Performance diagnosis, especially where some poor performance exists, requires making attributions and determining causal factors as well as formulating a plan of action to correct any poor performance.

Step 1. (5 minutes) Once the class is formed into groups, instructors should provide the assistant director with a copy of the role description and each university committee member with a copy of the role context information. Group members are to read through the materials provided.

Step 2. (15 minutes) The university committee has to call in the assistant director of the Academic Computing Service Center for a performance diagnostic interview. This is an information-gathering interview, not an appraisal session. The purpose is to gather information for the center director.

Step 3. (15 minutes) The university committee has to agree on a statement that reflects their understanding of the assistant director’s poor performance and to include a specification of the causes. Based on this problem statement, the committee is to formulate a plan of action to correct the poor performance. The assistant director is to do the same, again ending with a plan of action.

Step 4. (10–15 minutes, optional) Instructors may ask the groups to share the results of their work in Step 3 of the role-play exercise.

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32 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise Correcting Poor Performance Assistant Director, Academic Computing Service Center You are the assistant director of the university’s Academic Computing Service Center. You are a skilled information systems software engineer with twenty years of experience at two different universities. You assumed your current job about three years ago. Within the first year you became very familiar with the entire information systems infrastructure at the university and developed a highly successful relationship with all of the technicians and support staff under your supervision.

With a notable downturn in enrollment since you came, it has been a struggle to obtain the financial resources necessary to complete all of the upgrades you think are required for a first rate center and to procure all the latest hardware sought by the faculty, research, and teaching staff across campus. The center services a wide variety of university customers, such as the hard science requirements in engineering, physics, and chemistry for massive data analysis and networking with other universities; the social science requirements in psychology, business, and social work for specific types of statistical analysis packages; the administrative requirements of the registrar and financial services offices; and finally the unique needs of the medical school.

Because of the differing needs of these customers, the center experiences conflicting pressures and demands. These customers are not information systems experts, and you take a lead role in attempting to educate them about the competing demands and limitations the center faces.

You report directly to the new director of the ACS Center who has been on the job for about seven months. Although the director appears friendly, she does not seem to be a real information systems expert with the technical expertise you would like a director to have. You are scheduled to meet with a university committee of faculty and staff; although you are not exactly sure why, you have heard rumors there is some discontent among the center’s customers.

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33 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise Correcting Poor Performance University Committee Members You are member of a university committee of faculty and staff that the new director of the Academic Computing Service Center has asked the president to form. You understand that the new director is a rather new graduate of an eastern university with an M.S. degree in information systems and some prior computing and information systems experience. She has been the director for about seven months. The declines in enrollment which preceded her arrival by several years have taken a toll on the financial and human resources of the university. At the same time, advances in information systems technology have increased demand for system upgrades and advances across campus.

The assistant director of the ACS Center has been in the vice of these forces for several years.

The assistant director is a talented, highly proficient information systems expert who grew up through the technical ranks after getting an undergraduate business degree in information systems and management science. His technically superior attitude is apparently evident to the diverse disciplines across campus that see him as increasing the tensions and conflicts flowing from declining resources and increasing demand. The new director seems a little puzzled as to how to sort out all the issues and make appropriate attributions as to the behavior and actions of the various parties involved. A key responsibility for her is getting a clear picture of the performance of her assistant director, who does seem to have some poor performance problems.

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34 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise The Death of Management We are now witnessing the death of management. By management, I mean the peculiarly American idea (still taught at many business schools) that a “good manager” should be able to manage any enterprise, anywhere, any time. Through incisive analysis and decisive action, our supermanagers supposedly could make any company productive and profitable. The idea has collapsed with failures at companies that once symbolized U.S. management prowess—Sears, Westinghouse, and IBM. With hindsight, we can see the absurdity. We don’t imagine a winning football coach switching to basketball, nor a concert pianist becoming a symphony violinist. We don’t think an orthopedic surgeon would automatically make a good psychiatrist. We recognize that differences in talent, temperament, knowledge, and experience make some people good at some things and not at others. Somehow, managers were supposed to be immune to this logic.

They aren’t, of course. Indeed, the people who have created great businesses in recent decades typically confirm the logic. They have not been all-purpose executives, casually changing jobs and succeeding on the strength of dazzling analysis. Instead, they have been semi-fanatics who doggedly pursued a few good ideas. People like Sam Walton (Wal-Mart), Ray Kroc (McDonald’s), William McGowan (MCI), and Bill Gates (Microsoft).

What seems astonishing is how such a bad idea survived so long. Our infatuation with it partly reflected American’s optimism that all problems are amenable to reason. In 1914, Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “The Principles of Scientific Management” appeared and set a tone. Taylor pioneered time-and-motion studies, which analyzed how specific jobs might be done more efficiently. But his larger purpose was to “prove that the best management is a true science, resting upon clearly defined laws...”

Up to a point, who can quarrel with the resort to reason? The trouble is that it was taken too far and became self-destructive. The problem was not that freelance managers constantly jumped between companies, although that happened. The problem was that the style of running big companies changed for the worse. The belief that all problems could be solved by analysis favored the rise of executives who were adept with numbers and making slick presentations.

Huge staffs of analysts served these executives, who created conglomerates on the theory that a good manager could manage anything.

With bigger bureaucracies, companies couldn’t respond quickly to market changes—new

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35 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

technologies, competitors, or customer needs. The more powerful top executives became, the less they knew. Their information was filtered through staff reports and statistical tables. Some executives developed what consultant Mel Stuckey calls a phobia of manufacturing—they didn’t know what happened in factories and feared exposing their ignorance.

Roger Smith, GM’s chairman between 1981 and 1990, exemplified this sort of know-nothing executive. When asked by Fortune to explain what went wrong, he answered, “I don’t know. It’s a mysterious thing.” To fathom what went wrong, Smith truly had to understand how automobiles are designed and made; he apparently never did, despite a career at GM. As a society, we have spent the past decade paying for mistakes like Smith’s. Inept management, though not the only cause of corporate, turmoil, has been a major contributor. “Downsizing” and “restructuring” are but the catch phrases for the harsh process by which companies seek to regain their edge.

Truly dead?

Consider General Electric. A decade ago, it was “choking on its nit-picking systems of formal reviews...which delayed decisions...and often made GE a laggard at bringing new products to market,” write Noel Tichy and Stratford Sherman in a new book. The “mastery of arduous procedures had become an art form” necessary for executive advancement. GE chairman John Welch Jr. fired thousands and sold 19 major businesses. Profits rose from $1.7 billion in 1981 to $4.7 billion in 1992, but GE's payroll shrank from 404,000 to 268,000.

Such have been the ultimate social consequences of a bad idea. But is the muddled notion of “management” truly dead? You can object on two grounds. First, some generalists still ascend to the top of big companies, the naming of Louis Gerstner—who knows little of computers—to head IBM is a case in point. Well, maybe. But these executives are often specialists of a different sort; they specialize in dismantling conglomerates or top-heavy bureaucracies. Welch played precisely this role at GE; and Christopher Steffen intended to do the same at Kodak.

The second objective is more serious—it is that business schools still aim to produce general managers. The present notion of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration) is foolish. It is impossible to take people in their mid-20s—without much business experience—and educate them as “managers.” Yet business schools cling to the notion, because to do otherwise would jeopardize their tuition revenues. What’s lost is the opportunity for these bright young people to learn something of value—a specific business, a foreign language, an engineering skill—instead of the pseudo skills taught in business school.

Until this changes, we shall miseducate a large part of the talent pool for America’s business

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leadership. The one hopeful sign is that the subject now seems open for discussion. Indeed, the Harvard Business Review recently conducted a debate about the M.B.A. degree. Most contributors agreed it is not very useful. M.B.A. graduates are “glib and quick-witted”, wrote Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, but are not committed to “particular industries...but to management as a means of personal advancement.”

A recent M.B.A. graduate said it better, “My main reason for obtaining an M.B.A.,” she admitted, “was not necessarily to improve my business skills but because the degree is required to ‘get in the door’.” When the Harvard Business School can acknowledge that—and act upon it—American management will have taken a huge stride forward.

Mr. Samuelson has been asked to your campus to debate the Phi Beta Kappa honorary business fraternity about the accusations presented in this editorial. Your responsibility as a member of the business school is to practice the question and answer portion of the upcoming event with the individuals selected to talk with him at the open forum. In order to assist your friends, you must: • Decide who in your group will be the 5 students to debate this topic • Decide which particular point you wish to refute • Back up your argument with specific references to this chapter • Prepare your group by defining what you believe he means by the following words: o Pseudo skills o All-purpose executives o General managers o Skills

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37 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Case Study Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success James Dyson, knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in 2006, rose to success and fame via an unusual and challenging path. Dyson’s life journey is one based on a desire to solve problems and learn from mistakes, to persevere and excel.

His father’s death in 1956 when he was nine years old had a profound impact on Dyson’s future.

Dyson says, “[n]ot having a father, particularly at that time, was very unusual. I felt different. I was on my own. I can’t quite explain it, but I think subconsciously I felt a need to prove myself.”i When Dyson entered the work world, his first boss, Jeremy Fry, also had a profound influence on his development. Dyson recalls, “[w]hen I went to work for him, I’d never designed a product.

I’d never sold anything. And he put me in charge of a company manufacturing a high-speed landing craft. So he taught me that someone doesn’t have to grow into a job. If you allow them to make mistakes, they’ll learn extremely quickly. He also taught me to mistrust experience. He was far happier to have people working around him who had freshness and an unsullied approach.”ii In the late 1970s, Dyson began developing a vacuum cleaner based on the belief that “people actually wanted to see the dirt that they were collecting.”iii In recalling the beginning of this venture, Dyson observes, “I started with an idea: a vacuum with no bag. The bag was a problem.

The bag clogs with dust, the machine wheezes, losing its puff. So, inspired by an industrial cyclone at a timber mill, I created a vacuum that used centrifugal force to separate the dust and dirt. No bag, no clogging, no loss of suction. It didn’t look great, but it worked. After five years of testing, tweaking, fist banging, cursing, and more than 5,000 mistakesor prototypes, as engineers call themit was there.”iv Over the ensuing 15-year period, Dyson produced 5,127 prototypes of his Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner before developing the model that would ultimately make him a billionaire.v Dyson persevered in spite of the mistakes, disappointments, and frustrations, conditions that might have caused many other people to give up.

Dyson attributes his perseverance against the odds to an important childhood realization. Quoted on the company’s Web Site, Dyson recalls: “I wanted to give up almost every day. But one of the things I did when I was young was long distance running, from a mile up to ten miles. They wouldn’t let me run more than ten miles at schoolin those days they thought you’d drop down dead or something. And I was quite good at it, not because I was physically good but because I had more determination. I learned determination from it.” Dyson continues: “A lot of people give up when the world seems to be against them, but that’s the point when you should push a little

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harder. I use the analogy of running a race. It seems as though you can’t carry on, but if you just get through the pain barrier, you’ll see the end and be okay. Often, just around the corner is where the solution will happen.”vi Regarding the Dyson vacuum’s dirt collection system, Dyson recalls, “[e]veryone said that the clear bin would repulse people. By that point I’d stopped listening to everyone and went with my instinct. I’m particularly adept at making mistakes: it’s a necessity as an engineer. Each iteration of the vacuum came about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th. I never will. Believing that big companies would choose good technology, progress, over short-term profit was a big mistake. I love mistakes.”vii Dyson tried to interest existing manufacturers of vacuum cleaners in his invention, but with no success. So he pursued manufacturing the Dyson vacuum cleaner on his own. Although the venture nearly bankrupted him,viii here too he persevered. Within 18 months, the Dual Cyclone bagless model became the number one selling vacuum cleaner in the United Kingdom,ix and now sells more than four times as many vacuums in the U.K. than does its closest competitor.x Jennifer Harris, writing in Management Today, ponders why the so-called experts, like the established vacuum cleaner manufacturers that refused to produce Dyson’s machine, are sometimes loathe to innovation. Her answer is that these “experts” have become so successful that “they start to see success as their right, rather than a privilege earned continuously through hard work and fresh thinking.”xi Sir James Dyson, quite the contrarian, became an expert and successful through hard work and fresh thinking.

Discussion Questions 1.

2.

3.

4.

Why is the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes crucial to learning?

How can the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes contribute to performance improvement?

What advice do you think James Dyson would give to a recent college graduate who is just starting his/her career?

What advice do you think James Dyson would give to someone who is in charge of training people and evaluating their performance?

SOURCE: This case was written by Michael K. McCuddy, The Louis S. and Mary L. Morgal Chair of Christian Business Ethics and Professor of Management, College of Business Administration, Valparaiso University.

i ii

A. Beard, “Life’s Work,” Harvard Business Review 88(7/8) (July/August 2010): 172.

A. Beard, “Life’s Work,” Harvard Business Review 88(7/8) (July/August 2010): 172.

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39 Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

iii

M. Barrett and M Simmonds, “Dyson: Creativity on Tap,” Training Journal (January 2009): 34 (5 pages).

Anonymous, “My Favorite Mistake: James Dyson; James Dyson on his 5,000 missteps while inventing his famous vacuum cleaner,” Newsweek 157(23): 64. v A. Beard, “Life’s Work,” Harvard Business Review 88(7/8) (July/August 2010): 172. Anonymous, “Dyson,” Marketing (April 13, 2011): 13. vi RealiseMyProduct.co.uk, “James Dyson: How to successfully develop and launch a new product invention,” http://www.realisemyproduct.co.uk/james-dyson-successfully-develop-launch-new-product-invention/ accessed Feb 16, 2014). vii Anonymous, “My Favorite Mistake: James Dyson; James Dyson on his 5,000 missteps while inventing his famous vacuum cleaner,” Newsweek 157(23): 64. viii Anonymous, “Britain’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2009,” Management Today (January 2009): 37 (8 pages). ix Anonymous, “My Favorite Mistake: James Dyson; James Dyson on his 5,000 missteps while inventing his famous vacuum cleaner,” Newsweek 157(23): 64. x J. Harris, “Why Business is Like … Doubting Doctors,” Management Today (October 2009): 20 (2 pages). xi J. Harris, “Why Business is Like … Doubting Doctors,” Management Today (October 2009): 20 (2 pages). J. Harris, “Why Business is Like … Doubting Doctors,” Management Today (October 2009): 20 (2 pages). iv

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