Question:
You say that American management has just about weaned managerial judgment out of the picture. I think I know what you mean. Sometime, when I look at positive results of the team’s efforts, they were just blind dumb luck. And other times, we did fifty things right and barely achieved a marginal standard. So, tell me, with all this focus on Results, how would we measure effectiveness.
Response:
Effectiveness is a matter of judgment. Effectiveness is a matter of managerial judgment. How well does Rudy perform in the achievement of the desired goal? Given all the ins and outs, the difficulties faced, the unanticipated, unplanned monkey wrenches that get in the way, how well does Rudy perform?
This is a matter of managerial judgment.
Given that:
1. Any task (or role) requires a certain capability.
2. The person assigned has the appropriate capability.
The judgment is whether the person is committing their full capability to the task (or role).
This is NOT a “matter of counting outputs, super credits for super outputs, or penalties for lateness or sub-standard quality.” * This is about bringing their full capability to the completion of the task.
It is the job of the manager to observe and account for all the surrounding circumstances and make this most important judgment. And it is precisely this judgment that most managers avoid.
*Elliott Jaques, Requisite Organization, 1989.
Tom – as I read Elliott Jaques and listen to both Kathryn and Rebecca Cason, managers should not be attempting to judge whether or not a subordinate employee is committing their full capability to the task. “Is she or is she not giving us her best efforts?” Part of the employment contract Elliott identifies says that employees should be told on day one of employment that the manager expects and will from that moment on assume that the employee is giving the organization his/her best efforts every day. Having provided that context, managers can then make judgments regarding the degree to which someone’s best efforts are good enough for the organization. “Are her best efforts good enough?” Trying to determine whether or not someone is, in fact, giving us their best efforts should be left to God. Managers must clearly inform subordinates of their role requirements and accountabilities; employees should know that their accountable manager will judge whether or not their best efforts are/are not good enough.
Kevin,
Thank you for more clearly laying out the pieces of the managerial judgment. The purpose of the response to the question was to differentiate between “measuring output” vs “judging effectiveness.”
Indeed, the manager may have mis-judged the complexity of the task and the team member’s “best effort,” may not be enough. The most effective managers make better decisions matching complexity in the task with capability in the person.
Here’s what I see in most managers. They have been conditioned to focus ONLY on the results as a measure of performance. I find this conditioning is an abdication of managerial accountability. “As your manager, I have no idea how to manage the process, define the task, estimate a reasonable amount of time for completion or select the appropriate person. I will only look at the results and judge your performance against those results.” It’s the myth of RESULTS BASED PERFORMANCE. There are a hundred reasons why something works or doesn’t work.
Let’s kick this around for a few more days.