Engagement and Enlargement

[Dr. Scott Simmerman]

Okay, and apologies for going off the deep end without swimming wings on this, but I got grabbed and pummeled at thought to share it. Here is the question:

Is "Job Enlargement" the new Re-Engineering in the workplace?

JE is a new phrase floating around. at least in my sheltered existence...  JE was initially used in the context of job enrichment, giving people the opportunity to accomplish some vertical job expansion and to allow them some additional authority, autonomy and control over how things are done.

Now, JE is being used to force more responsibilities on people for the same pay.

How commonly is this phrase being used now in the workplace? And should we be scared when this "neato business phrase" is the latest new thing for "execu-speak?" Those were scary days when it got fashionable to "re-engineer workplaces" and when so many people were laid off and fired and so many companies foolishly lost so much knowledge.

Are we headed that way again, this time with increased "Verticality within the Job" with no upscaling of knowledge or compensation?

I will post some other thoughts in my next post.

[Dr. Scott Simmerman]

Here is what I really think:

Personally, I see “Job Enrichment” as the antithesis of engagement, since it puts such incredible demands on simple job performance so as to effectively roadblock performance in many ways.

This happened last night: A college teacher friend of mine runs an on-campus computer training center for adult learning. It gets a good deal of press and is quite busy teaching basic computer skills to adult learners who have little computer experiences. Classes always fill early and she is busy coordinating those programs and others focused on computers and education.

The other day, she was approached by campus authorities and “offered” the job of running an additional department unaffiliated with the computer training center. There was, of course, no additional compensation associated with the more than doubling of responsibility. And these campus authorities were quite surprised when she said, “NO.” She has more things to do than she can get done in her current job, has delegated all of the things that she could to her staff, and her staff was being cut at the same time!

(While states and colleges are not sitting on piles of cash, corporations are supposedly sitting on one to three trillion dollars in cash, some of which might be invested into creating jobs and improving performance. But that is not happening. We are not seeing much in terms of raises for employees if we take out “executive compensation,” either. There is not this compression at the top of most large corporations.)

While I was thinking about that college “enlargement” conversation as being typical to what is happening in work places all over, that phrase "Job Enlargement" came up in another of the interactive discussion lists I am on. The TV was on and were those bio-enhancement advertisements for enlargement -- you know, the ones with the guys and women describing the pills that make you bigger and that improve performance. This was the old, "take a pill and your troubles are over," kind of solution for performance problems (real or imagined) suggesting a drug or drug combination for "enlargement" to solve the problem.

And that, dangerously, got me thinking that maybe we need to find some pharmaceutical compound(s) that could stimulate production and activity (like methamphetamine) while also functioning as a antidepressant mood enhancer that would improve one's attitude for work (increase serotonin levels, decrease mental depression), combined with a nootropic enhancer (smart pill / cognitive enhancer (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropic) ) to improve mental performance.

Note: Someone could also do research on music that improves work performance (not Muzac, but something insidiously similar insofar as something to sell to companies).

(David – State the Engagement and Enlargement Radio Channel?)

We bring people into the workplace, pop them a pill, turn on the music and put them to work. We continue to design systems that need little human decision-making (I can think of a lot of those like inbound call-management trees) and just, "git 'er done!"

Think of it! A 90 second phone call would then take 30 to 40 seconds (remember that we can listen faster than we talk insofar as comprehension). Machines that handle production could run 50% faster. A 10-minute water cooler discussion would take 45 seconds. And just think how fast we could get people to type!

Just think how fast a DMV could then handle drivers' license applications, how quickly the people in the unemployment offices could handle applications and how fast those long lines would move. Think about Christmas in the retail stores and how fast those transactions could be processed. Think how fast those fast-food drive-throughs would operate!

On and on, with so many positive benefits on performance, profits and society. The Chinese might produce things more cheaply, but we could do it faster!

The heck with all this "workplace enhancement and performance improvement" kinds of training focused on human competency and leadership effectiveness consulting and training stuff. We just need to approach this neuro-pharmaceutically - "Better Profits Through Bio-Chemistry", Pills for Performance, or something like that.

We would regularly get "10 for 8" -- ten hours of work done in 8 hours -- and have few labor problems. And, if the drug were somewhat addictive, people would WANT to come to work, so maybe we could pay them even less!

Side effects and adverse reactions? Those would probably occur on the employees own time, so what the heck. Give them some rohypnol (Flunitrazepam) when they leave and they won't remember a thing.

Ya Think?

(I jest, of course, and my sincere apologies if someone takes this idea and actually implements it in your organization.)

I just hope that organizations can realize that continued actions to frustrate and over-work employees is not the long-term solution but only a short-term strategy to improve profits. I read that companies are sitting on $1 to $3 trillion dollars in cash but not hiring employees, simply getting them to do more for the same or less pay.

And I am reminded of the days when the concept of re-engineering the work processes to make them more efficient got rebranded to mean down-sizing, which also had the same impact in getting more things done with less people. The downside of downsizing was the loss of a lot of quality and the impact of burning out a lot of workers. Tacit knowledge was lost and I am not sure many US companies have ever really recovered from an innovation and leadership perspective.

Now, we add “Job Enlargement” to the mix of organizational development activities and HR approaches to the workplace.

Just Wonderful!

[Craig Althof]

Scott:

I'd say more than a few morsels to chew on. Egad! Just a couple for now.

Job Enlargement--a scam to get more for no more. But engaging for some, until they burn out and realize the assumption of more and more got them nowhere. A little cynical, but I've seen it too many times too.

..."research on music that improves work performance..." Been done--baroque period. Works too, but that's surely somewhat on an individual thing in my opinion. But I do know AC / DC has NO value in stimulating creativity or productivity and have a strong hunch muzak is at the same level!

I have some books buried somewhere.

Flunitrazepam...what's the generic version? You may be on to something....

[Dr. Scott Simmerman]

We might find it useful to develop a real definition as to what this is, as it relates to engagement and empowerment as well as a jokey one as well as one that would be used by the consulting industry to generate more consulting work in this area, kind of like what happened with re-engineering.

I am reminded of what Scott Adams wrote in "The Dilbert Principles:"

A mission statement is a defined as, "a long awkward sentence that demonstrates management's inability to think clearly."

All good companies have one.

Job Enlargement: A job restructuring designed to give an employee an expanded scope of work, responsibility, and accountability with the specific goal of generating more work for less pay in the hopes of someday gaining an improved title or position. All good leadership does this to motivate the employees to produce more profit, often done with a straight face and honest tone of voice.


C'mon, people, jump in here. The water is fine!

Craig - yeah, not sure about AC/DC but remember Men at Work, that Aussie group? Then there is stuff like, "Light My Fire," that I understand Burger King played when they did that firewalk and all those people burned their feet (Dave Barry wrote wonderfully on that). Problem with playing The Doors in today's workplace is that many people just might walk out through them... Seriously:

In Feb – April 2010, more employees have quit their jobs than have been laid off. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). In a poll conducted by human-resources consultant Right Management at the end of 2009, 60% of workers said they intended to leave their jobs when the market got better.

Job Enlargement Rocks!

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[Craig Althof]

Scott, you are killing me!!! But there is a serious side to this silliness....

Humor, satire, story-telling, metaphors, parables...all great ways to drive a point home. Although I think I may have been stung a couple times on the EEN doing that and being a little misunderstood...

It would be a gas if there were a whole handful of EEN travelers who could throw a little time at this because all in all, this is a hugely creative bunch and we NEED some fun!

Has anyone caught any of EEN member Doug Shaw's somewhat irreverent covers of old standard songs, with an engagement / work twist thrown in? He puts them on YouTube.

Scott, you or someone should start an EEN group: Just for Fun; MadnessWithMeaning...issue a survey asking for input on an appropriate name and level of interest!

(on second thought, no survey....you'd first have to get our leader's buy in and commitment to follow through. Then we'd have to wade through the major angst of whether the survey is designed properly and whether there is sufficient sized sample to validate the data. Then we'd have to host a series of focus group conference calls to see what people really thought, and compile and publish the results...too much work)

Thank you for preaching what appears to be one of your key philosophies in life, Scott...when the going gets tough, the tough get nutty. THEN they get things done. We seriously need to have some fun at work, at home, in our lives in general and even on the EEN. Sometimes we take ourselves WAY too seriously. I mean really..."lighten up, Francis!"

What a long, strange trip it's been...

[Dr. Scott Simmerman]

Tell me what work stuff ISN'T "Most SERIOUS" stuff -- we are talking about people's lives here. Yet one wonders what the leaders in this country are thinking, both the political ones as well as the business ones. Think they really care about the troops?

I do not think a new list is needed, and I will continue to try to snipe at some real issues and problems with facts and some occasional humor.

From a P & L standpoint, I think it is probably cheaper to play paintball for team building using real guns and bullets rather than those balls of paint, which are pretty expensive, and I wonder why someone has not combined that with team building and with down-sizing in the corporate teambuilding marketplace, for example. We do that with jobs and salaries every day, putting people in harm's way for no real reason.

I am not talking about Afghanistan or Iraq (or all the other wars going on these days), but of corporate America and even the country at large. I mean, what is it with Healthcare and having 30 or 40 million people with no coverage? What is it about when we talk about huge (continued) tax cuts for the ultra-rich 2% and layoffs for school teachers and cutting social security and Medicaid. Just like paintpall with guns and bullets...

My thoughts about engagement run the gamut, from the workplace stuff to the political, all life and death issues for a lot of people.

You will see me occasionally "taking a shot" at something or other. Hopefully, for some good reason.

Hey, anyone watching that Undercover show with execs going on the shopfloor? Tom Peters talked about MBWA many years ago and this show is all about that. Saw the first one last night - Most Interesting. Maybe we should have YouTube links embedded on these pages to those shows!

In the theme of music,

You can't always get what you want - Rolling Stones
Song for the Dead - Queens of the Stoneage
The beat goes on - Sonny and Cher
And justice for all - Metallica
Cowboys from Hell - Pantera
The Long Road Out of Eden - Eagles
Wake up - Rage against the machine
After the gold rush - Neil Young
Crime of the Century - Supertramp
Appetite for Destruction - Guns n' Roses

Lots of songs apply to the workplace!

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