The Hindu Business Line : Begin with job clarity

The foremost condition of performance is that employees know what is expected of them at work. This is the first of the 12 findings, which emerged from a million interviews stored in the Gallup Organisation's database.

But that was long ago. `First, Break All The Rules,' a book published in 1999, had challenged traditional thinking with the dozen bold statements and codified the `12 elements of work life... the core of the unwritten social contract between employee and employer.'

Since then, the 12 elements have achieved so much popularity that they are measured in more than 40 languages in 114 countries, and Gallup's digital vault holds more than 10 million responses.

So, here comes a sequel: `12: The Elements of Great Managing,' by Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter (www.landmarkonthenet.com) . The book describes the elements in detail and narrates stories of great managers who epitomise the same. "Managing is not some amorphous, `difficult to quantify' concept," the authors say. "One of the dumbest things companies do is try to make their `human resources' more productive while fighting what makes them human." Why is the first element, viz. job clarity, important? Because "so much of an enterprise's efficiency depends on the seamless combination of personal responsibilities." Groups that have high scores on this item are more productive, profitable and creative, the authors find. Yet, to many employees, it may be a mystery as to what they are supposed to be doing. Shockingly, this malaise is `amazingly common' among `individuals making large salaries'.

Knowing what is expected is more than a job description, explains the book. "It's a detailed understanding of how what one person is supposed to do fits in with what everyone else is supposed to do, and how those expectations change when circumstances change."

Compulsory read.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com