|
| 
 enlarge | Author: Dick Grote
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy Used: $0.39
You Save: $34.61 (99%)
New (28) Used (17) from $0.39
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 348742
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 260
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 1591397480
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.3125
EAN: 9781591397489
ASIN: 1591397480
Publication Date: November 16, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Need it by Christmas? Please select Expedited shipping. BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed!
Tell A Friend
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-9 of 9
 A positive view of a controversial system... March 27, 2006
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you want to start an emotional and heated discussion at work, just mention the term "forced ranking" when it comes to employee reviews. There'll be no lack of opinions. Having lived through the "rank and yank" system of Enron, I thought it would be good to get a positive view of the process from an expert. The book Forced Ranking: Making Performance Management Work by Dick Grote does an excellent job presenting the way the system is supposed to work.
Contents: The Differentiation of Talent; Risks and Rewards; Getting Started; Getting the Mechanics Right; Forced Ranking - Behind The Scenes; Forced Distribution; Getting the Truth into Performance Management; Memos and Scripts for Managers; FAQs About the Forced Ranking System; Forced Ranking and the Law; Notes; Further Reading; Index; About The Author
Forced Ranking is the process whereby the employees in a certain grouping or level are compared against their peers to determine the relative worst/best of the group. This may take the form of "top 10/bottom 10 percent", "20/70/10 percent", "quartiling", or a number of other ranking systems. The net effect is to focus your development efforts on those that show the most promise for the future, and to transfer/replace those who aren't measuring up to the rest of the group. These types of forced ranking systems eliminates the tendency for supervisors to rate everyone above average, thereby rewarding mediocrity and demoralizing the top players. This is also different than forced distribution, where performance reviews have to fall into some distribution curve in order to dole out merit raises and bonuses. Grote does an excellent job in explaining and documenting how the process works, how it benefits companies, and showing examples of where it's worked to perfection. He's also not ignorant of the fact that it can fail if not done properly, and he addresses those issues in a clear and concise manner.
My personal view is that I like these types of systems. I feel the strongest performers *should* be rewarded and given opportunities to continue their growth. Conversely, watching people coast and get above average reviews doesn't sit well with me. Enron's "rank and yank" system was one where I fared well, but it was a failure due to back room deal making and political decisions. Fortunately for me and my team, we had a boss who was really good at promoting his group. I'm currently at a company that recently started this type of calibration process. Again, while it makes a number of people nervous ("Am I going to get fired?"), I think this is one of the best ways to show people exactly where they stand, as well as allow them to determine how hard they want to work within the organization to achieve the rank they want.
Excellent book, and one that both managers and workers involved in forced ranking systems should read. It beats getting just the "gloom and doom" bias commonly associated with the system, and it helps you figure out how to maximize your own value to the organization.
Setting Up a Fair and Legal System January 21, 2006
John Matlock (Winnemucca, NV)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
A forced ranking system where each employee is ranked relative to his peers has a great deal of potential when it is administered fairly, humanely, and evenly across departments. When such a system allows lower level (or really any level) managers to pick favorites, to discriminate unfairly or is applied unevenly from department to department; the system falls apart, and can even lead to the courts.
The key, of course, is to create a forced ranking system that is not only fair but which is also viewed by the employees as being fair. And, should worse come to worse, it must also have legal defensibility.
Forced ranking has been around for a lot of years. Only in recent times has there been a reaction against it. Enron, for instance had a forced ranking system and still the company imploded. Other companies that have used forced ranking have continued to use them, and often used them to get their employees to perform better and to make the changes in their work habits that make them better employees.
Mr. Grote has written this book to share stories of companies with successful programs. He discusses what makes a program successful and the places where it can fail.
Do not skip Appendix C where he talks about the legal aspects where again he reports on what happened at several companies and the court cases that resulted. In fact, you just may want to read Appendix C first and keep it in mind as you read the rest of the book.
Grote's Forced Ranking January 16, 2006
William W. Winspear (Dallas, Texas United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The book is lucid and is easy and pleasant reading.
It fully covers the topic.
It is concise without pointless verbiage so it is worth reading from cover to cover.
Great Book November 18, 2005
Jordan Cowman
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have read a number of books and papers on the subject of forced rankings. Forced Ranking by Dick Grote really is the best of the lot. He takes a very complex and misunderstood topic and puts it in a very readable and understandable form. I think every Human Resource professional and CEO should take the time to read this book. It will quickly bring you up to speed on the cutting edge thinking on this subject, and, if used properly, can be a powerful tool in torquing up your workforce. Forced Rankings is worth the time and effort to read. I recommend it highly.
|
|
|
Navy Advancement Study Guide
Top Selling Navy Enlisted Books | |
