system v. employee - dysfunctional employees

[Paul Hollingworth <PH@paulholl.demon.co.uk>]

Myron Tribus <mtribus@earthlink.net> writes
>As far as I know, it is just a matter of the opinion of two men of 
>extraordinary experience.  I am confident no one has actually taken 
>data.

>Furthermore, this is an hypothesis which cannot be disproven.  By 
>that I mean that we can always say that the problem is with 
>management for hiring such a person in the first place,  it was the 
>fault of the system that such an unreliable performer was placed in 
>the jobe,  etc., etc., etc.

I have not collected hard data, but over the last 10 years have found
that the number of 'dysfunctional' employees* in firms I have worked
with tends to be around 3% to 5%. This may be mirrored in Society as a
whole, I don't know. Are the firms I work with typical? I don't know
that either. So this is just my opinion.

Myron is entirely correct. If there are significant numbers of
dysfunctional employees, either the organisation has a broken
recruitment process or they are hiring perfectly normal folk and turning
them into dysfunctional employees. The system needs fixing. 

*
I suspect I may start some controversy here but I can't use a term like
'dysfunctional employees' without attempting to define it.

The principles of psychology woven into the system of profound knowledge
assume certain attitudes and behaviours about workers. For example: they
want to do a good job, they can be trusted, they want to feel part of
something 'bigger than themselves' and they are capable of intrinsic
motivation in the interests of their team and other colleagues.

I have found that this is undoubtedly true for the vast majority of
people, given  a fair system of work. But even in that fair system,
sadly there ARE people who can't be trusted to behave in a healthy way:
some are mentally unstable for whatever reason, there are some who don't
give a damn about anything or anyone else, some who come to work under
duress and can only get through the day by trying to take as much and
give as little as they can, some who will lie and cheat, others who will
steal anything that is not nailed down and even some that will
deliberately put their colleagues in danger. (And yes I have seen
examples of all of these).

But these dysfunctional folks are in a very small minority. We should
not set company policy to control their behaviour - this only punishes
the vast majority. We should treat them a bit like special causes. 

Do we know who they are? Of course we do. Identify them, try to
understand and help them. If all else fails, get rid of them. No one
will be sorry to see them go and everyone working in the system will
benefit.

I don't recall Deming ever saying that everyone was entitled to a job.

Paul H.

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Paul Hollingworth                       4GM Consulting  
email: PH@4GM.com                       http://www.4GM.com
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