devolving responsibility

[Harrison Owen]

You have hit upon a dirty little secret -- which hopefully will up-end a
whole mess of apple carts. The connection between performance and
compensation is, at best, tenuous. At the moment, the consequences of
radical change are so awesome that most folks don't even want to think about
it. Even those who are short-changed in the system! I think it could be
argued that the core of our compensation systems is control and the
perception of control. Look at the usual employee evaluation form and it is
really all about control. Usual questions include -- How many folks do you
control? How well do you do it? And How long have you done it? If the answer
to those questions is A lot, for long time, and Very tightly -- you get a
big wad of cash and the corner office. On the other hand if you are out of
control, you are out of a job. Of course, the dirty secret is -- nobody is
in control, at least in the way we have talked and thought about it. The
emperor is not only naked; he/she is not in charge. That could be a
shattering recognition.

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com 
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
mccafferty at inwind.it
Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 9:00 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: devolving responsibility

Hi Everyone,

How far can leadership / responsibility be devolved before the lesser-paid
begin to ask "Hey, I'm basically doing my boss's job, so how come he's paid
more than me?"

This is an attitude I'm coming across, particularly in larger organisations,
ususally bureaucratic-style too. And I'm asking the list because, as
future-creators, maybe you've dealt with this somewhere already.

Maybe it only occurs in 'toxic' organisations, but as we modify the
invisible glue that holds organisations together, what stops them from
coming unstuck altogether?

Lex

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