Bob, please find my comments to your reactions:
I would hope so but ineffective practices are all too frequently still used by managers. For instance some hiring managers use the MBTI for employee selection but the MBTI publisher says the MBTI should not be used for employee selection.
Comment:The use of certain tools, theories, techniques, systems, etc. in managing and/ or running organizations is an entirely the prerogative of individual managers. The perception of whether they are good, bad, effective, or inefective is subjective to the individuals concerned. Some things that others may consider good or effective may not be to you. In the absence of an internationally accepted standard or matrix, whom can we beleive as having the better perspective and judgment.
>But the fact that they are still with us despite its worldwide criticisms, then there must be something in it that some of us don't see and understand.<
It is easy and it is fast and it takes no thought what so ever. I think that is why it is still used by those who don¡¦t really want to do the work of managing.
Comment: I don's agree with your perception that the Bell Curve is very easy to understand and that it can be done fast. The fact that so many inquiries are posted in this site shows that a lot of people don't know what it is, its purposes & objectives, and how to use them. As a matter of fact, in a parallel discussion of this topic, someone said they implemented the Bell Curve as a performance tool that they really determined the exact quantities of performers per rating according to the prescribed quantities or percentages assigned by their management.
>Organizations continue to use the Bell Curve because it is an effective tool in:
1) rationalizing and justifying budget limitations in dispensing rewards to top performers within the organization; and<
Like I said it is easy to use a Bell Curve to ¡§rationalizing and justifying budget limitations in dispensing rewards to top performers¡¨ but that does not make it an effective management tool unless by effective we mean it minimizes the work of managers.
Comment: I am not a supporter nor an advocate of the Bell Curve and Forced Ranking. What I said is simply my explanation of how I understood its usefulness to organizations after many years of implementing it in one of the companies that I worked for before.
>2) justifying immediate or future disciplinary actions to poor performers.<
If supervisors wait until the annual bell curve is developed to justify corrective actions, then that is an indictment of the supervisors, the managers and the executives.
Comment: The real intent of periodic/ annual appraisals, and even of PMS, is not to substitute, delay, or postpone the corrective actions of managers/ supervisors. Supervisors and Managers are expected to do their jobs daily. Their day to day jobs is tosupervise and manage people. And managing includes teaching, coaching, and implementing corrective or disciplinary action when warranted.
Periodic and/ or annual appraisals can be compared to the major or quarterly exams in many schools. While teachers are free to use short quizzes and oral exams to validate students' learning in a particular subject anytime within a semester, they are mandated by the school to let all the students undergo periodic or quarterly major examinatins.
Why? The major periodic or quarterly exams in many schools worldwide is not just a scheme to re-measure the students' learning. From the school owners' view, it is an effective tool in compelling parents to pay for the unpaid tuition fee balances of their kids.
>¡K without the Bell Curve, everyone that performs badly must be given the appropriate sanction.<
In that case the managers need appropriate sanctions rather than the employees.
>But because the reality ¡K is that they operate based on budget and uses the principle of "operational convenience", not everyone can be promoted and/ or given cash reward.<
Yes, of course, but employees don¡¦t need to be told that they are in the bottom 75% to justify their not getting promoted or a big bonus. Unless an employee knows where they are on the Bell Curve the Bell Curve is irrelevant to them.
Comment: I think you should understand the Bell Curve from the point of view of business owners. When you do, then you will gladly show the curve to every employee that will complain why they did not get their expected promotion and/ or cash reward.
Those who use the Bell Curve in such a manner that ratings are changed as a consequence of the forced ranking, they deserve to be told and be made to understand the entire process. Otherwise, those who were shown their initial high ratings by their immediate supervisor will curse and accuse their supervisors of lying if they will not be promoted and given cash rewards for the ratings they initially saw.
>Not everyone can also be punished because when so many perform badly, any drastic disciplinary action (DA) implemented can seriously affect business operations.<
Yes and the DA needs to be applied to management not the employees. Managers either hire problem employees and/or tolerate problem employees. Management creates the problems or tolerates the problems therefore management gets the employee behaviors they create or tolerate, i.e., they deserve the employee behaviors they get.
Comment: You have a unique way of seeing and understanding things differently in organizational environments. You are incorrect but entitled to your own negative views.
>As such, organizations must find a way to justify why only a certain quantity of the outstanding performers at a given time will have to be promoted and why not all poor performers will have to be punished.<
The answer to that problem is a word That All Leaders Know--TALK .
And the talk must occur when it is needed not on a schedule such as annual reviews.
Supervisors must talk with their staff so that the employees know what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong and how to correct their mistakes. Using a Bell Curve prevents TALK.
Comment: Same as above.
>The Bell Curve is the best tool that provides the scientific, logical, and legal justification. Why? The reasons are as follows:<
But it is misused. Why do employers use the MBTI for employee selection? It is fast, it is cheap and it is gives the impression of scientific accuracy, it appears to be logical, and users presume it is legally justifiable.
Comment: Please see my first comment.
>1) The Bell Curve is considered scientific because it uses the assumptions of statistical science;<
There is no science involved in using the Bell Curve but scientists do use statistics.
Comment: I said that "it uses the assumptions of statistical science". The Bell Curve is the "normal distribution curve" in statistics. That's why it is able to camouflage its real motives.
>2) The Bell Curve is logical because it is correct to assert that the best among the best can still be identified by simply comparing them and ranking them;<
It is not logical to me since it does not help managers improve the job performance of their direct reports.
Comment: You must study logic to improve your perception and understanding of things around you. Things are not necessarily wrong when they don't fit your mindset and/ or agree with your ways of looking at things.
Employers may train many employees at one time but employees need to be managed one at a time.
Comment: Your real exposure must have been in very small organizations whose employees do not reach thousands.
>3) The Bell Curve is generally legal because it provides a clear methodology and shows a fair procedure adapted for the management action taken.<
Where do the numbers come from? Who decides the numbers? How fair and accurate are the numbers?
Comment: There is a popular maxim in capitalist societies that runs this way: HE WHO HAS THE GOLD RULES!
>Of course the Bell Curve (and top management) will never say that the bottom line for the use of the tool is that it is able to implement things within the allocated budget for the given performance period.<
You mean it makes it easier for management?
Comment: I said that many organizations are managed using the principle of "operational convenience" or "expediency".
Thanks for a thoughtful reply and your position is far more common and acceptable than mine.
Trying to correcting your managers on such issues will only lead to conflict so wait until you are in a position to make the change yourself if you think using a Bell Curve is counterproductive.
Comment: Hired guns in organizations are simply implementors of the business owners. You are FREE to implement the mandates of the shareholders. Otherwise,you have to get out and create your own organization and manage it the way you want it. But for as long as you are employed, your only option ti to follow the rule!
Best wishes!
Ed Llarena, Jr.
Managing Partner
Emilla Consulting