Question

What is your reaction to the idea of a differentiated workforce?

what do you see as the practical advantages or challenges in implementing this concept? In this chapter we reviewed the distinction between a career ladder and a career lattice. How do you expect your career to evolve?

What will be the important considerations to you in changing jobs or career paths? Have you ever seen unintended consequences of rewards at work? How so? How could this unintended consequence have been avoided?

Consider what motivates you at work or in your leisure time. What intrinsic and extrinsic motivators drive you to act in both circumstances?

Answer 1

1. What is your reaction to the idea of a differentiated workforce? What do you see as the practical advantages or challenges in implementing this concept?

When using a differentiated workforce, firms make the distinction between high performing “A” positions that have more of an impact on the achievement of strategy. These “A” pivot roles are seen as more worthy of investment as doing so will increase strategic impact. Investment in this case can include an intensive interview and recruiting process. The idea is to fill these roles with high-potential talent and support these employees with more coaching, greater development opportunities, and more frequent feedback. The obvious advantage to this method is that giving high performing employees the tools they need to succeed will ultimately lead to getting closer to the achievement of organization strategy. In addition, those valuable employees might be more inclined to stay with a firm that recognizes their efforts. However, employees in “low” performing roles may feel less than appreciated.

2. In this chapter we reviewed the distinction between a career ladder and a career lattice. How do you expect your career to evolve? What will be the important considerations to you in changing jobs or career paths?

Many people have the career ladder mindset in that they feel they must move up the corporate ladder in order to experience career growth. However, making lateral moves (or even a move to different department in a paygrade below the employee’s current one) can also result in career growth and development as it gives an employee the opportunity to learn new skillsets that they could possibly use in future career opportunities. I expect that my career will follow the career lattice path as I do not anticipate much more growth in the department I am currently in. I feel that a lateral move to a different department where there are more growth opportunities and where I can gain increased technical expertise might be more beneficial in my case. It is important to have a clear career strategy when choosing what direction to go. One should not accept a job just because it is offered to them but instead take the career path strategy into careful consideration.

3. Have you ever seen unintended consequences of rewards at work? How so? How could this unintended consequence have been avoided?

Rewards can be a great tool for motivating employees to do their best. However, when a rewards system is poorly implemented, it can lead to some unfortunate consequences. For example, in my organization employees are rewarded for making employee suggestions. They recieve $25 for every viable suggestion and $1,000 if their suggestion is actually implemented. The idea was to get employees to feel more connected to the organization by playing a part in improving it. Unfortunately, some employees began abusing this system and submitting random suggestions constantly in order to keep receiving the reward. Because of this unethical behavior, the system had to be changed so that employees could only receive a maximum of $25 per year despite the fact that some employees have multiple legitimately decent ideas to submit. Had the cap on submissions been implemented originally, employees may have been more inclined to wait to submit their “best” suggestion for the year.

4. Consider what motivates you at work or in your leisure time. What intrinsic and extrinsic motivators drive you to act in both circumstances?

When at work, the most obvious extrinsic motivator is the paycheck - I am getting paid to do a job and so I comply. If I do my job well (exceeding expectations) then I can get a 2% or 3% bonus once my yearly performance evaluation is submitted. While the monetary factor is my main motivator, the simple act of feeling that I am making a difference in the community does serve as an intrinsic motivator. I work in the public sector and I enjoy being a public servant and bettering the lives of the residents within the community. I like the feeling that I did my part. In my leisure time, my hobbies are purley intrinsically motivated. I will be running the Miami Half Marathon in a week and a half and aside from a finisher’s medal, the only thing I get out of it is the feeling of satisfaction once I have crossed the finished line. That feeling is enough of a motivator for me to dedicate hours of my free time over a span of several week to training for the event.