Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations Dorset House eBooks 1 Robert D Austin eBook
Download As PDF : Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations Dorset House eBooks 1 Robert D Austin eBook 
This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 1996).
Based on an award-winning doctoral thesis at Carnegie Mellon University, Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations presents a captivating analysis of the perils of performance measurement systems. In the book’s foreword, Peopleware authors Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister rave, “We believe this is a book that needs to be on the desk of just about anyone who manages anything.”
Because people often react with unanticipated sophistication when they are being measured, measurement-based management systems can become dysfunctional, interfering with achievement of intended results. Fortunately, as the author shows, measurement dysfunction follows a pattern that can be identified and avoided.
The author’s findings are bolstered by interviews with eight recognized experts in the use of measurement to manage computer software development David N. Card, of Software Productivity Solutions; Tom DeMarco, of the Atlantic Systems Guild; Capers Jones, of Software Productivity Research; John Musa, of AT&T Bell Laboratories; Daniel J. Paulish, of Siemens Corporate Research; Lawrence H. Putnam, of Quantitative Software Management; E. O. Tilford, Sr., of Fissure; plus the anonymous Expert X.
A practical model for analyzing measurement projects solidifies the text–don’t start without it!
Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations Dorset House eBooks 1 Robert D Austin eBook
While research the issue of developer productivity and metrics for a client during this past week, I ran across a reference to this book, so I bought it. I started reading it on a cross-country flight and finished it that same day.It was a revelation.
I have long been leery of most metrics used in software development, particularly when used to motivate (or punish) developers. This is particularly true since I've been working since the mid-1990s both as a consultant to organizations with troubled IT projects and as an expert witness in lawsuits that involve troubled, disputed, or failed IT projects. Developing software is hard, and measuring what's been accomplished in useful ways is even harder. But my objections have been largely intuitive, observational, and anecdotal.
Austin, by contrast, brings tremendous rigor and a remarkable depth and breadth of research to his approach. His use of the principal-agent model is particularly effective; I will probably be sketching figure 9.2 (or related figures) for years to come.
This is not an easy book to read; it's not a collection of breezy success (or failure) stories with some extrapolated maxims to explain them. It is almost like reading a work of philosophy, but there is nothing abstract or ethereal about it. I learned much, even as I had my own observations and suspicions confirmed. It has my strongest recommendation.
Product details
|
Tags : Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations (Dorset House eBooks) - Kindle edition by Robert D. Austin. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations (Dorset House eBooks).,ebook,Robert D. Austin,Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations (Dorset House eBooks),Addison-Wesley Professional
People also read other books :
- How to Become an Excellent Server Earn a Tip Above 20% Every Time Daniel Lysak Books
- Grizzly Heat M/M Bear Shifter Romance edition by Hawke Oakley Romance eBooks
- Adding Adventure to Life Math Memorization Adventures Book 1 eBook C Bach Taylor Lizelle Taylor Martha Taylor
- The nightriders; a romance of early Montana; Ridgwell Cullum 9781148034119 Books
- The Mask Larry A Harris 9781540320407 Books
Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations Dorset House eBooks 1 Robert D Austin eBook Reviews
This is a relatively difficult book to read. The structure is convoluted and the author is loquacious.
There is a lot of good information in the book about management styles, use of measurement, and the possible dysfunction that can occur. Unfortunately, the author leaves us with no real answers, only a list of ways things can go wrong. I wasn't looking for a panacea or silver bullet, but the author states they've seen measurement used in a fashion that creates resounding success, but fails to ever share what that looked like in any detail.
No, really. I've never looked at the world the same since reading this book many years ago. Austin, a former executive at Ford Motor Company Europe and now on the faculty of Harvard Business School, applies agency theory, an application of game theory, to incentives and performance measurement. Sounds dry, but this book is short, readable, and to the point. It explained so much of the dysfunction I see around me in both work and life in general. I ended up giving a couple of talks about it, recommending it to others, blogging about it (I write under the name "Chip Overclock"), etc. I'm a product developer by trade, and this book applies directly to how large product development organizations are run, or mis-run. I found it so fascinating that I ordered a copy of Austin's Ph.D. thesis, from which this book was derived, and read that too.
Robert Austin presents an idealized model of a managed organization. Instead of looking at an organization made up of thousands of employees and a few hundred managers arranged in a hierarchy, Austin's model consists of three participants a principal, i.e. a manager, and an agent, i.e. an employee, and finally a customer who buys the goods or services provided by the agent under the supervision of the principal.
He also assumes that an agent's job consists of two activities and the customer is happy if the agent performs well in both. Austin looks at the cases where the principal can monitor neither of the two activities, where she can monitor only one of the two activities, or where she can monitor both activities. According to the model the agent will behave differently in all three cases.
If the principal cannot (or will not) measure either activity, then we have delegated management, if she can measure both activities, then we have a fully supervised model, and if she can measure only one of two activities, we have a dysfunctional model.
When delegating management, the assumption is that agents want to work well, that they are not deriving maximum satisfaction by exerting the least amount of effort.
When supervising, the principal evaluates overall performance by measuring certain aspects of the agent's activity. Austin's conclusion is that measuring performance won't work unless you can measure everything employees should be doing (i.e. full supervision). Incomplete measurement is not only useless, it is dangerous since it motivates agents to make efforts only for what is measured.
For example, if a help desk line measures performance by the number of calls an employee takes, then employees are motivated to spend very little time per call. The customer is left dissatisfied, but the measurements show that the agent is providing first class results. Austin calls this situation dysfunctional.
Throughout the book, Austin emphasizes dysfunction to the point where it seems he dismisses any and all attempts at measurement, but to quote Austin, the central message of the book is that "organizational measurement is hard". It's not impossible.
He suggests one method, probabilistic measurement, to mitigate dysfunction. For instance, if dysfunction comes from being unable to measure everything an agent does, e.g. you just can't have your supervisors listen to all help desk calls, the principal can carry out random samplings of performance, e.g. you can record all the calls and listen to a random selection of them each day. The agent will then expend effort along those dimensions that cannot be completely measured simply because he knows they might be.
All in all, an effectively simplified model of organizations sure to spark healthy and constructive debate.
Vincent Poirier, Dublin
While research the issue of developer productivity and metrics for a client during this past week, I ran across a reference to this book, so I bought it. I started reading it on a cross-country flight and finished it that same day.
It was a revelation.
I have long been leery of most metrics used in software development, particularly when used to motivate (or punish) developers. This is particularly true since I've been working since the mid-1990s both as a consultant to organizations with troubled IT projects and as an expert witness in lawsuits that involve troubled, disputed, or failed IT projects. Developing software is hard, and measuring what's been accomplished in useful ways is even harder. But my objections have been largely intuitive, observational, and anecdotal.
Austin, by contrast, brings tremendous rigor and a remarkable depth and breadth of research to his approach. His use of the principal-agent model is particularly effective; I will probably be sketching figure 9.2 (or related figures) for years to come.
This is not an easy book to read; it's not a collection of breezy success (or failure) stories with some extrapolated maxims to explain them. It is almost like reading a work of philosophy, but there is nothing abstract or ethereal about it. I learned much, even as I had my own observations and suspicions confirmed. It has my strongest recommendation.
0 Response to "[CGW]≡ Libro Free Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations Dorset House eBooks 1 Robert D Austin eBook"
Post a Comment