I don't know who thought this up, but if I remember correctly George Akerlof analyzed it in his "economics of the rat race." Not surprisingly, it ends up being suboptimal (i.e., bad) for workers. (Alas, my copy of the book walked away...)
On 6/6/06, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This year they introduced a new performance evaluation system at Columbia. In my department (and others, I assume), the managers must place 50 percent of the staff into a lower half based on performance. Everybody above the 50 percent mark must be assigned either to the top 15 percent or the 35 percentile immediately beneath that. Raises will be based on where you fit into that profile. The net result is to encourage competition among the staff rather than a sense of collaboration and teamwork. Les Schaffer told me that he has seen this technique used elsewhere. Does anybody know of the management guru who cooked this up if there is one? Or of any literature that analyzes its role in the corporation? -- www.marxmail.org
-- Jim Devine / "The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career." -- Albert Einstein.
