Human Resources

Had an interesting class in Organizational Resources/Human Resources. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it. Interesting and HR don't seem to fit in the same sentence. For me and everyone who I talked to, it seems like an necessary evil for a company. Kind of "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. But the Prof made the class pretty interesting. She gave a quiz at the beginning of the class. I (and thankfully, most of the others in the class) got almost all the questions wrong. Wow...I think she wanted to drum it to everyone that the class was not going to be a walk in the park. Anyway, we covered varied topics from affirmative action, legal issues to equality of women in workplace. She kept the class moving along and I was able to keep myself awake...

On to more interesting topics, we had to read a paper for the class. It's a management classic, titled "On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B". If you are interested in management stuff, read it. If you are not interested, read it. It's that good. As the title suggests, it's about rewarding one set of actions while hoping for another (almost opposite) set of actions. For example in basketball, teamwork is chanted as the holy mantra for winning. But a player who plays to that mantra and distributes shots unselfishly has lower stats compared to a comparable (selfish) player who takes all the shots that he can. Guess who makes the big bucks? Obviously, percentage of successful shots etc matter. But the main gist of the example is that we reward individuality while hoping for teamwork.

Another example is of physician caused illnesses. When a patient comes to a doctor, the doctor obligingly organizes and classifies the symptoms under a name and tells the patient about possible future symptoms. This information acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy and pretty soon the patient develops those symptoms. Why does the doctor do that? Because if he is not sure and tells the patient that there is nothing wrong and if the patient dies suddenly on his second honeymoon, the doctor will have to sell his first newborn for a malpractice settlement. On the other side, if he diagnoses the patient as having some disease, he is safe from future complications. Furthermore, future visits from the patient means a constant stream of income for him. So we as a society are rewarding the doctor for making safe errors while fervently hoping for the opposite. Dumb, eh? There are other examples in the paper which make you go "Eh, seriously? Are people so dumb?"

Assuredly, the paper is worth your time and more. No corporate doublespeak...simple to read.