Taking the Judge Out of Judgment
By Michelle Malay Carter on October 3, 2007
Work* is the exercising of judgment and discretion while trying to achieve a goal.? When judgment is removed, you no longer have work, you have computation ? something a robot or computer could do.? Organizations hire people to do work.?
Interestingly, we hire people to make judgments, and then, whenever possible, we try to take the judgment out of their work.
Does anyone see the irony in the US government’s instituting mandatory sentencing laws to take the ability to use judgment away from – JUDGES.? The supreme court may be seeing the light.
What has the myth of managerial objectivity done to work? It has fueled corruption and degradation. 
When we measure output only, while ignoring the effectiveness of the judgments in light of the prevailing conditions, we will get output, but at what price? ?I?ll make the goal of 100 widgets an hour, but to do so I will have to ignore the fact that I am inserting defective parts into each widget.? And then we complain about quality.
When we offer bonuses to only the top ?outputers?, we get output, but we also get information hoarding and even sabotage.? And then we complain about lack of teamwork.
When we require a college degree as a perquisite for a job and ignore equal experience, we reduce our candidate pool without necessarily gaining an assurance of on-the-job success.? And then we complain that our workforce lacks diversity.
When we require an arbitrary number of years experience to be considered for a job, again, we are arbitrarily reducing our candidate pool.? And then we complain that we can?t find talent.
When we promote for achievement while ignoring potential, we disqualify those annoying, ornery, young, high potentials whose performance may not reflect their potential.? And then we complain we have no benchstrength.?
The essence of managerial work is judgment.
When we pile on accountability and simultaneously handcuff managers with arbitrary but supposedly objective means for judging capability and effectiveness, for hiring and firing, we get what we have.? And then we complain about low engagement and lack of accountability.
In order for managers to be accountable, we must institutionalize the granting of certain authorities to all managers ? the first of which is the authority to use their judgment ? to work, not calculate.
*Organical work, i.e. the work of living organisms, not mechanical work.
Filed Under Accountability, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management
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