ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997 TAG: 9704180040
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: JOHN CUNNIFF ASSOCIATED PRESS
Asked to compare the thinking in their company to a vehicle, 24 percent of workers likened it to a Yugo.
This is, of course, the information age, glorified in corporate annual reports that extol ``knowledge workers'' and ``intelligent enterprises'' and ``learning organizations.''
But a dirty little secret lies beneath the glossy sheen such terms suggest: There may not be a lot of thinking going on. The brainpower is there, according to a study, but it just isn't being used intelligently.
When asked to compare the thinking in their company to one of four vehicles - the Yugo, Mack truck, Ford Taurus or Ferrari - 24 percent of hourly workers replied that it most resembled the bottom-of-the line Yugo.
Perhaps worse, only 7 percent to 8 percent of both hourly worker and management groups likened their organization to the fast-moving, high-performing Ferrari. The rest chose the Mack truck or Ford Taurus.
The questionnaire was completed by 641 managers and 773 hourly workers and analyzed by Kepner-Tregoe Inc., an international management consulting firm, which wondered how much brain power was really being used.
That very inquiry was one of the first on the questionnaire. Nearly two-thirds of both managers and workers replied that their organizations do not use more than 50 percent of the collective employee brainpower.
Such dismal responses were consistent from beginning to end of the survey, suggesting that an economy increasingly reliant on brainpower is shortchanging itself. Not that brainpower is lacking - only its use.
The situation is not to be compared to the early days of the industrial revolution, when back muscles defined a good worker, and efficient employers conducted time-and-motion studies to get the most out of those muscles.
Inherent in the Kepner-Tregoe study is the suggestion that almost all workers, managers and hourly employees alike, want to use their brains but find their organizations in the way.
One question asked of them was this: Do organizations tap the collective brainpower of their employees? And typical answers were:
Worker: ``There is a lot more potential in the majority of workers than is being utilized.''
Manager: ``We use only the brainpower of a few and ignore the rest.''
When comparing organizational thinking to vehicles, the answers were especially descriptive.
Among the worker observations was the opinion that his company seems to be made up of ``small minds all going in different directions.'' And a manager responded: ``Thinking is limited and always relies on the same individuals.''
The consequences of brainpower waste is incalculable. Strike that. In the information age, there are certainly the brains and computers to come up with a figure if an organization cared to put in the effort.
But even a lazy guess provides an acceptable answer: It is safe to say that a better use of brainpower might be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars, meaning everyone would be richer and maybe the budget balanced.
The rewards are so great - less poverty, fewer social problems, better products, more pay, more profits, happier workers, etc. - that you would think the motivation would be sufficient to overwhelm the inertia.
Someday it might. But right now, it appears, the apparatus and thinking of the old industrial age stands in the way. It will take brainpower to solve the problem.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB