motivational analysis of organizations

_____ 34. Avoid getting involved. If there were a technical problem calling for your
kind of special expertise, you would help in a flash. But you really would
not be very effective working on an emergency task force dealing with an
“iffy” project.
_____ 35. Be careful. If the difficulty looked like one with which you could be of
help, in regard to some specific part, you would be among the first to
volunteer; but you would have to be pretty sure that you could be
effective. You would not want to be associated with a disastrous failure.
_____ 36. Rally round. If the organization suffers, you all suffer. So you should offer
your services and pitch in wherever needed.
X. You have a good chance of being promoted at work, but it involves moving out of
your special line of work (at which you are expert) and moving into general
management. Your reaction is:
_____ 37. The management track will take you upward furthest and fastest; no one
but an idiot would turn down a chance like this. Besides, if you turn it
down, you will soon become known as someone who cannot move outside
your specialty or as someone who has “peaked” or cannot respond to a
challenge.
_____ 38. The general practice is for people at your stage to make this kind of move.
There are not many advantages in swimming against the tide, and making
the move will keep you in step with the majority of those who were
recruited at the same stage.
_____ 39. If you want to broaden your expertise and general problem-solving
capabilities, you will need to have both managerial and specialist skills. In
fact, you will have more chance to use your specialist skills, in the long
run, if you have some managerial experience. This combination will make
you eligible to work on bigger projects that involve your special skills.
_____ 40. Management is a jungle these days. It is not worth the hassles. Besides, in
your current job, you are building up real expertise at doing something
practical. You would be better off working at becoming a leader in your
specialty; that should open all kinds of opportunities without requiring you
to go politicking around as a manager.
12 ❘❚
The Pfeiffer Library Volume 19, 2nd Edition. Copyright © 1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer