Abstract - Quest for Global Competitiveness - Universidad de Puerto ...

picture of individual contribution was muddled by the collaborative nature of the work beingdone. If George's group could achieve its goals, it would be obvious to everyone up and downthe chain of command – and the better performers would be able to write their own tickets whenthe time came to move on.The goals were simple. In order to achieve the revenue and profitability targets that would makethe company's new venture a success, the group would have to produce 480 units per monthwith no more than five percent of the units being found defective upon inspection by thecompany's independent testing group. That meant each of George's six employees would needto produce 80 units each month, with no more than four defective units.So that the evaluations would be more than just occasional events divorced from the group'sregular work life, George set the performance evaluation period at one month, thereby tying theevaluations to the production schedule and also ensuring that, by their frequency, they couldcontribute to an ongoing personnel development process.A rigorous production process was defined, to ensure consistent performance among allmembers of the department, and all six were meticulously trained and tested, both in theprocess and in the use of their state-of-the-art equipment. Fortunately, they would all haveidentical tasks, which George recognized as an extremely rare opportunity for him to build acompletely level playing field for his people.The day before production was to begin, George threw a kickoff party for his team to celebratetheir new beginning. At the party, he surprised them by awarding them each with 100 shares ofstock in the company - something he had insisted upon to his superiors when they first askedhim to take on this new task. He understood that a stock award would help to enlist them all inthe greater cause, spur them on to greater levels of achievement (with the promise of greaterreward), and instill a deeper sense of ownership. Later that evening, George roamed theproduction floor alone, making spot checks and reassuring himself that all was ready.George was understandably eager for it all to begin. The new machine gleamed in the brightlights, its image reflecting in the sheen of the many multicolored motivational posters he hadselected himself and hung on the walls with his own hands. In his heart of hearts, he believedhis handpicked team would be able to exceed their quality goal, which he privately felt wasmodest. He’d already seen some of his people produce no more than three or four defectsduring the test runs. Once they had established themselves, he thought, the goal of no morethan four defects would be met easily; at that point he might challenge them with a goal of zerodefects. But that was for another day. No reason to get ahead of himself. He'd been around longenough to know he had to focus on first things first. He went home and did his best to get agood night’s sleep.The first month seemed to go well. As George made his daily rounds, it looked to him as thoughthe team was generating more defects than he had hoped, but it was the first month and heknew that even the best training needed to be supplemented with real life hands-on experience3