Lesson 21
Should People Be Promoted according to Ability?
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Flattering the Boss Gets You Everywhere
In the world of work, flattery will get you everywhere.
Employees who flatter their bosses tend to receive better
evaluations and move more easily up the corporate ladder-whether they deserve to or not--said Gerald Ferris, management professor at Texas A and M University.
"Based on what we have found, it looks to be the case that political skills are highly reinforced out there in the work place. It is the politically astute that are more often promoted," Ferris said in an interview.
His conclusions are based on surveys of employees and supervisors takeri as part of his research into political behaviour in the office.
"People tend to believe that flattery is just too transparent to be effective, but we have found that is not necessarily true. We have found a strong correlation between this type of behaviour and good evaluations," Ferris said.
The reasons that flattery works are many, Ferris said, but most apparently have to do either with the boss's ego, or insecurity, or both.
Some supervisors enjoy having their egos boosted by complimentary employees, while others simply need the reinforcement of consent, he said.
"What we have found is that often bosses are new or unsure of themselves and need a lot of social reinforcement for their decisions. They might look at flattery as a sign that they are right, " Ferris said.
The reasons employees flatter bosses vary, too, Ferris said. Ambition - the desire to move up the corporate ladder --is often behind the compiiments, he said.
Also, many workers use flattery to obscure their laziness or incompetence.
"We did find a big gap between some of the people doing this manipulation and those that did not. Many of these people (fla.ttering the boss) were not the high performers. They were doing it to cover up their shortcomings," he said.
But if flatterers are not always top workers, they frequently are what social scientists call "high self-monitors", Ferris said.
"Those are people who are highly attuned to and aware of their surroundings and know what to do to get a favourable response," he said.
Fellow employees are not blind to what their colleagues are doing, Ferr'ss said. But, while they may disapprove, they usually do not tell the boss for fear of appearing jealous, he said.
Flattery works best when the employee is saying something he or she really means, Ferris said. But sincere or not, it should be done in moderation.
"If you overdo it or if you are not sincere and the boss catches on, it can mean trouble, " he said. "You have to be subtle and not take it too far. "
One way employees can avoid appearing too flattering is to occasionally disagree with the boss on minor points, he said. In that way, the employee avoids being viewed as a "yes-man".
II. Read
Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.
1. People Should Be Rewarded according to Ability,
Not according to Age and Experienc
Young men and women today are finding it more and more necessary to protest against what is known as the "Establishment": that is, the people who wield power in our society. Clashes with the authorities are reported almost daily in the press. The tension that exists between old and young could certainly be lessened if some of the most obvious causes were removed. In particular, the Establishment should adopt different attitudes to work and the rewards it brings. Today's young people are ambitious.
Many are equipped with a good education and are understandably impatient to succeed as quickly as possible. They want to be able to have their share of the good things in life while they are still young enough to enjoy them. The Establishment, however, has traditionaly believed that people should be rewarded according to iheir age and experience. Ability counts for less. As the Establishment controls the purse-strings, its views are inevitably imposed on society. Employers pay the smallest sum consistent with keeping you in a job. You join the hierarchy and take your place in the queue. If you are young, you go to the very end of the queue and stay there no matter how brilliant you are.
What you know is much less important than whom you know and how old you are. If you are able, youf abilities will be acknowledged and rewarded in due course, that is, after twentj?or thirty years have passed. By that time you will be considered old enough to join the Establishment and you will be expected to adopt its ideals. God help you if you don't.
There seems to be a gigantic conspiracy against young people. While on the one hand society provides them with better educational facilities, on the other it does its best to exclude them from the jobs that really matter. There are exceptions, of course. Some young people do manage to break through the barrier despite the restrictions, but the great majority have to wait patiently for years before they can really give full rein to their abilities. This means that, in most fields, the views of young people are never heard because there is no one to represent them. All important decisions about how society is to be run are made by people who are too old to remember what it was like to be young.
Resentment is the cause of a great deal of bitterness. The young resent the old because they feel deprived of the good things life has to offer. The old resent the young because they are afraid of losing what they have. A man of fifty or so might say, "Why should a young rascal straight out of school earn more than I do?" But if the young rascal is more able, more determined, harder-working than his middle-aged critic, why shoutdn't he? Employers should recognize ability and reward it justly. This would remove one of the biggest causes of friction between old and young and ultimatley it would lead to a better society.
2. Officialdom
Ancient Chinese reformers advocated selecting aiI talented people to be officiais regardiess of their #amily backgrounds. This practice is stiil significant, for it opposed appointing people by favouritism.
But it is improper for us to think that the talented can only become officials, otherwise they are stifled.
In the course of the current reform, China needs talented personnel in all trades. It is justifiable that talented personnei bring their ability into full play by becoming leaders.
But the point is who can be considered talented? Some see the holders of senior professional titles are talented: some think of those who have college diplomas as taltented; some say that they are those who have made inventions or outstanding contributions to society.
There would not be enough vacancies if all of these people were to become officials.
It is unnecessary for all the talented to elbow their way into officialdom. They can strive to become experts in philosophy, science, literatore, art, history and education. There is never a limit to the number of experts in these fields.
Albert Einstein was once invited by Israei to become its president. It was eonsidered a matter of course for Einstein to accept the invitation. But Einstein refused it bluntly and continued his physics study.
I do not mean that talented people should not become officials at aII. But what I want to specify is that different people have different strengths, and that not everyone is capable of becoming an official. If people without leadership capacity are chosen as officials, they can only bungle things.
Before Hou Yuzhu and Zheng Meizhu, two aces af the Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team, retired, they were asked by reporters if the government would assign them jobs in a leading body, just as it had done for some of their former teammates.
Hou and Zheng, who shared the credit for the team becoming world champions, responded that they did not want to become officials, and that they wanted to study the knowledge and skills needed in society to keep abreast of its development.
Their decision may be of some help to us.
3. You Can Get Promoted Half a Grade if You Are
Willing to Say:"Yes Sir, No Sir!"
An unhappy victim of the consumer society is Mr.Batia, a fifty-two-year-old Indian journalist working in broadcasting. For him, however, the misery. is caused less by the nature of his work than by the competitive atmosphere which surrounds it.
Mr. Batia: " I' m not interested in my job. I'm not being treated properly and there are many injustices. I just do honest work, but I do as little as I can. The atmosphere is very polluted. You can get promoted half a grade if you're willing to say: 'Yes sir, no sir!' I've been there twenty-three years, and I hate the whole mentality of the place. They treat me like a colonial. Tbey think I live in the colonies, but I've done things in jurnalism that have never been done before. I have a colleague who is half a grade up and when the boss is away he's supposed to officiate. I've had rows with him: I have a hot temper. I said to him: 'Lood, don't you try to boss me or one of us will end up on the floor. I've met good Englishmen and bad Englishmen, and you' re the worst Englishman I've ever met.'
"I'm honest and outspoken and people don't like me. Nobody likes me. If.you are a crook you can get on well." |