TM - December 2007 - (Page 12)

ment.” I take issue with this. The modern concept of talent management can be traced back to the early 20th century, with the Human Relations movement started by the Hawthorne Study in 1927, which looked at motivations and social relations as they related to productivity. Basically, the results were that if employers paid attention to their employees, they would be rewarded with good, honest work from them. Hardly a connection made just over the past few years. Furthermore, in the late 1940s, the Tavistock Institute began their modern research into corporate organizational behavior. The results came to define modern business talent management and, slowly but surely, employees of all walks of life had more rights and options than ever before. While the dot-com crash marks a significant turning point in talent management, it is ludicrous to state that no one paid attention to it until the early part of this century. Times may be circular, going through a period of relative neglect into almost comical overemphasis, but the basic ideas of talent management have been around quite a while. No doubt Dr. Fitz-enz is an expert in this, and I certainly am not trying to give him a history lesson, but the idea of talent management has been of concern a long, long time. John Entwistle Rochester, Minn. Ethics is Blind periment of 1971 but had never thought to equate it with corporate corruption. Now, to be fair, critics alleging that the Stanford Prison Experiment was unethical charge that it was scientifically unethical, not financially unethical, which is the problem we’re seeing in today’s corporate scandals. The article addressed this, commenting on companies with “culture[s] of expectations of high performance” that send the message “anything goes.” No doubt there’s been a distinct lack of ethics exhibited in the business community as of late: Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, need I go on? I don’t think anyone would say that what occurred in the Stanford Prison Experiment is really occurring in the boardrooms of America: It’s not as if managers are going out of their way to be sadistic, as they were in the experiment. But, one aspect of the article did remind me of something that goes on in large companies. It noted, of the experiment, “the guards wore mirrored sunglasses to prevent eye contact with the prisoners.” Similar situations crop up in large companies where C-level executives become completely isolated from the rest of the staff. My son David works at a Fortune 500 company and has only ever met the CEO of his company once, in the elevator. His CEO said hello, but referred to him as “Dennis.” When high-level managers become this isolated from their employees, it’s probably easier for them to make financially unethical decisions if they can’t even see the workforce that will be cheated out of their pensions or stock options. Alan Yoss Division Comptroller and Ombudsman West Nininger Township, Minn. All of the pieces, one great fit. Greetings! I just wanted to write in to say that I really enjoyed Brian Summerfield’s article on ethics (“Training the Ethical Workforce”). I was familiar with the Stanford Prison Ex972.783.3000 www.hrsmart.com sales@hrsmart.com Smart Solutions for Talent Management Applicant Tracking Employee Performance Management Learning Management Career Development & Succession Planning For a FREE demo visit www.hrsmart.com/FREEdemo http://www.hrsmart.com/freedemo http://www.hrsmart.com http://www.hrsmart.com/freedemo

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - December 2007

Talent Management - December 2007 Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Human Performance Leading Edge Capabilities The Engaged Difference: What People Want Analytics in Talent Management: The Sports View The Use of Merchandise for Employee Recognition Taking Aim at Performance Appraisals Talent Management Drives Organizational Change Generational Diversity: Mastering the Boomer-X-Y Divide Dashboard: Security-Savvy Workforce: Designing a Security Awareness Program That Works Application: Hilton Hotels Corporation:Checking Out the Merits of Paperless Efficiency Insight: Unlimited Engagement: Innovative Corporate Communication at Deloitte & Touche USA Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Foundations

TM - December 2007

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