SCORE Adviser: Productivity vs. harmony

Response: This is one of the hardest issues that managers face. The book answer is to manage systematically and use discipline consistently in each case. However, every organization has rules that are ironclad and always enforced and rules that can be bent. The key is what you do when one of your best bends the rules that affect your business.

To be a good manager, you must be willing to discipline your best employee. The culture of your organization depends largely on your ability to be consistent. When the offending person is one of your best, it is easy to look the other way. However, you must remember that the other employees in your organization watch your actions and make mental notes concerning your daily decisions. Allowing a favored employee to bend rules will permeate throughout your firm and decrease your ability to lead.

It was not an easy decision for Jim Tressel, coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, to suspend his star running back at the beginning of this football season. However, as a good coach and manager, Tressel realizes that one person is not bigger than the team. His decision, however difficult, was for the betterment of the entire organization. In every organization that I have been a member or researched that managed to maintain a positive organizational culture, it has been due to an in-touch, in-tune leader at the top of that organization.

I recently presented a workshop at a distance-education conference where I outlined the process that we use to evaluate our online courses. The conference was attended by many large universities, and my presentation drew a sizable audience due to the unique nature of our evaluation process.

At International College, we decided from the beginning that we would place quality first as we developed our distance education program. Each of our distance education courses are certified prior to a professor delivering that course for the second time. What makes this unique is that in addition to the traditional assessment methods such as student evaluations, grade distribution, learner outcomes and retention, we evaluate the delivery of the course by the faculty member.

We actually start with the course syllabus and determine that the course requirements constitute a college-level course, check statistics and ensure the delivery is providing the students with the goals and objectives required for the course.

The interest in the presentation was generated by the fact that at many universities, the process of evaluating faculty is difficult. In higher education, it is obligatory that we say we have great professors, but we have the responsibility to our students to continue the evaluation process just in case we get saddled with poor performers. The wrong thing to do is to allow a substandard product, in any business, when you hire quality personnel that can do better.

At International College, we are fortunate that we have a culture where our faculty works to continue improving the quality of education at our institution. The key in our organization is support from the faculty and key administrators at the college. By demonstrating a willingness to review everyone, the college demonstrated a desire to be firm but fair in its administrative policies. This process earned respect throughout the organization. The end result is a distance education program of which we can all be proud.

Academic freedom is alive and well at International College and I want to be clear that this process only ensures courses are rigorous enough to be true distance-education courses. Professors are still free to deliver the course in a manner that represents their education, personality and experience.

Actually, the fact that we conduct the evaluation process and everyone knows the courses are examined increased the quality tremendously. The first term we certified 86 percent of our courses and the results for our most recent term are 100 percent.

The point in this example is that like your managers, our professors are our key personnel. The ability to be consistent in our evaluation process keeps our organizational culture positive and keeps productivity increasing. Your employees want to be part of a professional organization that has a positive image in your industry. When you tolerate substandard performance or disregard for rules, you erode confidence in your ability to maintain your status in the community.

Therefore, my response to your excellent question would be to systematically manage your organization with strategically sound policies and procedures. Ensure that you are consistent in your administration of those policies. Most importantly, treat your best fairly but equally.

Don Forrer, D.B.A., is a professor of business in International College's MBA program. The Naples SCORE Chapter provides free-of-charge small business counseling to firms located in Collier County. For an appointment, call 430-0081 or contact SCORE through its Web site at http://www.scorenaples.org. SCORE is sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration.