A vitality curve is a leadership construct whereby a workforce is graded in accordance with the productivity of its members.
For example, there is an often cited "80-20 rule" - also known as the "Pareto principle" or the "Law of the Vital Few" - whereby 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals, or 80% of useful research results are produced by 20% of the academics, and so forth. In some cases such "80-20" tendencies do emerge, and a Pareto distribution curve is a fuller representation.
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The following are names given to the implementations of the vitality curve concept.
Jack Welch's vitality model has been described as a "20-70-10" system. The "top 20" percent of the workforce is most productive, and 70% (the "vital 70") work adequately. The other 10% ("bottom 10") are nonproducers and should be fired[1][2]. Rank-and-yank advocates credit Welch's rank-and-yank system with a 28-fold increase in earnings (and a 5-fold increase in revenue) at GE between 1981 and 2001[3].
In Straight from the Gut, Welch says that he asked "each of the GE's businesses to rank all of their top executives". Specifically (in accordance with the 20-70-10 model) the top executives were divided into "A", "B", and "C" players. Welch admitted that the judgments were "not always precise".
"A" players, Welch claimed, are
The vital "B" players may not be visionary or the most driven, but are "vital" because they make up the majority of the group.
"C" players are nonproducers. They are likely to "enervate" rather than "energize", according to Serge Hovnanian's model. Procrastination is a common trait of "C" players, as well as failure to deliver on promises.
These designations apply not only to workers at the bottom levels, but also managers.
Welch advises firing "C" players, while encouraging "A" players with rewards such as promotions, bonuses, and stock options.
The model assumes that the players do not change their rating. In practice even the fear of being selected as a "C" player may result in an employee working harder, reducing the number of "C" players.
Some critics believe that the 20-70-10 model fails to reflect actual human behavior[4][5]. Among randomly selected people assigned to a task, such a model may be accurate. They contend, however, that at each iteration, the average quality of employees will increase, making for more "A" players and fewer "C" players. Eventually, the "C" players comprise less than 10 % of the workforce.
The style may make it more difficult for employees to cross rate from one division to another. For example, a "C" employee in a company's Customer Service division would be at a disadvantage applying for a job in Marketing, even though he or she may have talents consistent with an "A" rating in the other division.
This is a competitive model of organization. The criticisms of both the morality and actual effectiveness of such a dog-eat-dog method of social cohesion apply. Challenges to the model include: "C" player selection methods; the effect of office politics and lowered morale on productivity, communication, interoffice relations; and cheating. Rank-based performance evaluations (in education and employment) are said to foster cut-throat and unethical behavior[6]. University of Virginia business professor Bruner wrote: As Enron internally realized it was entering troubled times, rank-and-yank turned into a more political and crony-based system [7].
Rank-and-yank contrasts with the management philosophies of W. Edwards Deming, whose broad influence in Japan has been credited with Japan's world leadership in many industries, particularly the automotive industry. "Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance" is listed among Deming's Seven Deadly Diseases. It may be said that rank-and-yank puts success or failure of the organization on the shoulders of the individual worker. Deming stresses the need to understand organizational performance as fundamentally a function of the corporate systems and processes created by management in which workers find themselves embedded. He sees so-called merit-based evaluation as misguided and destructive.
Rank-and-yank-like models are common amongst management consulting firms, including public accounting firms (e.g., the "Big 4"), often referred to as an 'up or out' approach to evaluations. Specifically, Accenture as well as PricewaterhouseCoopers use an 'up-or-out' model with their staff: if employees are not promoted after a certain length of time at their existing career level (usually no more than 4-5 years), they are 'counselled out' of the firm (shorthand for being fired—but on generous terms).
Once a year (twice a year in the UK), Accenture consulting employees are rated based on their performance into one of five rankings at their career level.
This system promotes vitality in the firm, theoretically allowing only the strongest performers to reach leadership positions. In practice, however, this system has a tendency to dilute leadership, as individuals who may be better oriented toward upper management and executive positions leave the firm before promotion to those levels is possible. Additionally, due to extraordinarily high levels of employee attrition, Accenture is built on the need for enormous recruitment, particularly at the entry level. If, for some reason, the firm was no longer able to recruit the enormous number of graduates it requires each year—or was unable to attract a high quality of graduate—this model would falter.
GE is by far the most famous company to utilize this form of corporate management. However, since Jack Welch's departure from the company, less emphasis has been placed on eliminating the bottom 10% and more emphasis placed on team-building.[8]
Enron traders also commonly were under the threat of being fired if they did not produce the desired results. Though the accounting scandals are most credited with the demise of the company, it has later come out that part of the downfall was attributed to employees inflating results in part to help protect their jobs. More about this can be seen in the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
Motorola instituted a Vitality Curve plan in the mid-90's under the name IDE (Individual Dignity Entitlement). First six, then nine metrics questions were used to rank employees' perception at the corporation. In 2000-2002, the plan was changed to the PM (Performance Management) program, which was a direct 10-80-10 philosophy and used to "weed out" the lowest producers and reward the highest producers, while offering little to no rewards compensation to the mid-level producers. Some 50,000 employees globally were cut from the Motorola global workforce between 1995 and 2005, and many of these can be attributed to the Vitality Curve. Economics also played a major role, as the stock suffered major losses in the same period.
Starting in 2006 Microsoft has used a Vitality Curve despite intense internal criticism. Mini-Microsoft, an anonymous blogger internal to the company, made "the curve" a frequent topic on his blog.
In a memo to all Microsoft employees dated April 21, 2011, chief executive Steve Ballmer annouced the company would make explicit the Vitality Curve model of performance evalution: "We are making this change so all employees see a clear, simple, and predictable link between their performance, their rating, and their compensation." [9] The new model has 5 buckets of pre-defined size (20%, 20%, 40%, 13%, and 7%), and management simply ranks. All compensation is pre-defined based on the bucket, and employees in the bottom bucket are ineligible to move positions with the understanding they will soon be yanked.
Dow Chemical uses a Vitality Curve program under the guise of Performance Management. The program started in 2005 with mixed results.