Clear language and / or simple tools for communication about behaviour in organizations, in use with RDM/RDF

A clear language from T.T. Paterson's Management theory:

Job
A job is what a person contributes towards the achievement of the purpose of the organization. A job is composed of tasks.

Task
Tasks are groups of related processes and operations.

Process
A process is a set of logically related operations.

Operation
An operation is a complete and logical cycle of elements.

Element
An element is either a physical movement or a mental activity.

Decision and decision system
All jobs, whatever the particular field or function, require people to make decisions. Each task can be broken down into decisions required.

Decision-making implies a decision process, a sequence of four stages:
1. Stimulation which becomes Information,
2. Assessment of the information to present a Conclusion or alternatives for action,
3. Selection of an alternative which becomes a commitment to action and so results in a Decision proper,
4. Execution, requiring decisions on how to carry out the commitment.

In any enterprise a decision by one person may become the information or the conc1usion for another, so requiring further decision-making. Hence each of the four stages of decision-making can be seen to form a decision system which, in the case of human enterprises, is an open one.

The stages or 'units' of the decision system are related one to another, and thus relations can be defined in terms of necessity (for decision-making in an organization implies necessity), and necessity involves 'right to do' and hence authority.

Authority
All job relations can be specified in terms of authority. There are four forms of authority:
1. Structural authority: the right to command,
2. Sapiential authority: the right to be heard by reason of expertness,
3. Moral authority: the enhancement of structural and sapiential authority by reason of proven rightness and goodness of action,
4. Personal authority: the enhancement of structural, sapiential and moral authority by reason of the charisma of the personality.

Different levels (decision areas, "bands") of decision

Band E:
Top managment has tasks requiring policy decisions. Limits are set by owners and shareholders, if not by the laws of the state.
Band D:
Senior managment and staff have tasks that involve programming decisions, i.e. planning the implementation of policy.
Band C:
Middle managers and staff have tasks that require interpretating decisions, i.e. interpretation of the plan and the choice of what is to be done inside that plan;
Band B:
Skilled workers and starting professionals take routine decisions to decide on the processes necessary to do what bas been decided requires doing;
Band A:
Semi-skilled worders and lower staff take automatic decisions to decide on the cycle of operations within a process; i.e tempo and order of actions;
Band 0:
Unskilled workers can take only limited decisions on the elements of operation; i.e. moment of action and quality of performance.

Each higher level of decision includes the decision areas of its lower levels, each level can be split into a sublevel of coördination of same tasks and a sublevel of execution of those tasks.

Definitions of competencies:

General definition :
Quality that is absolutely needed to do the job. Behaviour, skill, activity for which an employee is qualified, able and willing. Note that the factor willing implicates an important subjective component of the judgments.
Threshold Competencies.
These are the essential characteristics (usually knowledge or basic skills, such as the ability to read) that everyone in a job needs to be minimally effective but that do not distinguish superior erom average performers. A threshold competency fOr a salesperson is knowledge of the product or ability to fill out invoices.
Differentiating Competencies.
These factors distinguish superior from average performers. For example, achievement orientation expressed in a person's setting goals higher than those required by the organization, is a competency that differentiates superior from average salespeople.
Formal Competencies.
Diplomas, grades, certificates that distinguish qualified people from unqualified.

Big Five

		LEVEL:
BIG FIVE  DIMENSION	LOW:	MEDIUM:	HIGH:
Need for Stability	Resilient (N-)	Responsive (N)	Reactive (N+)
Extraversion	Introvert (E-)	Ambivert (E)	Extravert (E+)
Originality	Preserver (O-)	Moderate (O)	Explorer (O+)
Accommodation	Challenger (A-)	Negotiator (A)	Adapter (A+)
Consolidation	Flexible (C-)	Balanced (C)	Focused (C+)

Belbin Role Models