Last time, I suggested that the organic view of organizations is better suited at capturing the multi-agent nature of human systems than the "egoistic" mechanistic view. Before returning to more technical topics, closer to the core of this site, I cannot resist dwelling on the realm of HR a bit more and picking up where I left off last time.
As said, human resources are generally appreciated based on their skill sets rather than their mindsets. It is easier to staff positions based on concrete surface features than measure the complexity of roles and the depth of human mind. However, people's skills, expertise and experiences are just the "tip of the iceberg" of workforce potential. More fundamental cognitive capabilities and capacities underlie these competencies and determine their actual use. Too often, less tangible qualities that manifest these foundations, such as attitudes, motivation, decision-making abilities, goal-directedness, innovativeness, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and growth potential of the employee, go more or less unnoticed.
Different psychological assessments and horizontal personality typologies are proposed as means to "humanize" human resources by embracing the uniqueness of each individual. The idea is that by knowing their Myers-Briggs type or the Enneagram of their personality, people could adjust their behavior to the personality styles of others for better results. However, these typologies do not account for the differences in people's awareness of others' different styles and in their capacity to respond accordingly. In essence, the assessments fall short in capturing the developmental perspective.
A person is not a static being. Developmental psychologists have shown that adult psychological development transpires through distinct, recognizable stages of increasingly higher orders of abstraction through a dialectical motion between differentiation and integration. Clare Graves put it in particular eloquence: "The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order systems as man's existential problems change."
The developmental perspective aims at understanding and assessing both the current capacity and the growth potential of individuals. It recognizes that people have different mindsets through which they face the challenges of their work. These worldviews bear much more relevance than sporadic skills, as they lay the foundation for how successful people are at their work. Skills can be readily acquired, but belief systems are developing more slowly. However, vertical development is non-linear and occurs in quantum leaps, so personal growth between developmental levels brings about order-of-magnitude gains. Employees are most motivated and effective, when their cognitive and socio-emotional capabilities match the complexity of work they are doing. Accordingly, they are frustrated and ineffectual, when there is a mismatch.
So mind the mindsets! They have a major bottom-line impact, for the better or worse.
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