On 4 Sep 98 at 8:36, T.J. Elliott wrote:
> The responses to this post while quick to condemn stock price have
> lacked two elements in my reading. They fail to address the
> perspectives of others involved in the process. What would a line
> manager choose as a measure of whether LOs work? A major
> stockholder? A union official? Secondly, they do not propose
> specific measures.
Stock market prices are sufficiently irrational that they are useless in
assessing the effect of any corporate initiative internally. The link
between stock price and productivity is tenuous at best.
But to your point..clearly multiple measures make sense. But not stock
price.
Any measures that are more rational are better, including return on
investment, which is one standard way to assess corporate results.
> My own experience
> is that if we don't develop such measures with those responsible
> internally for the LO effort, then eventually someone else will
> impose measures that will prove as arbitrary and disadvantageous as
> stock price. --
I don't think we need to "develop measures". I think we need to use what
already exists, and there is a wide range of indicators re: a company's
health. The question is, if we do the research which of those indicators
are a "fair" test of an LO's success?
I'm no economic accounting type, but there is
% return on investment
same as above but benched to others in the same industry
earnings per share
same but benched to others in same industry
..there's probably another hundred I don't know about. But, clearly any
research has to be longitudinal over at least a decade.
Robert Bacal, Inst.For Cooperative Communication, rbacal@escape.ca NOW
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--"Robert Bacal" <rbacal@escape.ca>
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