The People Measurement Manual: Measuring Attitudes, Behaviours and Beliefs in Your Organization

Citation

Ole Pors, N. (2003), "The People Measurement Manual: Measuring Attitudes, Behaviours and Beliefs in Your Organization", New Library World, Vol. 104 No. 9, pp. 379-380. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800310493206

It is too much to say that the title of the book under review is misleading. It is not, but it is important to state that the book is much more than a simple manual or how‐to‐do‐it guide. Before we deal with the content of the book, let us look at some formalities. The book contains a good and detailed index. It has no bibliography and the mentioning of or references to authors in the field is very limited in the text. It is not an uncommon feature in more practical oriented management books.

The book is very well organised and written lucidly. Wealleans has organised the book in 11 chapters. Each chapter has boxed tips and ends with a list of bulleted advice points, that also serve as a summary of the chapter. Each of the 11 chapters is divided in many paragraphs each having a heading. It is easy to get an orientation of the content of the single chapter.

The author does not explicitly state the intended audience of the book. I would say that it must be people in human resource management departments or others working with staff and staff‐related problems.

Wealleans’ approach is generic. He does not make a distinction between the private or the public sector or between large or small companies. He does not really discuss measurement problems in relation to people from different professions. He is placed firmly in what we could call the modernistic tradition in management thinking interpreting people as a kind of asset or resource. The main objective is, of course, to get the people to act and think in accordance with the visions, missions and strategy of the organisation. It is also important to emphasise that Wealleans focuses very much on the customer and her or his relationship to the staff as the crucial perspective for measuring.

Overall, the book is written in a very clear style avoiding much of the management jargon. The argumentation is sound and valid and the author discusses pros and cons throughout the text. It is easily grasped and personally I like the fact that it is not condescending in any way.

The book starts with a chapter that is concerned with strategies, uncertainty in the environment and change processes. The need for measuring people is put in that context. This thought develops further in the second chapter of the book. The framework for measuring peoples is put in the context of the primary concerns of the organisation and the emphasis is that measurement must be aligned to the key success factor.

The third chapter is useful because it deals with creating the right conditions for measuring people in an organisation. It has a good discussion about the more subjective and personal perceptions of measurement and emphasises some of the ethical aspects of the measurement process including the diversity among staff in relation to attitudes towards measuring. The following chapter includes a thoughtful discussion about what to measure, be it behaviour, feelings and attitudes. Some of the discussions are rather abstract and some examples could have been beneficial, especially when Wealleans writes about behavioural hierarchies.

The next four chapters cover nearly half of the text and they are concerned with the measurement process and measurement techniques. These chapters also cover some basic research methodology such as sample problems, basic statistics, framing questions and setting up an interview. There is, of course, not much new in relation to these issues, but I think the author relates the general methodological questions lucidly in relation to measuring people in the organisation. I expect that many people working staff related issues would benefit from this introduction or repetition – depending on their background. Wealleans covers the measuring process by questionnaires, by interviews and by other measures collected under the broad label called monitoring or looking for signs. In a research method textbook the last would probably come under the label of observational methods.

Overall, these chapters are very well written and Wealleans treats serious methodological problems such as the difference between direct and indirect indicators. He gives some good examples when he warns about the pitfalls in interpretation. The chapters also contain good advice on the process of setting up the measurement operation including a short discussion about how many questions to ask and similar important but often overlooked issues. He also stresses the importance of continuous measurement in relation to the strategic goals.

The last three chapters in the book are about getting the profit of the endeavour of the measuring process. He has an interesting discussion of measuring people in relation to baselines, standards and targets. Wealleans emphasises heavily that measurement results are intended for actions. He discusses the need to identify the relevant actions, and options including risk analyses and the need for follow up. It is also very useful that he discusses this kind of measurement in relation to other measurement programs that may exist in the organisation.

I wondered a little why the author has omitted any references to personality testing, be it real personality tests or test of preferences. These tests are normally useful for identifying both attitudes and propensity for behaviour. He mentions the Belbin test, but that is all. I think just a few more worked examples would have been an advantage.

Overall, I like the book very much. It has much more theory‐based discussion than many other manuals and it contains a wide variety of information very well put together in a strategic context. The book is not a how‐to‐do‐it book. It is a book covering the intellectual planning process preceding the design of the measuring instruments and incorporating them in the organisational framework. Personally, I will return to the book from time to time and although it does not mention the word library I would recommend it on the shelves of managers working with staff related or even strategic issues in a library setting.