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This project was undertaken shortly after the program was initiated (but after it was designed). The program had not yet been fully implemented, but it was operational in a number of firm offices. Because of the high costs of the program, senior management wanted to develop some basis by which the program’s effectiveness could be judged. Ten senior partners familiar with the career development program used a brainwriting technique to generate several hundred statements describing features or benefits of the program. For this project, it was decided to do two separate concept mappings, one describing the features of the program itself, and one describing the desired benefits or outcomes. To achieve this, the original set of statements was divided into two separate sets, 71 describing features, and 64 describing benefits. The ten managers sorted each set to produce separate maps and rated each in terms of the importance of the statements. In addition, they considered the current partial implementation of the program and rated each statement for how characteristic it was of the program as it was currently being implemented.
Career Development Features Map
The features map had 9 clusters. On the top of the map were three clusters indicating the strong training focus that this career development program had. On the right side were two clusters that showed that the program was designed to cut across traditional units and service lines. On the left were three clusters that referred to the improved manageability of the program relative to its predecessor. The most important clusters were related to training and integrated professional development.
Figure 1. Map of features of a career development program.
The pattern match of importance with characteristics can be viewed as a type of implementation check. Ideally, one would like those features that are considered to be most important the ones that are most characteristic of the program. The results, however, indicate that the opposite tends to be true. There is a slight tendency for a negative relation -- the most important items tend to be less characteristic of the current program. The three most important clusters are the fifth, sixth and ninth (out of nine) in terms of characteristics of the current program. Although skill-based learning, integrated professional development, and relevant engagement-specific training are the three most important they are far from the most characteristic of the program. On the other hand, benchmarks/guidelines, all-inclusive with central participation, and structured cross-service line curricula are the three most characteristic features although they were seventh, sixth, and eighth respectively (out of nine) in importance. It is worth noting that all three of these refer to features related to the management of the program, as opposed to the content of the program itself. Certainly, it is hard to argue that this program is emphasizing what it was intended to emphasize.
Figure 2. Pattern match of how important and how characteristic each feature is in the career development program.
Career Development Benefits Map
The map of benefits yielded ten clusters which divide into two general regions. On the top of the map are five clusters that describe internal benefits to the company. Four of these are benefits to individuals, while one describes the benefit of more efficient and effective management of training. On the bottom of the map are five clusters describing benefits the company will have in the marketplace. The most important cluster is enhanced ability to preserve human capital which is essentially another way of saying that the company expects to lose fewer employees through attrition.
Figure 3. Map of the benefits of a career development program.
As in the features map, we would expect ideally that the more important clusters are also the ones that are most characteristic of the program. And, as in the features match, we find that virtually the opposite is true. In general benefits that are higher in importance tend to be less characteristic of the program and those that are lower in importance tend to be more characteristic. Most striking is that the benefit that was judged most important, enhanced ability to preserve human capital, was considered least characteristic of the program. What benefits are most characteristic? The clusters individual’s needs met through more effective and productive training, and efficient/effective management of the training process are the two judged most characteristic of the program, but they were eighth and ninth in importance.
Figure 4. Pattern match of how important and how characteristic each benefit is in the career development program.
Conclusion
It is not clear from the results exactly what is happening in this career development program. But what is clear is that the program is not functioning well. There are major discrepancies between what key stakeholders think is important about this program and what they think is characteristic of it in its early implementation. This was confirmed in informal discussions with the participants. None were surprised at the results, and all expressed concerns that they had about the program even going in to this process. At this point the company has stopped the program entirely and has begun efforts to examine what is wrong with it and to develop a potentially more successful alternative. Given the multimillion dollar nature of the program, the potential savings due to early detection of these disconnects could be significant.