In eight years of working with the employee profile system, Pechner Dorfman has amassed a computer file of more than 10,000 candidates' replies, which it uses to refine questions, check responses against job performance, and update the profile. The firm attempts to verify the expectations raised during interviews by comparing employees' responses with their work over a year-long period.
No single test, of course -- no matter how carefully refined -- should be viewed as an interviewing panacea. Behavioral scientists point out that even the best prediction systems can't measure motivation, and Stephen Cabot would certainly agree. The key lesson, however, is clear. "The more data you can get prior to making a gut hit, the less likely you'll be wrong," says Oren Harari, a management professor at the University of San Francisco (who is not familiar with Pechner Dorfman's procedures). Management can best prevent arbitrary hiring decisions, Harari says, by predetermining its needs and asking "situation-specific questions."
But what happens when -- after the most careful preparation -- you meet a smooth candidate who knows exactly what an interviewer wants to hear? Or what if your choice is between two people who seem equally qualified?
Alan Pedersen sees a lot of that, and he is ready with the answer. Once he is satisfied that someone meets his boilerplate criteria, he says, "You go with the person you like. The final decision is going to be personality." In the end, it still comes down to "gut reliance."
But at that point, at least, it is an educated gut.
THE BEST DELEGATOR IN AMERICA?
Esquire magazine calls him the best mayor in America. He is a "genius mayor," according to Howard Cosell.
And an ingenious delegator to boot.
Baltimore's William Donald Schaefer has a not-so-subtle way of prodding his key staffers to clean up their acts. His Mayor's Action Memos call their attention to litter in the park, abandoned cars along the highway, stray dogs, unmowed grass, and broken curbs.
In his 13 years in office, the former lawyer has penned more than 3,000 action memos, the end products of his rounds of the 85-square-mile city and his stints on his own weekly call-in radio show. Mayor Schaefer has also overseen the rejuvenation of Baltimore's show-place Inner Harbor, the refurbishing of its city hall, and the construction of five interstate highways. His administration has created a number of economic incentives to restore low- and middle-income neighborhoods. He has -- here comes that phrase again -- the "bias for action" considered a primary trait of "excellent" companies.
"Years ago," says the mayor, "when I lived in a neighborhood, I noticed the city always took care of the big things. But it really bothered me when the light in front of my house burned out and wasn't replaced immediately. It's the little things that directly affect people in the community that I care about.When I became mayor, I had to find a way to call my people's attention to the things that weren't right."
What evolved is a quintuplicate form -- legal size -- containing a lost of department heads, a space to describe the action required, and room for both the mayor's and the recipient's comments. A sample to the department of public works: "I just found of invisible car. It's invisible, that is, to everyone but me. We'll show you where it is so you can remove it."
Another, scrawled in No. 2 pencil, stamped "rush," and dated March 26, 1984: "Washington Bld. and M.L. King Bld. NW corner. Bricks are displaced. In other words, the bricks are out."
The reply, typed: "Please be advised that the Bureau of Highways Maintenance Division . . . has scheduled the brick repair work at the northwest corner of Washington Boulevard & Martin Luther King Boulevard. It is anticipated that this project will be completed by Wednesday, April 11, 1984." Signed, Francis W. Kuchta.
Kuchta has been public works director for 10 years. "After the mayor's been out driving around or talking to people over a weekend," he says, "I usually get three or four action memos on Monday morning. The mayor, and rightly so, figures if he sees these things, why can't his staff? I don't take offense, but it might take new people a day or so to get used to them."
"It works," brags Schaefer. "I've got the best people working for me, and they take these things seriously. I don't have to check them so much now. But led me tell you what I just thought of today."
Annoyed to find trash accumulations in Harbor Place, he fired off a memo -- then describbled the date on a piece of garbage that he placed under a bush. Later, he would send someone to check for the dated garbage. "Maybe they can't see it," he says. "This way they'll remember."
CORRECTION-DATE: February 1985
CORRECTION:
The photograph on page 93 of the January issue is of Stephen Cabot, senior partner with Dorfman, Wolffe, Rounick & Cabot.
