An IT manager assigns programmers and systems analysts to maintenance projects if they have less than two years of experience or if they received an average or lower rating in their last performance evaluation. Do you agree with this practice?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The manager’s policy involves two separate issues, one concerning people and the other concerning the nature of maintenance work. The problem is not the assigning of less experienced people to maintenance projects only — that practice is common, and the pros and cons of that approach are discussed in the chapter.
What is troublesome about the policy is that it groups trainees and people who recently have received average or below-average ratings. In adopting this policy, the manager appears to be identifying a group of people who are different, and presumably less capable than other IT employees. Even if that is not the manager’s intent, others almost certainly will see it that way. Most effective supervisors know that it is a mistake to generalize about employees, especially if a negative stereotype is involved.
Another misconception concerns the nature of maintenance work. By assigning people identified as less capable only to maintenance projects, the manager seems to indicate that maintenance is not as difficult or as important as new development. In fact, maintenance often is even more difficult than new development — and is at least as important.
With the exception of assigning trainees to maintenance work, which is an acceptable and common practice, the manager’s staffing policy would be difficult to defend.