Foreword: This is a contributing article to the Job Search Featured Posts. The dialectic struggle between the specialist and generalist has been raging for decades if not longer and a very misunderstood struggle too. During the 1980's being a specialist was taboo and limiting. As economies contract and jobs become more difficult to find, then the specialist increase in importance. Also head hunters will almost always seek specialist as they are easier to place in specific roles. The generalist is rarely ever fresh out of school but instead the specialist matures into generalist roles with experience and deliberate planned career tracks. Becoming a generalist is not by accident.
Organizations heavy on specialist suffer terrible fates after becoming too polarized and myopic. A balance between generalist and specialist is needed in most organizations. This post discusses the debate and outlines the value of generalist in the workplace. Then offers advice on how companies can utilize the generalist.
Specialist Verses Generalist
The debate regarding Specialist verses Generalist ping-pongs around like Disney's flubber. Surveys of articles on the subject focus predominantly on earning potential and job availability for specialist and tend to ignore or dismiss the generalist altogether. Most of the articles and thinking were initiated by placement agencies in this debate having a heavy bias towards the specialist niche market and demonstrated a misunderstanding of the generalist professional.
The specialist is more common. They are journeyman in a trade, go to a vocational school, or train in a two or four year college on a specific skill set. Often specialists are certified by the industry, government, or vendors. Specialists are in trades like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, software programmers, customer service agents, realtors, insurance agents, engineers, accountants, and many other careers of the like. The term tradecraft, craftsmen, and workmanship all describe the time earned skills or experiential training acquired to be a specialist. Specialists are in high demand as employment tends to be readily available and placement agencies can more easily place candidates who show longevity in the trade. However, specialists are also subject to supply-side economics. If there are too many in a particular field then the wage goes down and employment becomes difficult to find. The skill sets are also subject to obsolescence due to disruptive technologies and shifting economies. Economic forces of capital economies such as creative destruction drive
change in which the specialist can become obsolete in time. For example, typewriter repairmen are hard to come by following the personal computing revolution. The specialist is task oriented.
The generalist is a different character altogether. Most generalist originate from the ranks of specialist as the generalist is often trained in a trade, possess certifications, and degrees. Most generalist possess advanced degrees. However, this alone does not define the generalist. Experience and character are greater defining qualities of the generalist. True generalists start out as specialist then begin acquiring a very broad base of experience across sectors, industries, and disciplines. Becoming a generalist shifts focus from a task orientation to big picture, broad processes, and strategies. The character of generalist begins to morph towards innovator, motivator, and visionary. The generalist can see the end state and step in where needed to move the process along. They may not be as concise or skilled as a specialist but the generalist can get the ball rolling turning over to a specialist if needed while maintaining the focus on cost, profit, goals, and objectives.
The challenges
Companies rarely realize the need for a mix of specialist and generalist viewing the generalist as taboo without fully understanding the generalist value. One challenge is that during austere financial times, companies focus more heavily on specialist as the focus shifts to sustaining current relationships and business. The thinking is improving time-to-market and quality in order to keep existing customers happy. The perception is that specialist have honed skill sets who get the task done quickly. Also the specialist becomes a filter mechanism or gauge for new hires based on longevity in the trade.
Another challenge for generalist to overcome is the commoditization of skill sets usually through certification programs. Many professional organizations are producing certifications centering on a specific set of skills, a specialty, such as supply chain, project management, logistics, lean, TQM, Six Sigma, etc... Commoditization is not generally thought of as a good thing as it means earnings marginalize or wages go down. Many people complete school with degrees in psychology, history, or
general studies and are unable to find work. They obtain a
specialty certification in order to improve their employment prospects. Companies observe the specialty certifications then hire those specialists who subsequently promote into influential positions while maintaining the specialty focus. This exasperates the situation for the organization since the specialist has not rounded themselves out in ways that benefit the organization as would the generalist.
The value of having generalist is the ability to maintain the broad scope organizational focus which gets lost when too many specialist are present. An indicator of having too many specialists is when the staff performs their duties without an acute awareness of the value of their contribution towards profitability and the goals of the organization. The possibility exists that well intentioned specialist have built an overtly and unnecessarily complex operation that serves some specialty but fails to serve the organizational objectives. This can be averted with a balance between generalist and specialist of which the balance is unique to each company.
Identifying The Right Generalist Type
Companies typically fall somewhere into the STaRS model. STaRS stands for Start up, Transitioning, Reorganizing, or Sustaining. Some organizations claim to be in all four modes simultaneously. If that is the case then the organization is in absolute disarray lacking quality leadership. Nonetheless, the mode of the organization will drive the talent required. Executive admins are most often trained to be generalists but the generalist should occur at lower levels in managerial and directorial roles as well. In many cases, generalist are found in analytical roles, advisory roles, or leading think tanks. However, not all generalist are the same. Each has a mix of experiences and training that form generalist focus areas and match up to the organizations mode. Three common generalist focus areas follow:
- Entrepreneurial: This generalist is rounded in finance, operations, and information technologies plus well read and versed in emerging technologies, theories, and concepts. They have character traits that include charismatic leadership, insight, and vision and are enablers who put vision to practice. These generalist think in terms of the 80/20 rule and seek out the low hanging fruit to demonstrate quick results. Often these generalist are found leading work groups, tiger teams, or may be key stakeholders on a bootstrapped start up as well as companies in transition.
- Innovator: This generalist is of an elite group that is highly skilled in a technical field. They spend a lot of time image streaming and conducting combinatory play in their minds visioning how things may play out. They network centers of knowledge looking for patterns and trends to exploit. They often are world-class innovators who mold and form our way of life by leveraging technology in ways that change our lifestyles. These generalist are often inventors and researchers. They may even be eccentric riding unicycles down hallways at work or wear red gorilla suits. The modes suited for this generalist are transitioning, reorganizing, and start up.
- Business Minded: This generalist is similar to the entrepreneurial generalist but instead of creating new products, services, or businesses this generalist sustains an operation improving profitability and pulling the operation together like a well oiled machine. They may be analysts, project managers, operations managers, or other positions that transition, sustain, and reorganize the operations leaning out cost and increasing profitability.
Other generalist focus areas outside of business circles may involve the sciences, charity work, and social work. Nonetheless, the natural order is for specialists to carry out the generalists vision, goals, structures, and other bidings given the cross-functional nature of generalist.
Wrap Up
The generalist is not a career by mishap nor taboo. Instead, the generalist is a career progression most often emerging out of the specialist today. However, the traditional high school college preparatory curriculum and four college programs were originally designed to produce generalist with well rounded educational backgrounds. Economic, social, and political forces are remolding the traditional education more towards specialist training. This narrowing of the mind is not consistent with the American Forefathers vision when Thomas Jefferson spoke about the "freest expansion of the human mind" (Federer, 1996, p. 324). Companies must realize the need for generalist skill sets in order to better design their operations in support of organizational objectives.
Selecting the right generalist type and properly utilizing the mix of generalist to specialist is an art in itself that seems to be missing in many companies as specialist promote into what should be a generalist position. The generalist brings a highly valued skill set into the right levels within companies that can focus companies on organizational goals and profitability. Selecting the right kind of generalist is the challenge. In the past, succession plans and corporate recruiting was centered on finding and recruiting or promoting candidates who were generalist. But the mantra of change during transitioning times has wiped out many of these time tested and proven approaches.
Considering the current economic cycles having run now for over 7 years, the marketplace should be entering a general growth phase within the next 3 to 5 years. Recent drops in energy costs is a major underpinning of capital economies that have traditionally predicated expansion. However, confidence and private land ownership are other major factors contributing to growth but remain weak. Nonetheless, organizations should begin structuring for this coming cycle of growth of which the generalist can become an extremely valued asset. Placing structures for growth now can only benefit the companies in the current and in the future. When at the bottom, there is only one way to go - up.
References
Federer, W. J. (1996). America's god & country: encyclopedia of quotations. USA: FAME Publishing, Inc.
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