Job evaluation via Time Span of Discretion – A Universal Level of

Work Measure
PeopleFit Ltd.

By:
Anupriya Sharma (40/09)
Danish Haidar (95/09)
Kapil Ahuja (51/09)
Sania Zehra (141/09)
Suman Patra (39/09)
 Introduction
• The Time Span of Discretion is an interesting and unusual
method of job evaluation developed by Elliot Jaques for
the Glacier Metal Company.
• In this method the job pressure is assessed according to
the length of time over which managers decisions commit
the company.
• A machine operative, for example, is at any moment
committing the company only for the period needed to
make one product unit or component. The manager who
buys the machine is committing the company for ten
years.
• Time span of discretion is one piece of the meta-
model, Requisite Organization. 
• Within managerial hierarchies, managers get work
done through others. Therefore, it stands to
reason that if any given manager’s longest task or
deliverable (a what by when)?has a time frame of,
say, 2.5 years, any piece of his/her work that s/he
delegates to a direct report will have a deliverable
with a shorter time frame than 2.5 years.
• Length of the Longest Task
Thus, time span of discretion is the targeted completion time of
the longest task or task sequence in a role, and time span
measures the level of work in a role. The time span of a role
resides in the mind of the manager with the manager-once-
removed’s approval.
• Ask the Manager
In order to discover the time span of discretion, you must
interview the manager to tease out the longest deliverable for
which the manager is holding the role accountable.? This can
take some practice because managers often have not thought
through the roles reporting to them in this manner.
 The Job evaluation process: 4 Steps
 Selecting the Occupational Family: The first step is to determine the
appropriate Occupational Family by reviewing the vocational characteristics
(the nature and type of work performed) outlined in the Employee Work
Profile.
 Comparing and Selecting the Career Group: The second step is to compare the
Concept of Work capsule that describes the array of work performed in the
various Career Group Descriptions to the Employee Work Profile in order to
determine the appropriate Career Group.
 Comparing and Selecting a Role within a Career Group: The third step is to
evaluate and compare the Work Description (position objective; purpose of
position; knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies; education, experience,
certification and licensure; core responsibilities and special assignments)
outlined in the Employee Work Profile to the various Role Descriptions and the
factor matrices to determine the appropriate Role.
 Comparing to other positions within a Role to ensure consistency: The final
step is to confirm the assignment of the position to the Role by checking to
make sure that it is consistent with other positions assigned to the same Role
Job
 Example from the PeopleFit Case Files
• Time span interviews with a Marketing Vice President- When
discussing the public relations role that reported to him, he was
concentrating on the various PR events and press releases as potential
longest tasks.
• These individual tasks all had completion times under three months
which, if these were the longest tasks of the role, would point to the
role being a level 1 role.
• The manager’s gut was telling him this was a higher level role.
• The PR Manager was accountable for building a local network of media
contacts that would ensure frequent coverage of the organization’s
“news” and events. This task was plotted at 9 months to 1 year which
would make the role a high level 2 role. If the market were bigger or
national, this could easily move the role into level 3 with a time span of
1 to 2 years.
• Caveat – Nearly Everyone Misses this Subtlety The First Time
Note that time span of discretion can be used as a measure of ROLE
complexity. A role generally will contain multiple tasks. Time span of
discretion cannot be used to measure the complexity level of an
INDIVIDUAL TASK.

• For example, a CEO task might be to write a 5 year strategic plan. Writing
the plan, which is a task, might only take a month.? A ROLE with a time
span of discretion of one month is a level 1 role. However, you would not
want someone currently operating with level 1 capability writing your 5
year strategic plan. So the writing of that plan would be one of the CEO’s
tasks (and a very complex one) but this longest task would likely be the
delivery of that plan which has a 5 year time span of discretion.
 Crux
• Time span of discretion of the work in a role can be
determined by identifying the longest task for which
one is held accountable.
• If a role’s longest task is one-month task, the role has a
one-month time span of discretion.
• All roles with a one-month time span of discretion are
equally complex regardless of whether they are in the
same department, organisation or business sector.
• Roles with shorter time spans are less complex, and
roles with longer time spans are more complex.
The Benefits of Understanding this Concept:
• Generic, apple-to-apples measure of job complexity.

• Comparison of the relative weights of unrelated jobs -

between an organisation’s departments, between competing
firms, merging companies, or between jobs within completely
different industries or countries.

• Time span provides a universal scale for measuring the

complexity level of any given job.

• Objective basis for structuring compensation system

 Benefits (contd…)

• Using time span measurements, complexity level of roles can be

determined easily and consistently. This knowledge is invaluable
to those charged with selection, organisational design,
compensation, employee development or succession planning.

• Time span measurements are not only objective, but relatively

simple and straightforward. It’s so uncomplicated that many
doubt its validity. However, the concept is backed by decades of
research including extensive validation studies conducted by the
US Army Behavioral Research Center.
 Time span of discretion = Length of the longest task = Complexity of
work within a role

• Consider this: When a manager is given tasks by his

manager, he, in turn, doles out tasks to his subordinates.
The tasks a manager delegates cannot span a longer time
period than those for which he, himself, is responsible.
• If a manager’s longest task takes one year, he will not be
assigning 18-month tasks to his subordinates.
• One usually does not question that any given manager’s job
is more complex than the job(s) of any of his subordinates.
• Given this example, it stands to reason that the longest task
for which one is accountable gives a measure of the
complexity of his job.
 Types of Work

• Although time exists along a continuum, research has uncovered

specific breakpoints along that continuum which separate
varying kinds of work into layers or strata. To use another
temperature analogy, take, for example, water or H2O, its 2
components are always the same, but it changes state from ice
to water to steam consistently at 0 degrees and 100 degrees.
• Work has also been found to exist in distinguishable states which
stratify consistently at time spans of 3 months, one year and so
on.
• Different types of increasingly complex works are called for by
the jobs that fall into each stratum.
 Applications:
Human Capability
• Not just anyone can work at any stratum level. Again, we all know
intuitively that some people can handle more complex work than
others, but we usually lack a vocabulary and measurement system to
describe just how work varies and just who is capable of which kind of
work.
• Some people can reliably carry out procedures but do not yet have the
ability to anticipate problems. Using the chart above, we could
describe this person as having potential capability at a stratum 1 level.
• Someone who could write a sequential plan for creating and
implementing a new software package company-wide would have
potential capability at least at the stratum 3 level.
Talent Management
• As it turns out, one’s ability to handle complexity is not static. It matures
with age in a predictable manner. A way to accelerate the maturation has
not yet been found.
• Meaning, if one does not currently have the ability to handle complexity
at the level required of a certain position, no amount of training,
coaching, or personal mentoring will can change it.
• The person will simply be unable to do the work required by the job until
he matures to that level over time. For reasons not yet understood, some
people mature to a higher level of capability by the end of their careers.
• This is why Matching People to Jobs some people desire to move up the
corporate ladder (high potential mode), and others are content to stay
within one job throughout their career (expert mode).
 Requisite Organization

• What Behaviors Do Your Management Systems Drive? What

Values Do They Telegraph?
• Systems drive behavior and telegraph values. Most
management systems within organizations lack coherent
integration and create stressful conflicts of interests.
• Because of this, most organizational dysfunction can be traced
to deficient systems and not individual employee shortcomings.
• However, most mainstream management models focus on
fixing individual employees through training or coaching, rather
than addressing systemic issues that drive dysfunctional
behavior.
 Requisite Organization – A Total System Approach for
Integrated Talent Management, Organization Design and
Managerial Leadership

• Requisite Organization is a scientific, total-systems model for organization

design, talent management, and managerial leadership backed by decades
of research led by the late Dr. Elliott Jaques.
• The model provides a theoretical base and common language for
measuring work complexity and human capability that allows for sane-
making, systems-level design solutions for organizational effectiveness.
• Use of the model allows organizations to systematically:
 Match employees to roles that allow for the fullest expression of their
gifts.
 Match employees to managers who can provide them satiating
leadership.
 Structure the organization to catalyze free flow of communication and
leadership both vertically and horizontally.
 Clarify accountabilities and authorities to enable productive work.
Codify effective managerial leadership practices.
• Helping Executives Design Systems and Managers Lead
Effectively
 PeopleFit uses the Requisite Organization model as a blueprint to
help executives design sane-making people systems. Additionally,
PeopleFit has translated the model into practical managerial tools
and processes to help managers be successful leaders.
• Building Leadership Capability
 PeopleFit’s requisite consulting and training is carried out in
partnership with your organization’s executive and managerial
leadership with an eye toward building your organization’s
leadership capability.
• Introduction to Requisite Organization Training
– PeopleFit’s interactive course, Performance Diagnostics for Managers, is also
known as Introduction to Requisite Organization. This one-day course
introduces participants to the the foundation concepts and principles and
provides participants with the opportunity to immediately apply their
knowledge to diagnose common organizational performance issues.
• Do Your Systems Help or Hinder Productive Work?
– Work is a psychological imperative for humans, and as such it, has the
potential to be a noble, highly-gratifying expression of a unique human soul.
Unfortunately, ignorance surrounding work levels and human capability
cause organizations to unwittingly thwart and frustrate workers more often
than they create conditions for the full expression of their gifts.
Call us to begin an integrated approach to organization design, talent
management, and managerial leadership today.