What’s in a name
by Todd WilkensYou know how there are certain topics or issues that come up on a recurring basis in organizations? Well, at AP one of these is job titles. This is an often contentious or at least evocative topic in any organization. It is particularly problematic for us here because of the people that make up the company and the way we work together. We all understand that job titles serve a very important outward facing purpose in a consultancy: clients need to know who you are and what you can/will do for them. This has been the primary driver behind our current job titles. Everyone chooses their own title when they come in to reflect their interests and expertise. The issue that we have been dealing with more recently is the internal function/effect of job titles. Specifically, we are an organization filled almost entirely with people who would be in “senior” or “management” positions in almost any other organizations. In practice, we have very little hierarchy beyond leadership roles on specific projects and the small executive management team. Yet, “senior” only shows up in a handful of people’s titles and this is a constant catalyst for discussion. You might ask, “What’s in a name?” Well, as any information architect or librarian will tell you, classification has consequences. So, we’ve been talking a lot about the organizational effects of these linguistic distinctions that aren’t reflected in the way we actually do our work. Among other ideas, some people regularly advocate abolishing job titles.
I know that the boundaries between disciplines are always fuzzy. But my question or concern is less about disciplinary boundaries and more about hierarchy and power. How does this play out in other organizations that don’t function in a rigidly hierarchical way? I’d love to hear examples from others about what has worked and not worked in their experience.
(FYI, you can see our current set of job titles on the about page.)
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February 20th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
… which is exactly why I’ve given myself the title of “Manager of Ambiguous Titles” at work.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
In a company I have worked for, no one is allowed to put their job titles on their business cards. We promote a fairly fluid environment, where one person can fulfill a dozen roles during the space of a month. For instance, at times, I was Account Manager, Business Analyst, Consultant, Project Manager, Solution designer, Business Development Manager, even Queen of Everything (as one of my clients called me once). So what would I put on my card?
Instead, I tell clients when I hand my card to them what my role is, in terms of what it will be to them. I’m not saying its an ideal situation, but it certainly worked in this organisation.
February 21st, 2007 at 12:26 am
IMHO - the title on a business card only has an *initial impact* for a client - “ah so you are a X … ”
Beyond that its what you can do and how well you communicate what you do along the way … titles don’t mean much.
February 21st, 2007 at 4:47 pm
The question is, how do you handle the internal perception of roles in an organization without titles?
Say you have a visual design team made up of a few people with varying levels of experience and tenure. The company culture suggests that your titles are all “visual designer”, as you are a team that collectively works with mutual respect and drive towards a common goal. However, there are clearly behaviors that exhibit experience and responsibility.
Can an organization function well in this example? Do titles need to exist for internal clarification of roles and responsibilities? Or, does a company that wants to live by this ethos simply have to deal with the ambiguity one case at a time?
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:33 am
Can one draw any insights from fields outside of UX? For example - Medicine? Engineering? Academia?
When does someone eventually move into and is seen to be in a “senior” (for lack of a better term) position? What criteria determines when a person is senior? Perhaps the ability to manage/lead/mentor? When that person is seen by peers as senior? When people are put into positions with responsibility for others?
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:29 am
[…] Quite a bit back, I wrote on the subject of “No Job Titles.” The subject has come up again within Adaptive Path, as Todd’s post shows. There’s also been discussion on internal mailing lists, which prompted me to write the following: I hate job titles. […]
May 6th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
[…] (I find this also follows on Todd’s earlier post on job titles.) […]