MANAGEMENT

FIRST STEP. Professional specialists committees at Cal-research's Richmond and La Habra labs review candidates for first promotion onto one of the professional advancement

ladders, make recommendations to lab managers. Richmond committee consists of (left to right) Dr. E. D. Kane, Dr. J. R. Thomas, D. H. Condit, H. T. Tupper, and Dr. L. E. Miller

Three Ways Up at Calresearch A great success. After more than five years' experience, that's what Cali­fornia Research calls its three-ladder system for promoting technical per­sonnel. The use of parallel ladders, the company says, has helped in de­veloping scientists and in increasing their accomplishments.

The idea of providing separate routes by which technical people can advance is not new. Many chemical and petroleum companies during the past 15 years have started one varia­tion or another of the multiladder sys­tem. But the one at Calresearch is a good example of how a company can adapt the idea to its own needs and make it work.

The program at Calresearch (the research arm of Standard Oil of Cali­fornia) rests on a broad base consist­ing of three levels. At these levels, there is no distinction between ladders. Everybody in this area is engaged in research or development and might be considered to be on the scientific, or professional, ladder to begin with. But above the third step, the com­

pany has three routes for advancement. One route is the scientific ladder.

Its function is to reward individual accomplishment and potential with­out requiring a man to change his field. He doesn't have to trade the research lab for administrative work to get ahead.

The second route, the supervisory ladder, is the traditional management-line path. Here, there are specific organizational slots that must be filled, whereas each step on the scientific ladder can expand or contract, de­pending on how many people belong there.

Calresearch calls its third route the technical staff ladder. It is for people whose job is to "aid management in managing more effectively." Like the supervisory ladder, the technical staff positions are definite spots that are tied to the administration of the com­pany.

Program Grows. When Calresearch installed the present setup in mid-1956, the scientific ladder included 16% of the personnel above the three

lowest steps. But it has grown fast and now includes 37% of the 245 people on the three ladders. Calre­search points to this growth as a sign that the company intends to use the system to the fullest extent—a key point in maintaining employee confi­dence in the plan.

Each of the three ladders has five rungs. They range from senior re­search chemist to senior research sci­entist on the scientific ladder (a sec­ond set of titles for this ladder empha­sizes the engineering fields). On the supervisory scale, titles go from group supervisor to division manager. Re­gardless of the ladder, positions on the same level carry the same status and salary range.

Since the scientific classification is relatively new, only seven people oc­cupy its top three levels compared with 45 on the top three rungs of the supervisory ladder. This situation is bound to change, however, as people move up the scientific ladder. On the lower two rungs of the scientific ladder, for example, are 84 profes-

44 C & E N NOV. 13, 1961

sional personnel, compared to 77 in the same positions of the supervisory ladder.

Dr. G. H. Denison is the sole oc­cupant of the top rung of the scien­tific ladder. A veteran of 25 years with Calresearch, Dr. Denison has done research in fuel and lubricant additives, synthetic oils, and the oxi­dation of hydrocarbons. As one of the company's top professional special­ists, he played a role in setting up the parallel ladder scheme at Calresearch. He is still on the committee that makes final recommendations to the company president for promotion.

Even people who had a hand in working out the Calresearch setup are surprised at how smoothly it has worked. One reason for this, Dr. Denison says, is that the company went into it completely in one giant step. Many people were put on the scien­tific ladder at the start. Another im­portant factor: The company took pains to see that all employees under­stood the aims and mechanics of the system.

As a result, the basic procedure survives pretty much as it was set up in 1956. The first push that a man gets toward one of the ladders nor­mally comes from his supervisor, who makes a recommendation to a local laboratory committee. Each Calre­search installation—at Richmond, Calif., and at La Habra—has such a group to screen candidates. These committees, who deal only with the first promotion to the ladder, then make recommendations to the man­agers of the laboratories. The man­agers, in turn, recommend to the com­pany-wide professional personnel com­mittee, which passes on its decisions to Calresearch president A. L. Lyman.

An important part of the program, Dr. Denison says, is its flexibility. A man can move horizontally from one ladder to another if his ability and interests make such a move desirable.

No Dumping Ground. The prime requirement for promotion to the sci­entific ladder is technical accomplish­ment. If there is any hint that the ladder is being used as a reward for many years of service or as a dump­ing ground for problem cases, the whole system would have two strikes on it from the start. Calresearch feels that the program would not survive if it did not have the continuing con­fidence and respect of professional employees.

The way to win and keep this con-

Parallel ladder program

in five successful years boosts

scientists' productivity

and morale

RESEARCH CHEMIST, ENGINEER, GEOLOGIST, ETC.

ASSOCIATE RESEARCH CHEMIST, ENGINEER, GEOLOGIST, ETC. \ (548)

ASSISTANT RESEARCH CHEMIST, ENGINEER, GEOLOGIST, ETC.

(Figures in parentheses indicate number of technical employees on each rung)

N O V . 13 , 1 9 6 1 C & E N 45

SCIENTIFIC TECHNICAL STAFF I SUPERVISORY

HIGH MAN. Dr. G. H. Denison, 25-year veteran at Calresearch and sole occupant at present of the top rung of the scientific ladder, consults on experiments at Richmond laboratory. Ladder program must be flexible, he believes

fidence, Dr. Denison points out, is to promote to the scientific ladder only men whose achievements have won the admiration of fellow workers. Cal­research considers this "acceptance by their peers" to be a vital part of the program. And so the same bulletin that announces a promotion also lists the specific accomplishments of the man being promoted. In the early days of the program, the company did not go far enough in explaining why a particular scientist or engineer was getting a promotion. Calresearch quickly recognized the defect, cor­rected it by putting more information into the announcement.

Another minor problem in the be­ginning was getting all managers to use the three-ladder system fully. The procedure was still unfamiliar, and the older structure had the com­fort of a favorite easy chair. This problem, too, evaporated quickly as managers who understood and used the system well explained its ad­vantages to those who did not.

Calresearch recognized from the start that its version of the multiladder system had to take in people in a wide variety of fields—chemists, engi­neers, geologists, mathematicians, and

so on. In fact, this was a big reason for starting the program. The some­what rigid, traditional format often could not reward those whose principal interests and value to the company were in research and development.

Makes the Difference. One example of how important this aspect can be is the case of Dr. Enos D. Kane, a mechanical engineer. "I probably would not still be with the company," Dr. Kane says, "if Calresearch did not have its present system or a similar one." In 1952, Dr. Kane joined Cal­ifornia Research and Development, a California Standard subsidiary that no longer exists. In 1954 he went over to Calresearch as a project leader in polymerization processes. Later, he supervised process and process con­trol development and materials re­search.

In the new program, Dr. Kane was put on the scientific ladder as a senior engineering associate. In 1958, he became an engineering consultant, his present position. Since his first days with the company, Dr. Kane has held responsible positions in the develop­ment program. His interests and value to Calresearch lay clearly in this area. In cases such as this, fitting a man

into regular management-line jobs often is very difficult to do without creating serious problems. The sci­entific ladder solved this dilemma, satisfying both the company and Dr. Kane.

People on the lower echelons of the organization also see distinct ad­vantages of the parallel ladder ap­proach. Dr. J. B. Lavigne joined Cal­research as associate research chemist immediately after receiving a Ph.D. in 1954. In 1956, he was promoted to research chemist. When the com­pany announced the new structure a month later, he was on the top step of the broad base common to all three ladders.

More Opportunity. Even though the scheme was not likely to affect him in the immediate future, Dr. Lavigne could see that many more opportunities for advancement had suddenly opened up. This was a general reaction, he believes, although it was tempered by some skepticism as to how the system would work out. The experience of the past five years has dispelled this skepticism, Dr. Lavigne adds.

In December 1960, when he be­came senior research chemist, Dr. Lavigne reached the first step on the scientific ladder. His "position de­scription" specifies the scope of his research, his supervisor, his lines of communication, and the limit of his authority to spend company money. The scope of his work and his au­thority will broaden somewhat as he advances up the ladder.

A man on the scientific ladder might work alone or he might have several people under him. He might work directly under a man on the same ladder or one on the supervisory ladder. He might eventually move from one ladder to another. Just about the only things that are certain as he moves up are that his salary will increase, his research freedom will in­crease, and his standing in the com­pany will increase.

The benefits of the Calresearch program are both tangible and in­tangible. Direct contributions and productivity in pioneering areas have definitely gone up, Dr. Denison says. But even more important in the long run is that increased freedom for the more creative members of the staff "has contributed vitally to the devel­opment of a top professional staff and to the over-all morale of the organiza­tion."

46 C&EN NOV. 13, 1961