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Rule Based Enterprises

The rule-based enterprise is typically a highly structured environment in which all aspects of work and remuneration are well organized and regulated. Common examples of this type of enterprise are found in government, education, health and other public sector industries. A key feature of this type of enterprise is the concern with managing positions, or posts. Positions exist, and are managed independently of people in post.

You can picture the role type organization as a 'Greek temple', which rests its strength in its pillars. These pillars are the specialist functions or departments that exist within the enterprise. They are strong and almost independent organizations. For example, the Finance department would have very little involvement in the working of the HR department.

Coordination between the groups takes place at the top of the structure by a narrow band of senior management - the pediment. In this environment it is assumed that this should be the only personal coordination needed. "If the separate pillars do their job, as laid down by the rules and procedures, the ultimate result will be predictable."

Roles are usually more important than individuals. People are selected for satisfactory performance of a role, which is described so that a range of individuals could fill it. Reward systems are likely to be role or rule-based.

Often, clearly defined procedures exist for every task and process within the enterprise. For example, job descriptions and job evaluation procedures define individual roles and positions of authority. Also, it is common to find that procedures exist to govern communications, such as colored and numbered forms, committee reports, and so forth.

Representing Positions

'Positions' are most appropriate for this type of enterprise and provide the finer detail on work structure and line management that is needed in a fixed establishment. Employees are assigned to a position, and by definition to the organization and job for that position.

Because you are focussing on the use of positions and position hierarchies you define organizations to show only the major divisions in your enterprise. You can model the details of these departments and sections using your position hierarchies. (If you also define detailed organizations and hierarchies, you are defining the same structural information twice.)

In this situation, jobs provide an additional level of information for positions, which is independent of any specific organization. For example, you might want to define job types of 'Managerial', 'Executive' or 'Clerical' so that you can identify skill requirements and levels of benefits for each job.

Position Name

In this environment you should consider using the segments of the position name to hold other key information about the position. For example you might want to consider using the following as segment values:

Note: You can use the Additional Position Details descriptive flexfield to hold this type of information about positions if you do not want the information to be visible to all users.

Management Reporting Lines

You can define a primary position hierarchy to show the management reporting lines for all of your positions. You should find that most of your security and reporting needs are based on this primary hierarchy. Groups are identified by selecting a manager and all the positions that report to it in this hierarchy.

Other Management Issues

When you consider this environment there are other areas your decisions may affect:

Remuneration Policies Individual compensation and benefits are often regulated, or based on union negotiated agreements.
Reward systems are usually based on the role performed rather than on personal or performance assessment. This may mean that you have to define detailed eligibility rules for compensation and benefits.
Comparative Grades and Positions Valid grades are defined for positions and it is common to use grade steps and progression points.
National or union pay scales establish actual rates of pay for a grade and this is independent of performance. An employee is paid the rate for his or her grade and step. Incrementing rules, which determine progression to the next step, are usually part of the plan and are often time-based.
Job evaluation methods exist to compare roles across the industry with agreed grading structures and rates of pay.
Budgeting Headcount or full-time equivalent budgets are usually set for each position.
You can calculate your Salary budgets from the position budgets, combined with valid grades and progression point information.
In an HR environment you would calculate actual salary costs, at any time, from the current salaries of assigned employees.
In an environment including Oracle Payroll, you would calculate actual salary costs directly from payroll run results.
See: Salary Budgeting
Vacancies and Recruitment There is an automatic vacancy when an employee terminates employment. The position exists even when there are no holders.
The stages of the recruitment process and the procedures surrounding these are probably well defined and regulated.
Standard letters for each stage of the process are also likely to be well established.
In this environment people are recruited for their ability to perform a role. You would hold job descriptions and skill requirements for each position using attachments for text and the Special Information Type for structured data.
Standard Reports Typically there is a well defined set of standard reports needed in this environment. Often these are required by government.

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