Title Theatricals

The June issue of The Economist hosted an article by Schumpeter on job title inflation. Amusing examples were shared: Paper boys called "Media Distribution Officers"; Binmen called "Recycling Officers"; Lavatory cleaners called "Sanitation Consultants" (to find your own see here).

Job titles undeniably have a value associated to them. A 2005 study by Smith, Hornsby, Benson and Wesolowski put eighty-six personnel management students to evaluate various versions of two job descriptions (secretary and accountant) differing only on the job title. The results showed that, given the same job content, bigger job titles rendered greater evaluation scores. Gregory Smith recently recalled how the president of a computer service company once famously offered new hires a choice of two titles (for the same job): sales manager and salesperson. Although the salesperson title paid $2,000 a year more, most people took the manager one.

When applied to a profession or a group of people title inflation can deliver inspirational and aspirational expressions of common-place realities (such as Subway's employment of “sandwich artists”). Applying it to the single individual however means risking the delicate balance of internal equity. Every time I have witnessed titles bent for the single individual (e.g. Sr Executive VP instead of just Sr VP) it was to service an executive's need for public recognition of status.

If you have a strong drive for equity and controls are not working to avoid the inflated exceptions to crop up, maybe it is equity upwards and not downwards that you should explore. Just as Syndrome's strategy to deliver equity to the masses, if supertitles cannot be toned down, maybe they should be widely spread so that (in the villain's own words) "... when everyone's super, [laughs maniacally] no one will be."