Back in the good ol' days!!!

Yay I've made 2 posts in one month!!!

Some interesting things I've found from the following book:

Gosling, R & Nutley, S 1990 Bridging the gap: Secondments between government and business, Royal Institute of Public Administration, London.

The first formal secondment scheme started in 1968 - told you I'd find out!!! 8-)

They have identified 4 categories of benefits of secondments:

1. They promote understanding between different types of organisations/departments;
2. They promote the personal development of the secondee;
3. They allow for the exchange of management and technical expertise;
4. They allow the introduction of skilled and experienced staff.

Good to see that some of the benefits listed are ones that I have already identified in my research.

Something funny I found was that they found that there are three secondee roles:

1. PARROT - this is where the secondee "sits on the shoulders" of people senior to them and learn about the organisation through accompanying them in their day-to-day work;
2. FERRETS - act as "spies" (my favourite) placed by a department to keep an eye on a project or intiative;
3. WORKER BEES - are set tasks and get on with them without much change or disruption to the organisation.

Are there any secondees/former secondees that can relate to any of the roles listed above?? I'd be interested to hear your story.

I also wonder how many secondees/former secondee had objectives set for them prior to starting the secondment (objectives set by both sides, i.e. the seconding org and the host org.) If anyone can share if they had objectives set, please contact me or reply to my post!!

Till next time....