Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Our Story
    • Partner with us
    • Reach Us
    • Career
    Subscribe Newsletter
    HR KathaHR Katha
    • Exclusive
      • Exclusive Features
      • Research
      • Point Of View
      • Case In Point
      • Dialogue
      • Movement
      • Profile
      • Beyond Work
      • Rising Star
      • By Invitation
    • News
      • Global HR News
      • Compensation & Benefits
      • Diversity
      • Events
      • Gen Y
      • Hiring & Firing
      • HR & Labour Laws
      • Learning & Development
      • Merger & Acquisition
      • Performance Management & Productivity
      • Talent Management
      • Tools & Technology
      • Work-Life Balance
    • Special
      • Cover Story
      • Editorial
      • HR Forecast 2024
      • HR Forecast 2023
      • HR Forecast 2022
      • HR Forecast 2021
      • HR Forecast 2020
      • HR Forecast 2019
      • New Age Learning
      • Coaching and Training
      • Learn-Engage-Transform
    • Magazine
    • Reports
      • Whitepaper
        • HR Forecast 2024 e-mag
        • Future-proofing Manufacturing Through Digital Transformation
        • Employee Healthcare & Wellness Benefits: A Guide for Indian MSMEs
        • Build a Future Ready Organisation For The Road Ahead
        • Employee Experience Strategy
        • HRKatha 2019 Forecast
        • Decoding and Driving Employee Engagement
        • One Platform, Infinite Possibilities
      • Survey Reports
        • Happiness at Work
        • Upskilling for Jobs of the Future
        • The Labour Code 2020
    • Conferences
      • Rising Star Leadership Awards
      • HRKatha Futurecast
      • Automation.NXT
      • The Great HR Debate
    • HR Jobs
    WhatsApp LinkedIn X (Twitter) Facebook Instagram
    HR KathaHR Katha
    Home»Exclusive Features»Are we still obsessed with designations?
    Exclusive Features

    Are we still obsessed with designations?

    Abhishek Singh Rana | HRKathaBy Abhishek Singh Rana | HRKathaFebruary 24, 2022Updated:February 25, 20226 Mins Read27375 Views
    Share LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    Share
    LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

    People feel proud to have fancy job titles. And why shouldn’t they? After all, we all work hard to achieve stable positions of authority and power so that others can look up and aspire to be like us. Job titles tell a whole story about a person’s status and influence in a company. Anyone who has a high position within an organisation will wield a certain kind of respect that isn’t accorded to others.

    Our culture has long promoted this attraction to titles. A person’s importance grows with the higher positions he or she attains within an organisation. Since everyone wants to be somebody, this obsession with designations is only fair because they come to be a measure of the value of a person and his/her overall worth in the society.

    However, in the evolving world of work, we talk about flatter organisations with open work culture. We also have specialist – who usually prefer to work solo. Besides gigs are increasing their numbers in the workforce. In this new world of work, can we say that designations are losing its shine?

    “As organisations grow in size and complexity, the intricacy and cross-functionality of job roles increases, and often, the two aspects of performance management become entwined, resulting in promotions happening without enhancement in job roles”

    Pankaj Lochan, CHRO, Jindal Steel and Power

    Biswaroop Mukherjee, head – HR, commercial vehicle business unit, Tata Motors, says, “Designations still matter because they’re a way to gauge a person’s social status.”

    For instance, people put their designations on Linkedin, share them with their family and friends, which gives them wider recognition as professional achievers, says Mukherjee.

    There is a sense of personal accomplishment attached to a high-level designation as well. That is how our social systems are today. With new ways of work, flatter organisation structures, agile organisations, and project-based teams emerging in the days ahead, this paradigm will also undergo change. For now, however, a designation remains important.

    Maneesha Jha Thakur, HR consultant , says “Designations are very important to people because they are a way of signalling success to the world. It is also a way to assure oneself of one’s organisational and personal worth.”

    According to Thakur, in India, the love for designations and growth in designations sometimes even supersedes the need for money. Employees are very competitive about it. “Sadly, the quest for designations is hollow because the focus is not on the role, responsibilities, authority or learning opportunity, but only the title,” rues Thakur.

    “In recruitment, comparison of designations across companies by employees can be problematic, since titles and designations are internal structures of the organisation,” stresses Thakur, going on to say, “Often, companies add layer after layer of designations to satiate this need and be attractive in the talent market.”

    In the long run, however, Thakur cautions that “this compromises the organisational structure, makes it vertically steep with too many layers, messing up operations, decision making and HR systems. It also renders designations and titles meaningless.”

    “The quest for designations is hollow because the focus is not on the role, responsibilities, authority or learning opportunity, but only the title”

    Maneesha Jha Thakur, HR consultant

    Organisations are certainly responsible in perpetuating this rabid affection for designations.

    Pankaj Lochan, CHRO, Jindal Steel and Power, explains the intense focus on designation through four cases in which the organisations are likely or unlikely to promote their employees to a higher role.

    In the first case, an employees are promoted even though they are not moved to a higher job role. This means, they may get a promotion based on good performance, but there is not much difference in their responsibilities. There is no added work that comes with a higher job role, but the title indicates a bigger position.

    In the second case, the employees are promoted and their job role is elevated as well.

    In the third case, employees are moved to a higher job role, but do not receive a promotion. In other words, they carry out responsibilities meant for a higher job but are not given the title.

    In the fourth case, employees are neither moved to a higher job role, nor granted a promotion.

    The problem, Lochan explains, arises primarily in case 1, when people are promoted even while their job roles remain the same. There is no change in their responsibilities, which means that the title becomes a mere decoration, and people are likely to flaunt their improved designations because of the societal importance that has been accorded to them.

    “Organisations have confused measurement of performance with measurement of potential,” asserts Lochan.

    Measurement of potential means judging how well the employees are able to perform at a high- level job and carry the responsibilities, and then granting them the title based on the same.

    “Designations still matter because they’re a way to gauge a person’s social status”

    Biswaroop Mukherjee, head – HR, commercial vehicle business unit, Tata Motors

    Measurement of performance means when the organisation looks at high-performing employees and grants them a promotion without considering whether they possess the potential to succeed in this role with the added duties.

    “As organisations grow in size and complexity, the intricacy and cross-functionality of job roles increases, and often, the two aspects of performance management (performance rating and promotions) become entwined, resulting in promotions happening without enhancement in job roles. In such cases, it is important to correct (restore) the pyramidal shape of the organisation structure, while keeping the right spirit of ‘promotions’ alive,” enumerates Lochan.

    Empty titles do more harm than good, because people become image conscious and pay less attention to what they are supposed to do at work.

    Society has taught all of us to look up at people in higher positions and aim to be like them. In following this thought process, we have become even more focused on how our job title elevates us in other people’s eyes than what it actually means.

    It is only through a proper re-examination of organisational practices and reforms that we will be able to move past our obsession with designations and look at them without any false sense of inflated pride.

    Biswaroop Mukherjee CHRO commercial vehicle business unit Designations Head HR HR consultant Jindal Steel and Power Maneesha Jha Thakur Pankaj Lochan Tata Motors
    Share. LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    Abhishek Singh Rana | HRKatha
    • Website

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    five + nine =

    Related Posts

    How corporate prejudices are strangling innovation in the workplace

    June 19, 2025

    How entitlement is quietly reshaping the modern workplace

    June 18, 2025

    Amit Kejriwal joins Tata Digital as head of total rewards

    June 17, 2025

    Arpit Jain joins Hero Cycles as head-HR & admin

    June 17, 2025

    QUICK HR INSIGHTS

    EDITOR'S PICKS

    How corporate prejudices are strangling innovation in the workplace

    June 19, 2025

    Psychological safety: the new superpower in winning the talent war

    June 18, 2025

    How entitlement is quietly reshaping the modern workplace

    June 18, 2025

    How Raymond stitched tradition to transformation

    June 17, 2025
    Latest Post

    How corporate prejudices are strangling innovation in the workplace

    Exclusive Features June 19, 2025

    In the gleaming conference rooms of corporate India, a familiar drama unfolds. The candidate speaks…

    Welspun Living and NSDC collaborate to upskill Indian textile workforce

    Diversity Equity & Inclusion June 19, 2025

    Welspun Living (WLL), the global home textiles firm and a part of the global conglomerate…

    Swiggy elevates Saurav Goyal to SVP-driver and delivery product & ops

    Movement June 19, 2025

    Swiggy, the Indian on-demand convenience platform has promoted Saurav Goyal to senior vice president-driver and…

    Pocket Entertainment elevates Umesh Bude to CTO

    Movement June 19, 2025

    Umesh Bude has been promoted to the position of chief technology officer (CTO), Pocket Entertainment,…

    Asia's No.1 HR Platform

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram LinkedIn WhatsApp Bluesky
    • Our Story
    • Partner with us
    • Career
    • Reach Us
    • Exclusive Features
    • Cover Story
    • Editorial
    • Dive into the Future of Work: Download HRForecast 2024 Now!
    © 2025 HRKatha.com
    • Disclaimer
    • Refunds & Cancellation Policy
    • Terms of Service

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.