Specialists and Generalists.
Topic: Specialists and Generalists
In the 21st century, the society and technology develop rapidly, leading our life better and more complicated. As the high technology is involved in our daily lives and replaces some human beings' works, it affects the demands of professional persons such as generalists and specialists. Generalists can provide a great deal of information on many topics of interest with a big range of ideas. And specialists are persons who solve problems or fixing things in depth methods, concentrate on some specific fields. Some people say that specialists too abundant to need, because of the high technology. We need more generalists who can provide broad perspectives rather than specialists. In my opinion, it is wrong. The specialists are necessary to need as well as generalists.
Specialists are necessary to gain a better understanding of more in depth methods to solve problems or fixing things. One good example of why specialists are necessary is in the medical field. Doctors are necessary for people to live healthy. When a person is sick, he/she may go to a general practitioner to find out the cause of his/her problems. Usually, this kind of generalised doctors can help most patients with simple and effective treatments. Sometimes, house doctors cannot diagnose or solve the patients' problems based on his/her knowledge. When a sickness progresses or becomes diagnosed as a disease that requires more cares than a house doctor can provide. The patients may be referred to a specialist. For instance, a house doctor may suggest a patient whom has constant breathing problem to visit specialists in the hospital. Since a house doctor has a great deal of knowledge of medicine, he/she can decide when his/her methods are not effective and the patient needs to see someone who knows more about the specific problems. These kinds of persons know how it begins, progresses, and specified treatments. According to Dutch Health Legislation (WHO, accessed on 14 December 2003), the house doctors have the responsibilities to suggest or sent the patients to the specialists, if sicknesses are diagnosed as diseases or cannot be diagnosed. As the example and Dutch Health Legislation of how a generalised person may not be equipped enough to handle something as well as a specialist can, they strongly support that specialists are necessary.
Another example of a specialist who is needed instead of a generalist involves teaching. In the kindergarten, children learn all the basic principles of reading, writing, and speaking. But as children get older and progress in the school, they gain a better understanding of the language and mathematical knowledge. As they grow up in the school, they need to learn more and more specifics and details about various subjects. They start out by learning basic math concepts such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. A few years later, they are ready to begin algebraic concepts, geometry, and calculus. ...
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Another example of a specialist who is needed instead of a generalist involves teaching. In the kindergarten, children learn all the basic principles of reading, writing, and speaking. But as children get older and progress in the school, they gain a better understanding of the language and mathematical knowledge. As they grow up in the school, they need to learn more and more specifics and details about various subjects. They start out by learning basic math concepts such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. A few years later, they are ready to begin algebraic concepts, geometry, and calculus. They are also ready to learn more advanced vocabulary, the principles of how all life is composed and how it functions. One teacher or professor cannot provide as much in depth discussion on all of these topics as well as one who has learned these specific knowledge. Maybe this is the reason of why we have a few teachers who are charges of all subjects in the kindergartens, and more and more specific teachers in the school.
On the other hand, generalists can provide a great deal of information on many topics of interest with a broad range of ideas. A generalist can take on problems that are ordinarily of larger scope, scale, and complexity than those addressed by specialists.
Generalists are necessary to provide solutions to some large problems in overall views. A good example of why we need generalists in our daily life is corporate leader or (Chief Executive Officer) CEO. CEO is necessary for a company's operating. The CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company. Operations, marketing, strategy, financing, creation of company culture, human resources, hiring, firing, compliance with safety regulations, sales, and so on. It all falls on the CEO's shoulders. Of course, CEO don't need to expert all of them, just understand a little bit about everything, such as how to manage daily operation, indicate the marketing strategy, measure the financial results, human resource management, issue company's regulations. He/She acts as a person who provides a general solution or indicates the direction for the whole company in an overall view. Since the CEO provide a general solution for the large problem which relate to the several company units, the company's specialists can concentrate on their own specific fields. If there is no one to provide the general solution, the problem may be still unsolved. As the specialists are expert at their specific field, they cannot take on
problems which are large scope, scale, and complexity. Consequently, we need generalists, in order to indicate directions or provide a general solution. As this example of how a specialist may not be equipped enough to handle something as well as a generalist can, it strongly supports that generalists are necessary.
The need for generalists is undeniable. But we cannot underestimate the importance of need specialists. The medical profession is a good example to illustrate the requirements of both generalists and specialists. If there are no generalists in the profession, there will be no one to diagnose patients' sicknesses when a specialist was needed. We need house doctor to diagnose our sicknesses, and then he/she can suggest us to see specialists. The generalist is an appropriate person to start when a patient has a sickness. Many times, the generalist is more than capable of handling problems that arise. And other times, they are unable to fully take control of the patients' care. It is not generalist's fault. This is just too much knowledge to know for any person to be an expert on all topics/ subjects. In the medical profession, it takes six or seven years to become an expert on a single topic, even being an expert on every topic. In the normal hospitals, they need for both generalists and specialists are obvious. When a patient is admitted to a generalist, the general medicine physicians are not always able to deal with every problem without some help from the specialists. Therefore both of specialists and generalists are necessary. Although the need for generalists is apparent, it will be hard to survive without specialists. When a person acts as a generalist, he/she know little bit about everything, but certainly not a totally inclusive knowledge of everything. The specialist is to help add the expertise and inclusive knowledge which the generalist is lacking. The most important thing to remember with specialists and generalists is to recognise their strengths and weaknesses and capitalise on the strengths to achieve the goal.
"The goal of a generalist is to solve the problem at hand, to engineer a fitting solution. The goal of the specialist is to find problems that fit the solutions at hand," said Jorma Ollila, CEO of Finnish mobile phone company-Nokia, at 2003 CEO Summit in London. (Wall Street Journal Europe, 24 November 2003). Consequently, the combination of using specialists and generalists is a perfect strategy of human resources management in a company, at aim to operate more efficiently.
As a conclusion, the specialists are necessary to need as well as generalists. They are equally important. Generalists provide a great deal of information on many topics with a range of ideas. And the generalists can analyse the large and complicated problems in overall views, and then indicate the correct directions to solve them. The specialists concentrate on their specific fields. They solve problems and fix some things in the deep methods. The generalists know a little bit about everything, not expert on specific topics as specialists. In the modern human resource management, the managers employ both specialists and generalists and recognise their strengths and weakness, in order to capitalise on the strengths to achieve the companies' goals. Therefore, it is necessary to need both professional persons while society and technology are changing rapidly.
Bibliography
* Beardwell and L. Holden, Human Resources Management: A contemporary approach, 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2000.
* Dutch Health Legislation, WHO International Digest of Health Legislations, World Health Organisation (WHO). www.who.org, access on 14 December 2003
* Generalists, Specialists and Medical Education, University of Nebraska Medical Centre. www.unmc.edu/community, access on 14 December 2003.
* N. Goertz, "CEO Summit 2003". In the Wall Street Journal Europe, 24 November 2003, A6.
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