| re: .9
I'll assume here, rik, that you're suggesting viewpoints
of management that some people *may* have. Or, more
specifically, I'm assuming that you're *not* asserting
as fact the following quoted points:
� 4. most managers, in dec, upon becoming managers, start attending
� seminars and facilitations that teach them the proper methods
� of duping, coercing, managing, motivating...etc...which usually
� instills what i consider to be an unrealistic image of
� themselves, the company and the employees....
�
� 5. most people who want to be managers in the first place
� are the type of people who LIKE power! who like giving orders
� and who enjoy following the orders of their superiors regardless
� of logic and or morality/ethics. This type of manager tends
� to promote other people like her/him which perpetuates the
� lack of moral/ethical reasoning in management and widens (or
� strengthens) the gap between employees and managers.
Let's assume that someone were to assert point number four. From
the perspective of having taken a fair amount of management training
(and from working in an HR/Training group), I'd reply that the
notions of coersion and "duping" are unrealistic. Further, the
overall thrust of management education is to give managers a
*more* realistic view of themselves and their employees.
The basic job contract for all employees (generically, in "all"
companies) is to help the employer achieve the company's goals
in return for remuneration. The very clear philosophy in DEC
is that a "happy" employee is more productive than an unhappy
one. Therefore, one part of a manager's job is to ensure that
her/his department is not filled with disgruntled people. This
is not to say that such departments don't exist nor that some
managers don't seem to have gotten this message. However, it is
to state that, to the extent that an employee feels duped or
coerced, (and remember, mgrs. are employees, too), the manager
instilling that feeling has failed part of the assignment.
As often as not, it's a matter of perception. Here's an example
from my own experience. Around '82, I was working as a Materials
systems (user) analyst/trainer/support person/gopher, etc; my
previous job had been as a Material Planner, so I considered Mat'ls
planning to be a step backward. One day, my new manager came to
me and said that he needed me to do some planning work for some
new products (who remembers DECmates, Pro's, and Rainbows?). To
hear this didn't make me a real happy camper and I basically said
"I don't wanna."
Fortunately for me, my mgr. was pretty sharp and spent considerable
time with me explaining the why's and also showing me how this
could be a step upward (not easy discussions as I was, um, somewhat
difficult to talk to). In any case, he was clearly hearing my
upset - was very "sensitive" and let me know that he felt my unhappiness
was valid, etc. He also, in supportive terms, made it clear that
this was the work that needed doing and I was the "right" person
for the job; he allowed me to see clearly that, if I chose not to
accept the assignment, he had no work for me to do at the moment
and that we'd have to explore working elsewhere.
Now consider for a moment how you might feel having to deliver such
a message - imagine you're in business for yourself with several
employees and you, as CEO, decide that your business must take
a new direction and/or make some changes. How would *you* deliver
such a message so that it was "acceptable" to your employees?
If you've gone to a few DME courses, you'd realize that some/many
will not like the message and will want to resist, so the key
is to help bring employees to a place where they won't be so
resistant. The DEC mgt. education courses will have taught you
that you'd better be listening carefully to how your people *feel*
and what the motives are that drive such feelings.
These courses focus on how to get employees in touch with the
business objectives and how to help them look at what these mean to
their futures. It can be viewed as a process of helping folks see
how the individual's success tied to the success of the company (and
vice versa). In the early days of DEC this was easy; as we've grown,
it's become more difficult for many to see.
In my case, the manager was "good" - was able to help me "connect
the dots". He was "tough" when he had to be (to get me to stop
my tree-hugging) - at one point he challenged me to solve the problem
and would *not* let me get away with "Hey, that's not *my* problem. . .
*you're* the manager". It was at about that time that I began to
see more than I had as "just" an employee and, faced with *our common*
business problem, I had no answers. Fortunately, because he'd paid
attention at DME, he did. The compromise we reached was that I'd
do the planning work for a specified time. If by that time, the
business' objectives were still such that I couldn't return to systems
work, I'd be allowed a reasonable amount of time to look for a job
in other groups.
As it turned out, the assignment (for which I receieve lots of kudos)
was finished in a quarter of the allotted time, and, on the other end,
I realized that my manager had helped me in ways I hadn't even
imagined. My value as an employee rose by factors of magnitude
both in my own eyes and that of my peers and superiors - I now saw
the value of viewing myself as a multi-skilled team player, one
who could turn on a dime and play a different role than yesterday.
To point number five, I'd respond that the notion that a desire
for "power" is not the primary motivator for "most" managers.
I'd counter that, from my experience, the primary motivators
are the same as for "most" people - the desire to provide a
comfortable living for their families and themselves and the
desire to progress. To the idea that managers like giving and
receiving orders "regardless of logic and or morality/ethics"
is false to the point of blindness. It sounds like the kind
of remark I made before I actually talked to and got to know
any managers. But don't just take my word for it, go to
any manager and (without making him/her feel "on the hook")
ask if they've ever had to carry out orders that they felt
were unreasonable and how they felt about it. I feel pretty
certain you'll begin to hear a whole new kind of pain - the
pain of one who, upon receiving an "illogical" order pushes
back (sometimes with severe risks to career), gets hammered
by the higher ups, then has to implement the order knowing
that her/his people will blame him/her. Care to walk a mile
in those moccasins?
And I'd like to hear of examples of a manager who's given orders
that were illogical, immoral, or unethical. Before you give the
example, however, make sure that you present the manager's reasons
for the orders (in her/his quoted words, not the listener's guesses
about why the orders were given). I'm again certain that you'll
begin to hear that the manager had reasons that he/she felt were
logical, moral, and/or ethical. One could, of course, disagree
with the logic or ethics, but that's another discussion. The point
here is that managers will not generally give orders they feel
are "bad". (NB: sometimes the "logic" is no more profound than
"If we don't do ___, we're history").
In terms of promotions, managers will, almost invariaby, promote
the people who help them succeed/look "good". Again, it's a
self-interest situation - one of the most common themes in
management education is that a manager's success rests largely
upon the success of the manager's people. If I help my manager
achieve his/her goals, I'm a more valuable resource than the
individual who resists.
Finally, I'd suggest that a good deal of observation and experience
tells me that the gap between management and employees is most
frequently due to what might be called tunnel-vision: as a planner,
I was "certain" about what were the "right" ways to do things.
My opinions were, however, based on the picture of "business" I
had as a planner. As I became a senior planner, I realized that
my picture of "reality" was somewhat limited. Guess what I
discovered when I became an analyst? It was about that time that
I decided to make the assumption that what I was seeing at my
level (whatever that was), was a somewhat smaller picture than
that of the next higher level. And further, as I saw more of
the "big picture", management decisions that had seemed "wrong"
before, started to make a lot more sense.
Steve
P.S. No, I'm not a manager; I've had to perform supervisory and
management tasks, but have declined the mgt. career path.
� 5. most people who want to be managers in the first place
� are the type of people who LIKE power! who like giving orders
� and who enjoy following the orders of their superiors regardless
� of logic and or morality/ethics. This type of manager tends
� to promote other people like her/him which perpetuates the
� lack of moral/ethical reasoning in management and widens (or
� strengthens) the gap between employees and managers.
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