Managers trying to do a better job have plenty flavors of the month to choose from: total quality management, continuous improvement, empowerment, teamwork-the list is endless. Everyone is searching for a magic bullet to improve productivity; however, they would have greater success in relying on the core principles of effective management, identified more than fifty years ago. Scholars over the years have presented the principles from different viewpoints and with different terminology, but it boils down to this: Employees want to be masters of their own fate and to have a real sense of ownership. When provided with an organizational climate that allows this, employees are able to use their own intrinsic motivation to improve productivity and maintain high quality and good service. Good managers know that people are the only sustainable competitive advantage. They require practical guidance and tools, not flavors of the month, to support employees in realizing their full potential. Create and sustain a productive workplace from the moment you hire an employee with Core Management Principles.

CORE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

No Flavors of the MonthBy DIMITRI POJIDAEFF

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Dimitri Pojidaeff
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-1265-4

Contents

PREFACE.............................................................................viiCHAPTER I—CORE PRINCIPLES.....................................................1New developments or flavors of the month?...........................................1Intrinsic motivation................................................................2Three classic motivation theories...................................................2The birth of participative management...............................................4Why the interest in such old concepts?..............................................5Why the continued resistance to proven principles?..................................5The machine model organization......................................................6Misunderstanding power and control..................................................7New labels, old system..............................................................7Today's organizational paradox......................................................8CHAPTER II—PRODUCTIVE WORKPLACES..............................................9Core competencies...................................................................9Productive Workplace Behaviors......................................................11The great paradox...................................................................12Organizational Inhibitors...........................................................12Accountability and democracy........................................................13Bureaucracy and productivity........................................................14Productive organizational practices.................................................14CHAPTER III—MANAGEMENT STYLE—LETTING GO.................................19Theory of Job Enrichment............................................................20Participative management............................................................21Accountability for results..........................................................22Information and responsibility......................................................22Solving problems that belong to others..............................................23Fair rewards........................................................................23Letting go..........................................................................23Middle management will disappear....................................................24Management training.................................................................25CHAPTER IV—START RIGHT; HIRE RIGHT!...........................................27Avoid significant grief! Get it right in the first place!...........................27Manage your primary risk............................................................28Competencies and behaviors..........................................................29Always check references.............................................................31The best references are usually the informal ones...................................32A time consuming process............................................................34CHAPTER V—STAFF DEVELOPMENT...................................................35Keep training at all times..........................................................36Jobs vs Work........................................................................36Types of staff development..........................................................37CHAPTER VI—MANAGING PERFORMANCE...............................................41What is performance management?.....................................................41Traditional performance evaluation..................................................42Performance must be managed as and when required....................................42Productive review of performance....................................................43Performance management is supportive, but firm......................................44Avoiding performance issues.........................................................45Why performance issues must be addressed............................................47CHAPTER VII—PRODUCTIVE TERMINATION............................................49Termination can and should be productive for all concerned..........................49Excuses for avoiding the issue......................................................50The employees concerned are harmed..................................................50Ignoring the problem severely affects other staff...................................51The organization as a whole suffers.................................................51The earlier the better..............................................................51CHAPTER VIII—ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE FLATTER IS BETTER.......................53Increase in organizational democracy................................................53The Redundancy Hierarchy Test.......................................................54Why keep the traditional hierarchical organizational structure?.....................55Traditional organizational structure and management style...........................56Flatter is better...................................................................58Change the structure and change the culture.........................................58CHAPTER IX—CONTROL—WHO'S IN CHARGE?.....................................59Everyone shares in the overall control of the organization..........................59Bureaucracy.........................................................................60Policies............................................................................60Mutual trust and respect and the use of discretion..................................62Rules and Regulations...............................................................62Job Descriptions....................................................................63Performance evaluation..............................................................64Customer service....................................................................65"Just Do It!".......................................................................65CHAPTER X—REWARDS.............................................................67Lack of alignment...................................................................67Traditional views...................................................................68The giant mismatch..................................................................69"The things that get rewarded get done."............................................69Pay raises based on performance evaluation..........................................70Ownership...........................................................................71Open-book management................................................................72Pay for competencies, not the job...................................................72CHAPTER XI—CHECK YOUR ALIGNMENT...............................................73The Paradox.........................................................................73Organizational Inhibitors...........................................................73A system's perspective..............................................................74What is alignment?..................................................................75The equal treatment of unequals.....................................................77CHAPTER XII—QUANTITATIVE VERSUS QUALITATIVE...................................79What gets measured, gets managed....................................................79Metrics a useful aid................................................................79Reliance on metrics.................................................................80Metrics not a substitute for judgement and discretion...............................80CHAPTER XIII—UNDERCOVER BOSS..................................................84Personal knowledge, not just performance data.......................................84It is not a question of trust, but rather common sense..............................86The manager is ultimately responsible...............................................86CHAPTER XIV—WHY MANAGERS GET FIRED............................................87Technical competence................................................................87Today's competencies................................................................88Required competencies least taught..................................................89The main reasons why managers get fired.............................................90Failure to deal with performance issues.............................................90Management's primary responsibility.................................................92CHAPTER XV—GOOD MANAGEMENT IS LEADERSHIP......................................93Leadership the latest flavor of the month...........................................93Leadership distinct from management?................................................93One cannot be a good manager without being a leader.................................95Leaders, on the other hand, must be good managers...................................95Core Principles, not silver bullets.................................................96REFERENCES..........................................................................97ABOUT THE AUTHOR....................................................................99

Chapter One

CORE PRINCIPLES

New developments or flavors of the month?

If the number of buzzwords is any indication, there have been many supposedly new developments over the past decade or so in the field of Human Resources Management and Organizational Development: Empowerment, Teamwork, Quality Management, Continuous Improvement, Participative Management, Reengineering, Restructuring, and, of course, let's not forget, Excellence. It is no wonder, therefore, that Peter Senge (1992, pp.30-38), author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, had this to say:

... the quality movement ... risks being fragmented into isolated initiatives and slogans. The voice of the customer, fix the process not the people, competitive benchmarking, continuous improvement, policy deployment, leadership—the more we hear, the less we understand.

It is not surprising that, for many, it doesn't add up to much more than management's latest flavor of the month that must be endured until the next fad comes along.

So how do we, or can we, make any sense out of all this theory and literature that we're being inundated with? Does any of it actually work? Is it all just a fad? Where does it all originate? The answer to all these questions is the old French expression, Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Intrinsic motivation

They remain the same, because all of these supposedly new theories primarily involve the core principle of transforming management practices and reforming workplaces so that employees can utilize their own intrinsic motivation to learn, to achieve, to gain esteem, to improve, to look for better ways of doing things and in the process, of course, to improve productivity and maintain consistently high quality and service.

Three classic motivation theories

Three classic, traditional theories of human motivation have provided most of the basis of human resource management theory for the past four to five decades:

1. Abraham Maslow (1987) first described his theory of a hierarchy of needs in his book, Motivation and Personality, which was first published in 1954. That's 58 years ago! The top of his hierarchy of motivational factors was what he called self-actualization or the desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming; to make the very most of one's potential. Esteem needs were ranked second. Both self-actualization and esteem, of course, can only be realized in a participative workplace, which fosters intrinsic motivation through empowerment, responsibility, and a real sense of ownership. This is the same principle that underlies all current theories of quality management.

2. Frederick Herzberg (1966) wrote Work and the Nature of Man in 1966, 46 years ago. In that book he put forth his theory of Maintenance versus Motivation factors and the concept of Job Enrichment. Maintenance factors are extrinsic to the job and include such things as working conditions, salary, and company policies. Motivation factors, on the other hand, are intrinsic to the job, and include such things as achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth, and the work itself.

Twenty-six years later, Peter Senge (1992, pp.30-38) writes:

"The prevailing system of management has destroyed our people," says Dr. Deming. "People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning."

Intrinsic motivation lies at the heart of Deming's management philosophy. By contrast, extrinsic motivation is the bread and butter of Western management.

... A corporate commitment to quality that is not based on intrinsic motivation is a house built on sand.

3. Douglas Mcgregor (1960) presented his ideas of Theory X and Theory Y in The Human Side of Enterprise, which was published 52 years ago in 1960. Management's beliefs about human behavior, according to McGregor, lead to those management concepts, practices, and procedures that foster and support that same behavior. They are to a great extent, in effect, self-fulfilling beliefs. A Theory X view of human behavior holds that employees dislike work and responsibility, prefer to be led, and must be forced to do a good job. Theory Y, on the other hand, states that employees seek responsibility, want to be productive, want to achieve, and are capable of problem solving. Theory X, of course, leads to the use of extrinsic motivators, which maintain Theory X behavior and do nothing to promote Theory Y behavior. Theory Y, however, promotes the use of intrinsic motivators, which in turn foster the continuation of Theory Y behavior. In the preface, McGregor (1960, p.vi) writes:

Without in the least minimizing the importance of the work that has been done to improve the selection of people with managerial potential, I have come to the conviction that some of our most important problems lie elsewhere.

Even if we possessed methods enabling us to do a perfect job of selecting young men with the capacity to become top executives, the practical gain for industry would be negligible under today's conditions. The reason is that we have not learned enough about the utilization of talent, about the creation of an organizational climate conducive to human growth. The blunt fact is that we are a long way from realizing the potential represented by the human resources we now recruit into industry.

The core principles, no matter what past or current buzzword we use to describe them, remain the same. Employees wish to be masters of their own fate and to have a real sense of ownership. When provided with such an organizational climate, employees are able to use their own intrinsic motivation to improve productivity and maintain high quality and good service.

The birth of participative management

Dr. Alfred J. Marrow (1969) is known as the father of participative management. In 1947, 65 years ago, he was C.E.O. of an apparel manufacturing company called Harwood. The workforce was comprised of poorly educated young women from the rural mountain areas around the plant. Productivity was low in general and dropped by as much as 25% every time a change was introduced. As a psychologist, Dr. Marrow was interested in the causes of this behavior and how to change it. He and his colleagues found that productivity consistently increased by as much as 14% when employees were allowed to make meaningful decisions concerning their own work; in other words, participative management dramatically and quickly increased productivity. Dr. Marrow wrote, "The problem is the 25-year time lag between discovery of new evidence and its general application. This gap has occurred because the present generation of executives has been unwilling to replace dying managerial traditions and to start learning a new system."

Why the interest in such old concepts?

It's now 65 years later. Aside from Dr. Marrow's underestimated 25-year time lag, what has changed to explain the immense interest in such old concepts? The economic climate has. The global economy and ever increasing freer trade means that our businesses must be competitive or perish. There are no longer any alternatives; our businesses must become more productive. Both the private and increasingly the public sector have tried many possible means of reducing costs and increasing productivity: just–in–time inventory, improved cost controls, more consistent quality control, robotics, and changes in product design and service delivery to name only a few. Once these systemic means have been exhausted, however, we have only one means left—our human resources. Many organizations have first tried to reduce their human resource costs by downsizing and cutbacks in pay. Past a certain point, however, this approach cannot continue if a certain level of service and production is to be maintained. The only competitive advantage then left is in human productivity and creating an organizational climate that supports and enhances it.

Why the continued resistance to proven principles?

It is gratifying to finally see such interest in our human resources, even if it is forced purely by the need to improve the bottom line. On the other hand, it is so very frustrating that we are still discussing the same core principles over half a century later. If they have lasted for this long, they must obviously be well rooted and accepted as valid. Why haven't we fully embraced them and absorbed them into our organizational cultures? Why are we still so resistant to changes that we admit will be of benefit to us? Why has, according to Peter Senge (1992, pp.30-38), extrinsic motivation been the bread and butter of Western management?

The machine model organization

The reasons are simple, but firmly entrenched. In order to manage the diversity and complexity of both big business and big government, we abandoned the core principles in favor of those practices that minimize the idiosyncrasies of human behavior. This was achieved by focusing on the organizational elements of strategy, structure, and systems. These elements, believed to be essential to providing focus and control, have evolved into highly complex processes exerting a great impact on our human resources by increasing the degree of fragmentation and systematization of work processes. In most organizations this has lead to the implicit view by management that people are merely replaceable spokes in the business cycle and has created jobs that are narrowly defined, mundane, and devoid of meaning to the people who perform them.

This has been the fundamental basis of the bureaucratic, hierarchical organization; a structure that breeds rigidity, poor communication, and slow response, and stifles any intrinsic motivation. According to Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad (1989, p.75):

(Continues...)

Excerpted from CORE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLESby DIMITRI POJIDAEFF Copyright © 2012 by Dimitri Pojidaeff. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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