On 5 Aug 96 at 0:32, Brock Vodden wrote:
> At 09:21 PM 8/3/96 +0000, Robert wrote:
> >On 1 Aug 96 at 14:15, jpomo@gate.net wrote:
> >> The choice as to good and how good or bad and how bad is
> >> one which is made by the bosses.
> I have worked in, and have been consultant to many organizations in
> which the major problems were directly and totally attributable to
> senior management.
I'm not disputing that this occurs far too frequently; I am sure all of us
that consult have seen this often. What I am disputing, or inquiring about
is the notion that management is so powerful, and individual staff so
vacuous that mangement's standards and values replace those that employees
hold. Management can impede or help; that doesn't mean that employees
accept management's low standards as their own standards, even though they
may not be able to achieve their own higher standards.
Joan's contention is that employees establish their standards via their
bosses, and THAT indicates they have none of their own.
Furthermore, in some of these cases, had
> management sought advice of the employees, they would have
> discovered good and sound solutions to 90% of their problems.
Again, I agree. I don't recall commenting on this, so I am not sure why
you mentioned it.
> In the absence of being consulted, these groups perform on the basis
> of their own high value system, occasionally at considerable risk.
Exactly! But that's not what Joan is saying. According to Joan, the people
internalize the boss's low values and perform accordingly, which is a very
despressing view of staff, and one that cannot be used as a basis for an
LO. My experience is that staff don't adopt low values--but the DO
experience huge frustrations when management won't enable them to do a
GOOD job.
Employees have pride in their work, and don't necessarily sink to the
level of lousy bosses.
Robert Bacal, CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
dbt359@freenet.mb.ca, Located in Winnipeg,Canada.
*For articles on management, change, training,communication, etc,
visit our home page at: http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~dbt359
--"Robert Bacal" <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>