Roxanne Abbas writes:
> Robert says:
>
> "I agree to some extent, but the interesting thing about systems thinking
> is that we must also apply it to management. So by the same logic, there
> is also no such thing as bad managers, only managers that are working in
> bad systems, or who are, themselves asked to do the wrong things."
>
> If I correctly recall, Deming said that managers are accountable for the
> bad systems. So bad systems would implicate managers.
I think that most systems were developed with the best of intentions at
the time. They just don't work anymore. Unfortunately, part of most
bad systems is an often-unwritten, but completely understood, tenet
that you just don't challenge the management. After all, it's THEIR
company and they must now what they are doing.
People have a need to see the world as a just and equitable place and
themselves as fair and good people. Since a just and equitable world
would allow those who are more knowledgeable and able/competent to rise
to the top, the managers must know what they are doing or they wouldn't
be managers. When someone points out that management doesn't really
have a clue, this contradicts the notion that we are fair and good
people. In light of this threat to self esteem, people tend to try to
maintain their facade of organizational harmony and the goodness/
rightness of the system.
Managers are the official keepers of the system. When they don't also
see open communications as a valuable tool for doing better, they don't
work to promote questioning of the status quo.
Bottom line: Managers may not have built the "bad" systems, but they
need to continually challenge the assumptions upon which these systems
are based. When they don't challenge these assumptions, or don't allow
employees to challenge them, they perpetuate the "bad" system. When
managers don't encourage such challenges, their subordinates will also
discourage such challenges. Now we have managers responsible both
directly and indirectly for maintaining and protecting flawed systems,
even as the employees are directly responsible for the same.
--Clyde Howell orgpsych@csra.net
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>