"Blaming Management" LO9336

GSCHERL (GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca)
Thu, 22 Aug 96 08:56:46 EST

This thread indicates that people are angry and mad at management!

Why are peopld mad at management (and hence the company)?

Is it because they don't have a job?

Is it because they don't like their job?

Is it because they don't agree with the direction of the company?

Is it because they aren't getting the rewards they expected?

Is it because they get more work with less recognition?

Using the story approach, here's a story for you.

"Joe loved his job. He always got to work on time and did his job
cheerfully. Then his management decided to cut back on people's
hours, and hence their pay. A whole night shift was eliminated and
the people laid off. Everyone started feeling that Management wasn't
doing their job, that they should be continuosly improving the job and
expanding, not cutting back and laying off. Joe started to resent
management. Joe started to call in sick. Joe loathed going to work
and doing his job. He blamed management.

At the same company, Peter was the general manager. He was informed 2
years ago that sales was dropping, in fact they were going down so
bad, it wasn't clear what could be done. Some new technology was
coming out that was catching on in the marketplace. The cost to
retool the factory was too high...higher than just building new
factories in other locations...closer to the markets and the
distribution methods. Peter loved his job and his employees. He
didn't know what to do. He tried to save jobs by reducing work hours.
Then he found that he had to let some of the less valuable staff go in
order to save the better staff. All the time he saw the sales
dropping and nothing marketing was doing was changing anything. He
felt he had let down his employees, his family and his future. He
felt he was a complete failure. "

In hind sight, if everyone knew that Joe and Peter were manufacturing
vinyl records, we'd understand. In hindsight we can see that vinyl
records were replaced very quickly by music CD's. When was the last
time you bought a new (not a collectible) vinyl record?

Alot of time the problem is that communication between management and
staff doesn't occur. Or if it does, it isn't effective. If
management took some time to explain some of the rationale behind
decisions, it would help staff understand. The flip side is staff may
then leave the company losing valuable resources. And a lot of
managers don't want to share their need for help, their own inability
to change things happening external to the company.

Start a dialogue. Open the lines of communication. In the days of
corporate change, communications is the most difficult thing for some
managers. They have to swallow their own pride. They have to
recognize their goals aren't going to be met, and live with it a lot
longer than most employees.

Gary Scherling
Helping people help themselves
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GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca (GSCHERL)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>