I see Dilbert as expressing what many might think, but the system are so
tight that they may not feel that they can't express those things. As
many other cartoonists, this one allows people some relief. I don't know
that Dilbert should offer solutions. I think that the major contribution
is to call our attention to the problems: raising our level of awareness
(probably). The problem in management is very serious becuase most of the
managers out there do not even see them. And when one shows them the
problems, they become very denfensive (don't want to see them).
I don't think that after so many efforts that we have seen in our
organizations (job enrichement, quality circles, TQM/CQI, business process
improvement, and now organizational learning), managers and the systems
under which they operate have really changed that much. We still find too
much of the traditional stuff. For instance, and I hope is just part of
the traditional managerial jargon and not a reflection of how you think,
"allowing employees to hang Dilbert's cartoons in the office" is an
expression that gives the impression that "this manager" still believes in
controlling people to the point of checking what they have hanging on
their walls.
We must rid ourselves of those expressions (and notions), because they are
reflections of a management style which suggests that there is little room
for people to breath on their own. I would say that the same expression
you use, could become a great inspiration for a Dilbert cartoon. Ask
yourself, as we try to control what employees do (what we allow them to
do), how many other non-allowed things do they do when we are not looking?
A few employees sometimes demand that control too. In a recent faculty
meeting, we were discussing what to do with the increasing number of
students asking questions regarding the value of our programs because we
are not AACSB accredited school of business. Or students who were just
changing schools because of that. I said that the way I address the
question is by telling students that AACSB accreditation is more a matter
of image than of true quality of the program (I believe on this). I aslo
informed the students that our school is in the process of accreditation,
but that they should be very careful in selecting programs and that AACSB
accreditation should not be used as a sole measure of quality because it
may no reflect it. Having said that, one of my colleagues expressed his
opinion that everytime a student asks these questions we should send him
or her to the dean! I opposed that right away, and implied that I was
entitle to express my opinions on the issue because it assumed that we
know what we are doing! Nothing else happens with respec to this ... But
there was a person with a PhD degree willing (?) to have management facing
these issues.
--"Dr. Ivan Blanco" <BLANCO@BU4090.BARRY.EDU>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>