OJBs Web Site: Management

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Some Opinions on Management

Like most people, I have to deal with modern management in various aspects of my life, especially at work. Most managers I have met I haven't been very impressed with - they seem to be uniformly mediocre people who are good at making the right noises at the right time to impress their superiors and are generally incapable of forming an original thought on their own. I presume there are good managers out there somewhere, maybe I've just been unlucky with the majority I've met

After considering the matter I think I have identified where things have gone wrong. Its not so much the managers that are the problem, its the actual process of management that basically guarantees an organisation sinks to the depths of bureaucratic mediocrity.

Modern organisations are generally organised like a pyramid. There is a CEO at the top, then senior managers, junior managers, then workers. Often there will be far more levels than this. This system might work if the people in management were less interested in furthering their own careers and covering their defects, but that doesn't seem to be what happens. Also, people don't seem to be rewarded for trying anything new, even if it is potentially advantageous. The fear of failure ensures that they always stick to what is safe.

As messages are passed up the chain of command they are modified to suit the purposes of the person delivering the message. This usually involves the junior manager making it more palatable to the more senior person they report to. Naturally, the person at the top who makes the final decisions, has no idea what's really going on in his organisation and makes poor decisions as a result.

In my opinion managers should be replaced with administrators. These people would do all the menial tasks to support the people who do the real work - and they wouldn't receive huge salaries for doing this. There would be a mechanism for anyone to report directly to the CEO. The CEO would only be able to act on a majority view of the whole staff. All the staff would receive some reward, such as part of the profit of the company, so they would be motivated to make it work.

The aim of the organisation (and its major motivating factor) should be changed from monetary profit to something more all-encompassing which reflects social and environmental values as much as money.

This is my plan to make the world a better place. Can it ever work? Who knows. I think something along these lines will happen with time but its hard to say how long it might take. There are a lot of corrupt, mediocre people doing very well out of the management system we now have, and I don't think they want any change!

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