Arnold
Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoGetting rid of middle management
September 4th 2008 04:10
If you're a manager, you're probably not so happy to hear about the trend to getting rid of middle management. On the other hand, you probably believe that no company can get along without you and your ilk, you're your comfortably numb.
Kottke on getting rid of middle management:
For example, a General Electric plant decided to get rid of managers altogether, with all the workers reporting directly to the plant manager.
Sounds good, doesn't it? No more bosses like David Brent, floating on authority and lack of responsibility. No more managers breathing down your back, handing out redundancy packages while they collect another high performance bonus.
Unfortunately, this only works on a small scale. In a bigger factory, employees soon get frustrated with the lack of supervision and the inaccessibility of the plant manager.
Instead, another plant realized that they needed some middle management:
What is the perfect amount of management? Certainly, companies can get overloaded with redundant managers.
This was painfully obvious in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata", a movie about a Japanese manager that gets fired and can't break the news to his family, so he dresses up every morning and pretends to go out to work.
The most frightening element is that, on several occasions, he's asked what he can do, what he can offer the company. He's speechless - he's never had to answer this before. As a manager, he was used to just being inserted in a company and managing.
We live in a society of managers, unfortunately, with a smaller and smaller percentage of our society actually involved in productive skills, the actual technical abilities outsourced to cheaper countries. Is this the way forward?
Kottke on getting rid of middle management:
For example, a General Electric plant decided to get rid of managers altogether, with all the workers reporting directly to the plant manager.
" There was no time clock, and people set their own schedules. Pay was egalitarian (there were only three pay grades), and workers who assembled the engines could switch tasks each day so their jobs were not monotonous. The result? In terms of quality, the plant was nearly perfect. Three-quarters of the engines it produced were flawless, and the remaining 25 percent typically had only a slight cosmetic defect."
Unfortunately, this only works on a small scale. In a bigger factory, employees soon get frustrated with the lack of supervision and the inaccessibility of the plant manager.
Instead, another plant realized that they needed some middle management:
"And frankly, people here seem to be happier with a little bit of middle management. Not middle management that's going to overrule the decisions they make on their own. Not symbolic middle management that only makes people feel important. But middle management that creates useful channels of communication. If my job is getting obstacles out of the way so my employees can get their work done, these managers exist so that, when an employee has a local problem, there's someone there, in the office next door, whom they can talk to."
This was painfully obvious in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata", a movie about a Japanese manager that gets fired and can't break the news to his family, so he dresses up every morning and pretends to go out to work.
The most frightening element is that, on several occasions, he's asked what he can do, what he can offer the company. He's speechless - he's never had to answer this before. As a manager, he was used to just being inserted in a company and managing.
We live in a society of managers, unfortunately, with a smaller and smaller percentage of our society actually involved in productive skills, the actual technical abilities outsourced to cheaper countries. Is this the way forward?
| 49 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
Advertise your vacancies for Free on ZJobs Classifieds.
View Job Vacancies : NSW | VIC | QLD | SA | WA | ACT | TAS | NT
Advertise your Vacancies : NSW | VIC | QLD | SA | WA | ACT | TAS | NT
Advertise your Vacancies : NSW | VIC | QLD | SA | WA | ACT | TAS | NT
Comment by Business Beagle
Business News
Robert Keanalley
Sure, there are some circumstances where a flatter organisation structure works best. Other times, you need something more tangible in terms of hierarchy. And still, there are some situations that an organic organisation structure works best. It depends on the tasks being performed, the level of skill required, supervision required and the people involved.
Oft times, middle managers are under appreciated, well the good ones anyway.
Wholesale redundancy of middle management across industry would be a huge mistake in my opinion. Surgical culling of some might be also long overdue. It would take a better beagle then me to determine which to apply when.
Woof.
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
I know from my own experience that managers can get by, without having any technical ability of their own, by the virtue of the people working under them.
Comment by Vincent Aceling
Semi Wise
Restaurant Craft
In a financial services company (and maybe some other types of companies) however, middle-management serves as a necessary buffer between executive management and the staff level employees. I find this model to be necessary, because middle-management is usually knowledgeable enough to step back from the grunt work and oversee that basic principles are being adhered to and deadlines are being met. Middle-management is then held accountable for the perfomance of its business unit. Upper-management can then focus on the big picture and make strategic decisions to shape and direct an organization. The staff-level employees have less pressure and continue through the daily grind producing results, and also continuously developing themselves professionally. Eventually staff will assume the middle-management positions and the cycle will go on.
Most importantly though, I think middle-management needs to exhibit more leadership qualities; if they don't have those valued leadership attributes, I can then see how they could just be "middle-men" barking orders and contributing no value whatsoever.