Perhaps I have been a bit -- shall we say -- tainted by my clients -- but
I have a theory which may be close what Linda McQuaig is saying in her
book. You only gave a hint at what she was saying so here goes...
This is in reference to publicly traded companies -- not privately owned.
Wall Street seems to have become much more sensitive in the last decade or
so to a company's management style. Senior level managers have one major
job -- keep Wall Street and investors happy. Many of the company's I deal
with use fear from top managment down. There are other choices but fear
seems to be the current management fad. Again -- I can only refer to the
companies I have personally dealt with. What this then translates into is
that middle management decides how to manage downwards. Many simply mimic
they way they are managed. But they can choose if they are aware enough.
This is where I see people making learning organization choices -- at the
middle management level. They can influence upwardly --- and in many
cases these people will be in favor of it -- if it has a positive impact
on perception and the bottom line. Or they use fear. When fear is the
choice, politics tend to be more rampant as the leadership tends to be
weaker. When leadership is weak then the distribution of resources tend
to be based on favortism and --- what will impact perception and the
bottom line. Somehow, the ability to really get companies to be learning
organizations seems to be to be so closely tied to perception, Wall
Street, and the bottom line -- that it would seem to be difficult to be
trully a learning organization. In those rare situations where everyone
is on board from top level to frontline folks, then I believe all can
benefit. But the underlying drive will always be the bottom line.
Let me give an example -- one company I worked with had 15 different
divisions -- some in very different businesses. A new CEO came on board
and decided to do Jack Welch style management -- Management by Objectives.
Now they asked all the Presidents to come up with revenue targets for the
following year and this they did. They were pushed to set outraegous
targets. None of the Presidents achieved these targets -- many exceeded
the previous years earnings. At least 6 were fired -- even those that had
exceeded the previous year. Now I think Jack may have taken a different
approach but what it did was fill the organization with fear. The message
was -- you may work your tail off but that is not good enough. The
company's earnings continued to fall, shock surprize. It is now being
bought out.
Another example -- a manufacturing plant that supplies the auto industry.
The people who get promoted are those who yell loudly at the line workers
and threaten them. This plant is located in the boonies and pays well
compared to other local industries. Management by bullying I think it is
called.
Another example of a large well known company. A SVP threatens employees
if they don't do everything in a way which makes her look good. One
employee gave an opinion in a meeting which contradicted hers and she told
him privately in her office that she wanted to punch him in the f....g
face. She also set him up politically with a direct report which ended up
blowing up in his face. Another SVP regularly takes over meetings and
with the same regularity yells and abuses people openly and in private
meetings berates his own staff.
I have lots of examples of this kind of emotional abuse of people. All of
these people would benefit from learning organizations. But how can a
learning organization thrive in the public sector? I don't think it can
unless all on board are prepared to dive in head first.
One other thought -- it seems that learning organizations will only really
work when humanity as a whole becomes emotionally healthier and gentler.
And it may be a chicken and egg type of syndrome because I believe
unhealthy systems create unhealthy behaviors....
Sherri
sherri@maloufinc.com Tel:603-672-0355
LMA, Inc Fax:603-673-7120
--Sherri Malouf <sherri@maloufinc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>