Do Business Well

In an attempt to encourage more communication with her staff, a manager institutes a policy of taking a different employee to lunch each week. She also makes it a point to make the rounds every couple of days for informal chats. After a while she finds that employees are canceling their lunch dates. She also discovers that they find her visits intrusive and artificial.

In order to review the status of ongoing projects, keep everyone informed, and provide a forum where employees can speak their minds, a department head schedules daily 9:00 a.m. meetings. After the first week, attendance declines.

An administrator who advocates participative management sends employees a detailed questionnaire designed to elicit suggestions for improvement and announces a series of follow-up meetings. Employees respond with an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude, and their response level is very low.

These managers’ efforts to open up communication are actually putting employees off. What might they do differently?

“There is no one correct answer which applies to every manager in every situation,” say Kim S. Cameron, associate professor of organizational behavior at the University of Michigan’s Graduate School of Business in Ann Arbor, MI. “It depends on the history of the relationship, corporate culture and the time frame in which a manager must produce bottom line results.” Cameron describes the pros and cons of various options:

• Reschedule dates and times. In an effort to get participation, you might change the 9:00 a.m. meetings to 3:00 p.m. or make the lunch dates biweekly. “The positive side of this kind of persistence is that you show that you are really serious—that you’re not just following a fad you read about in a management book,” explains Cameron. Eventually, employees may see that you mean business and come around to your ways. The negative side is that you may be perceived as a nag. “At the same time that people wish you would disappear, they realize they can’t say no to the boss,” adds Cameron. “Thus, they engage in secretiveness or avoidance behavior which drains their energy from productivity.”
• Lay down the law. You might just say, “I’m the boss and it is mandatory that everyone follow my policies.” Lee Iacocca was able to carry this off and come out looking like a charismatic, visionary leader, notes Cameron. “If handled well, this approach can rev people up and motivate them to follow your command.” If not communicated in a positive way, however, strong commands can make you seem autocratic and lead to resistance, anger and political subterfuge.
• Drop the idea altogether. If it becomes apparent that your plan is not working, you may decide that it just isn’t feasible, and let things slip back to the way they were. “This tack can actually work, as long as it is coupled with an alternative,” says Cameron. “Make it clear that you are giving up on this particular idea, but that you are not giving up your goal. Then you launch Plan B.” This can demonstrate that you are flexible and can enhance, rather than inhibit, group productivity and morale. On the other hand, you run the risk of placing yourself in a win- lose situation where the employees have won. “This can give the message that you are not strong enough to run your operation, or it may say that you admit to having bad ideas,” explains Cameron. “Employees can deduce from this that your future ideas won’t be much better.” Thus, you lose power, leadership and the much- needed ability to motivate.
• Ask employees for their ideas. “Commitment rises markedly when employees are involved in decision making,” says Cameron. “When ideas become ‘ours’ versus ‘the boss’s,’ people’s energy rises, too.” In addition, you may receive workable suggestions you hadn’t thought of yourself. On the flip side, this tends to be a time-consuming endeavor, and thus a costly one. Also, if employees offer suggestions you reject, you open yourself to criticism for soliciting ideas with no intent of using them. Weigh all of your alternatives carefully, and then make your final decision.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
The Hidden Message: Leave Us Alone!

• Job Career and no Job no Career, Coping with Dismissal
• Managing the Email Marketing List Part 2
• Break, Lateness, Daydream, Boosting your Productivity
• The Secret of My Success, Tales of Transformation, Why is it so Tempting to try to fix people?
• How High Is High Enough for You?
• Cultivating allies
• A Lateral Move Can Lead Upward
• Opportunity for the Acting Manager
• My Successful Business Tips, One Rung Doesn't Necessarily Lead to Another
• Important Issues to avoid in the Email Marketing

5 Comments »