irt: kregear@lims.lockheed.com (Archie Kregear), Mon, May 6, 1996 12:10 AM
EST
I am troubled by what may be a side effect of the initiatives Archie has
indicated people take to get the job done in spite of the management of
the company. It sort of goes like this:
I must assume that management is doing what makes sense to them, even if
it makes no sense to the employees. This isn't to imply what they're doing
is correct, it just makes sense to them. If the employees in the company
do whatever it takes to ensure the success of the company then isn't it
likely that this will simply serve to reinforce management's perception
that what they are doing is right -- because it's producing results? From
this perspective mangement will continue doing more of what doesn't make
sense to employees, and employees will have to be even more committed to
doing what needs to be done to make the company successful.
This is essentially an escallation structure and both sides will continue
in their defined direction until the structure inevitably crashes because
it will get to a point where no amount of employee committment will be
able to overcome the inappropriate actions of management. And when the
system crashes everyone will say, "What happened?" It will appear like the
straw that broke the camel's back, and it's also representative of the
Niagra Syndrome; by the time to see the waterfall it's too late!
I think I just found another archetype example for my web pages. Thanks
Archie.
Gene Bellinger
CrbnBlu@aol.com
http://www.radix.net/~crbnblu/welcome.html
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>