Does self-management work? In the article “First, Let’s Fire All the Managers”, has an interesting and a systematic way as to how Morning Star, a leading food processor operates without managers and titles. Although, in this day and time it’s hard to imagine a company without managers, this company has achieved this for over 40 years and it’s a rather large enterprise (400 employees), yielding over $700 million yearly and being a global market leader. Now that’s impressive, especially for those who work in corporate America. Most people would be lost without a manager and a title. Funny, but it’s true.
I believe that this article can help new business leaders adapt to a new way of thinking especially in a very now political environment where jobs are relevant and the on-going question is how to encourage excellence in the work place. One latest concept in management has been focused on team work however not always achieving the desired results. This is due to different levels of efforts among team members, thus affecting productivity.
The basic idea of this article is self-management. Self-management is achieved by two key elements: the personal mission statement and the CLOU. The personal mission statement is where each employee projects what goals he intends to achieve for the company. The CLOU (Colleague Letter of Understanding) is where the employee makes an agreement with his colleague that are affected by his work directly, underlining what is expected of him in order to full fill his mission statement.
In the current managerial practice the hierarchy of management is extremely counterproductive because it is very costly in its sheer size and creates a lot of indecisions and bad decision as well. This is very taxing on any organization. The basis of this new concept is that every employee is responsible for fulfilling every aspect of their mission goal, where it be training, materials, equipment, personnel, compensation and etc. Employees have worked in a managerial environment and are very content with this new self-management. If problems arise there are more easily overcome due to the one on one nature of the relationships of colleagues.
The implication for practicing managers is that this is a possible model that could be looked at and implemented to a certain degree into a current hierarchy of management the goal being to reduce management size which cost and to increase productivity by creating self-management teams. This is a very interesting work model to be compared with the well know successful Japanese work philosophy.
Works Cited
Hamel, Gary. "FIRST, LET's FIRE ALL THE MANAGERS. (Cover Story)." Harvard Business Review 89.12 (2011): 48-60. Business Source Complete. Web. 7 July 2012
I think this is a fantastic idea and something that many organizations should consider. There is the obvious difficulty in dealing with the one-off situation where multiple people affected by one person bad together against that person, however generally speaking this could definitely work and measures could be implemented to mitigate group-think against certain people. Above all, I believe hiring the right people for the right positions makes most management unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the best ways to increase productivity is by having individuals take direct ownership of their productivity. This model utilizes that concept therefore I feel it has potential productivity benefits. I feel the drawback to this model would be the existence of conflicting ideas within organizations. Managers serve as a last word. If the organization is very flat, conflicting ideas can stifle production.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest off the back the concept makes no sense. Since we were born we have been managed by our parents. Then as we grown older we are managed by our teachers and later by our managers at work. However I think to some degree this concept could work however not in all types of organizations. Personally I feel I am very self managed and don't need someone to watch me to make sure I am doing my job. There are those however that do. It just depends on the group of people and organization you have if a concept such as this could work.
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