What Do Managers Actually Do

The definition of management that stands out and is perhaps the most widely recognised is: “management is about getting things done through other people”. According to the text books the primary functions of management are, planning, organizing, controlling and leading. Lets start by defining the core issues with which management is concerned. Renowned management writer Peter Drucker introduced the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness. Drucker sees efficiency as “doing things right” and effectiveness as “doing the right things”. The problem with being efficient alone is that you can efficiently produce a bunch of less than desirable goods or services, or even efficiently run and ineffective operation that creates no customer value at all. If ‘companies only exist to serve customers’ (which they do) and if the organization is not effectively customer focussed as first priority… all the efficiency that we can muster will be of no use at all. You might think that this is common sense however many new ventures, including a large number of dot-coms in the late nineties where extremely efficient technically, however in market terms were totally ineffective, hence the crashes.

Henry Mintzberg offers managers three areas of competence or roles central to our responsibilities as a manager that we should also consider. These he calls: “interpersonal”, “informational” and “decisional”. Our “interpersonal” responsibilities include being the figurehead, providing the central liaison point and acting as the leader. “Informational” responsibilities include monitoring activity, disseminating information and acting as spokesperson for the group. Finally “decisional” activities are, being entrepreneurial, handling disruptions, allocating resources and negotiating on behalf of the organization. These issues will also be expanded in the various sections that follow.

Management from my experience is about all the above however today it is so interwoven with leadership that perhaps the following will shed further light on what we need to think about…

POLARITIES IN ORGANISATIONAL LIFE (DO WE NEED TWO HEADS)

Traditional management (in the bad/good old days) used to concern itself with; supervision, checking, delegating, controlling, inputs and how to make sure the staff did what they where told. Managers where seen as fitting along a style line somewhere between laissez faire (lax) and autocratic (despotic), with us all being encouraged to be somewhere in the middle as democrats.

Today the issue is more complex with the newly ‘empowered’ better educated workforce that most of us today manage, our personal style preference is perhaps less relevant and we as managers need to become ‘more things’ to a more demanding workforce. The concept of a manager also fulfilling a leader role is prevalent in most companies. Some even argue managers are no longer required at all and it is only leaders that will drive the companies of the future. This is fine in theory however corporate culture can take a long time to change and for the majority of us the expectation is that we will be required to fulfil the duel roles. This creates inner conflict as the ideals of the two disciplines are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The following list gathered from a wide range of sources gives some insights into the dilemma facing most managers:

MANAGEMENT is about: CONTROLLING...Don’t leave our department, check what they’re up to, define competence requirements and ‘our title and position give us the authority’ to act within the company procedures and policies. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: FREEDOM...Finding ways to encourage liberalization, creativity and initiative by letting our ‘followers’ participate in a flexible situation where we share authority and perhaps break the rules

MANAGEMENT is about: SURVIVING... Dealing with short-term operational needs and processes whilst strictly controlling costs and watching the budget, and sweating on the monthly targets. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: GROWTH... Identifying new and possibly risky ventures that could be the basis for future income (and perhaps losses) and allowing unplanned changes of direction in and attempt to capitalize on fleeting market opportunities

MANAGEMENT is about: MANAGING... Instructing, allocating, delegating, following up, disciplining, organizing and directing. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: LEADING...Inspiring, helping, encouraging teamwork, coaching, supporting, constant feedback, continuous personal development and goal alignment

MANAGEMENT is about: ADMINISTRATING... Overseeing activities, processes & individual tasks, control, supervision and testing against norms and agreed procedures V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: STRATEGISING... Seeking process improvement, implementing change, agreeing goals and empowering followers whilst constantly questioning the value of the plans in light of unfolding events

MANAGEMENT is about: ORDER & CONSISTENCY... Protecting the existing structure, systems, traditions and ‘the status quo’, belief that past successes give insights into the way forward and relying on accumulated ‘facts’ or ‘truths’ V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: CREATING CHANGE... Vision, direction, values and destruction of ‘the way we’ve always done it’, or as Jack Welsh (ex GE) and others put it engaging in ‘continuos creative destruction’

MANAGEMENT IS ABOUT: COMPETING... Seeking the winning edge, overcoming those in the way & moving up the ‘ladder’, being your own ‘spin-doctor’ and being heavily involved in corporate politics. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: COLLABORATING... Showing love and respect for individuals and seeking win-win solutions and actively promoting the success of our team members and presenting them in a good light

MANAGEMENT is about: DOING THINGS RIGHT... Organising, setting the rules and seeing rules are followed (compliance), being the inspector, keeping up with the latest technical advances and controlling information. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: DOING THE RIGHT THINGS... Developing trust and taking risks (commitment) to ensure all ‘followers’ meet their full potential and know what is the most desirable way forward through full disclosure of operational needs and wants

MANAGEMENT is about: INPUTS... Amount, type and quality of resources, understanding of cash flow and cash burn rates, effective plant utilization, staff allocation and efficient use of raw materials. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: OUTPUTS... The level and volume of satisfied customers we can create, the market and how it perceives our organization and how we can become the best in our field and how to provide more value to our customer

MANAGEMENT is about: MANAGING THINGS. Being operations focused, having high levels of technical expertise (or at least understanding) and using people as production inputs or resources. V.’s LEADERSHIP, which is about: LEADING PEOPLE... Our charisma, socialized power, expertise in human relations, superior communication skills, inspiration & motivation and seeing human beings as potentials

With the conflicting nature of these requirements we really need to be a bit of a two-headed monster if we are to be successful as a manager and the dilemma continues throughout our working life.

IF WE WANT TO BE ‘GOOD’ MANAGERS, WHAT DO THE STAFF SAY ABOUT ‘GOOD’ MANAGEMENT

For all that the theories and textbooks have to say it is essential for us to listen to what staff, (those we get things done through) say is important from their point of view. As part of a training exercise I conduct in many countries I ask the participants to tell a two-minute story about their best boss or their worst boss. The stories (some horrifying and some inspiring) show that to be a respected manager we need to develop the following attributes.

Normal – being culturally compatible with the staff under our supervision by understanding and respecting the cultural norms of the group that we are both responsible for… and responsible to.

Organised – being well managed in our own personal work and being able to meet our own deadlines, being on time for meetings and calls and allocating our own time effectively.

Trainer – facilitating the constant growth of expertise and personal development of the staff and by showing them what a ‘good’ job looks like and helping them to achieve success.

Transparent – letting staff know what is going on with us, why we are acting in a certain way and what is influencing the decisions we are taking.

Reliable – constantly living by the adage of, ‘saying what we will do and then doing what we say’… without exception.

Impressive – presenting ourselves as a professional in the way we speak, dress and our general demeanour in public and particularly in the presence of customers and competitors.

Consistent – being reasonably predictable in our habits and work methods and by not changing the ‘rules’ without consultation and agreement.

Knowledgeable – possessed of some area of technical expertise that the staff can relate to as relevant to the position we are holding, without necessarily being the top expert.

Fair – being equitable in our dealings with those we are managing by avoiding favourites and demonstrating willingness to discipline in private and praise in public.

Accessible – making ourself available to help solve problems, give ideas, act as a coach or mentor, settle disputes and provide support for staff needing resources.

Competent – knowing what needs to be done, by whom, by when and how to bring to bear the necessary resources.

Ethical – placing the interest of the group, the company, the customers and the community ahead of any personal desires and by not operating a personal agenda.

Disciplined – being calm in times of crisis and by remaining focussed on what needs to be done and by constantly working towards the group and organization goals.

IF WE WANT TO BE ‘GOOD’ MANAGERS, WHAT DOES SENIOR MANAGEMENT SAY ABOUT MANAGEMENT?

There is only one way you will find out quickly what is important to the senior management in your company, no not the job description (although it can be somewhat helpful), it is by asking. Asking is hard for some so requesting a discussion of the annual appraisal criteria or performance review form is a great way to get started. The first thing you should do on being appointed as a manager or to a new position is to obtain a copy of the document and discuss with your immediate superior his or her views on the form and its application. Talking to your ‘boss’s boss’ about the appraisal, if to do so is acceptable in your corporate culture, is also extremely helpful.

‘GOOD’ MANAGEMENT IS OK, SUCCESSFUL IS BETTER?

Many issues are central to our success as managers. To discuss management success at this point is also desirable. Most managers I have asked to define success will give an answer that can be generally defined as doing a ‘good’ job. The interpretation of a ‘good’ job is different for each individual and is so open to personal interpretation that it would inappropriate and impractical to go into it here. Each person, even if acting on their on version of ‘good’ will be limited in their perspective on management success by only one view, that of their own truth or that which they have been indoctrinated with over time. To at least give a singular perspective on how we may view success and what we should do to gain success perhaps the view offered by Fred Luthans in the book “Real Managers” is helpful. Luthans looks at speed of promotion as a measuring stick, has analysed how much time managers spend in four areas of management activity and then provides a comparison between average, successful and effective (good job) managers. The areas Luthans, describes as activities undertaken by managers give us more insights into the nature of managerial work. The areas are; “traditional management”, decision making, planning and controlling; “communication”, routine information exchange and processing formal communications; “human resource management”, inspiring, disciplining, conflict resolution, allocating/hiring competent staff and staff development; “networking”, socializing, politicking, and interacting with outside stakeholders (customers, suppliers, government etc). An interesting point he brings out is that successful managers spend almost half of their time networking and another third of their time communicating whereas effective (or good) managers spend almost half their time communicating and a quarter of their time in human resource management. Whether you seek success or effectiveness networking and communicating are both competencies you will need to develop.

DON’T FORGET THE “REAL WORK”

“Real Work” is term coined by Abraham Zaleznik (Professor Harvard Business School) to describe management activities related to producing to products and services, offering them to a market and making sure we satisfy our customers. He contends that many managers spend too much time focusing on organisational processes and politics (the “rituals of psychopolitics” – roughly defined as “the art and science of asserting and maintaining dominion over the thoughts and loyalties of individuals…”) or the pursuit of social expectations in the workplace. As he suggests managers need to exert considerable effort doing the “real work of thinking about and acting on ideas relating to products, markets, and customers”. The real work of the manger according to Zaleznik should always include ‘the thinking that informs and directs action’.

FAMOUS GURUS THOUGHTS ON MANAGEMENT

Michael Hammer in his book “Agenda” talks about modern managers driven by an economy that is more than ever controlled by the customer. “Managers are rediscovering that business is about execution.” He reminds us of the seriousness of watching the cash flow, fulfilling (rather than just getting) orders and the need to go beyond product ideas and focus more on product development. “Management” he says, “has always been and continues to be among the most complex, risky, and uncertain of all human endeavours”. The role of managers is to help their company “devise products and services that satisfy customers and then create and deliver them in a profitable way that satisfies shareholders”; find ways for the company to “retain customers in the face of new competitors and respond to new needs without sacrificing its existing position”; develop ways for the ‘company to distinguish itself from other companies with similar offerings and identical goals and maintain its success as times change’. “Devising the answers to these questions,” he says, “is the eternal management agenda”.

Peter F. Drucker in the “Essential Drucker” says, “Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant”. He also says that the methods of managers will differ from culture to culture ‘one of the basic challenges of mangers is to find and identify those parts of their own tradition, history and culture that can be used as management building blocks’. Drucker explains that managers must constantly reaffirm the company’s vision, mission, values, goals and objectives; “enable the enterprise and each of its members to grow and develop”; ‘build on communication and individual responsibility’; “think through what they aim to accomplish and make sure that their associates know and understand that aim; think through what they owe to others and make sure that others understand; think through what they in turn need from others and make sure others know what is expected of them”. Finally he advises “neither the quantity of output nor the bottom line is by itself an adequate measure of the performance of management”. “Market standing, innovation, productivity, development of people, quality and financial results are all critical”. Of course the single most important measurement exists on “the outside of the organization” how well you ‘satisfied the customer’.

If you see businesses as social institutions or organs of society (and Drucker does) he adds one more area of concern, which is “managing social impacts and social responsibilities”. Here he is referring to such community issues as; being a good neighbour, paying taxes, responsible disposal of waste, minimization of pollution and a “fundamental concern for the quality of life” including the “physical, human and social environment”.

Stephen R. Covey offers us some great insights into life and the pursuit of excellence in his book, ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. Earlier I discussed the need for effectiveness rather than efficiency. Covey gives an appropriate view of what mangers need to think about in seeking to effectively manage the resources and people under their charge. Covey uses ‘Aesop's fable’ of the goose and the golden egg. He describes how the farmer out of greed in an attempt to get all the golden eggs at once, kills the goose. He suggests that within this fable is a “natural law, a principle - the basic definition of effectiveness”. “Most people see effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are”. He rightly points out that the story shows that “true effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose)”. Additionally he says, “effectiveness lies in the balance”, what he calls “the P/PC Balance”. “P stands for ‘production’ of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for ‘production capability’, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs”. The important lesson is that we as managers are often so busy producing the desired levels of output that we can neglect the assets that enable us to produce. Covey defines three types of assets, “physical, financial and human”. To be an effective manager it therefore follows that we must constantly seek ways to maintain our production equipment, ensure the optimum use of what are always limited cash resources and be committed to the wellbeing of our staff, colleagues and the people we report to. A point to note is that Covey believes that, “our most important financial asset is our own capacity to earn. If we don't continually invest in improving our own PC, we severely limit our options”. This brings us to the one of the fundamental requirements for all managers (or people), that is that we must see ourselves a continuos learners and seek ways to constantly improve our competence. The PC principle regarding staff is “to always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers”.

John P Kotter offers a number of sound management (and leadership) observations. Kotter believes, as do many others (and I), that ‘management is different from leadership’. Leadership he says is concerned with “the development of vision and strategies, the alignment of relevant people behind those strategies and the empowerment of individuals to make the vision happen, despite obstacles. This stands in contrast with Management, which involves keeping the current system operating through planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving. Leadership works through people and culture. It's soft and hot. Management works through hierarchy and systems. It's harder and cooler”. ‘The fundamental purpose of management is to keep the current system functioning. The fundamental purpose of leadership is to produce useful change, especially nonincremental change. Strong leadership with no management risks chaos… strong management with no leadership tends to entrench an organization in deadly bureaucracy’. The percentage of time managers need to spend leading is growing rapidly and he goes on to say…“increasingly, those in managerial jobs can be usefully thought of as people who create agendas with both plans and budgets (the management part) and visions and strategies (the leadership part), as people who develop implementation networks both through hierarchy (management) and a complex web of aligned relationships (leadership) and who execute both through controls (management) and inspiration (leadership)”.

A critical issue that Kotter observes is the issue of POWER and dependence. He says that “because managerial work is increasingly a leadership task and because leaders operate through a complex web of dependent relationships, managerial work is increasingly becoming a game of informal dependence on others instead of just formal power over others”. ‘The wily employee near the bottom of the hierarchy… can make life difficult (or easier) for the “important" manager through any number of strategies’. “An increasing part of managerial work involves actively dealing with dependence on others who are above or below in the hierarchy, peers inside the organization and even people outside”. I don’t think this is any revelation to those of us who have worked as managers for some time, however as he points out it is not often directly discussed. One of the most difficult issues for managers I have trained in a number of industries (and countries) is how to deal with this dependence on others. Some of the strategies that I have seen staff use are as obvious as ‘hiding the files’ (burning in one case) or ‘badmouthing bosses’ to customers, or as subtle as holding back an important communication for a critical few minutes or ‘poisoning’ the mind of another colleague regarding your motives and on whom you depend. Kotter goes on to say, ‘a focus on the dependencies is superior to a traditional emphasis on only formal powers’. Finally as I was advised at the first management school I attended and as I advise all participants at courses I conduct today, networking is critical (success versus effective) and the development of good working relationships with people in the network (bosses, peers, staff, other departments, customers, and any other stakeholders) is a major part of every managers role. As Kotter puts it, “Having focus beyond direct subordinates is obviously necessary”. A fundamental point, “actively managing relations with the boss is a necessity for the good of the enterprise” and I suggest for your survival.

Tom Peters' puts forward the proposition that the word 'management' should be discarded in favour of 'leadership'. The real function of management/leadership is to inspire as ‘cheerleader’ and be the business catalyst as ‘facilitator’. One interesting concept that he advocated was “Managing by Wandering About”. This he stated was the path to excellence because it enabled the leader/manager to keep in touch with customers, people and innovations. By wandering three critical activities occur, 'listening', which will suggest caring, 'teaching' (or perhaps informing), so that values are reaffirmed face to face and 'facilitating' by being able give on-the-spot help. Over time Peters seems to have refocussed more towards the managers need to ‘love change in order to be proactive in a world of chaos’. Peters in his more recent writings discusses four management areas, customers, innovation, people (as he rightly does not like the term human resource) and leadership. Peters also talks about systems and the need for quality and I will cover systems or ‘systems thinking’ and quality later in this chapter. Peters gives insights into the modern business realities that face managers. As he puts it, ‘distance is dead’, so competition is increasing and geographic isolation will no longer protect our market. ‘Incremental change is innovation's worst enemy’ (so we must make dramatic rather than incremental changes) in order to fulfil, as he stresses, ‘the need for constant innovation’. ‘Destruction is Cool’ and we need to become the “chief destruction officer”, we must therefore realise that destruction of the old ways of doing things is our number one priority, (“before the competition does it to you”). Obviously as a line manager you will have difficulty in doing this on the broad company spectrum however we all must constantly look for major changes in our area of responsibly that can provide quantum leaps in effectiveness.

Peters also provides some insights into the future nature of work, our required focus, attributes we must develop and the difficulties managers will face. Below is a list of ‘success’ factors according to Peters.

‘Convert every "jobholder" into a businessperson and every job into a business’.

‘Be through trust and respect (and competence) the Michelangelo of your position’.

‘As the boss be the relentless architect of the possibilities of human beings.’

‘If you can’t say specifically why you make your company a better place, your out’.

We are all ‘a brand’ (to be marketed) rather than an indentured servant to BigCorp’.

”All value comes from professional services” and we need to be the service providers.

Our staff units must become “the vital centres of intellectual capital accumulation... rather than the prime sources of bureaucratic drag”.

All this is occurring as Peters points out, because that the “intermediary” or go-between (a manager’s and/or department’s traditional hierarchical role) ‘is doomed as every task in your organization performs, is performed better by some hyper-fast specialist somewhere who can provide superior expertise in a narrow task’. With modern communication and transportation obviously the best talent can be hired in on a project basis. Vertical organizations are being ’gutted’; new organizations he says ‘will be the disintermediated or network organizations... transparent to their customers (and all members of the value-creation chain)’.

Finally, Peters surmises that “THE SYSTEM IS THE SOLUTION” and those systems are the ‘glue in ephemeral (transient or short lived) network organizations’. Due to the fickle and short-lived market opportunities of most of today’s business, organizations need to reinvent themselves constantly. The banking, telecommunications and computer industries are obvious examples of this phenomenon however this trend is moving ever faster into everything from airlines to manufacturing and even music and Hollywood.

SYSTEMS THINKING… A CRITICAL MANAGEMENT COMPETENCE

The concept of systems thinking gives us yet another vital clue to what managers need to do to fulfil their role. Mangers when analysing performance problems or seeking improved productivity have traditionally been taught to break down processes and their department functions into a series of smaller mechanisms. This perspective leads to an approach that places the emphasis on the dissection of areas of control/tasks into separate elements. This way of thinking is the classical scientific method of “Reductionism” which advocates that when you are dealing with complex problems you need to break them down into manageable parts and investigate or analyse each part separately. This style of thinking has proven an inadequate way to view the realistic nature of organizations and their processes. It is also therefore an inadequate way for managers to view their role, their approach to tasks, or to handle their responsibilities. Due to the ever-increasing complexity of business and the need to build organizations that learn how to improve from ongoing experiences (learning organizations) Deming, Senge and many others espouse a way of thinking known as “systems thinking“. “Systems thinking” provides us a way of viewing organizations from a broad perspective that includes organizational structures, process/work patterns and the effect of particular events. One company I worked for thought this issue was of such importance that they included “systems thinking” in their corporate values statement. From this company’s point of view “systems thinking” is a requirement they have of all staff, not just the management.

It is not my intention here to go into a long-winded explanation of systems thinking and the tools or language that come with it. It is however important for managers to understand the concepts well enough to change their mindset on how they view their role. Systems thinking allows us take a broad view of what is happening in order to identify inadequacies or opportunities that we need to address. If we take this approach we need to consider interrelationships with other parts of, or the total processes of the organization, rather than what is happening to us here and now. “Systems thinking views an organization and its respective environment as a complex whole of interrelating, interdependent parts. It stresses the relationships and the processes that make up the organizational context, rather than the separate entities or the sum of the parts (Cummings, 1980)”. ‘A human activity system will also be a part of a systems hierarchy. It will be a subsystem within a greater system, or it will be a larger system incorporating smaller subsystems within itself (Wilson, 1984)’. This way of thinking acknowledges that feedback occurs and that activities create loops of cause and affect that recur. ‘Feedback loops are given various labels, from causal loops to reinforcing or balancing loops. These loops represent cause and effect relationships among the elements in the loops. A change in one part of the loop will result in changes in the other parts (Senge 1994)’. Feedback loops compensate for changes that are imposed on the system as in the old saying ‘if you push the system the system pushes back’. The US – SOVIET arms race is a great example of a recurring feedback loop (of escalation).

According to Michael Goodman, Jennifer Kemeny and Charlotte Roberts in their excellent article, The Language of Systems Thinking: "Links" and "Loops", there are basically two building blocks of all systems representations: reinforcing and balancing loops. They explain,

‘Reinforcing loops generate exponential growth and collapse, in which the growth or collapse continues at an ever-increasing rate. Consider an interest-bearing bank account (where the interest is reinvested). Your money grows much faster than it would if you merely put $100 each year into a piggy bank. At first, the difference seems small; interest would generate only a few extra dollars per year. But if you left the interest in the bank, the money would grow at an ever-faster rate. After fifty years (at 7 percent interest), you'd have more than $40,000, more than eight times as much as the piggy bank would generate by growing at the same rate, year after year. If you were unprepared for it, you'd reach a moment of surprise after perhaps fifteen years, when you saw how the growth of your money was building on itself in a truly “virtuous spiral”. Alternatively you'd be caught in a “vicious spiral” if, you went into debt for a long time where the interest was capitalised (added to the principal). At first it would seem as if you were paying only small extra sums of interest. Over time, the balance you owed would grow with increasing speed. In all reinforcing processes, as in the bank account, a small change builds on itself’. ‘A reinforcing loop, by definition, is incomplete. You never have a vicious or virtuous cycle by itself. Somewhere, sometime, it will run up against at least one balancing mechanism that limits it. The limit may not appear in our lifetime, but you can assume it will appear. Most of the time, there are multiple limits’.

‘Balancing loops: pushing stability, resistance and limits. Balancing processes generate the forces of resistance, which eventually limit growth. But they are also the mechanisms, found in nature and all systems that fix problems, maintain stability, and achieve equilibrium. Balancing loops are often found in situations which seem to be self-correcting and self-regulating. "No matter what we try, we can't change the system." Balancing processes are always bound to a target, a constraint or goal that is often implicitly set by the forces of the system (or by design in organizations). Whenever current reality doesn't match the balancing loop's target, the resulting gap (between the target and the system’s actual performance) generates pressure that the system cannot ignore. The greater the gap, the greater the pressure. It's as if the system itself has a single-minded awareness of "how things ought to be," and will do everything in its power to return to that state. Until you recognize the gap, and identify the goal or constraint that drives it, you won't understand the behaviour of the balancing loop.

‘Delays: when things happen... eventually: Delays occur often in both reinforcing and balancing loops. These are points where an event or link, (in the chain of influence) takes a particularly long time to play out and is represented by a pair of parallel lines. Delay can have enormous influence in a system, frequently accentuating the impact of other forces. This happens because delays are subtle: usually taken for granted, often ignored altogether, always under-estimated. In reinforcing loops, delays can shake our confidence, because growth doesn't come as quickly as expected. In balancing loops, delays can dramatically change the behaviour of the system. When unacknowledged delays occur, people tend to react impatiently, usually redoubling their efforts to get what they want. This results in unnecessarily violent oscillations. One of the purposes of drawing systems diagrams is to flag the delays, which you might otherwise miss. In addition, delays are often a source of waste; removing delays is a key method for speeding up cycle time’.

Managers need to understand and think about the ramifications of their actions on the ‘total’ system or higher order or subsystems. They need to think of themselves (to use a car analogy), perhaps as the person managing the gearbox in the ‘car system’. A decision taken to change the gearing ratio of third gear will effect the way the car runs from engine performance (production), to power delivered at the wheels (sales and service), to fuel consumption (finance) or oil consumption (purchasing). Similarly if the IT or MIS manager represents the electrical system and arbitrarily decides to change the voltage level, because they find it better for their own purposes, the functioning of the entire ‘car system’ is effected. Purchasing mangers that develop large slow moving bureaucracies can be likened to an unchanged oil filter full of sludge and impurities. Financial controllers that think they are the only operational decision maker who know best on how and when to distribute the money are as useful as a faulty badly tuned carburettor or dirty fuel injection system. Back to the gearbox, if the third gear ratio is changed and the car inherently overtakes at a slower rate, engine revs need be higher and more fuel will be required just to match previous performance. Additionally wear will increase, oil consumption will go up and power to the wheels will be harder and more resource hungry so achieve. The feedback will be more wear on the gearbox, more trips to purchasing and fun meetings with the financial controller… and on the cycle goes.

The second major responsibility managers have in this area is to encourage all under their control or influence to combine their collective work experience and system knowledge to build the overall knowledge of the operation. Systems thinking means all players need to view their work in terms of customer satisfaction and adding value to the organization, understand how their work is related to the work of other people. Employees must be ‘taught’ to understand that how they are working is effecting others and that they how they are allowing themselves to be influenced by other people or processes is effecting their own productivity.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) AND WHAT IT MEANS TO OUR SUCCESS AS A MANAGER

Managers as a core function must be continuously implementing some form of quality improvement. The focus of these efforts must be in reinforcing quality values, implementing/reviewing quality plans and guiding quality improvement teams if a formal quality program is in place. Allocating time and resources and encouraging all staff to spend time on quality related activities should be considered as mandatory. Quality efforts need to lead to fundamental culturally entrenched improvements and change to the way the organization (or at least your department) conducts its day-to-day business. Changes to jobs, organization structure, processes, systems, allocation of resources, products/services and the manager’s own role are areas that need to be addressed. I am not going to give a technical explanation of TQM and quality tools; rather we will explore what TQM offers to the understanding of the role of a manger.

Successful organizations need; a healthy cash flow, improving profitability, have committed and preferably happy employees, cooperative and supportive suppliers, high quality products/services and customers whose expectations are constantly being exceeded. The manager needs to regularly improve him/herself in the control of processes, planning of activities, measuring performance, training of staff and delegating effectively. The following questions need to be answered in the affirmative to be a quality driven operation.

Are you constantly giving feedback on performance and conducting regular formal performance reviews?

Are you researching better ways to do things rather than waiting for problems to occur?

Do you analyse data on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, financial results, product/service quality, supplier performance and operational performance to seek improvement?

Do you benchmark your operation against others either within or outside your company?

Are decisions and plans based upon analysis of performance data rather than tradition or gut feel?

Is everything you do focussed on customer satisfaction and a statistically proven value adder rather than a no value traditional energy sucker?

Do you act in conjunction with human resource, training and other relevant departments to; plan staffing levels, implement competence development programmes, apply empowerment strategies and develop programmes for reward and recognition?

Are you constantly suggesting or implementing improvements to the way your area of control conducts its activities?

Are staff rewarded for levels of contribution and performance rather than loyalty and length of service?

Is the competence development/training that is undertaken systematically evaluated in order to ensure its effectiveness and to provide evidence of continuous improvements?

Are you actively involved in trying to shorten the process or product cycles of your area of control?

Are key processes, documented measured and are standards based upon customer requirements rather than department or operational comfort zones?

Are support services processes and methods designed based upon a thorough analysis of the needs of internal and external customers?

Have you figured out why your department or operation really exists through a ‘departmental purpose analysis’?

Do you define and agree quality requirements with all your internal or external suppliers and have those requirements been adequately communicated and enforced?

Are levels of performance on measured of productivity and cycle times improving?

Are the financial areas you are responsible for (cash flow, cost control and sales) improving from period to period?

Do you show legitimate concern for and make decisions based on improving the physical, human and natural environment?

Are constantly seeking new ways to ensure your organization will be in the best position to better satisfy existing customers and more easily gain new customers?

Are you readily accessible by your customers and do you see complaints as gifts and a chance to make improvements?

Do you have a system in place to analyse real customer satisfaction levels or do you just wait for the occasional compliment and assume that no formal complaints mean everything is OK?

So what is Quality according to the ‘Gurus’? ‘Quality for ‘Product features in the eyes of customers, means the better the product features, the higher the quality or conversely Freedom from deficiencies in the eyes of customers, the fewer the deficiencies the better the quality’ (Juran 1991). ‘Quality is conformance to requirements’, (Crosby 1985). ‘Quality should be aimed at the needs of the customer, present and future’, (Deming). ‘Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs’, (International Standards Organization). Quality is said to have (by whom I cannot remember) nine dimensions: ‘Performance, Features, Conformance, Reliability, Durability, Service, Response, Aesthetics and Reputation’. According to Crosby quality is conformance to requirements, not goodness or elegance; the system for causing quality is prevention, not appraisal; the performance standard must be zero defects, not 'that's close enough'; The measurement of quality is the price of non-conformance, not indexes.

Professor Deming developed a now famous cycle (also referred to as the PDCA cycle) that gives another great guide to a manager’s role… “Plan > Do > Check > Act”. Deming also offered fourteen quality ‘points’ which roughly boil down to the following:

Managers need to create constancy of purpose towards improvement, refuse to live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes and defective workmanship and require, statistical evidence that quality is built in. He says we need end the practice of awarding the business (to suppliers) on the basis of price tag. It is the manager’s duty to find problems and to work continually on the system. We need to use modern methods of supervision of workers and redefine the responsibility of supervisors or foremen from numerical goals to quality. He also advocates we institute methods of training on the job, drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company and break down barriers between departments. Finally he says it is important to instil a sense of pride of accomplishment, institute a vigorous programme of education and retraining and create a structure in senior (read all) management that will push every day on the above points.

Total Quality Management is an approach to improving the competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility of the whole organization. It is essentially a way of planning, organising and understanding each activity and depends on each individual at each level in an organization, however the manager must drive it.

SIX SIGMA PERSPECTIVES ON MANAGERS AND THEIR ROLE

Again here it is not my intention to totally explain the Six Sigma system, however it is my intention to present for you the straightforward facts that Six Sigma offers to help us define what as managers we need to do to fulfil our role. Six Sigma has its foundations in Total Quality Management and builds on many of the most important management ideas and best practices developed over previous decades. It is common quality practice to MEASURE production processes and output accuracy levels. Using statistics collected over time we can calculate the average or mean of the data and show such things as the frequency of an occurrence, the distribution of data and highlight deviations from normal. We can also calculate a standard deviation, which is known as one Sigma.

The need to produce outputs within specification limits is the key to TQM and Six Sima. Why “Six” Sigma. “The Six Sigma Quality movement takes this (variation) very much to heart. In fact, Six Sigma advocates believe that for many processes, there should be six sigmas between the mean and the specification limits, so that the process is only making a few bad "parts" in every million”. Six Sigma helps managers to build new working structures and develop practices that will support sustained success.

The book “The Six SIGMA Way” by Pande, Cavanagh and Neuman offers six themes of Six Sigma, which again reinforce what the primary role of a manager is. Managers need to have a “Genuine Focus on the Customer” employ “Data- and Fact-Driven Management” develop and instigate ‘Process and Improvement Focussed Management’, be “Proactive” by “acting in advance of events” and “making habits out of what are, too often, neglected business practices”. This needs to be done by; “defining ambitious goals and reviewing them frequently; setting clear priorities; focusing on problem prevention versus fire fighting; questioning why we do things instead of blindly defending them as "how we do things here." Their fifth theme was also in the value statement of one of my employers and that is to create “Boundryless Collaboration” or as they put it a “boundryless corporation”. This has a particular reference for many managers (and staff) who see knowledge as power and have the mindset that what they know needs to be protected against ‘their competitors’ i.e. ‘other staff’. This is a sick truth in many organizations I have worked in and with and must be fought against at all costs. ““Boundarylessness" is one of Jack Welch's mantras for business success. Years before launching Six Sigma, GE's chairman was working to break down barriers and improve teamwork, up, down, and across organizational lines. The opportunities available through improved collaboration within companies and with their vendors and customers are huge. Billions of dollars are left on the table (or on the floor) every day, because of disconnects and outright competition between groups that should be working for a common cause: providing value to customers”. The final theme is “Drive for Perfection; Tolerance for Failure” Six Sigma by its very philosophy means “launching new ideas and approaches-which always involve some risk”. If people who see a possible path to better service, lower costs, new capabilities, etc. (i.e. ways to be closer-to-perfect) are too afraid of the consequences of mistakes, they'll never try”. I work with many young managers in Asia and most corporations and managers are very hard on those that fail. Loss of face is also a significant part of the culture and unless these attitudes are overcome much off what Six Sigma has to offer will never see the light. It is I believe one of the reasons you don’t see many world leading companies growing from South East Asia.

As managers we must implement “a consistent way to track and compare performance to customer requirements”, internal or external. A primary goal is to find ways to save the costs that are incurred in “reworking defects” Managers need to ‘pursue a standard of excellence using every tool at their disposal and never hesitate to reinvent the way things are done’. Design “techniques to enable greater flexibility and faster turnaround” Find ways to ‘send information faster and cheaper’ and provide ‘prompt answers to requests for information’. Managers need to ensure they and their staff knows enough about the total department (and company) operations to dramatically increase “first call resolution” of problems. Ways need to be found that ensure that managers (and staff) “Think outside the box”, or if you (or they) are too close to the problem enlist the help of a colleague (or consultant) to give a new perspective or an oddball solution or idea. Performance goals must be set for everyone. Managers must ‘actively develop ways to increase and accelerate the development and sharing of new ideas throughout (your department between staff) an organization as a whole’. Never allow the attitude that "_'Your ideas won't work, because I'm different.'_" Fully embrace and understand the concepts of; “e-Commerce and Services, Enterprise Resource Planning, Lean manufacturing, Customer Relationship Management systems, Strategic business partnerships, Knowledge management, Activity-based management, The ‘process-centred organization’, Globalisation (and its effects) and Just-in-time inventory/production”.

Finally From the forward of the book “Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations” by Harry and Schroeder Six Sigma tells us: “We don't know what we don't know. We can't do what we don't know. We won't know until we measure. We don't measure what we don't value. We don't value what we don't measure”.

THE BALANCED SCORECARD FUTURE

“The Harvard Business Review has called the Balanced Scorecard the most influential management idea in the past 75 years” says one Balanced Scorecard seminar promoter.

The ‘Balanced Scorecard’ is a framework of metrics and measurements that help organizations translate their mission and strategies into operational objectives that drive both behaviour and performance. Advocates of this approach point out that just measuring performance on financial data alone is an outdated way of doing things. This approach also has strong roots in the Quality Movement; it provides a view of an organization’s overall performance by integrating the following perspectives:

Financial profitability: measured by such things as Return on Investments (ROI), Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) & Economic Value Added (EVA)

Customer Knowledge: measured by Customer satisfaction, Customer Retention and market and account share in targeted segments

Internal processes: those processes that will have the greater impact on customer satisfaction and on achieving the organization’s financial objectives

Learning and growth: by identifying the infrastructure the organization has to build in order to create long-term growth and improvement through people, systems and organisational procedures

My concern here is to utilise the philosophies of the ‘Balanced Scorecard’ to point out what we need to think about as managers. Again if you want to fully understand the intricacies of this methodology you need to undertake additional reading the subject. This however is an important management movement and we need as a minimum to consider what can we learn from it.

The Balanced Scorecard highlights that a manager needs to think about the ‘big picture’ regarding his or her role in relation to the overall organization and have at least some interest and knowledge in the following areas:

As the publisher of perhaps the most renowned book on the subject (see reference list) by Messer’s Kaplan and Norton puts it ‘we (managers) need to mobilize our people to fulfil the company's mission by not just measuring performance, rather by understanding how to’, “channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout the organization toward achieving long-term strategic goals”. They also say we need to do this by aligning “individual, organizational and cross-departmental initiatives and to identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives”. The “Balanced Scorecard’ also tells us we need to be involved in “robust learning”, ‘constantly testing the system, seeking feedback and updating our (and the organization's) strategies’.

Arthur M. Schneiderman, to my way of thinking, the Pioneer of the ‘Balanced Scorecard’ (originally during his time at Analog Devices Inc) gives us some more insights:

Much of this is big picture stuff however, all managers need to understand that their section, department or division is part of a greater whole and not, (as I find in some organizations), a kingdom unto itself that will only swap favour for favour and only respond to requests from the powerful when they are armed with formal authority.

FINALLY, ONE MORE USEFUL HABIT AGAIN...

Constantly being open to new ways of doing things; Being prepared to see all ideas as good ideas until they are proven otherwise; Never believing our way of doing things is the only way of doing things; Always looking for ways to improve quality of services, processes, products and job design; Showing respect for others points of view; Listening at least twice as much as speaking; Listening rather than just hearing; Understanding sound principles for setting priorities rather than doing what’s easy or habitual; Analysing projects/procedures/systems for value adders and seriously attempting to cut or avoid value robbers; Carefully picking team members to ensure a diversity of competence, opinion and talent rather than those who will simply agree with us; Seeing work as a constant learning process and by implementing appropriate changes through experience; Understanding that all those around us are motivated by their own selfish desires, as are we; Accepting that change is not just inevitable, it is essential; Sharing our vision; Planning for our vision; Enlisting support for our vision; Being flexible and accepting others points of view; Knowing our strengths and volunteering to participate; Knowing our weaknesses and employing to compensate; Constantly encouraging and training of those we work with; Saying what we will do and then doing what we say; Only asking questions we really want answers to; Communicating effectively – listening; Empowering others Acting with respect for the needs of others; Becoming sound human relations practitioners; Constantly seeking what is effective rather than efficient; Sometimes subordinating our own desires for the sake of the group; Working towards being agents of change rather than knockers of the new; Developing & showing sincere interest our colleagues’ wellbeing; Understanding our five points of power and using them all; Approaching every activity with a customer in mind; Managing our time wisely; Always try to be doing more with less; and finally by Thinking strategically in light constant changes to the business environment.

Management – Sixth Edition, James A F Stoner, R Edward Freeman, Daniel R Gilbert Jnr – Prentice Hall International Editions

Organizational Behaviour – Seventh Edition, Stephen P Robbins, Prentice Hall International Editions

The Effective Executive - Peter Ferdinand Drucker (Preface). April 1993 - Harperbusiness

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Successful versus Effective Real Managers - Fred Luthans - Academy of Management Executive, May 1988

Real Managers - F Luthans, R M Hodgetts, S A Rosenkrantz - Cambridge MA Ballinger, 1988

Situational Leadership II – Ken Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi & Drea Zigarmi - Blanchard Training and Development

Real Work - Abraham Zaleznik, HBR Classic, originally published in January-February 1989, retrospective commentary November-December 1997

Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade – Michael Hammer, Crown Publishing Group published October 2001

The Essential Drucker - Peter F. Drucker, Publisher: Harper Information (Harper Collins) published June 2001

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey, Publisher: Simon & Schuster Trade published August 1990

In Search of Excellence - Thomas J. Peters, Robert H. Waterman Jr. Warner, published January 1984

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Tom Peters Seminar – Thomas J Peters, publisher: Random House Inc., published: May 1994

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John P Kotter on What Leaders Really Do – John P Kotter, Harvard Business School Publishing, published March 1999

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook - Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., & Smith, B., published 1994, New York: Doubleday.

Systems theory of organizational development - Cummings, T.G.(Ed.). (1980). New York: Wiley.

Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, and Applications - Wilson, B. (1984). New York: Wiley.

The Language of Systems Thinking: "Links" and "Loops" - Michael Goodman, Jennifer Kemeny, Charlotte Roberts, The Society for Organizational Learning, page http://www.sol-ne.org/pra/tool/loops.html.

Deming Management Method – Mary Walton, foreword by W. Edwards Deming Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: November 1986

Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services J. M. Juran Publisher: Simon & Schuster Trade Pub. Date: February 1991

Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain - Philip B. Crosby, Publisher: Dutton Signet Pub. Date: April 1985

Six SIGMA Way: How GE, Motorola, and Other Top Companies Are Honing Their Performance - Peter S. Pande, Roland R. Cavanagh, Robert P. Neuman Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional Pub. Date: May 2000

Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World's Top Corporations by Mikel J. Harry, Richard Schroeder Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated Pub. Date: December 1999

Six Sigma Quality – SkyMark - 7300 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208 USA, Phone: 800.826.7284 or +1.412.371.0680, Main Fax: 412.371.0681, ©2001 by SkyMark Corporation. All rights reserved. http://www.skymark.com/resources/methods/sixsigmaquality.asp

The Balanced Scorecard : (Translating Strategy into Action) - Robert S Kaplan and David P. Norton. Publisher: Harvard Business School Press August 1996

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (Fourth Edition- revised) - F.G & H.W. Fowler, Oxford University Press, 1946

TRADITIONAL PERSPECTIVES