Why the Manager’s Role Must Change
At the turn of the century, machines were utilized to do more of the work. The labor supply was large, but the average worker's education was minimal. So the manager's role was to tell the employee what to do and, more or less, how to do it. Leadership skills were self-taught, usually by observing and adopting the styles of other, more senior, managers. Two world wars impressed on future managers the need to govern in a command-control style through the hierarchical structures utilized by the armed services. In addition, child labor laws did not exist in the U.S. until 1933, so it is easy to see why the manager's role may have been more as a parent/child, than adult to adult.It was also in the 1930's that Frederick Winslow Taylor's influence began to be felt. Because worker's were less educated, Taylor proposed dividing work into discrete tasks that could vbe performed by a single worker. The manager's role was to make sure that each worker knew his or her tasks and had enough supplies to do the work. At the same time, a Harvard psychologist named B.F. Skinner introduced the idea of incentives to entice workers to do more work faster. The idea, that behavior could be influenced by incentives now has been largely debunked. See Does Incentive Pay Change Behavior? Knowledge Work Drives the Manager's Role Currently, it is estimated that 100% of managers in most industries are knowledge workers, paid for what they know and how they think as opposed to how they complete a physical task; 70 to 80% of employees are also paid for their knowledge. In this environment where we have a highly educated workforce and tremendous access to information, managers need to be accountable for helping employees use their knowledge and develop their thinking skills as effectively as possible. Instead, the manager's role is still largely where it was fifty years ago. In their book, Accountability, authors Rob Lebow and Randy Spitzer describe the evolution of management practices as a three phase evolution. Three Generations of Management Style 1. Top-down, which controls people by limiting access to resources and information. It works as long as you have a steady supply of uneducated, compliant workers who are willing to be told what to do, and leaders who will make all the decisions. But workers today are more educated, it is easy to get information through the internet, and people’s expectations are higher than ever before. People today resent being managed in this manner. 2. Reward driven, a second generation approach to improving productivity started in the sixties. This approach tries to motivate people through external motivators like money, time off, or perks of some sort. While a lot of companies rely on incentives to motivate employees, research over the past three decades has consistently shown that incentive plans do not change long-term behavior and may demotivate in some instances. See Does Incentive Pay Change Behavior? 3. Situational accountability, a third generation, offers greater responsibility and control as long as the employee improves his or her performance. It remains, though, a subtle form of the "carrot and stick". Situational freedom attempts to change behavior and attitudes with conditional responsibility "If you improve, you can have responsibility" and is an attempt to manipulate people. But making all the decisions, offering incentives, or fixing people’s attitudes does not improve accountability. For accountability to happen, management practices have got to embrace the notion that less control is critical. Fewer controls and more decision-making in the hands of job holders will also result in greater levels of employee engagement, higher trust levels and reductions in some of the negatives like turnover and absenteeism. Do fewer controls mean a laissez faire approach? Of course not. Clear goals and measures, follow-up and an execution mentality are also important. The change is putting measurement and execution in their proper focus, as tools, and not as ways to punish people. The change is also putting more control in the hands of employees. People just simply do not become accountable if they have no responsibility for anything.
The Accountable Workplace System describes seven building blocks you can use now to manage employee accountability, build commitment, improve productivity, generate more revenue and grow your business "This is an excellent article/road map to getting accountability to be at the core of your business. I really enjoyed it and plan on implementing it immediately." Download "The Accountable Subscribe to Priority Manager
Not just another ezine, Priority Manager will provide ideas you can immediately put into action to get the most out of your human resources. SUBSCRIBE TODAY!!
What is the value of accountability? Does incentive pay motivate people? Can you make people be accountable?
|
The manager's role over the past 150 years has changed dramatically, driven by changes in the nature of work and an increasingly better educated workforce. In the late 1800's, though, America was still largely an agrarian society. The "trades" were conducted by a master craftsman-apprentice relationship and the manager's role was fairly simple; methods and tasks were prescribed by the master craftsman and carried out by the apprentice.
