Replying to LO24873
Jan:
Thanks for the reply.
You said:
> 3. It defies "classical" leadership styles and ideas like: the manager
> is fully in control, has "supervision" and is fully accountable for the
> results.
What I've heard in our company is more like "management is accountable for
setting the vision and strategy." It's then the job of the rest of us to
plan in small teams how we are going to execute our part of that strategy.
This seems to run contrary to the message of ownership that we all hear.
Ownership to me (in a strict interpretation of that term) means I
participate in the discussions of those things - vision and strategy, and
then once we've decided upon "our" vision and "our" strategy we proceed
to plan how we're going to get from here to there.
We've spent almost ten years trying creating a culture of employee
leadership in our company, but as much progress as we've made, we still
have a bunch of noise that keeps us from truly realizing that idea. In
addition to the above, there are things such as golden parachutes for
senior management, reserved parking, oppulent offices, a compensation
system with huge gaps between senior managers and the next tier, fat
bonuses, and other things.
The net effect of all this is that even though employees want to believe
the message and most *want* to participate at a higher level, they are
effectively precluded from it and quite disinclined to participate because
they realize little from it. And then they become more an more cynical as
time goes on...less engaged...and it takes more energy to get done what
must be done.
At some level I think there is some sincereity by senior management in
moving to a new reality, but they seem to be unwilling or unable to open a
discussion on certain things (mentioned above) which seems to create a
perception that this "ownership" is just the flavor of the day with
employees probably thinking...this too shall pass.
What it comes down to is this (as I said in my previous post)...."you tell
me I'm an owner...you tell me our future success depends on me wholly
engaging in our business...you tell me to invest my intellectual capital
in this company. Then you tell me I'm not going to participate in setting
the vision, strategy...I can tell the rewards are disproportionate...I'm
told of a reorganization without being first at least asked if I thought
it made sense, or engaging me in a discussion of how one might be
avoided."
I find it hard to see how anyone couldn't become cynical. And, yet, I read
in the business press about this kind of thing happening again and again.
For what's it's worth, I really *do* think the process you've outlined has
merit. Perhaps there will be a day when we'll have the courage to embrace
"employee ownership" in its purest sense. Then we'll really see some
things happening.
Jim Ross
--"Century -New" <jross@centurytel.net>
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