Debbie Broome wrote:
> You know, from experience, I also think the middle level of management has
> a great deal of impact as well. I think they are also the most threatened
> by downsizings and change. Middle Management positions tend to be the
> ones we eliminate, through such te rms as leaderless groups, self-directed
> work teams, rotating project managers, etc. From actual experience, I
> think middle management has the most fear because they have the most to
> lose. In a hierarchical organization, they also have the most impact on
> lower level employees.
I agree wholeheartedly--and one reason there's so much resistance is
because the underlying reason many organizations "seem" to have in common
for these actions is to "cut wages by cutting out mid-managers and put
more work on line staff without increasing their wages." (quotes because
I've heard something like this so many times). It's very difficult to
refute the contention that these changes hurt mid-managers and line staff,
and "line the pockets of the senior executives and stockholders." All
explanations of change seem like rationalizations in this context. For LO
organizations to be taken seriously, there has to be a substantial reason
for change (that doesn't just mean wealth ending up in a select number of
bank accounts).
Doc
-- Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Thresholds--Human Development and Networking for Learning Organizations http://www.thresholds.com mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com"Always listen to the experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
-Robert Heinlein
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>