There are companies where it is a fraud. However there are others that
allow the monkeys to run the zoo. And some places do it very well.
Whether or not management is participate managers can not avoid their
responsibility for results of the organization. There is no avoiding
accountability at the top. responsibility can not be moved. Below the top
people can shuffle around and avoid it but still it must be somewhere.
Some managers are fearful of allowing decisions to be made out of their
direct control others are afraid to make them. if either of these dominate
the organization then there can be nor participation for participative
management is not made for the timid manager. Only those with confidence
in the people can live sharing the necessary information to make
decisions..
In my experience the best organizations have high levels of structure and
high levels of confidence in people. structure so the workers know how to
make change and confidence people so all are heard. In addition we need to
have systems in place that force mangers unwilling to listen to listen to
the processes and the people running them. to assure that personalty does
not become the dominate factor driving the culture.
Gene
At 04:29 PM 3/24/98 -0600, you wrote:
>in a recent class discussion on leadership in organizations an interesting
>theory came up: There really is not any such thing as participative
>management in organizations because for every manager that lets his group
>provide feedback there is a front line supervisor that is "hardnosed" and
>barks the orders of the managers without active feedback from the group.
>In other words participative management is something that is simply an
>attempt to keep employees happy. What do you think?
>
>Chris Mathison
>cmathis@misnet.com
Eugene Taurman
interLinx ilx@execpc.com http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
What you are is determined by the thoughts that dominate your mind.
Paraphrase of Proverbs 23 Ch7
--Eugene Taurman <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>