The laws of thought and philosophy in management

Human experience shows that people, not organisations or management systems, get things done. For this reason, subordinates must be given authority and responsibility early in their careers. In this way they develop quickly and can help managers do their work. The manager, of course, remains ultimately responsible and must accept the blame if subordinates make mistakes.

As subordinates develop, work should be constantly added so that no job expires. This serves as a prod and a challenge. It brings out capabilities and frees the manager to assume added responsibilities. As members of the organisation become capable of assuming new and more difficult duties, they develop pride in doing the job well. This attitude soon permeates the entire organisation.

One must permit personnel the freedom to seek added work and greater responsibility.

Complex jobs cannot be accomplished effectively with transients. Managers must make the work challenging and rewarding so that their employees will remain loyal to the organisation for many years. This allows it to benefit fully from their knowledge, experience and corporate memory.

When doing a job - any job - one must feel that one owns it, and act as though he will remain in the job for ever. One must look after it just as conscientiously as though it were one's own business and one's own funds. If one feels like only a temporary custodian, or that the job is just a stepping stone to a higher position, actions will not take into account the long-term interests of the organisation. Lack of commitment to the present job will be perceived by others, and they, likewise, will tend not to care.

In accepting responsibility for a job, a person must get directly involved. Every manager has a personal responsibility not only to identify problems but to correct them. This responsibility comes before all other obligations, before personal ambition or comfort.

Managers must instil personal responsibility for seeing a job properly accomplished. Unfortunately, this seems to be in decline, particularly in large organisations where responsibility is broadly distributed.

To complaints of a job poorly done, one often hears the excuse: "I am not responsible." That is literally correct. The person who takes such a stand is not responsible - he is irresponsible. While that person may not be legally liable, or the work may not have been specifically assigned to him or her, no one involved in a job can divest themselves of responsibility for its successful completion.

Unless the individual truly responsible can be identified when something goes wrong, no one is really responsible. With the advent of modern management theories it is becoming common for organisations to deal with problems collectively, by dividing programmes into sub-programmes, with no one responsible for the entire effort.

A good manager must have unstinting determination and tenacity. Deciding what needs to be done is easy; getting it done is more difficult. Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.

Once implemented, they can easily be overturned or subverted through apathy or lack of follow-up, so a continuous effort is required. Too often, important problems are recognised, but no one is willing to sustain the effort needed to solve them.

The person in charge must have an eye for detail. If that person does not consider them important, neither will subordinates. Yet "the devil is in the detail". It is hard and monotonous to pay attention to seemingly minor matters.

In my work, I probably spend about 99 per cent of my time on 'petty' details. Most managers would rather focus on lofty policy matters. But when the details are ignored, the project fails. No infusion of policy or lofty ideals can then correct the situation.

To maintain proper control one must have simple and direct means to find out what is going on. There are many ways to do this; all involve constant drudgery.

For this reason, those in charge often create management information systems designed to extract from the operation the details a busy executive needs to know. Often the process is carried too far. The top official then loses touch with employees and with the work that is actually going on.

Attention to detail does not require a manager to do everything. No one can work over 24 hours each day. Therefore to multiply mangers' efforts, they must create an environment where subordinates can work to maximum ability. Some management experts advocate strict limits to the number of people reporting to a common superior - generally five to seven.

To do a job effectively, one must set priorities. Too many people let their 'in' tray set the priorities. On any given day, unimportant but interesting trivia go through an office; one must not permit these to monopolise time.

The human tendency is to while away time with unimportant matters that do not require mental effort or energy. Since they can easily be resolved, they give a false sense of accomplishment. Managers must exert self-discipline to ensure that their energy is focused on where it is truly needed.

All work should be checked through an independent, impartial review. In engineering and manufacturing, industry spends large sums on quality control. But the concept of impartial reviews and oversight is important in other areas also. Even the most dedicated individual makes mistakes - and many workers are far from dedicated.

Managers must create the ability in their staff to generate clear, forceful arguments for opposing viewpoints as well as for their own. Open discussions and disagreements must be encouraged, so that all sides of an issue are fully explored.

Further, important issues should be presented in writing. Nothing sharpens the thought process like writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.

When important decisions are not documented, one becomes dependent on individual memory, which is quickly lost as people leave or move to other jobs. It is a human inclination to hope things will work out, despite evidence or doubt to the contrary. A successful manager must resist this temptation. This is particularly hard if one has invested much time and energy on a project; therefore that person has come to feel possessive about it.

Although it is not easy to admit what a person once thought correct now appears to be wrong, one must discipline oneself to face the facts objectively and make the necessary changes - regardless of the consequences to oneself. The person in charge must personally set the example in this respect, and must be able, in effect, to 'kill his or her own child' if necessary and require subordinates to do likewise.

No management system can substitute hard work. Managers who do not work hard or devote extra effort cannot expect their people to do so. They must set the example.

These ideas are not new - previous generations recognised the value of hard work, attention to detail, personal responsibility and determination. And these, rather than the highly touted modern management techniques, are still the most important in a job. Together they embody a common sense approach to management, one that cannot be taught by professors of management in a classroom.

I am not against business education. A knowledge of accounting, finance, business law, and the like are of value in a business environment. What I do believe harmful is the impression often created by those who teach management that one will be able to manage any job by applying certain management techniques with simple academic rules of how to manage people and situations.

Emanuel Farrugia, MIM, M.Inst.CM (Dip.) UK, Dip.Mgt, Dip.Trib. Eccl.Melit., is a full member of the Institute of Professional Managers of the UK.