The Role of the Machine Metaphor in Mixed-initiative Organizational Leadership
"Can This Marriage be Saved?" So reads the title of the cover story in the August 15, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek (www.businessweek.com). The article describes the seven-year (1998-2005) story of the merger of Daimler and Chrysler Corporation. As of this writing, the board of the merged companies decided to terminate the reign of the current chairman, Jürgen Schrempp. At the end of this year he will be replaced with Dieter Zetsche, the current head of the company's operations in North America. The article identifies the following five critical challenges facing the new chairman:
1. Improving product quality and worker morale.
2. Securing union support to gain flexible labor agreements.
3. Impressing on company executives to promote flexible and productive operations in North America.
4. Developing and executing a more coherent partnership strategy in Asia.
5. Addressing investor pressure to break up the merger.
The five challenges listed above clearly show that more people related problems (i.e., social issues) will need to be addressed than technology issues. The new chairman must embrace a mixed-initiative leadership style with a proportionate focus on both the technical and social aspects of the organization for the company to survive. This leadership style demands some proficiency in the science of complexity (i.e., the principles of managing the organization as a complex adaptive system) and the machine metaphor (i.e., the routine aspects of modern organizational life-job descriptions, corporate policies, strategic and operational plans, etc.)*. Organizational leaders cannot afford to place disproportionate focus on the machine metaphor in a complex organization.
The Machine Metaphor
The machine metaphor takes an objective view of an organization in which the interactions among the elements are predictable and controllable. Given that premise, organizational leaders take a mechanistic view of organizational management. The mechanistic view considers the organization as a combination of manageable components with organizational charts, job descriptions, policies, operational plans, people, etc. The machine metaphor is based on an organizational management belief that effective management can be realized by managing all organizational components.
The Flawed "People Management" Mindset
In some instances, this metaphor is incorrectly applied to people management. In her advice column for the Twentysomethings in the July 17, 2005 issue of the Washington Post, Career Track section, Mary Ellen Slayter wrote about why young professionals resist the offer to move to management. "I am not good at managing people" is the reason provided by a 49-year old lady for resisting the offer. In defending the new Department of Homeland Security's merit pay system, Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget asserts "The Federal government as a rule is pretty bad about managing people" (Washington Post, National News, July 19, 2005).
This mindset of people management is entrenched in our social and organizational systems. It is very important for organizational leaders to know that machine control techniques apply to things, not people. Except for the military, we manage things. We lead people. The role of a manager is to provide a rich and rewarding environment to enable workers to do their work. A human being is an agent in an organizational context. This agent's behavior is unpredictable. The agent must interact with other human agents, within a team, whose behavior is also unpredictable. The team must interact with other teams in a department. Next, we have inter-departmental interactions, which can lead to inter-divisional interactions, and so on. The result of the interactions is a complex organization, which must adapt to its environment to survive, because the organization is a living system. As articulated by Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja in their book: Surfing the Edge of Chaos, (Random House, 2000), as a living system, the organization must abide by "the laws of nature and the new laws of business".
Whether managing a corner store or a global conglomerate, the manager/leader must always remember that an organization is a socio-technical system and the machine metaphor should be applied only to the technical or machinistic elements. To ensure the survival of the corporation, the leaders need to identify and understand those elements of the organizations that exhibit unpredictable behaviors, and those elements whose behaviors are predictable. They need to master and apply the management science of complex adaptive systems to the former and machine metaphor to the latter. These two approaches constitute the essence of a mixed-initiative perspective.
*(Plsek, PEP&A, Inc; Lindberg, VHA, Inc; Zimmerman, York University; 1997-Some emerging principles for managing in complex adaptive systems).
Dr. Odubiyi is the author of Blueprint for a Crooked House-a book that reflects on the factors that caused the collapse of a $10 billion global joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom. He is an associate professor of computer science at Bowie State University in Maryland. He was a Principal AI Researcher and R&D Manager at British Telecom North America/Concert Global Communications (USA).
http://www.blueprintforacrookedhouse.com
 Google News Updated : Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:13:38 GMT Hillary Clinton's Staff Looking to Avoid Embarrassing Anti-Obama ... - FOXNews
FOXNews - Hillary Clinton's staff is trying to avoid an embarrassing anti-Obama demonstration by her supporters during the floor vote at next week's Democratic convention in Denver. Clinton Will Attend Fund-Raiser for Towns Clinton for VP? She Says Ask the Obama Campaign Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:15:16 GMT IAC Officially Breaks Up - Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal - By DAVID BENOIT and KATHY SHWIFF IAC is left as a collection of more than 35 Internet companies -- including search engine Ask.com, dating site Match. IAC: And Then There Were Five Diller's IAC Split May Fail to Boost Investor Returns (Update2) Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:17:40 GMT Marlins let one slip away in San Francisco - Sports Network
Sports Network - San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Marlins reliever Kevin Gregg's wild pitch in bottom of the ninth inning scored Emmanuel Burriss to send San Francisco past Florida, 4-3, in the finale of a three-game series. Giants walk off on Gregg's wild pitch Giants beat Marlins on wild pitch in 9th inning Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:33:45 GMT GM to Invest $500 Million To Build Chevy Cruze - Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal - By KATHY SHWIFF General Motors Corp. will spend more than $500 million in the US to build the Chevrolet Cruze, a next-generation compact car. GM announces $500M investment for small car GM to invest $500 million in small car plant Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:10:12 GMT Microsoft's Photosynth wilts under pressure - Computerworld
Computerworld - By Gregg Keizer August 21, 2008 (Computerworld) Within hours of its launch, Microsoft Corp.'s new photo-stitching service went dark, overwhelmed by demand, the company said Thursday afternoon. New Microsoft photo site spends first day offline New Microsoft Tech Converts Photo Soup Into 3-D Image Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:28:59 GMT My Super Sweet 16: The Miley Cyrus Edition - E! Online
E! Online - Miley Cyrus is about to show up all those spoiled brats on My Super Sweet 16 who think they're cool being flown to their party by helicopter or when they're carried in like a princess by a group of hot dudes. Miley Cyrus to Celebrate Turning 16 at Disneyland Miley Cyrus Sweet 16 Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:21:48 GMT UPDATE 1-Microsoft enlists Seinfeld for ad campaign--source - Reuters Reuters - By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will star in a $300 million marketing campaign for Microsoft Corp aimed at burnishing the image of its computer operating system, a person familiar with the effort said on Thursday ... Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates to star in anti-Apple ads Seinfeld to be pitchman for Microsoft Publ.Date : Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:27:28 GMT Easy Work At Home Opportunity |
PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts,
Websites, and more... If you have a task greater than you can handle... Read More Why do some new managers succeed while others fail? It... Read More Meetings can be a total waste of time or a... Read More Become a better boss and reap the benefitsAnother interesting study... Read More Globalization is requiring companies to make important choices about how... Read More Recruiting and hiring are often done in haste, leaving the... Read More We all attend many meetings. I'm sure you have been... Read More What's the use?Nothing you do will hold down the cost... Read More "Where did it go? It was here yesterday. Wait. Here... Read More There are some simple things you can do with your... Read More Step 1Get the proper level of Six Sigma expertise at... Read More In our experience, we have found that there are several... Read More For Call Center managers, it is not a pipe dream... Read More If your organization has people, then interpersonal skills are needed.I... Read More Outsourcing is when you hire outside professionals or services to... Read More Many organisations use the term "lessons learned" to describe the... Read More Remember the 80:20 rule? You may not get everything perfectly... Read More IntroductionThere are a group of people in the community that... Read More Hiring employees is a huge responsibility. Before hiring anyone, be... Read More A man drives down the highway each day on his... Read More One of the things that most impacts people's productivity is... Read More The need for constant reinvention is a given in today's... Read More All of us have knowledge, expertise, and experience that others... Read More How can you get more attention for your conference and... Read More Doing business and meeting the needs of workers is increasingly... Read More
Adsense
websites
Delegation - The Basic Steps To Reducing Your Workload And Creating A Successful Team
Employee Orientation: The 90 Day Difference
To Meet or Not to Meet - What are the Questions?
Give Yourself a Boss? Day Gift
Choices in Appointing International Managers
Five Essential Hiring Practices
The Golden Key to Meeting Success
Medical Malpractice: Three Myths That Cost Your Hospital Millions
Overcoming the Document Tracking Challenge
Building Trust in Your Business Relationships - 10 Steps
The 6 Steps to Six Sigma
Experiences of Management Coaching (Part 2)
The Power of ?Ask?
Get It Done! Soft Skills not Hard Tools are Required
How To Use Outsourcing To Beat Your Competition
Knowledge Management - Lessons Learned and How To Identify Them
Top Ten Tips for Outstanding Customer Service
The Silent Assassin - What to Do When They Visit You?
Five Steps to Better Employee Management
Too Much Time Treating Symptoms
Telephone Techniques: Boost Your Productivity With Effective Phoning
7 Strategies for Sustained Innovation
Unveiling the Value of Your Expertise
Get More Impact From Your Annual Conference
Top 10 Things Every Business Should Provide for Every Worker - Including the Boss!
Affordable and Reliable Web Hosting Starting at $4.49/Month
How to Overcome Your Fear of Firing
OVERCOMING FEAR OF FIRING "It was obvious that this employee... Read More
Money, Motivation, Success and Who?
It was 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and I was... Read More
Does Your State Like To Keep Your Workers Compensation Secrets Hidden?
Workers compensation secrets are hidden deep within piles and piles... Read More
Multiple Channels, Multiple Times
I've just been reading about the frustrations of a Human... Read More
Why Business Owners Need Security
The main reason is to stop any potential lawsuits from... Read More
Temporary Employees and Operational Problems; Your Use of Temps Might Reveal Warning Signs
A recent Washington Post article, described the life of temporary... Read More
What is the Most Difficult Part of an Improvement Program?
Answer: Starting one.Most of us realize that there is probably... Read More
Five Steps to Successful Business Succession
The great majority of family businesses in North America are... Read More
Innovation Management ? forced into it!
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More
Turnover is Not a Problem
"Ha!" you say. "For someone to make a statement like... Read More
Prioritise Your Day - Keep Focus - Win!
Whether you run your own business or manage a team,... Read More
Dont Let Your Measurements Mislead You
Don't Let Your Measurements Mislead You ... Read More
First Things First -- Process BEFORE Technology
Here's a brief story I encountered while leaving Newark International... Read More
Technology & Communication
A study a couple of years ago found that 63%... Read More
Million Dollar Support System For You and For Your Business
Whether you are a consultant, coach, business owner, doctor, professional,... Read More
Creativity and Innovation Management ? Feasibility
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More
Business Innovation ? Ignoring Content
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More
Know the Source of Business
One of the first questions we ask a prospect or... Read More
Four Ways To Make the Case For Outsourcing
How do you convert outsourcing leads into clients? You may... Read More
Too Much Time Treating Symptoms
A man drives down the highway each day on his... Read More
How Bad Communication Can Hold You Back and How to Break Free of It
The reason jobs are often not done right and employees... Read More
Rethinking Workplace Security: How the Rules Have Changed
The workplace has traditionally been a dangerous place. Very early... Read More
Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Workplace Ethics: Reaching the Highest Standard
This article relates to the Ethics in the Workplace competency,... Read More
Goodwill is an Intangible Asset
'Goodwill' is regarded as an intangible asset in a business.... Read More
Why We Judge
Judgment is the process of forming an opinion of something... Read More
Business Management |