Managemnet 1.0 vs Management 2.0

Management 1.0 COMMAND AND CONTROL
Management 2.0 COORDINATE AND CULTIVATE


People often wonder why management of most of the organizations is so command and control oriented. They start with mission and vision statements those are basically disguised commands for the non-managerial staff who have no say in formulating those statements or have a tioken representation to appear as a democratic organization.

The Management 1.0 is primarily based upon two major tools "Command and Control". It originated while managers were confronted with problem of converting independent farmers into productive industrial labor. The work on the farm was not strictly regulated by the clock while everything on a industrial production was made run on a clock to synchronize all the production activities. The "Command and Control" model of organizing was borrowed from the older organizing principle of organizing armies to fight wars.

The scheme worked for Industrial production where machines did the work and human labor was doing semi intelligent work that could not be automated. The practice once established also became the standard fare of teaching management. Here are the table of content from two Introductory textbooks for Management.

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Both text book have a complete section devoted to CONTROL and the rest is about how develop the COMMAND process. What it shows is that the practice of command and control is very deeply entrenched within the management practices starting from teaching the introduction to management. The approach has value in the past when production was shifting from manual intensive agricultural production to machine supported industrial production. However, with the growth of service based organizations in which the individual worker relies on his or her skills to provide a service this type of approach does not work as effectively as it used to work in the past.

Dr. Zuboff a former professor of management at Harvard wrote an entire book outlining the problems of using older management techniques to service organizations



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Also from Psychological research it is established that self motivated workers are more productive then the workers who are coerced into working using fear.

We Perform Best When No One Tells Us What To Do

"There is a disconnect between what science knows and what business does."

He goes on to say,

"Traditional notions of management work great if you want compliance, but if you want engagement, self-direction works best."

So does this mean we should cut back on bonuses and perks for good performance? Well, maybe. In tasks that involve focused, clear objectives and goals, incentives do work. However, in tasks that involve creativity, innovation, and generating original ideas, offering incentives actually distracts from the mind's ability to freely think outside of the box and be open to creative insights.

via scientificblogging.com

Another perspective on how best to evolve the management practices is provided in the book "Future of Work" by Thoams Malone from MIT that suggests Management by using "Coordinate and Cultivate"



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Are we going to see more movement towards less "Command and Control" and more "Coordinate and Cultivate" or the things will move towards more "Command and Control" till the current organizational structure that started at the beginning of Industrial era falls apart and we start over again. Here is a small poll and let us see what readers think.