SIMPLE, SENSIBLE MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 SIMPLE, SENSIBLE MANAGEMENT The Principles and Practice of Managing People Robert H. Kent, Ph.D.

2 Simple, Sensible Management Kent, Robert H. Simple, Sensible Management: The Principles and Practice of Managing People ISBN by Robert H. Kent Mansis and The Mansis System are the registered trademarks of The Mansis Development Corporation. Pragma Press 18 Chatsworth Place Winnipeg, Canada R2J 3K9

3 APPENDIX 2 Role Clarification An exploration of the concept of a role and its central importance in Performance Management

4 Simple, Sensible Management page 284 Role Clarification CONCEPT If we create an organization because a group of (organized) individuals can achieve more than one person alone, it would seem logical that every member of the organization needs to know what part he or she plays their roles; so that everyone knows where they fit in and that all individual activity takes the organization in the desired direction. But failure to identify or clarify roles is the cause of most day-to-day performance problems which drain away your time, energy and money 58. Therefore, a critical first step in the formation of any organization, large or small, permanent or temporary must be to clarify the roles of all organization members. This will prevent many problems, improve morale and increase the likelihood of the organization s success. More than just a job description, a role has four parts, discussed in detail later in this chapter, namely: the expectations, values, relationships and activities which are associated with a position. Too often these parts are taken for granted and overlooked, but each one is critical to define how any one member fits in to the organization. Roles change. They are not static and the people playing them influence their details. And so you need a process for continually re-defining members roles, for communicating what roles everyone is to play and for ensuring compliance. Similarly, you need to document the details of everyone s role to guarantee clarity and thoroughness, to aid in the orientation of your new members and to know exactly what has changed when roles inevitably do change. The Role of Management Roles must be clear for all members of an organization, but for example, let s look at the role of management. To be a successful manager, supervisor, executive director, general manager, president or leader of the team you have to play the appropriate role. As the manager you must play a different role from others in your organization who work in a non-management capacity; and a different role than you play in your nonwork involvements such as family and recreation. New managers and supervisors often fail because they don't acknowledge that "management" requires its own role. 58 Kent, Robert H. 25 Steps to maximize productivity Winnipeg, Canada: Pragma Press Inc., 1994.

5 Simple, Sensible Management page 285 Common Mistake By New Managers and Supervisors Did you ever work with a senior manager who pretended he was one of the gang, drank with the guys, and mixed in at all the office activities. He wanted to be your friend but then used that friendship to burden you with heavy work loads. Or else he let old-you-know-who get away with sloppy work and haphazard attendance because they were such close buddies. If those examples remind you of former supervisors or maybe even yourself, you're not alone. This is a "role" problem and it's one of the most common for new managers. As a supervisor of other people, you play a role, assume values, interact with others and have mutual expectations with other people in the organization. This is not because who you are, the person, but because the job of supervisor demands it. The role you play as a supervisor is demanded by the position and not simply because of the person in that position. Role Components A Role is the set of: Expectations, Values, Relationships and Activities that are associated with a position. I Expectations In the position that you're in, what are the things that other people expect of you not because of the person you are but because of the position you're in? What is your own supervisor expecting of you? What are your peers and what are your subordinates expecting of you? How about your clients, customers or those you serve? What do others expect of you because you're the manager, or because you're the president? And what can you rightly expect from those people? II Values. What values should you have in order to carry out the requirements of your role? What should you be placing value or priority on? That's going to have a direct effect on the decisions that you make. III Relationships. Who should you have working relationships with and what sort of relationships should they be? IV Activities. What do you actually do in your job? A job description or some job training sometimes answers this.

6 Simple, Sensible Management page 286 I Expectations All too often, the expectations placed upon a manager or supervisor by peers, subordinates, clients, customers and the boss are never verbalized, but are left unaddressed, unspoken and assumed. But these expectations are of primary importance for fully understanding the role requirements of a position. The first and most important part of a role is the expectations. Whenever you go into a new position it is embedded in a network of expectations. Because of the position you're in, there are going to be many other people who are going to be expecting things from you your own supervisor (unless you are the boss), your subordinates, people that you work with, your clients or customers and even the people who supply you with materials. You'll be expecting things from those people as well. Problems arise when these expectations are never spoken, they're just assumed. Other people expect things from you but they never come right out and tell you. They'll assume that you know. And likewise, you'll expect things from your supervisor and from the people who work with you. But you never tell them. You just assume that they know your expectations. A common research finding is that if you put the supervisor and an employee together, there is seldom total agreement on exactly what the employee's job is. The supervisor is often expecting things from the employee that the employee isn't even aware of. The employee is upset because the supervisor isn't giving the employee what he or she is expecting. But the supervisor doesn't know! Clients And Suppliers As Well Most jobs are usually part of a production process (see Fig. A2.1) and your role should reflect this. In particular, what are the mutual expectations between you and your suppliers and clients? To do your job you need materials, information, data, supplies or other resources. You get these from your suppliers who may be internal to your organization such as another department or another person in the office; or external such as another company. The results of your performance (your output) eventually is sent to your clients or to your customers. Clients may be external to your organization (such as traditional customers) or they may be internal and be the person working next to you, or in the adjoining office.

7 Simple, Sensible Management page 287 input from your supplier(s) your performance output to your client(s), customer(s) Figure A2.1 Ten Types of Organizational Expectations (1) What are the expectations that you have of your own supervisor? What do you expect to get from him or her? There are no absolute rights or wrongs; it's what you expect, although, there may be some expectations that are more realistic than others. Typical expectations supervisors or managers have of their own supervisor would be: support from their supervisor; they expect their supervisor to give them some of the supervisor's time; they want feedback from their supervisor, to know whether they're doing good work or poor work. They expect some training and development. They expect that their supervisor will back them up when they make a decision. There can be many different things that you would expect from your supervisor not because of the person you are but because of the position that you're in. (2) What are the things that you expect from your employees? Do you expect support from your employees. You expect them to be loyal, to do as they're told, to do good work, to be at work on time, not to keep you in the dark if things are going wrong, to let you know so you can help them solve problems? Unfortunately, many of these expectations are only identified as one or two word statements. Words like "support", "loyalty", "good work". But what do those words really mean? They may mean something to you, but to another person they may have a totally different meaning. You might get upset because you're not getting loyalty from your subordinates but they may not be aware of what you really mean by "loyalty".

8 Simple, Sensible Management page 288 (3) What do you expect of your peers; people doing jobs similar to yours or with the same status in the organization; or maybe it's other executives in your industry? Is it co-operation? Some constructive competition between yourselves? Maybe you want your peers to let you know of any problems they hear in your department or in your business. (4) What do you expect of your suppliers? By suppliers is meant other employees in your business and individuals from other organizations who supply you with material or information. Expectations that you may have of these people might include: asking you if they don't understand a request; recognizing that you have time constraints in your job that need to be met; and expectations concerning the timeliness, accuracy and correctness of information or materials that they send to you. (5) What do you expect of your clients, or individuals that you serve or provide a service for, or individuals to whom you pass material or information? Expectations might include giving you recognition for your good work, telling you specifically what they want from you, being responsible with their demands on your time and services, and recognizing that you have problems from time to time getting your job done because of slow suppliers sending you information or materials. (6) What does your supervisor, if you have one, expect from you? Are you really sure? (7) What do your employees expect from you because you're the supervisor, you're the owner, or you're the boss. Many times they're frustrated because they aren't getting what they presume you know they expect from you. (8) What do your peers expect of you? Are you aware? Do your peers share the same sort of expectations that you have? (9) What do your suppliers expect from you? Is it prompt payment, recognition, appreciation, being clear about what you want from them, being ready to receive what was sent? An internal supplier might be an employee who sends you material or data to become part of a report that you prepare. An external supplier might be a store, or another company that sends goods and materials for you to assemble. (10) What do your clients expect of you? Are they expecting a certain level of quality in your service or goods? Are they expecting you to meet their needs and satisfy their dependencies? Are they expecting you to consistently be dependable with your service or be timely and accurate in your product delivery? Many of these expectations are related to your authority. When your employees expect you to be doing things, they may presume that you have authority that you don't. And your own supervisor may be expecting things from you on the assumption

9 Simple, Sensible Management page 289 that you have authority that you presume you don't have. Getting your authority clear is an important part of clarifying your role expectations. Summary There can be many times when you think you're doing a job right. You're performing the activities you thought you were supposed to yet you're told that you're still having problems. Could it be you're having those difficulties because, in someone's eyes, you're not playing the appropriate role? Perhaps mutual expectations are unrealistic, or your values, priorities or relationships are inappropriate, even though you're doing the right activities in the job. All too often, these expectations are left unaddressed, never verbalized, never made explicit. They are just assumed by the different parties. But if you are to get a clear understanding of what your role is, a major activity that has to be undertaken is to become aware of and clarify the expectations others place upon you, and to make sure others are aware of the expectations you place upon them. II Values The role requirements of a position also include "values." Your values will have a direct effect on how you make decisions and they will also influence your expectations. The "values" demanded by your management position may or may not have been those held by you before you assumed that role. However, once in the position, the required values must be evident in your behavior. The second component of a role is the "values" that you should have. What should you be placing value on? What are your priorities? They are going to have a direct effect on the decisions that you make. Problems arise when you move from one position to another and the values that you needed to carry out the duties of the former position aren't the same as the values required for the new position. For example, when you move from non-management into management you have to take on values related to management, rather than to non-management. Or moving from a unionized position to a non-unionized position, or from a technical specialist into a generalist position, or moving from a very narrow focus to a very broad focus. Often when you make these position moves there need to be some changes made to your values and priorities. Problems arise when you move into the new position, retain the values of the old position and, as a result, do not demonstrate the required values of the new position.

10 Simple, Sensible Management page 290 Values May Need To Change For example, a nurse in a hospital probably places a lot of value on his or her nursing excellence, on giving one-on-one patient care, and getting personal satisfaction from dealing directly with patients. Assume the nurse is so good that she gets promoted to become the department head. But the values of this new position may now have to be "departmental effectiveness," "working within the budget" and "getting the job done through others." But what happens when the values of the person in the new job are still the values or priorities related to the former position? Whenever a difficulty arises on the job, the new department head gets out on the ward and starts giving one-on-one patient care. Her staff now become demoralized because she interferes with their work. She's frustrated because, constrained by a budget, she can't give the best possible nursing care. Instead, she should be placing value on giving the best patient care within the budget and through her staff. It's not that her old values are wrong, they're just less appropriate to the new position. Whenever you step into a new position you ought to give some thought to what your values should be. What should you be placing value on to carry out the demands of the new role? Values that are associated with management typically include: Concern for High Productivity Achieving Business Goals Good Work Environment Profit or Efficiency Good Employee Morale Before you got into management you didn't need to have these values to carry out your non-management role. Maybe you didn't even have to know what the organization's goals were, although the trend today is for all members to know them. But once you're in management you have to be aware of the organization's goals because now you're more accountable for achieving them. In a non-management position you didn't have to be as concerned about productivity or for placing value on a good working environment. Non-management employees appreciate a good work environment but they often don't have authority to change it. But once you're into a management position, you do have authority to influence the work environment, especially the social environment. A critical value is profit or efficiency if yours is a not-for-profit organization. Before you entered management you didn't have to be as concerned or even aware of profit how much is left over after the bills are paid. But once you're into management, that's a demand of the role. Therefore, high priority needs to be placed on profit or efficiency.

11 Simple, Sensible Management page 291 As a supervisor, you have a direct influence on the morale of your employees. If you don t have employee morale as a value or priority, then your interactions with subordinates probably may not result in good employee morale or successful performance. There may be many other values, of course, but for your role to be clear, you have to be aware of the values or priorities that are necessary for successful performance of the position. What should your values be, especially as the leader? III Relationships The third part of a role is the relationships you have with the people you work with. To clarify this part of a role you need to ask, "Who should you have working relationships with, and what sort of working relationships should they be?" There are many different types of working relationships on the job. Typical relationships are Boss/Subordinate, Supplier/ Client and Peer relationships. Peer relationships are usually close, familiar and mutually supportive. Your peers are the "gang," your chums with whom you socialize. Boss/subordinate relationships are more distant. A supervisor needs to be close enough to a subordinate to supervise and understand the individual's behavior, yet socially distant enough to preserve objectivity and impartiality. Difficulties arise when a new manager must create a boss/subordinate relationship with a former workmate with whom the new manager had a peer relationship. Supplier/Client relationships can be the most distant, with a degree of informal dependency between the two; without one being subordinate to the other or having authority over the other. Cooperation and the fostering of a win/win climate leads to stability and success in this relationship. Make sure that you develop the appropriate relationships with the right people. It may require that you change some of your former relationships when you go into a new position. Relationships May Need To Change In many organizations when you're promoted, you become the supervisor of your current peers. Essentially on Friday you're told, "Come in Monday and you'll be the department head." The significant change is that as of Monday, you, as the new supervisor, have to develop boss-subordinate relationships with the same individuals that on Friday you had peer relationships with. The position has changed, the role has

12 Simple, Sensible Management page 292 changed, and the relationships demanded of the new role have also changed. Now you have to become the supervisor and play a boss-subordinate role with the old gang, with the old peers. But often the "old gang" won't let you play the role of the supervisor. They'll use social pressure to pull you back down, to keep you one of the gang. They'll say things like, "Boy, power went to your head." "Are you ever a snob since you became supervisor." "We don't see you anymore. "How come you're not as friendly with us as you used to be?" And they try to use these informal pressures to maintain the former peer relationship. Some new supervisor and owners try to remain one of the gang. Perhaps they believe that they ought to be close to their employees to really get to know them, in order to manage them properly. But that's false. You have to be close enough to your employees to understand their behavior but you can't be so close that your impartiality is suspect. One of the common expectations employees have of a supervisor is fairness and impartiality. But if you have five or six people working for you, it s almost impossible to be equally close to them all. You're going to like some more than the others. And other people are going to see you playing favorites, whether you are or not. This is perhaps the key to the whole thing. It isn't whether you believe you're objective; it isn't whether you believe you're impartial. The key is what your employees see; their perception of the situation. If you have one or two of your employees who are your best friends, many others presume that you're playing favorites. It isn't whether you believe you're objective or impartial. The key is your employees' perception of the situation. Many supervisors and owners say, "Well it doesn't matter. I can be friends with the guys off the job but when I come to work I change "hats" and I become the objective supervisor." Of course, that's nice, but it doesn't count. What counts is how you are perceived. Need For Social Distance As a supervisor of others you need to develop and maintain some social distance between yourself and your subordinates. But it's a very fine line between being too familiar, or too close, and being too much of a snob, or being too far away from your employees. It's hard to gauge the right amount of familiarity. Perhaps this is one of the prices to be paid when you move up into management. You may have to become less

13 Simple, Sensible Management page 293 close, less familiar with your old friends. On the first day of the job, you might consider sitting down with your new department and saying, "Look fellows, it's the same me but I'm in a new job now. I'm the department head and I have a new role to play. I want you to help me play my new role. I can't be as close with you as I was. I can't go out socializing with you as much as I did because, as you know, part of my job is to judge your performance. And so I must remain objective. Help me carry out my job." To change relationships is a very difficult thing to do. But if you don't, you're only going to get yourself in trouble. You may have to dismiss one of those individuals. You may have to discipline one of them, and if he or she is your best friend, or if the individual is a relative, the situation is harder to handle. You're probably going to delay making that difficult decision until it's too late. If you procrastinate others will think you're playing favorites. You don't mean to, but that's how it will be perceived. At times there will be pressure on you to become close friends with your employees because you work with them from day to day, you share common experiences with them, and without them, the job is lonely. Your new peers other supervisors aren't with you as often. The higher you go in the organization, literally, the lonelier it gets. Consider social gatherings in a company. A common characteristic of effective executives and owners is that they are often the first people to leave the office party. Whether they know of a better party somewhere else is hard to tell! But they do know that they are jeopardizing the appropriate relationships with their employees if they stay late with everyone else having a great time and "letting down their guard." Sometimes new supervisors seem to resent the idea that they can't be close and intimate with their subordinates. But we're not saying that as supervisors you're any better than your subordinates; or that your own supervisors are any better than you, as people; or that you shouldn't be friendly with your employees. But, to carry out the role demands of a management (and leadership) position in your organization requires that you establish appropriate working relationships. And often this means that you're going to have to change former relationships and then develop new relationships with those same people. And that's one of the most difficult things to do in life suddenly, literally overnight, change a comfortable pattern of interacting with somebody that may have gone on for years. Important Research Finding An important finding of recent management research is that a "concern with close relationships" is inversely related to managerial effectiveness. This "need to be liked by one's subordinates" can actually interfere with a manager's ability to perform his or her job.

14 Simple, Sensible Management page 294 "For example, having this characteristic might cause managers to have difficulty either firing or giving negative performance information to a subordinate. They see such actions as damaging to a close relationship or at least potentially damaging the relationship. Having this characteristic leads managers toward increased interpersonal contact regardless of task considerations." 59 This is one of the first studies identifying the need for managers and supervisors to maintain social distance between themselves and their subordinates. These results conflict with some Human Relations management philosophies which promote total openness and high degrees of socio-emotional involvement with employees. Summary To make sure that you're playing the appropriate role, you've got to be clear about whom you should have working relationships with and what sort of relationships they should be. Problems arise when you move into a new position and are forced by the demands of your role to create new relationships with individuals that you had a different relationship with. If the wrong relationships are maintained and appropriate ones aren't developed, it's predictable that there will be performance problems not only in your job as the supervisor, but also in the jobs of your employees. IV Activities The last part of a role is the activities, or what you do in the position. Activities, of course, are going to be different depending on your job. However, a framework that is often used to highlight activities that managers do, which non-managers don't, is a concept called the Functions of Management. These are seven responsibilities that managers have which non-managers usually don't have. The Functions (Responsibilities) of Managers 1) Planning 5) Controlling 2) Organizing 6) Innovating 3) Staffing 7) Representing 4) Directing Research is now showing that these don't reflect the detailed day-to-day activities of managers very well, but they do give an indication of the responsibilities of management. Most traditional management texts would devote one or two chapters to each of these functions, and you might consult these textbooks to get a better 59 Boyatzis, Richard E., The Competent Manager: A Model For Effective Performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1982 p. 181.

15 Simple, Sensible Management page 295 understanding of what these functions are. But let's define them so you have a basic idea. Planning is identifying where your organization ought to be going, what its basic direction is, what its purpose or mission is. It involves setting goals and setting objectives so that you and your employees have some target to be shooting towards. Many people get involved in this function, but usually management is held accountable for the basic business planning. Organizing is trying to determine what's the best organization or the best structure so that your business can reach the goals and objectives that were identified during a planning process. This involves job design and determining how many people are going to be required to undertake what activities. Staffing involves selecting people determining what type of individuals you need and selecting them to fill the positions that you develop. Directing refers to leadership and motivation. Now that you have the employees working in your organization, you need to motivate them and communicate with them so that they undertake the activities you want them to do. Controlling is the feedback mechanism. It is creating and using systems and procedures so that you can assess whether your organization and the individuals in it are achieving the objectives that have been planned for. Controlling includes many different responsibilities such as financial controls (to see if you spent what you had planned to spend) and inventory controls (what do you have in stock, and are you issuing the amount of stock that you should?). Innovating is thinking of new and better ways of doing the job, or new and better ways of managing the organization. Innovating is now a commonly expected responsibility or function of management. Representing, means that when you're in management, you represent your employees to the rest of the organization. You also represent "management" to your employees. As well, you're responsible and held accountable for representing your organization to the outside world. Depending upon the nature of your organization and the level of management you're in, you'll be undertaking these different responsibilities, or functions, to differing degrees. In some large organizations, staff departments specialize in providing these functions. For example, planning sometimes is done by a planning department. A personnel department often assists organizing, staffing and directing. Controlling could be performed by the accounting, finance, personnel and inventory control

16 Simple, Sensible Management page 296 departments. Innovating could be handled by a research and development department, and representing by a public relations or employee relations department. Role Ambiguity Role ambiguity means that you don't know what your role is. You're not sure what's expected of you or what you can expect from other people. You aren't sure what values or priorities you should have. You aren't sure whom you should have a working relationship with or what sort of relationship it should be. Most commonly, you aren't sure what you're supposed to be doing in the job, your authority, or your job responsibilities. Often this confusion is caused by a lack of orientation when you first entered the job, poor communications from your supervisor or simply poor organization. Research shows that when the role is ambiguous or unclear to the individual, the result is low job satisfaction, low self-confidence, high tension and job stress. The individual senses futility and this in turn leads to poor performance. Unclear: Lead to : Expectations? low job satisfaction Values? low self confidence Relationships? high tension & stress Activities? sense of futility Role Conflict Throughout our lives we all play multiple roles. We may be playing the role of a supervisor in one instance and a subordinate in another. Many of us are a spouse, a parent, a friend, or a club leader. But elements of these roles may conflict. For example, suppose you played three roles as in the following figure; role A, role B and role C. Role A Role B Role C expectations expectations expectations values values values relationships relationships relationships activities activities activities conflict and contradictions

17 Simple, Sensible Management page 297 The expectations or the values in each of these roles may conflict; there may be contradictions. It sometimes happens that the front line supervisors are also members of the union. On the one hand, they are expected to play the role of management and bring with them management values. On the other hand, they are members of the union and are expected to support the values associated with that role. This brings about obvious conflict that can lead to job problems. Or there may be conflicts between relationships or between the activities in your different roles. When there is conflict or contradiction, low job satisfaction and low confidence in the organization usually follow. The individual feels that the organization is placing him or her in an impossible situation, which creates high tension and stress. Your family may expect you to devote time to the family. But your business (and you) will have expectations of the time you devote to the company. Or you could have a manager whose best friend works for her, so on the one hand she plays the role of the friend, which suggests a very close relationship, and on the other hand she plays the role of the supervisor, which would suggest a more distant relationship. Is Some Role Conflict Inevitable? You're never going to avoid having some role conflict in life. One way you can deal with it is to resolve the conflict as it comes about or simply try to live with it. Sometimes you have to segment the different roles you play in life and literally change "hats" as you go from role to role. Often that's the only way that you can cope with the role demands and contradictions. But as a supervisor you must be aware of the unfortunate results of role ambiguity and role conflict. If there's ambiguity in your role or if you feel a conflict in the different roles you play, your own job performance will likely suffer. And if your employees aren't sure of their roles, it will deteriorate their performance, not to mention their motivation and mental health.

18 Simple, Sensible Management page 376 Simple, Sensible Management: The Principles and Practice of Managing People ISBN The Mansis Development Corporation 18 Chatsworth Place Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R2J3K9 Web Site: