Technomanagement: A Deadly Mixture of Paperwork and Technology

The concept of management is badly misinterpreted by management scientists who confuse thinking with just being logical.” — Ted Levitt, Considering Management

Too many organizations are ruled by bureaucrats and technocrats in both management or staff support roles. Certainly one of their (frequently unconscious) driving motives would be to “get rid of the human factor.” They think their technology, systems, and procedures works a lot better whether it were not for the people always messing some misconception.

Here are a few telltale signs and types of Technomanagement:

o Bureaucratic language is really a dead giveaway of the technomanager. In speaking about mix training and moving people around, one bureaucrat known as it “rotationality.” He stated it having a straight face and everybody within the room nodded her head knowingly.

Hierarchical language also shows where lots of technomanagers are originating from. “The number of people meet your needs?” (that one dissatisfied manager responded, “about 50 %”), “subordinates” (and it is especially repulsive companion “superiors”), “remaining on the top of products,” “my people,” and “lower the business” show the necessity many technomanagers need to dominate and control.

o A senior manager inside a expertise company assigned an employee support person to repair the marketing efforts of the divisions. It did not work. The unsuccessful effort sprang from your very typical look at the business as segmented and separate functions and divisions. But marketing could not be separated from running the company. Business development (sales) people were not effectively trained and supported to put towards the bigger strategy or new market position (they were given a 1 day information session along with a couple of updates).

A vital division that provided the umbrella proper services to put and survive the main business services was made to constantly justify itself like a standalone, lucrative business towards the accountants running the organization. Therefore the structure from the organization could not support working across a wider market that known as for integrated divisions serving customers through regional (instead of mind office) management.

o Management’s needs, goals, and perspectives would be the beginning point for those activities. Managers as well as their staff professionals would be the brains and workers are both your hands. Employees serve their managing masters and do because they are told. Broad business perspectives and techniques, operational performance data, problem-solving and decision-making authority, and mix-functional skills are stored by management.

o Inside a financial crunch, Technomanagers frequently “cut heads,” “trim body fat,” and “tighten belts” in a nutshell-term tries to bring costs lower. While wholesale slashing and burning could be a short-term success, it’s frequently a lengthy-term disaster. Not just may be the organization weakened and demoralized — while customer support plummets — but, additionally, the essential cost structure has not really been altered. So costs creep support.

o Technomanaged information mill mind-office-driven. Field professionals haven’t much input to product priorities, marketing focus, accounting systems, etc. Their only way of supplying input is on committees (which take several weeks to satisfy and choose anything), by screaming the loudest (or right political player), or by dealing with the entrenched hierarchy. You will find couple of mechanisms or channels to systematically collect field input on emerging or latent market needs/trends. Accountants aren’t in the real life searching behind and underneath the figures and learning revenues are made.

o The standard movement gave rise to a different variety of technomanager — the qualicrat. These support professionals begin to see the world strictly through data and analysis as well as their quality improvement techniques and tools. When they strive to evaluate the “voice from the customer,” the face area of current customers (and particularly potential new clients) is frequently lost. Getting researched, consulted, and written extensively on quality improvement, I’m a big become, and evangelist for, the reason. However, many attempts are getting badly out of whack as customers, partners, and team people are reduced to figures, charts, and graphs.