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Benjamin
14-02-2010, 12:39 PM
‘Explaining the succession of management fads’ extends the ideas established by Jackall (1988) in ‘Looking up and looking around’. Huczynski (1993) relies on his research into and knowledge of the management advisory industry to expose a view on managers contradictory to convention. Huczynski (1993) provides an interesting observation on page 453 about the management consultancy industry saying, “…every management technique producer can be confident that a particular product which is selling well today will be displaced in the future.” The quote speaks volumes about the attitudes managers have towards their role in a company and this inane understanding that ideologies formulated by someone with no intimate knowledge of the firm or the business situation facing the manager can fix the problem. Huczynski (1993) comments on Byrne’s opinion on management ‘faddism’, as it has become known as, on page 447; “Byrne felt that fads were counterproductive. Their bewildering array represented a serious distraction from the complex task of running a company. He likened many modern managers to compulsive dieters, trying the latest craze for a few days, then moving relentlessly on.” Management in businesses with the resources to do so (i.e. capital) will choose to jump from fad to fad in hope that one of them will bring about results. Most times this is at the expense of inordinate sums of money and time. It becomes apparent that managers see it worthwhile and easier to invest in management fads or to seek management consultancy rather than develop and implement a tailored solution themselves. Management fads are based on the premise that dilemmas facing managers can be classed or grouped and hence generic solutions to dilemmas that fall within the same ‘family’ of problems is plausible (Huczynski 1993, p. 446). This is not the case in business nor is it the case for anything in life. Each dilemma is unique and hence requires unique solutions. The notion that undifferentiated solutions can be used to solve classes of problems demonstrates furthermore how management isn’t necessarily an institution of clever and innovative decision making but a recycling plant of old internal policies or a test panel for the ‘flavor-of-the-month’ fad (Huczynski 1993, p. 443). Huczynski (1993) offers the idea that management’s incompetence correlates with the number of fads management ‘consume’. Huczynski notes that “while such problems tend to remain constant, manager’s perception of [the problem’s] intensity changes…” (Huczynski 1993, p. 448). Managers who struggle to see that their problem is no different to a previous one but remain adamant on investing in the latest fad stress two things; why individuals must question the role of managers and why the management advise industry will continue to grow as purported by Huczynski.

It was highlighted in Jackall’s (1988) text ‘Looking up and looking around’ how rigid procedure can be abused by managers (policy enforcers or implementers) to scapegoat colleagues and alleviate the need for managerial decisions to be made based on reflection and critical analysis. Furthermore Jackall (1988) examined how managers may choose to decide on solutions that ensure their individual progression in the fiercely competitive corporate world however prove to have a negative effect on the firm as a whole in the long term. Adding depth to these concepts are the points made by Roberts (1984) in ‘The moral character of management practice’. Roberts’ (1984) text challenges the perception of a morally neutral manager and brings to the fore the “strong grounds for refuting the claim that effectiveness is a morally neutral value” (Roberts 1984, p. 287). The composer manages to do this by providing a case study of two managers working for PYT Ltd and analysing how the managers themselves and their colleagues view the effects of differing management styles. Particularly Dave’s (one of the managers scrutinized by John Roberts) style of managing exposes how it is possible for managers to make poor business decisions when personal motivation becomes all encompassing. Dave describes his decision to remove himself from the personal lives of his subordinates as a decision that will ultimately lead him to achieve a greater position at PYT Ltd. This attitude is exemplified in Dave’s approach to an underperforming saleswoman named Rita, “I looked at her sales performance, did a lot of training, we talked to her – she reckoned she could do the job – after a month, if anything, she was getting worse. I said she couldn’t do the job” (Roberts 1984, p. 293). Rita describes her account of her dealings with Dave as her manager, “I don’t think he took to me. When he listened in to me selling, I was very nervous and did lots of silly things, and when he trained me I had some upset outside work and I wasn’t very good” (Roberts 1984, p. 287). Dave’s inability or unwillingness to sympathise with staff has led to profound declines in PTY Ltd profits (Clarke 2007, p. 101). Dave, as a manager, is unable to see the ‘whole picture’. He struggles with the concept that better relations with staff will improve the corporation’s ability to maintain long-term customer relations which in turn will generate improved profits (Roberts 1984, p. 289). Managers similar to Dave do not make well-thought through decisions as their business decisions become clouded by their over empowering and selfish drive to reach the top of the corporate ladder. Roberts (1984) describes the pitfalls in Dave’s managerial style on page 300, “It is individualism that turns organizational life into a series of vicious circles of control and resistance between individuals and groups and, thereby, increasingly diverts energy, resources and attention away from the realisation of the productive potential of organized relationships”. Dave’s situation indicates that just because a manager’s performance is not judged in moral terms does not mean a manager’s decision to develop and better colleague relations will have no effect on individual and company performance (Roberts 1984, p. 290). Val (the other manager) in contrast to Dave managed staff by maintaining an involvement in their personal affairs whilst at the same time instilling the need for staff to reach objectives. Val describes the complexities of her role as manager on page 296, “I can know [the staff] inside out but you don’t have to be involved with them. I do care about their welfare and it pays off. Well, maybe ‘care’ is too strong – concern maybe.” In turn, Val’s staff turnover rate was significantly less then that of Dave’s (Roberts 1984, p. 301). Val’s managerial style recognises staff as being “interdependent subjects” and “moral characters” rather then seeing them as objects to be manipulated (Roberts 1984, p. 301). Such an attitude coincides with Roberts’ (1984) opinion on the most effective forms of organisational management; “I would argue that it will only be through acknowledging, rather than denying, the moral character of management practice that we stand any chance of developing genuinely effective forms of organisational control” (Roberts 1984, p. 301). ‘The moral character of management practice’ highlights to audiences how managers that don’t look beyond the ‘direct influences’ of organisational dilemmas and don’t subside their personal goals for the betterment of their staff will lead to individual and organisational downfall.



To surmise this essay which questions the typical view of managerial work and looks extensively at its realities, it becomes prominent that management isn’t necessarily the ideal institution it is portrayed to be. Jackall’s (1988) text ‘Looking up and looking around’ stressed a view towards management which lacked any creativity whatsoever in problem solving processes and considered managers as people who merely followed static, pre-existing procedures to make decisions. Furthering this was Huczynski (1993) in his work, ‘Explaining the succession of management fads’. Huczynski drew the link between the nature of the management consultancy industry and management’s desire to use ‘ideological fads’ as a means to solve business dilemmas that cannot be solved using internal policies, emphasising furthermore the preference amongst managers to utilize a scaffold formulated by someone with no intimate knowledge of the firm rather then critical reasoning and reflection. ‘The Moral character of management practice’ looked extensively at the managerial position through the close study of two managers working for PYT Limited and showed how the personal ambitions of selfish managers can take away from staff morale and company objectives not being met. Additionally, Roberts (1984) brings to light the detrimental effects when managers consider and organise subordinates in a solely objective light. Evidently, all three texts promote further critical evaluation of the managerial position and encourage studying management in an alternate light.

REFERENCE LIST:

Clarke, J. (2007) The Pocket Psycho. Australia: Random House.


Huczynski, A. (1993) ‘Explaining the succession of management fads’ The International Journal of Human Resource Management 4(2): 443-463


Jackall, R. (1988) ‘Looking up and looking around’ excerpt from Moral mazes: the world of corporate managers Oxford: Oxford Unviersity Press.


Roberts, J. (1984) ‘The moral character of management practice’ Journal of Management Studies 21(3): 287-302