All management is based on guiding principles; and the effectiveness of management derives from those principles. This is moral whether the principles are appropriate or noxious, reasonable or unreasonable, consistent or inconsistent. Similarly, the derivative nature of management holds whether the guiding principles are vague or well-defined, followed faithfully or haphazardly, applied day-to-day by managers who are highly skilled or fundamentally incompetent. Effective management, then, is a product of:
o Guiding principles that are appropriate, reasonable, and consistent;
o Managers who clearly understand the guiding principles, faithfully adhere to them, and who are fundamentally competent.
It follows from this that the effectiveness of an organization’s management is a product of the Principle/People equation:
o Principles + People = Outcomes.
The guiding principles for an organization are a composite of underlying assumptions and values that justify and notify management practice. ‘Assumptions’ in this context are beliefs that are held as ‘true’ without demonstrable proof. ‘Values’ are those conditions that are held to be inherently and intrinsically ‘right.’ From this perspective, then, guiding principles are fair because they are legal and suitable because they are accurate.
With the non-empirical, self-justifying nature of guiding principles in mind, an organization has its current ‘culture.’ Here, ‘culture’ refers to the collective beliefs, values, and norms of the organization, where ‘norms’ are the standards for behavior and interaction within the organization. These standards are, of course, based on the organization’s beliefs and values related to how the organization’s people ‘should’ behave and interact both with each other and with people outside the organization. ‘Norms’ thus justify lawful and fine behavior.
When norms are understood as following from beliefs and values, the organization’s culture can be summarized as its collective sense of;
o What is good,
o What is good,
o What is reliable.
At an abstract level, an organization’s guiding principles exist within its collective memory and recent consciousness; but at a practical, functional level, those guiding principles reside within its people. Each person is a carrier and a conveyer of the guiding principles that convey the organization’s day-to-day activities and future ‘outcomes.’ Those ‘outcomes’ may be tangible or intangible but are, nonetheless, a product of the collective efforts of people who carry and whisper the organization’s guiding principles.
PRIDE
(P) Professionalism: An organization’s achieving its desired outcomes is dependent on its people; so what people bring to the endeavor makes a notable contrast. They must be competent to have their organizational roles. At a minimum, they must have knowledge, skills, and judgment consistent with their positions and responsibilities. In turn, they must apply their knowledge, skills, and judgment in the interest of achieving the organization’s desired outcomes. To the extent that the organization’s people do not have the requisite knowledge, skills, and judgment for their positions, the organization, through its management, must articulate that the needed training and skill development are provided for its people; and as people leave the organization, fresh people must be recruited who either have or can get the requisite knowledge, skills, and judgment. Whatever the mechanism, the organization cannot attain its desired outcomes unless and until the requisite knowledge, skills, and judgment are in position.
(R) Responsibility: Assuming that the requisite knowledge, skills, and judgment are in area, the organization’s desired outcomes will only be achieved to the extent that its people do the good things honest, the first time, on time, every time. Simply having competent people in station is not sufficient in and of itself. Here, doing the ‘right’ things is not based on training and experience. Rather it is based on plan and adhering to the organization’s guiding principles. It is doing that which is accurate from a value perspective. Doing the moral things lawful, the first time, on time, every time means that the organization’s people are consistently and conscientiously adhering to its guiding principles.
(I) Initiative: Competence plus adherence to guiding principles leads to initiative: people seeing what needs done and doing it because it needs done. Since the organization’s people are competent, they are able to gawk what needs done and have the requisite knowledge, skills, and judgment to do it. Since they adhere to the organization’s guiding principles and are committed to its desired outcomes, they do that which needs done. Conversely, if the organization’s people do not manifest initiative, there are organizational deficits requiring management intervention. That intervention must be directed to some mix of increasing the competence of the organization’s people and increasing adherence to the organization’s guiding principles. Increasing adherence to guiding principles, of course, must focus on increasing concept and acceptance of that which is accurate, legal, and splendid from the organization’s perspective.
(D) Directedness: The organization’s people can be competent, do the correct things, and manifest a high level of initiative and composed not enact the organization’s desired outcomes unless there is a high level of Directedness: focus on attaining optimal outcomes for each set or circumstance. These optimal outcomes are intermediate steps toward the organization’s desired outcomes; and an absence of focus on them decreases the likelihood of achieving the organization’s desired outcomes. Conversely, intense focus on intermediate outcomes increases the likelihood of achieving the organization’s desired outcomes.
(E) Effectiveness: Were the internal and external organizational environments static, professionalism, responsibility, initiative, and Directedness would be sufficient for achieving the organization’s desired outcomes; and once people were successful with respect to the intermediate outcomes, they would only need to ‘keep up the great work.’ Management, then, would be microscopic more than a ‘maintenance of effort’ process. However, both the internal and external environments change over time; and management is responsible for assuring a continuing fit between the organization and the external environment. Further, the organization’s desired outcomes change over time. This change may involve completely different outcomes or changed standards for stale outcomes. Whatever the change, yesterday’s desired outcomes will not be the same as tomorrow’s. It is, then, management’s responsibility to sustain the organization’s people aligned with its changing outcomes. This is accomplished through doing what needs done, evaluating what was done, and doing it better the next time, while concurrently assuring continuous fit with changing internal and external environments and desired organizational outcomes.
The ‘people’ side of the principle/people equation requires continuous management of Professionalism, Responsibility, Initiative, Directedness, and Effectiveness in relation to changing, desired outcomes in concert with the organization’s guiding principles. This leads to the conclusion that PRIDE is and must be the underlying guiding principle for effective management and for effective managers.
With PRIDE as their guiding principle, effective managers then strive to:
o Understand and further the mission of the organization.
o elaborate and believe a rational, flexible Organizational Structure within which employees can function with a minimum of administrative and bureaucratic control and interference.
o Provide sure, consistent Direction for employees, assuring each employee knows and understands what is expected of him and what behavior and action are acceptable and unacceptable.
o Maximize Personal Control for each employee over his work related environment and activities.
The notable strategies for achieving these outcomes are:
Cooperation: Emphasizing a proper, supportive arrive to relationships and activities.
Loyalty: Emphasizing working with employees by accommodating to special needs and interests and facilitating resolution of problems.
Caring: Emphasizing exertion for and interest in the activities, successes, and problems of employees.
Sharing: Emphasizing talking with employees, reciprocal assistance, and mutual dilemma solving.
Respect: Emphasizing acceptance of employees’ beliefs and values, receptivity to employees’ thoughts and ideas, and sensitivity to employees’ feelings and interests.
Trust: Emphasizing giving employees the abet of the doubt without blaming, accusing, or threatening.
Integrity: Emphasizing keeping commitments to and agreements made with employees.
Conflict Resolution: Emphasizing identifying, belief, and working through conflicts and tensions among and between employees.
There you go and now you know.
