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Part three of a three part series.

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Handbook for Quality Management by Thomas Pyzdek, © Quality Publishing.
The Handbook for Quality Management may be ordered from the Quality Publishing Order Form.

MANAGEMENT STYLES

PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT STYLE

The premise of the participatory management style is the belief that the worker can make a contribution to the design of their own work. The belief system that lead managers to this conclusion was originally put forth as a management theory by McGregor, who called it Theory Y. Theory Y advocates believe that workers are internally motivated. They take satisfaction in their work, and would like to perform at their best. Symptoms of indifference are a result of the modern workplace, which restricts what a worker can do and separates him from the final results of his efforts. It is management's job to change the workplace so that the worker can, once again, recapture his pride of workmanship. Elements of Theory Y are evident in Deming's discussion of the role of a manager of people, presented earlier.

Managers who practice the participatory style of management tend to engage in certain types of behavior. To engage the workers they establish and communicate the purpose and direction of the organization. This is used to help develop a shared vision of what the organization should be, which is used to develop a set of shared plans for achieving the vision. The manager's role is that of a leader. By her actions and words she shows the way to her employees. She is also a coach, evaluating the results of her people's efforts and helping them use the results to improve their processes. She works with the leaders above her in the organization to improve the organization's systems and the organization as a whole.

AUTOCRATIC MANAGEMENT STYLE

The premise of the autocratic management style is the belief that in most cases the worker cannot make a contribution to their own work, and that even if they could, they wouldn't. McGregor called the belief system that leads to this mindset Theory X. Under Theory X workers have no interest in work in general, including the quality of their work. Because civilization has mitigated the challenges of nature, modern man has become lazy and soft. The job of mangers is to deal with this by using "carrots and sticks." The "carrot" is usually a monetary incentive, such as piece-rate pay schemes. The "stick" is docked pay for poor quality or missed production targets. Only money and threats can motivate the lazy, disinterested worker.

The natural management style that a manager with this belief system would favor is the autocratic management style. Autocratic managers attempt to control work to the maximum extent possible. A major threat to control is complexity; complex jobs are more difficult to learn and workers who master such jobs are scarce and possess a certain amount of control over how the job is done. Thus, autocratic managers attempt to simplify work to gain maximum control. Planning of work, including quality planning, is centralized. A strict top-down, chain-of-command approach to management is practiced. Procedures are maintained in exquisite detail and enforced by frequent audits. Product and process requirements are recorded in equally fine detail and in-process and final inspection are used to control quality.

MANAGEMENT BY WANDERING AROUND

Peters and Austin (1985, 8) call MBWA "The technology of the obvious." MBWA addresses a major problem with modern managers: lack of direct contact with reality. Many, perhaps most, managers don't have enough direct contact with their employees, their suppliers, or, especially, their customers. They maintain superficial contact with the world through meetings, presentations, reports, phone calls, email, and a hundred other ways that don't engage all of their senses. This is not enough. Without more intense contact the manager simply can't fully internalize the other person's experience. They need to give reality a chance to make them really experience the world. The difference between reality and many managers' perception of reality is as great as the difference between an icy blast of arctic air piercing thin indoor clothing versus watching a weather report of a blizzard from a sunny beach in the Bahamas.

MBWA is another, more personal way, to collect data. Statistical purists disdain and often dismiss data obtained from opportunistic encounters or unstructured observations. But the information obtained from listening to an employee or a customer pour their heart out is no less "scientifically valid" than a computer printout of customer survey results. And MBWA data is of a different type. Science has yet to develop reliable instruments for capturing the information contained in angry or excited voice pitch, facial expressions, the heavy sigh - but humans have no trouble understanding the meaning these convey in the context of a face-to-face encounter. It may be that nature has hard-wired us to receive and understand these signals through eons of evolution.

The techniques employed by managers who practice MBWA are as varied as the people themselves. The important thing is to get yourself into direct contact with the customer, employee, or supplier, up close and personal. This may involve visiting a customer at his place of business, or bringing them to yours, manning the order desk or complaint line every month, spontaneously sitting down with employees in the cafeteria, either one-on-one or in groups, inviting the supplier's truck driver to your office for coffee. Use your imagination. One tip: be sure to schedule regular MBWA time. If it's not on your calendar, you probably won't do it.