Odimbite Odimbite: Work Management Styles that Make or Mar Nigerian Businesses
Businesses allow superiors to adopt work management styles at will.There are predominant work management styles that managers and their contemporaries use routinely in managing subordinates in every business setup. When a boss persistently runs into trouble with direct reports or customers, his work management style may be an issue. Sometimes, many business leaders are aware of the big picture but rarely understand that work management styles can make or mar the workforce. Management by objectives (MBO) and Management by Wandering Around (MBWA), and others well known and documented in management practices, are used by managers but their impact is often unappreciated.
Different styles are suited for different purposes in every business and adopting any particular style can be challenging. Business leaders use some styles which employees perceive as terrible especially if used excessively in a workplace. Three types of work management styles found amongst some business leaders whether in MSME or large corporates which disrupts organizational effectiveness include Management by Threat (MBT), Management by Deceit (MBD) and Management by Reports (MBR).
Management by Threat (MBT)
Some bosses adopt management by threat to control and coordinate employees and tasks. They consistently issue threats to employees for failing to meet deadlines and unpleasant staff actions. They may even engage in shouting at the top of their voices or call staff derogatory names like: you fool, nonentity, or idiot, hoping that will make the individual change and perform better. Some blatantly insult their staff with verbal abusive languages; assault by physically beating them up at work, mete out corporal punishments at work or offering threats of dismissals or wilful termination of contracts. It simply doesn’t work that way because it usually compromises quality performance in the business.
Bosses that use MBT have lost their authority to lead and rely on any method to enforce staff compliance and performance targets. They reason that if they shout, insult, assault, demean, threaten or call staff names, the staff will get the message that he (the boss) is unhappy and therefore decide to change their performance or better still, quit their jobs. These bosses aren’t aware that the more they shout and threaten the staff, the more the staff will withdraw, commit more blunders and fulfill the boss’ negative expectations. This leads to a vicious cycle of threat and shouts which reinforces employees’ wrong behavior. It is a typical lose-lose situation.
The regular use of threats of worse things that will be done to staff and shouting when something goes amiss is a negative coping measure adopted by some bosses when they are under pressure to deliver expected performance from top management. It can also be a way of telling the subordinate he is the boss and so all his orders must be respected and obeyed without question. When staff is tired of the threats and shoutings from the boss, they may shout back at the boss and the work environment becomes uncomfortable for everyone to give their best.
I was once in a strong publicly quoted bank for a transaction and I heard a supervising manager ask one of her subordinates if she has completed the task assigned to her and the staff said not yet. This manager instantly switched to managing by threats mode. The boss did a long hiss, said to the staff ‘you are so lousy and very lazy and I have been telling you this for sometime’. I was surprised and in my rating, I scored the boss very low in managing staff performance. A boss isn’t invested with any right to insult, verbally abuse, physically assault ordemean his staff for non-performance. Appropriate performance contract detailing these performance areas and performance indicators should address this behavior. Unfortunately, many managers haven’t developed the skill of crafting performance contracts that address job and attitudinal aspects of the job of their subordinates.
Management by Deceit (MBD)
This is a deliberate strategy to deceive the staff. The manager will tell the staff one thing whilst a totally different thing is in the offing. A boss uses this mode of management when he feels the atmosphere is full of distrust or dishonesty. He takes the mind of the employee off to one thing while he is doing another. A staff will commit an offence and the boss will deliberately deceive him into believing there will be no consequence only for a heavy penalty to be meted out in the next few days and the staff is taken aback.
Organizations also deploy this style. Two organizations may be locked in merger talks and when confronted by staff and other stakeholders, both organizations will deny any knowledge of merger talks. A month later, both organizations will announce they have merged. The question is: does a merger talk get started and become concluded in just one month? Obviously not, but managing by deceit work style has been used for best reasons available to those organizations.
Bosses using management by deceit lose credibility and respect of their staff over time. Eventually, some staff may enter the game too, especially if it yields great results and pervades the organization. This style isn’t always the best a boss can deploy in his career. It can destroy his record of integrity for life.
Management by Reports (MBR)
Some bosses manage by requesting a lot of reports from subordinates. These reports come in different formats and duplicated contents. The frequency can be daily, weekly, monthly, adhoc reports. In many cases, these reports aren’t read at all. Where they are read, no action is taken concerning the challenges or recommendations contained therein. It appears the essence of the report is to keep the subordinates busy doing non-core tasks. Reports can be requested before close of business with delivery deadline for first thing in the morning the next day. In other words, the subordinate shouldn’t go home until the report is completed. The order and frequency of reports become daunting as they finish one report and the next hour comes another person requesting for similar reports in a different format. Staff spends significant time each day preparing reports that are never used.
Many bosses who adopt this style have no hands-on experience, feel inadequate or manage diverse staff at various locations and hence have low coordination skill. Where two, three or more persons request similar reports in different formats, it could mean the organization is not working as a whole, that is, there are functional silos and each person is protecting his fort.
Many reports are complex to be prepared and it’s usually painful for such reports to end up in trash bins after wasting precious man-hours to get them ready.
However, some bosses enjoy lengthy detailed reports and find the time to read through every detail and give feedback. This is quite encouraging. Some other bosses prefer top line executive summary. When a boss spends too much time reading reports, that boss isn’t doing the core of his job and does the organization great harm.
Some situations like founder's style, lack of adequate training, level of exposure, experiences, upbringing, pervading culture of previous or current organizations and individual value system can influence the work management style a boss will find useful. Indigenous businesses could be worst hit by this kind of inappropriate use of work management styles, unlike Multinationals.
If your Work Management Style isn't Covered
Majority of prevalent work management styles in the workplace aren't covered in this writeup. We shall explore other prevalent work management styles in the next article. There are other styles bosses use, and they may not even be aware of them. It cuts across bosses in all industries, local or international businesses as well as personality types of these leaders. The work management styles discussed here can be improved once it is discovered and consciously adjusted to achieve a balance.
Much is expected from managers and they must manage staff very professionally. Managers who are aware of these uncomfortable work management styles should make adjustments, change their work management styles and spend time managing staff performance more effectively and objectively. They should design performance frameworks, clearly communicate performance targets/deadlines, measure results obtained, motivate and increase staff productivity in the organization. This is what makes great businesses stand out!
Odimbite Odimbite is Co-Founder, Metrodelight Foods Limited, Nigeria
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