theories of work: origins of the design and management of work · 702 the essential deming:...

ByDavidJoyce

www.theoriesofwork.com

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TheoriesofWork:OriginsoftheDesignandManagementofWork

Summary

SUMMARYTHEORIESOFWORK:

ORIGINSOFTHEDESIGNANDMANAGEMENTOFWORK

nPartIofTheoriesofWorkwehave

uncoveredtheoriginsofhowwedesignandmanageworktoday.

We have met many pioneers, inventors,influencersandimplementersofacollectionof ideas: ideas that solved problems atdifferent points1 in the eighteenth,nineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies.

Together, they created the design andmanagementblueprintusedtoday.

AsGaryHamelreported:

Management is undoubtedly one ofhumankind’smostimportantinventions.

Managementwasoriginally inventedtosolvetwoproblems:thefirstgettingsemi-skilled

employees to perform repetitive activitiescompetently,diligently,andefficiently;thesecondcoordinating those efforts in ways that enabledcomplex goods and services to be produced inlargequantities.

In a nutshell, the problems were efficiency andscale,andthesolutionwasbureaucracy,withitshierarchical structure, cascading goals, preciserole definitions, and elaborate rules andprocedures.

For more than a hundred years, advances inmanagement; the structures, processes, andtechniquesusedtocompoundhumaneffort,havehelpedtopowereconomicprogress.…672

The Prevailing Logic

ORIGINSOFTHEDESIGNANDMANAGEMENTOFWORK9 10

These innovations proved to be extremelysuccessful in advancing industry, and insuccessfuladvancingprosperity.Itisthereforeunsurpr i s ing that these des ign andmanagement industrialisation methodsbecame engrained as the keys to success inmanagementthinking.

At the outset, innovation in the design andmanagement of work flowed freely and wasunbound.However,aftera fast start,wehavereachedthetopendofGaryHamel’sevolutionof management S-curve, where, as hedescribes that innovation “inrecentyearshasslowedtoacrawl”672

ThetopendoftheScurve iscalledtheslopeofdiminishingreturns.

At the top of the S curve, many peoplesuccumb to theeffectsof hubris,whichgivesthem a false sense of security because theworldbelievesandacknowledgesthattheyaretheexpertsinthatfield.678

678TheSCurve,Whatiswrongwithsuccess?,InterestingThingoftheDay,GuestArticlebyRajagopalSukumar,September25,2004itotd.com/articles/318/the-s-curve/

Thiscausesaproblem;arelianceoncurrentmethodswhichrepelsfurtherinnovationandchange. It has been well observed anddocumentedwherethistypeoffailureleads.

Studies have shown that half a centuryago,the life expectancyof a firm in the Fortune500wasaround75years.Nowit’slessthan15yearsanddecliningevenfurther.699

The pioneers, inventors, influencers andimplementersthatwehavemetinPartIwereeachtryingtosolveproblemsoftheirtime.

Theissueisnotthatthesewereofvalue;foritsolvedproblemsforeachofthesemanagementpioneersinnewways,butwehavenotcontinuedtolearn.692

Conventionbydesignissuboptimalinthe21stcentury,yetthemajorityofwhatwedofollowsthis conventional outdated design. We areconscious of this; every book written bytoday’s management thinkers tells us ourfailings,yetwestilldoit.

Inthe21stcenturywehavedifferentproblemsto solve. What is required is a new mentalrevolution.

A New Mental Revolution

Forsucharevolutiontooccur,executivesandexpertsmust first admit that they’ve reachedthelimitsof [conventional]Management;theindustrial age paradigm built atop theprinciples of standardization, specialization,hierarchy,control,andprimacyofshareholderinterests.672

692Freedomfromcommandandcontrol,JohnSeddon,ManagementServices,Summer2005,p.22

699www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/19/peggy-noonan-on-steve-jobs-and-why-big-companies-die/

AsW.EdwardsDemingobserved: Phyllis Moen, a University of Minnesotasociology professor who researches work-lifeissues...saysmostcompaniesarestuckinthe1930s when it comes to employees’ andmanagers’ relationships to time and work.“Ourwholenotionofpaidworkwasdevelopedwithinanassemblylineculture,”680

SteveDenningdescribestheprevailinglogicas“Managers acting as controllers, work is co-ordinated by bureaucracy (rules, plans,reports),topdownstructure,themainvalueisefficiencyandcostcutting.”681

The design and management of work is adirect representation of what’s going on inmanager’sheads.676

It’s how leaders think about the work, thosewhodotheworkandthewaytheworkshouldbedone.279

700TheNewEconomics:ForIndustry,Government,EducationByWilliamEdwardsDemingPublisher:TheMITPress;2ndedition(July31,2000)p.xv

676HermanniHyytiälä@hemppah30thJuly2013basedonNewCaseStudy–O2byStuartCorriganwww.systemsthinkingmethod.com/blog/o2-case-study680SmashingTheClockDecember,BloombergBusinessWeekMagazine,ByMichelleConlin,10,2006www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-12-10/smashing-the-clockwww.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm

Most people imagine that the present style of management has always existed, and is a fixture. Actually, it is a modern invention, a prison created by the way in which people interact. 700Dr.W.EdwardsDeming

681SteveDenningpresentationLSSC12:MakingtheEntireFirmAgile(&Lean)vimeo.com/43458719

Image:RussianDemingInstitutedeming.ru/AboutDeming/foto_pages/Deming_BW1.jpg

“Indeed, the thinkingandbehaviorofalmostallmanagersintoday’sbusinessworldreflectaworld-view grounded in the whole-equals-sum-of-parts and win-lose competitiveprinciples of 19th-century mechanics and18th-centuryclassicalphysics.Thatexplains,Ibelieve, why virtually all improvementinitiatives,includingso-calledleaninitiatives,inevitably generate long-run financial resultsthatfallfarshortofwhatwasintendedbytheinitiatives’ designers.” reports H. ThomasJohnson.682

This engineering mindset that served us sowellinthepasthasnowbecomeoutdated,andisshacklingourabilitytoimprove.

Druckersumsthisupwell:

682ASystemicPathToLeanManagement,ByH.ThomasJohnson,TheSystemsThinkerVol.20No.2March2009

The conventional logic leads to certainmethodstobeappliedtosolvethedesignandmanagementofworkproblem.Unfortunatelymethod is not talked about much inorganisations. Many organisational culturesdo not tolerate questioning of the currentmethodsandtheirimplicitassumptions.1

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work 701PeterDrucker

701PeterF.Drucker>Quoteswww.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12008.Peter_F_Drucker

Image:PeterDrucker,PhotographCourtesyofTheDruckerInstituteatClaremontGraduateUniversity

Furthermore we can observe that thetheorieswith their resultingmethods remainmoreorlessstaticaspeoplejoinandleavetheenterprise.675

It isnotevenagenerationalthing;therehavebeen a succession of workforces and leaderssince their inception, yet the conventionallogicseemsremarkablyimpervioustochange.

Theconventionaltheoryofworkisseductive.

illusive forces

It isafactthatmanyalternativetheorieshavebeen proposed by various managementthinkers, but these have rebounded off theprevailingtheoryofwork.

Over and over again improvements arethwarted by commonly-known but illusiveforces.673

It istrue,thattherearesomecompanieswhodo not use all ofwhat has beendiscussed inPart I, but even in these companies theunderlyingdesignandmanagementlogicisinuse.Thisconventionallogicisubiquitous.

the need for change

Itsbeenwelldocumentedthathumanbeingsand the human spirit is designed to explore,innovate, and push boundaries in aneverceaselessquest.Thisisevidentinsomanyaspectsofourlives.

For example, in the last 100 years, we havegonefromthefirstmannedflighttoputtingaman on the moon and living in space, fromthe first gasoline powered car to electrichybrid cars, from rudimentary calculatingmachinestocomputers,frombasicwire

675TheImportanceofKnowledgewww.unreasonable-learners.com/knowledge/

basedcommunicationdevicestomobilesmartphones,fromabasicunderstandingofhumanbiology to organ transplants, preventativemedicinesandcures.

However, in that time, how we design andmanage work has barely changed. Isn’t thatcurious?Whyisthat?

What was appropriate for manufacturing intheindustrialage,isnolongerappropriateforthe 21st century workplace in the age oftechnology.

It’s the first time since the invention of thesteamenginethatthepersondoingtheworkismore important than the machinery ortechnologybeingused.168

This causes a profound change in labourmanagement relations in the organisation ofwork,andinthestructureofmanagement.168

Dr.RussellAckoffwouldoftenquoteEinsteinwhostated“Wecan’tsolveproblemsbyusingthe same kind of thinkingwe usedwhenwecreated them”. Ackoff would follow this upwith the fact that he had never found amanager or leader that disagreed with thisstatement, but hemet very few that actuallyknewwhatitmeant!

Ackoff stated “Its very easy to agree withsomething you don’t understand. Leadersneed to understand what is the differencebetween our current pattern of thought andonethat’srequired”679

168CC-MProductions,Inc.775516thStreet,NWWashington,DC20012ManagementWisdom.com(800)bob@cc-m.com

679Dr.RussellAckoff-KeynoteatICSTM2004,SteveBrant55'sYouTubeChannelwww.youtube.com/user/SteveBrant55

JohnSeddonobserves:

W. Edwards Deming was clear in hisassessmentofhowtosolvetheproblem:

Managers are guilty but not to blame 279JohnSeddon-OccupationalPsychologist

What’s necessary is for management to understand the theory behind the changes that are needed. 702Dr.W.EdwardsDeming

Image:JohnSeddon,ProvidedbyCharlottePell,Vanguard

702TheEssentialDeming:LeadershipPrinciplesfromtheFatherofQuality,byW.EdwardsDeming(Author),Joyce(editedby)Orsini(Author),Diana(editedby)DemingCahill(Author),Publisher:McGraw-Hill;1edition(November20,2012)p.169

Image:RussianDemingInstitutedeming.ru/AboutDeming/foto_pages/Deming_BW1.jpg

ForthistohappenChrisArgyrischallenges:

Wemustnowasksomehardquestions.

Given all the advice from literally hundreds ofbooks and thousands of articles that haveappeared over the past decades have wewitnessed a flowering of new forms of humanpotential?

Have we been astounded by new levels oforganizationalperformanceandcreativity?...

Anyone familiar with recent history knows thedisappointing, even sad, answers to thesequestions.

The world continues apace and we makeincremental technological improvements hereandthere—butonthebigquestionswemovenotaninch.

Wearestuck.Infact,wearetrapped.

A great deal of the theory and practice oforganizational research over the past fewdecades has been unable to change thissituation.674

escape

Butareweall trapped in theprison inwhichDemingandAckoffbothdescribe?

The answer to this is that a very differenttheory fordesigningandmanagingwork hasemergedintheEast,specificallyinJapan,whohave beenable to brake freeof thepast, andhave eschewed the dominant Westernmanagementthinking.

Thiswillbe thesubjectofPart IIofTheoriesofWork;“BeyondOurMindset”.

“”

674BypermissionofOxfordUniversityPresswww.oup.com©OrganizationalTraps:Leadership,Culture,OrganizationalDesignbyChrisArgyris(2010)478wfromChp.6“StrengtheningNewApproaches”pp.195-197

In 1979, Konosuke Matsushita of MatsushitaCorporation (Panasonic, National, Technics,etc.) gave a presentation to a group ofAmericanandEuropeanmanagers.

Iwill leaveittohimtofinishPartIandopenupPartII.

Describingthecommercialbattleahead[betweentheEastandWest],hequietlyexplained:677282

Wearegoing towinandthe industrialWest isgoingtolose.There’snothingyoucandoaboutit, because the reasons for your failure arewithinyourselves.

Your firms are built on theTaylormodel. Evenworsesoareyourheads.

With your bosses doing the thinking whileworkerswieldthescrewdrivers,you’reconvinceddeep down that is the right way to run abusiness. For the essence of management isgettingthe ideasoutoftheheadsofthebossesandintotheheadsoflabour.

We are beyond your mindset. Business, weknow, is now so complex and difficult, thesurvival of firms so hazardous in anenvironment increasingly unpredictable,competitiveandfraughtwithdanger, thattheircontinued existence depends on the day-to-daymobilisationofeveryounceofintelligence.282

677PriceF.,“RightEveryTime”,Alders-hot,Gower,1990

282"QUALITY:QUOVADIS?",TheSwissDemingInstitute(December2006):ErnstC.

Glauser,p.10www.deming.ch/downloads/E_quo_vadis.pdfUsedwithkindpermission.

“ ”

Bibliography

ByDavidJoyce

Summary

SUMMARY:BIBLIOGRAPHYNOTES

THEORIESOFWORK:ORIGINSOFTHEDESIGNANDMANAGEMENTOFWORK

168 CC-MProductions,Inc.775516thStreet,NWWashington,DC20012ManagementWisdom.com(800)bob@cc-m.com

282 "QUALITY:QUOVADIS?",TheSwissDemingInstitute(December2006):ErnstC.Glauser,p.10www.deming.ch/downloads/E_quo_vadis.pdfUsedwithkindpermission.

674 BypermissionofOxfordUniversityPresswww.oup.com©OrganizationalTraps:Leadership,Culture,OrganizationalDesignbyChrisArgyris(2010)478wfromChp.6“StrengtheningNewApproaches”pp.195-197

675 TheImportanceofKnowledgewww.unreasonable-learners.com/knowledge/

677 PriceF.,“RightEveryTime”,Alders-hot,Gower,1990

678 TheSCurve,Whatiswrongwithsuccess?,InterestingThingoftheDay,GuestArticlebyRajagopalSukumar,September25,2004itotd.com/articles/318/the-s-curve/

679 Dr.RussellAckoff-KeynoteatICSTM2004,SteveBrant55'sYouTubeChannelwww.youtube.com/user/SteveBrant55

680 SmashingTheClockDecember,BloombergBusinessWeekMagazine,ByMichelleConlin,10,2006www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-12-10/smashing-the-clockwww.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm

682 ASystemicPathToLeanManagement,ByH.ThomasJohnson,TheSystemsThinkerVol.20No.2March2009

682 SteveDenningpresentationLSSC12:MakingtheEntireFirmAgile(&Lean)vimeo.com/43458719

SUMMARY:BIBLIOGRAPHYNOTES

THEORIESOFWORK:ORIGINSOFTHEDESIGNANDMANAGEMENTOFWORK

692 Freedomfromcommandandcontrol,JohnSeddon,ManagementServices,Summer2005,p.22

699 www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/19/peggy-noonan-on-steve-jobs-and-why-big-companies-die/

700 TheNewEconomics:ForIndustry,Government,EducationByWilliamEdwardsDemingPublisher:TheMITPress;2ndedition(July31,2000)p.xv

701 PeterF.Drucker>Quoteswww.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12008.Peter_F_Drucker

702 TheEssentialDeming:LeadershipPrinciplesfromtheFatherofQuality,byW.EdwardsDeming(Author),Joyce(editedby)Orsini(Author),Diana(editedby)DemingCahill(Author),Publisher:McGraw-Hill;1edition(November20,2012)p.169

BIBLIOGRAPHYIMAGESTHEORIESOFWORK:

W.EdwardsDeming-RussianDemingInstitutedeming.ru/AboutDeming/foto_pages/Deming_BW1.jpg

PeterDrucker,PhotographCourtesyofTheDruckerInstituteatClaremontGraduateUniversity

JohnSeddon,ProvidedbyCharlottePell,Vanguard

INDEXOFNAMESTHEORIESOFWORK:

W.EdwardsDeming

JohnSeddon

GaryHamel

ChrisArgyris

PhyllisMoen

SteveDenning

H.ThomasJohnson

PeterDrucker

RussellAckoff

AlbertEinstein

KonosukeMatsushita

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