If I was asked what the ‘Rules of Management’ were, I would answer:

1. Empathy – recognise your workers needs and give them a ‘fair go’.

The manager should be able to practise ‘placing yourself in their shoes’, when dealing with others. Workers have needs other than taking home a paycheck. These needs include having a reasonable level of control over their lives, including their day to day activities in the workplace. The manager should always be aware of the emotional effect his/her actions may have on workers, and avoid causing anxiety.

2. Hypocrisy – don’t be a hypocrite.

Middle managers in particular should avoid being hypocrites. It may be difficult to reconcile their personal conflict of interest, which can arise in a directive environment, when relaying directives from above to the shop floor. Managers should always base their decisions on the need for maximum benefit for all stakeholders.

3. Manipulation – don’t manipulate subordinates, avoid manipulating superiors and equal ranking personnel.

Normative control (the setting of empirical and sometimes ambiguous or false standards), is often exercised in industry. While the manager may find himself in the role of ‘judas goat’ on occasion, he/she should be honest in his dealings with other workers.

The idea that time can be managed more efficiently in most workplaces, is probably correct; however how productivity improvement is to be achieved, can be a major problem.

The current penchant for directive management, has meant that workers often display their ‘loyalty’ by working many hours of unpaid overtime. While this might gain favour with superiors, it can have a devastating effect on their health in later life, and adversely affect their family life and the futures of their children.

It seems that the whole of industry has a ‘compliance mentality’, that is ‘what do we have to do’, not ‘what do we want to do’.

Motivation by promise of a bright future, promotion or bonus, seems to fall short when compared with real gainsharing.

In one factory in which I worked, the workers were formed into teams and encouraged to ‘improve’ work practices. There were no ‘improvements’ after the first, when the number of workers on the shop floor, was reduced to take up the productivity gain. In this factory, the most stressed worker on the floor was the Quality Coordinator, who had the job of trying to gain acceptance for nonconforming work.

It would probably generate a certain level of interest, to analyse the overall output of the workers, who put in the extra (unpaid) hours. In particular the phone bill should be checked for personal calls made ‘after hours’.