- Image via Wikipedia
One of the interesting aspects of our work environment is how group conscience guides decision making. Our practice, which often includes staff having multiple supervisors, goes against many forms of top down management and administration theory, like that defined in this post:
“…identified the key functions of management as being those of forecasting and planning. The most rational and efficient organizations were, in his view, those which implemented a plan that facilitated ‘unity, continuity, flexibility, precision, command and control’. Universal principles of administration were then distilled from these objectives. These include the key elements of the scalar chain (authority and responsibility flowing in an unbroken line from the chief executive to the shop floor); unity of command (each person has only one supervisor with whom he or she communicates); a pyramid of prescribed control (first-line supervisors have a limited number of functions and subordinates, with second-line supervisors controlling a prescribed number of first-line supervisors, and so on up to the chief executive); unity of direction (people engaged in similar activities must pursue a common objective in line with the overall plan); specialization of tasks (allowing individuals to build up a specific expertise and so be more productive); and, finally, subordination of individual interests to the general interest of the organization. ”
Stepping Stone Partners advocates and implements multiplicity in areas of command and reporting. The reason it works for us has to do with our primary objective of creating a therapeutic milieu. A net of shared and often overlapping responsibility keeps our focus on those we serve and ensures that input of observations does not get blocked by the inherent psychology of hierarchies. Binding this practice to the guiding principle of group conscience creates passionate feedback and investment in our culture.
So the question is, does top down management inherently block open and honest sharing from subordinates?
