Discussions about people at work - primarily business psychology, including the human side of outsourcing.
Stewardship and management
We were talking today about the importance of stewardship of the earth. The question was raised about why we need to continually 'sell' people on the benefits to them of saving the planet. How switching things off will in the long run be 'good for them as individuals'. The discussion was around the inherent selfishness in all this - what happened to good old stewardship - the idea that we should look after our world because it is the right thing to do?
It made me think about my work as a business consultant. All the time I have to ensure that I explain clearly how everything will improve the bottom line, that every intervention will be good for business and help to make even more profit. So I tell them they should treat their employees fairly, reduce bullying, allow them some work-life balance, train them, motivate them etc., and it is only to help the bottom line. The effort will be worth it because it will increase profits. Whilst I understand that, in a very rational way, it does make me wonder whatever happened to doing good management because it was the right thing to do?
Can we not have a good working evironment, train our staff, help them enjoy work etc., because it is right and ethical?
I think some organisations do that (including Crosslight), but sadly I feel it is only a few.
It seems to be an issue right across our society, it has become unfashionable even to discuss 'doing the right thing'. I may need to put my sociological hat on as well as my psychological one - so probably more later.
But it is something that worries me...
It made me think about my work as a business consultant. All the time I have to ensure that I explain clearly how everything will improve the bottom line, that every intervention will be good for business and help to make even more profit. So I tell them they should treat their employees fairly, reduce bullying, allow them some work-life balance, train them, motivate them etc., and it is only to help the bottom line. The effort will be worth it because it will increase profits. Whilst I understand that, in a very rational way, it does make me wonder whatever happened to doing good management because it was the right thing to do?
Can we not have a good working evironment, train our staff, help them enjoy work etc., because it is right and ethical?
I think some organisations do that (including Crosslight), but sadly I feel it is only a few.
It seems to be an issue right across our society, it has become unfashionable even to discuss 'doing the right thing'. I may need to put my sociological hat on as well as my psychological one - so probably more later.
But it is something that worries me...
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The bottom line and good management 13:32Stephanie, I must say your Blog on stewardship really struck home. It is true that many of the management recipes we apply often have a hidden assumption behind them that if we do this then in some way is this a good thing for business. Take for example in an outsourcing where I have been told to mentor/counsel people about to be outsourced about what to expect etc. from their new organisation. Now this was done in order to 'help' the person through the transition (so they could be productive quickly) or to prevent people leaving (so the company did not have to recruit). No way was this posed as simply because this is 'the right thing to do' to help your people cope. In a similar way think about training - often this is justified in terms of extra output to be expected - and the training had to be relevant for the job NOT because it is a good thing to train and bring on your people - even if there is a chance they might leave. We do not think perhaps that training people - without an ulterior motive - means you enhance your relationship with your people - yes you can increase loyalty as well -but more importantly they see you care and they care as well about you and your company in return. I wonder what and in what ways we train ethics and stewardship on MBA's etc and to what extent is there always a bottom line ethical 'reward' we expect from doing simply what we should be doing if we exercised good management and stewardship? Cheers John |
Posted 29th October 2007 at 14:45 by JohnBlack
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Recent Blog Entries by Stephanie
- Quality Accounts for NHS (21st November 2008)
- Bullying at work - we are all responsible (9th November 2008)
- Do not outsource a problem (21st September 2008)
- The human side of outsourcing - managing people change (13th September 2008)
- Outsourcing kills the IT job market - what now for IT recruitment? (4th September 2008)
