Heinz Siebenbrock - Fair Management

Foreword to the German edition Foreword to the German edition ‘Are you meant to be for the company or is the company for you?’ Are the employees meant to be for you or is the company for the employees? Are the customers meant to be for the company or is the company for the customers?’ When I was a young businessman, a consultant asked me these three questions and added, ‘Depending on the attitude you consciously adopt you see the world differently, and that’s how you’ll respond to questions.’ Every manager has a certain attitude, which they act according to. The only question is whether they are conscious of doing this or not. Currently, too many managers are still unclear about the attitude they take towards their employees, their customers and their company. If you open the business section of a newspaper, you mostly get the impression that the people are there for the company. But if we ask ourselves why we do what we do and what it’s all for, we will realise that the goal of it all is people. Without people there would be no economy. People, then, cannot be the means – people are the purpose of everything we do. Who is meant to be for whom? – The company is meant to be for the people! A company is an arena for all those involved in it to help them to realise who they are and create their own biographies. I warmly recommend this book to all managers. Reading this book allows you to become conscious of your own attitude and the way you treat your employees. This is more crucial today than ever. A manager cannot be successful for the long-term if he or she misses the mark in answering the question ‘Who is meant to be for whom?’ The most important job of those bearing executive responsibility is to mould the company in such a way that it attracts innovation – that means creating conditions that bring forth new initiatives. All those involved must have room to develop and contribute their own ideas. The more the people at a company realise what needs doing themselves and take initiative on their own, the more entrepreneurial it will be. If you want to adopt this realisation for yourself, reading this book will be an important step on the path. June 2013 Prof. Götz W. Werner

List of figures List of figures Fig. 1: The implicit values of business Fig. 2: Graph of maximum profit calculation Fig. 3: Values of fair management Fig. 4: Frame of reference for dark management Fig. 5: Aspects of good staff management Fig. 6: Hierarchical relations between economic goals Fig. 7: Example for formulating minutes Fig. 8: Excerpt from an example task analysis for a team leader Fig. 9: Example of a detailed task description as part of a task analysis (excerpt) Fig. 10: The Johari Window Fig. 11: Johari Window after feedback Fig. 12: Three-step process of organisational change according to Kurt Lewin Fig. 13: Comparison of concepts of change based closely on Georg Schreyögg Fig. 14: Comparison of management concepts

Preface

1 Dedicated employees?

1.1 Management: a question of attitude

1.2 Structure of the book

2 Questionable values in business studies

2.1 Frugality

2.2 Profit maximisation

2.3 Focusing on competition

2.4 Growth

2.5 How questionable values affect managers’ attitudes

3 Developing a model for good management

3.1 Theories of management in management literature

3.2 The attitude of management as a precondition for good leadership

3.2.1 Appreciation

3.2.2 Sustainability

3.2.3 Fulfilment

3.2.4 Trust

3.2.5 Dark management put to the test

3.2.6 Further development of a model of management

3.3 Guidelines of good management

3.3.1 Focusing on results

3.3.2 Contributing to the whole

3.3.3 Focusing on the essentials

3.3.4 Using the strengths available

3.3.5 Positive thinking

3.3.6 Being true to your word

3.3.7 Involving employees

3.3.8 Authenticity

3.4 Tasks of good management

3.4.1 Provide objectives

3.4.2 Change

3.4.3 Coordination

3.4.4 Developing employees

3.5 Instruments of good management

3.5.1 Developing and communicating a business strategy

3.5.2 Planning and checks

3.5.3 Organisation and improvisation

3.5.4 Minutes and policies

3.5.5 Task analysis

3.5.6 Team meetings

3.5.7 Performance reviews

3.5.8 Time management

3.5.9 Active listening and feedback

3.5.10 Systematic waste disposal

4 Good management is also a question of decency

4.1 Decent company management in a business context

4.1.1 Transparency

4.1.2 Limiting the return on investment

4.1.3 Performance-related pay and profit-sharing for employees

4.1.4 Relative limits on managers’ income

4.1.5 Preventing low wages

4.2 Decent company management in a social context

4.2.1 Limiting the size of organisational units

4.2.2 Companies as merchandise

4.2.3 Employees’ co-determination

4.2.4 Compliance with laws and voluntary commitments

4.2.5 Diversity

4.2.6 Well-being

4.2.7 Environmental protection

4.3 Control systems for management with decency

4.3.1 Regular customer surveys

4.3.2 Regular employee surveys

4.3.3 Supervisor evaluation and 360° feedback

5 Modern management concepts from the perspective of good leadership

5.1 Traditional management concepts

5.1.1 Process and quality management

5.1.2 Lean management and business re-engineering

5.1.3 Project management and multi-project management

5.1.4 Change management in the sense of planned change

5.2 Generative management concepts

5.2.1 Change management in the sense of ‘learning organisations’

5.2.2 Innovation management

5.2.3 Knowledge management

5.2.4 Error management: a positive culture of dealing with mistakes

5.2.5 Agility

5.3 Do management concepts restrict or expand opportunities?

6 Case studies of good management

6.1 Working together: the works council as financial controller

6.2 The new headteacher

6.3 Do-it-yourself theatre!

6.4 The branch is closed, and the boss is leaving too!

6.5 Life on a skateboard: up, down and up again!

6.6 Buurtzorg: close to people

6.7 Support from initiatives for businesses

7 The hope of political support for fair management

Acknowledgements

Index of keywords

Index of persons

Bibliography

Annotations

List of figures

Fig. 1: The implicit values of business

Fig. 2: Graph of maximum profit calculation

Fig. 3: Values of fair management

Fig. 4: Frame of reference for dark management

Fig. 5: Aspects of good staff management

Fig. 6: Hierarchical relations between economic goals

Fig. 7: Example for formulating minutes

Fig. 8: Excerpt from an example task analysis for a team leader

Fig. 9: Example of a detailed task description as part of a task analysis (excerpt)

Fig. 10: The Johari Window

Fig. 11: Johari Window after feedback

Fig. 12: Three-step process of organisational change according to Kurt Lewin

Fig. 13: Comparison of concepts of change based closely on Georg Schreyögg

Fig. 14: Comparison of management concepts

Preface

Economics has been the subject of criticism for some time, although this criticism is primarily directed at economics theory. Walter Otto Ötsch (Mythos Markt [The Myth of the Market]), Thomas Piketty (Capital in the Twenty-First Century), Peter and Andrew Schiff (How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes), Joseph Stiglitz (People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent) and others trace back global and national economic problems to an inadequate theoretical structure. Regarding the 2008 financial crisis, David Orrell even concludes: ‘I criticise the mathematical models that the economists use, not because they didn’t predict the crisis… I criticise them for having made the crisis possible in the first place. They created a false sense of security, like putting on a seat belt that isn’t anchored to anything.’1