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Topic: managing people

topics > Group: organizations



Topic:
commitment
Topic:
education
Topic:
management
Topic:
management of large software projects
Topic:
military and war
Group:
psychology
Topic:
responsibility
Topic:
sociology

Summary

Management fails if it can't hold on to its people or attract new people. It needs to consider human values, personal needs, career plans, work areas, equipment provided, consistent progress, and rearrangements. Top-down management, management by fear, and management by crisis, can result in high turnover rates.

A tricky balance is that between manager and staff. The function can be split between inside and outside managers. Top management should shape actions by providing meaning for action.

An important part of management and the successful performance of projects is face-to-face communication and reviews. Skip-level reviews helps tie together an organization (cbb 6/83)

Subtopic: presentations up

Quote: never just present the data; start with the conclusion to which the data led [»colwRP_2006]

Subtopic: scientific management up

Quote: systematic, scientific management can fix human inefficiencies with astounding results; it has clearly defined laws, rules, and principles [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: scientific management increases employee wages while reducing costs; avoids antagonsism between employees and their employers [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: a workman is incapable of understanding all aspects of his work; scientific management requires close, personal cooperation between management and staff [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: increased wages and close cooperation with management removes all cause for soldiering and increases employment for all [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: why Taylor started scientific management; life as one continuous struggle with other men is hardly worth living [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: there is no uniform relation between energy exerted and the tiring effect of work; may be more tired from 1/8 a horse-power than 1/2 horse-power per day [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: the tiring effect of heavy labor depends on the percentage of the day under load; heavy pull or push by the arms [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: can load pig iron only 43% of the day; walk 8 miles carrying 92 pound pigs, 47.5 tons/day [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: scientific management reduced number of shovelers from 400-600 to 140 while increasing tons per day from 16 to 59; wages per day increased from $1.15 to $1.88 [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: deal each workman as a individual; the labor office plans every laborer's work well in advanced; laborers moved around the yard on maps like a chess-board [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: instead of a single foreman use an inspector, gang boss, speed boss, repair boss, time clerk, route clerk, and disciplinarian [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: improvements to bricklaying require management assistance; bricklayers must work at about the same rate [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: a third the employees, higher wages, reduced hours, and good relations; scientific management and selecting girls with quick perception [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: slide rule for metal cutting speed and feed; 12 variables derived from 30,000 to 50,000 experiments [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: scientific management does not create narrow, wooden workers; same kind of detailed training as a surgeon [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: the mechanism of scientific management is wrong if applied without the essence [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: the essence of scientific management is science, worker selection, education/development, and friendly cooperation
Quote: introduce scientific management slowly over several years; requires new mental attitudes; convince one workman first [»taylRW_1911, OK]

Subtopic: time and motion study up

Quote: enormous time saving from motion and time studies; eliminate unnecessary motions and substitute fast for slow and inefficient motions [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: an accurate, minute, motion and time study can identify the best method and implement for any task [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: nearly triple rate of bricklaying by positioning the feet, building scaffolds, and reducing movements from 18 per brick to 5 [»taylRW_1911, OK]

Subtopic: work breakdown up

Quote: Weber-Taylor school--solve problem of managing large groups by rules about breakdown of work, spans of control, authority and responsibility [»peteTJ_1982]
Quote: Taylor in 1885 discovered that the job of shoveling sand was all wrong [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: scientific management leads to a subdivision of labor; e.g., each act by a mechanic should be preceded by preparatory acts done by others [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: tasks are central to scientific management; each day every workman receives detailed instructions about his tasks and how to perform them [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: a workman should never work at a pace that is injurious to his health; tasks should be regulated for a long, happy and prosperous career [»taylRW_1911, OK]

Subtopic: work units up

Quote: Amazon Turk manages work units for humans; e.g., Is there a dog in this picture?, translate this text to English, and verify a translation [»barrJ5_2006]

Subtopic: employee-centric up

Quote: assess every improvement suggested by workmen; adopt a new standard if markedly superior; reward the workman [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: an individual needs control over the speed, rhythm and attention span needed for work; needs diversity [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: an employer has no business with a man's personality; the contract calls for performance and not loyalty nor "attitudes" [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: if a workman falls behind, send a teacher to guide and study him; either improves or shifted to another class of work [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: the combined skill and knowledge of workers is far greater than management's; management is ignorant about what constitutes a proper day's work [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: disallow long-term labor gangs of more than four men; avoids loss of ambition and initiative when herded as gangs instead of treated as individuals [»taylRW_1911, OK]
QuoteRef: jonesTC12_1981 ;;4 "Working on unsuccessful or cancelled projects is devastating to morale.
QuoteRef: cbb_1980 ;;2/8/83 dubrowM: can't just move people about, need to consider career plans.

Subtopic: productivity up

Quote: a third the employees, higher wages, reduced hours, and good relations; scientific management and selecting girls with quick perception [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: more than anything else, productivity distinguishes civilized from uncivilized countries [»taylRW_1911, OK]

Subtopic: tools up

Quote: the optimal shovel load is 21 pounds; use 8 to 10 different kinds of shovels instead of one per shoveler; e.g., a small shovel for ore and a large one for ashes [»taylRW_1911, OK]

Subtopic: combine management with work; limit travel up

Quote: managing is work, but not full-time nor with continuous meetings and travel; should also have responsibility for a specific job [»drucPF_1974]

Subtopic: working together up

Quote: society has become an employee society; 100 years ago must people worked by themselves or in very small groups (home-based) [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: work has always been the means to satisfy one's need for belonging to a group and having meaningful relationships with others [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: people can work together if they are not friends or even if they cordially dislike each other [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: the purpose of an organization is to make the strengths of people productive and their weaknesses irrelevant; placement is important [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: if a service cannot be run and managed by people who only try hard, it cannot be done at all [»drucPF_1974]
Quote: you cannot run a business, or anything else involving people, on a theory [»geneH_1984]
Quote: scientific management is science, harmony, cooperation, productivity; the development of each man to his greatest efficiency and prosperity [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: work requires cooperation, with each preserving their individuality, originality, and initiative; working on best suited task [»taylRW_1911, OK]

Subtopic: wages up

Quote: workmen will work harder than their coworkers iff given better wages [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: workers get a fraction of productivity gains; the bulk of the gains go to the market, the whole people [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: do not tie compensation to objectives; otherwise try to score well instead of selecting the right objectives and metrics [»colwRP_2006]

Subtopic: collective bargaining up

Quote: it is questionable that collective bargaining can survive; but workers still need a power base to restrain and control management [»drucPF_1974]

Subtopic: work vs. play up

Quote: work is impersonal and objective while the purpose of play lies in the player [»drucPF_1974]

Subtopic: distrust communications up

Quote: military officers personally confirm that orders are carried yet; distrust communications [»drucPF_1974]

Subtopic: problem solving up

Quote: Geneen monitored subsidiary companies to solve problems and prevent them from happening again [»geneH_1984]

Subtopic: meetings up

Quote: Geneen insisted on face-to-face communication; needs the facial expressions behind the figures [»duns12_1970]

Subtopic: reviews up

QuoteRef: cbb_1980 ;;3/15/83 grimesJD: skip level reviews instituted by Kidd. For example his reports are reviewed by Frame.

Subtopic: leadership up

Quote: a leader orchestrates action and gives it meaning in terms of strategic directions [»peteTJ_1982]
Quote: a list of characteristics of winning generals; important for managing super large system development [»joneTC1_1977]
Quote: bind the multitude with deeds and harm instead of words and advantage; as if leading a single person, they can turn defeat into victory [»tzuS_180]

Subtopic: education up

Quote: programmers must be given 2-3 hours per week to study research results in programming methodology [»grieD_1979]

Subtopic: recruitment problems up

Quote: no correlation between interview scores and promotions [»colwRP_2006]

Subtopic: management problems up

Quote: systematic soldiering -- if everyone has similar work for uniform pay, the best will slow their gait to the worst and least efficient [»taylRW_1911, OK]
Quote: piece work leads to systematic soldiering; if increased productivity leads to decreased pay, workmen will deliberately mislead and deceive their employer
[»taylRW_1911, OK]

Related Topics up

Topic: commitment (31 items)
Topic: education (35 items)
Topic: management (27 items)
Topic: management of large software projects (63 items)
Topic: military and war (36 items)
Group: psychology   (9 topics, 307 quotes)
Topic: responsibility (12 items)
Topic: sociology
(11 items)

Updated barberCB 3/83 8/04
Copyright © 2002-2008 by C. Bradford Barber. All rights reserved.
Thesa is a trademark of C. Bradford Barber.