The Hindu Business Line : Decline of ‘management’

“Management” as a system has lost its label and legitimacy in the current corporate scenario. It was highly successful during the several decades following the Industrial Revolution, and even until the 1990s, when its decline and fall became inevitable.

The science of management with its command-and-control syndrome was valid and relevant in the domain of organising activities and processes. But in the field of relationships and self-actualisation it has had real difficulties.

How can anyone “self-actualise” just because someone above him in the organisation chart is asking him to do so? It is a state of satisfaction derived from the spontaneous and self-generating action towards fulfilment of an inner desire. And no one can be ordered into that experience.

At crossroads

The business world is at the crossroads. The corporate culture is changing from bureaucracy to democracy. There is a transition from management to self-management. This momentous journey from “power” to “participation” is part of a larger social and historical transformation.

During the past several centuries, there has been a slow and steady progress of polities towards the direction of democracy. But in the economic segment of society, this philosophy has not made much headway for no good reason. When people are entitled to and capable of making decisions concerning their political governance, why not that privilege be extended to their economic governance also?

Democracy is as much a virtue in economics as it is in politics. Since all people are created equal, and since all people enjoy the right to life and liberty, why treat one section as second-class citizens? In practical terms, this translates into arriving at a consensus, not by silencing dissent or by coercing compliance, but by inviting participation and making common cause with everyone who has a franchise. It involves creating adequate space and opportunity, which is free and inviolate, wherein difference and dissonance will be welcome for a frank and forthright discussion and resolution. In the context of self-management, people operate in a collaborative and consultative mode, which is the talisman and insignia for the participative pattern in corporate governance.

Self-management teams identify problem areas, and thereafter, assume and allocate responsibility among themselves for discovering and implementing solutions. Managers need not assign tasks, nor monitor their execution. They do not function any longer as power brokers, but operate only as facilitators and mentors.

Human dignity

Employees are released from the rigidity and regimentation of the hierarchy. Human dignity takes precedence over every other parameter. A minimum form of control is necessary in an organisation to eschew chaos and indiscipline.

Even conceding that such an argument may have some validity, surely there is no need for a permanent hierarchy. At best, the hierarchy may be task-oriented and situational, related to the competencies called for in a specific context.

While “management” in its traditional and orthodox format has the tendency to freeze people into a straitjacket and stifle their initiative, the self-management teams are seen to create not only a more effective way of working, but also engineer an enlargement of freedom inside an organisation. When employees learn the lingua franca of self-management and empowerment, there is no need for someone to overview their work from above. There is no need for the phenomenon of “management”.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)