The Hindu Business Line : Face and soul of business

You may have the most perfectly designed and built process or system, but it is only as good as the human being who uses it, remind John H. Fleming and Jim Asplund in Human Sigma (Gallup Press). Yet, the sad truth, as the authors observe, is that people are ‘out of the equation altogether’ because, to many executives, ‘controlling quality in processes and systems is infinitely easier than similar activities with people.’

These executives are alumni of the ‘Terminator School of Management,’ dubs the book, drawing a parallel from the Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer that spoke of how machines come to rule the earth. “Terminator Management sees employees as little more than a cost it needs to reduce or a mistake just waiting to happen.”

It is an institutionalised mindset that ‘fails to recognise and unleash the unique potential embodied in every employee, preferring instead to view all employees as interchangeable cogs in some grand machine.’

Companies where such a style of management flourishes pursue a strategy of minimising and even eliminating the human interface altogether, in the name of reducing costs, increasing efficiency, offering flexibility and so on.

Examples abound in the form of ‘self-serve check-in, Internet banking, automated voice response customer service numbers, and online retail.’

The authors are tired of these ‘nameless and faceless’ processes, with which whole workplaces have been reengineered ‘so that there are more roles fit for machines and fewer that require a person.’ They contend that ‘a vision of the service economy that emphasises automation and technology at the expense of human interaction does customers and shareholders alike a huge disservice by ripping the face and soul out of business.’

A book worth dipping into, for its valuable insights.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com