Managment problem and solutions.
...ecially during times of change depends on the widespread dissemination of information throughout an organization and the communication that enables this dissemination to happen. Employees must be empowered with information so that they can make the best decisions at the lowest possible level in the organization, quickly and without the approval of higher-ups. A very important job of a manager is delegation. In order to delegate a task to a certain employee or group of employees, there needs to be a certain level of communication where as the employee can understand exactly what needs to be done in order to complete the task at hand. Often, bosses assign work to employees with little or no direction on what's expected or how to complete the job. Other managers tend to take away an employees ability to make decisions on their own. Managers should continually focus on how they can push decision-making authority down the organization. Power is not a zero-sum game. If more authority is exerted by employees at lower levels, the organization as a whole will be more powerful and effective. A typical scenario which this problem can be fully illustrated can be seen between James and Melissa, two colleagues of mine. James is an experienced Information Systems Manager in IBM who has been employed there for 3 years. Melissa has been his assistant for two years. One day, while working at her desk on a corporate project, Melissa finds that the words in the program could be better read in a darker color. Melissa then gathers James gathered all of the information to make this important decision. He talked to other phone companies, called the Better Business Bureau, and talked to his friends that work for other similar companies in the area. Although Melissa did not normally handle matters such as large scale program alterations, she felt comfortable doing so because she had made a similar decision for a smaller project. Armed with the results of thorough alteration, she then went to James and said: "I think we should change the color of the words. Here's why." James listened patiently and then said, "I appreciate all of the good work you've done Melissa. However, this is really something that I should handle due to the importance and capacity of this project." Melissa leaves James's office extremely frustrated because she thought she was doing the right thing and later returns to his office to ask if she can take the rest of the day off because she's not feeling well. There is defiantly a problem with this picture. Employee survey research with over 40 participating organizations show that 39 percent of all employees do not feel they have the decision-making authority they need to do their jobs well. Here area some suggestions for how managers can empower their employees. There are 3 ways this problem can be solved so that it does not happen again. One way the manager can go about preventing this situation from happening is to set ground rules for the assistant as far as alterations to any given task or project. James and Melissa need to sit down and make clear the level of Melissa's decision-making authority. In other words, determine decisions that he can make by herself, and decisio...