Executive offices in major corporations are often far removed from the day-to-day Work that most employees perform. While top executives might enjoy the perquisites found in the executive suite, and separation from workday concern can foster a broader perspective on the business, the distance between management and workers can come at a real cost: Top managers often fail to understand the ways most employees do their jobs every day. The dangers of this distant approach are clear.
Executives sometimes make decisions without recognizing how difficult or impractical they are to implement. Executives can also lose sight of the primary challenges their employees face. The practice of “management by walking around “(MBWA) works against the insularity of the executive suite. To practice MBWA, managers reserve time to walk through departments regularly, from networks of acquaintances in the organization,
and get away from their desks to talk to individual employees. The practice was exemplified by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who used this management style at HP to learn more about the challenges and opportunities their employees were encountering. Many other organizations followed suit and found that this style of management had advantages over a typical desk-bound approach to management. A recent study of successful Swedish organizations revealed that MBWA was an approach common to several firms that received national awards for being great places to works.
The Term Paper on Diversity Management Employees Organization
Managing Workplace Diversity Index 1. Introduction Page 32. What is diversity? Page 43. What is Cultural diversity? Page 54. Can diversity be managed? Page 75. What is management of diversity? Page 106. Why does it matter? Page 107. Conclusion Page 118. Reference Page 12 Introduction As we enter the new phase of modern labor, diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Employees now reflect ...
The popular television program ”Undercover Boss” took MBWA to the next level by having top executives from companies like Chiquita Brands, DirectTV, Great Wolf Resorts, and NASCAR work incognito among line employees. Executives reported that this process taught them how difficult many of the jobs in their organizations were, and just how much skill was required to perform even the lowest-level tasks.
They also said the experience taught them a lot about the core business in their organizations and sparked ideas for improvements. Although MBWA has long had its advocates, it does present certain problems. First, the time managers spend directly observing the workforce is time they are not doing their core job task like analysis, coordination, and strategic planning. Second, management base on subjective impressions gathered by walking around runs counter to research and data-base approach to making managerial decisions and overseers. Third, it is also possible that executive who wander about will seen as intruders and overseers. Implementing the MBWA style requires a great deal of foresight to avoid these potential pitfalls.
