|
DESCRIPTION
Context
In any large and complex organisation all human life is there. It would be boring and surprising if it wasn't. On the other hand, it needs watching carefully. It needs acknowledging. It needs understanding. It needs managing.
Yet what do most managers do when they need to make improvements in the way organisations are managed? They talk about rational things like injecting more resources and installing computers. They discuss organisation charts, mission statements, list of competencies and tasks. They set up committees and announce new reporting channels. They devise new rules and policies. They publish edicts and make exhortations.
Yet the organisation's problems almost certainly have more to do with such things as departmental 'turf' rivalries, personal jealousies, ambition, greed, power struggles, self-interest groups, bosses not on speaking terms, petty and not so petty politics, intimidation and fear. Even sexual attractions, liaisons and favours account for much of what does and doesn't get done 'according to plan'.
It is in the culture and relationships that managers can find the most powerful clues to what's going on. Yet few managers are adept at seeing and understanding, let alone managing, this real-life scenario. It is usually beyond the bounds of training, often out of bounds completely - undiscussed and undiscussible. Yet this is the real backcloth for much of what goes on inside organisations. Organisations live and behave tabloid, but discuss and plan broadsheet.
In every kind of organisation there are things that 'go on' that are not transparent and rational; they are murky and difficult to comprehend. The dynamics are tied up in the personality of individuals, whose actions are designed to meet their personal and sometimes dubious needs. To the 'players' these needs are more important than achieving the organisation's own legitimate goals.
Many observers find this 'game-playing' beneath contempt. They don't understand it, don't approve of it, and don't want to have any part in it. They would like to stamp it out. Yet their own behaviour is irrational, if they could but recognise it. They are blind to it and to their own and their organisation's shadow side.
Yet other people seem to take this shadow side in their stride, accepting it as part of the rich pattern of interpersonal relationships. To them, the shadow side is an inevitable part of management. Being skilful at it is key to being a successful manager. Not only do such managers understand the game and approve of it, they play it, and they play it well. Some positively revel in it; it is the whole point of work.
Whatever you think of the shadow side, there is no denying that it is pervasive in organisations. But it can also be viewed as necessary. Organisations need their shadow side as a kind of safety valve. Exploiting the shadow side can be seen as honourable. Far from making the workplace less effective, this perspective argues that the shadow side is where we retain our individuality and humanness against the pressures of our formal role and the organisation's requirements and rules. If you accept this notion, then the task of management is not to tame the shadow side, but to sustain it in a state of balance alongside the official system.
Managing the shadow side might sound like a 'promotional' for The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli's classic story on power and manipulation. But that is not our motivation here; quite the opposite. While many of the illustrations in the text show managers using the shadow side for personal gain, our intention is to show how to manage the shadow side to benefit the organisation.
Failure to do this entails a major human and economic cost. When things go wrong, managers often seek comfort in blaming 'human error'. They remain blind to shortcomings in the system (for example, fatal hospital errors such as the injection of wrong drugs). Yet the reverse is also common. Managers frequently seek rational solutions, such as new structures, rules and edicts, while neglecting human nature.
Scope of audit
Managing the shadow side entails achieving a fine balance between the rational and non-rational. This audit shows how that is possible. The audit approaches the subject at various levels:
| • |
|
Understanding what the shadow side is: the models and elements that comprise it. |
| • |
|
Why the shadow side matters in organisations, and why it is important to gain control over it. |
| • |
|
Developing more highly tuned personal antennae that give you the ability to see the shadow side at work. |
| • |
|
Acquiring the analytical skill to be able to tease out just what is going on at any time. |
| • |
|
Improving one's skills in managing the shadow side and managing yourself better in that environment. |
Business benefits
1. |
|
You will obtain a clear understanding of the nature of the shadow side of organisational life and its potency. |
2. |
|
You will develop a balanced perspective of the shadow side, both its positive and negative attributes. |
3. |
|
You will hone your antennae and sharpen your senses at detecting where the shadow side is responsible for particular situations you are experiencing. |
4. |
|
You will discover how to bring awkward and sensitive issues out of the shadows, enabling important but previously undiscussed matters to become discussible and manageable. |
5. |
|
You will develop skills attuned to the demands that the shadow side places on managers and where you need to make a well-informed contribution that matches the game being played. |
6. |
|
You will know what you are getting yourself into and be less likely to be deceived by action or data designed to please you. |
7. |
|
You will take more rounded decisions. |
8. |
|
You will find it easier to gain acceptance to your proposals. |
9. |
|
You will choose wisely where to commit your effort and resources. |
10. |
|
You will gain a reputation for being more streetwise. |
|
|
As a result,
|
11. |
|
Your organisation will establish a more open culture. |
12. |
|
Your organisation will improve interpersonal relationships. |
13. |
|
Your organisation will engage in more honest and open dialogue. |
14. |
|
Your organisation will find problems are surfaced with confidence and are more easily resolved. |
15. |
|
Your organisation will be more successful at managing change. |
16. |
|
Your organisation will establish a baseline from which to audit the shadow side at a future date and measure progress. |
The audit concept
The audit looks at what the organisation is doing and not doing. It looks for gaps in current practice, as well as evaluating how well various policies, processes and programmes are working.
The term 'audit' means assessing, checking, evaluating and improving. It combines a gap analysis and health check with improvement advice. The process is designed to help organisations think, compare, illuminate, learn, plan and improve.
Each audit theme comprises two main components. There is first a descriptive part or 'learning input', containing a definition, discussion, explanation and advice on the particular theme. This is immediately followed by a questionnaire that enables you to assess the organisation. It helps you to measure current performance in each theme's subject area and identify the gaps and scope for improvement.
The audit's themes
1. Office politics
This is the aspect most people first think of concerning the shadow side. It may be their only one. Everyone has a negative story to tell about office politics. Yet there is a positive side. How can managers learn how to use 'positive politics'?
2. Trust and relationships
Trust lies at the heart of quality relationships and dialogue. It affects what can and cannot be discussed, and what cannot even be mentioned as a possible subject for discussion. It influences what get openly shared and reported, what gets covered up. What can be voiced without fear?
3. Training and development
Training is often blamed when the public spotlight is turned on organisation mishaps, but then claimed to have magic power to provide solutions. Hence trainers frequently get caught up in machinations. How can training do an honest job?
4. Creativity and innovation
Creative people and new ideas exist at the boundary of what's comfortably tolerated by an organisation. They threaten the status quo and pose a challenge to the formal, legitimate system. How can organisations optimise their innovating potential?
5. Reward and punishment
Organisation managers try to align their systems with what they suppose are individuals' needs and motivations, including greed and status, as well as exhibiting their own need to display power and dominance. How can rewards be used honourably to help the business?
6. Target setting
Targets are popular with those who set them, and unpopular with those on the receiving end. They are the source of endless political games and diversions from the real business that is the subject behind the targets. How can targets be used soundly and acceptably?
7. Management by numbers
The days of reducing managerial success to numbers is gone. Yet number-crunchers still fall victim to the charm of numbers, besides abusing them as "Lies, damned lies and statistics". How can we see numbers clearly for what they are and use them honestly and wisely?
8. Change management
The destabilising turmoil of change, or mere threat of it, invokes shadow-side responses by many. How can those who manage change try to plan and design it in a way that recognises how human nature affects its likelihood of success?
9. Organisation culture
Culture is the source of the values, beliefs and norms that underpin many of the manifestations of the shadow side in an organisation. It determines 'how crazy it is round here' and whether people collaborate or compete. In your organisation does rationality or irrationality prevail?
© William Tate, Prometheus Consulting, 2003
Top of page
|
