Friday, March 8, 2013

Management Creates Darkness

StrangeTony,

I came across this survey and it fits with what we've been sharing, you at Generic Hospice and me at Gentiva.

U.S. corporate executives paint a bleak picture of the workplace, full of dolts and drones.

Workers lack communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creative skills executives say, according to a recent survey by the American Management Association. Turns out, bosses aren't too excited about their underlings' abilities, a prospect they're getting more worried about considering such skills will be more important amid a changing business landscape, they say.

The number of executives rating their employees as below average increased across all four areas since the survey was last taken in 2010. Almost 20 percent of workers lack at least average creative skills, according to executives.

American leaders frequently pit workers against one another, sloughing off the bottom 5-10%.  This internal competition comes at a price.

Rather than building character, competition sabotages self-esteem and ruins relationships

Add leaders' over-reliance on extrinsic reward programs, which kill intrinsic motivation and management has created the very thing it abhors.

The more an organization relies on incentives, the worse things get.

Leaders fail to recognize their dissatisfaction is of their making.  While the overall situation is bleak, Gentiva's is bleaker.   

Gentiva Hospice employees aren't communicated with.  For there to be an opportunity for collaboration, the company would need to seek input.  Gentiva dropped the employee survey two years ago.  There's no sign of its return.  It went the way of raises.

As for critical thinking skills, those are not desired in a directive, top down company.  "Yes" is what they expect to hear.  Creative skills are also superfluous.  Anything "created" must be submitted to corporate for approval.

Anonymous

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