The Role of the Machine Metaphor in Mixed-initiative Organizational Leadership

"Can This Marriage be Saved?" So reads the title of the cover story in the August 15, 2005 issue of BusinessWeek (www.businessweek.com). The article describes the seven-year (1998-2005) story of the merger of Daimler and Chrysler Corporation. As of this writing, the board of the merged companies decided to terminate the reign of the current chairman, Jürgen Schrempp. At the end of this year he will be replaced with Dieter Zetsche, the current head of the company's operations in North America. The article identifies the following five critical challenges facing the new chairman:

1. Improving product quality and worker morale.

2. Securing union support to gain flexible labor agreements.

3. Impressing on company executives to promote flexible and productive operations in North America.

4. Developing and executing a more coherent partnership strategy in Asia.

5. Addressing investor pressure to break up the merger.

The five challenges listed above clearly show that more people related problems (i.e., social issues) will need to be addressed than technology issues. The new chairman must embrace a mixed-initiative leadership style with a proportionate focus on both the technical and social aspects of the organization for the company to survive. This leadership style demands some proficiency in the science of complexity (i.e., the principles of managing the organization as a complex adaptive system) and the machine metaphor (i.e., the routine aspects of modern organizational life-job descriptions, corporate policies, strategic and operational plans, etc.)*. Organizational leaders cannot afford to place disproportionate focus on the machine metaphor in a complex organization.

The Machine Metaphor

The machine metaphor takes an objective view of an organization in which the interactions among the elements are predictable and controllable. Given that premise, organizational leaders take a mechanistic view of organizational management. The mechanistic view considers the organization as a combination of manageable components with organizational charts, job descriptions, policies, operational plans, people, etc. The machine metaphor is based on an organizational management belief that effective management can be realized by managing all organizational components.

The Flawed "People Management" Mindset

In some instances, this metaphor is incorrectly applied to people management. In her advice column for the Twentysomethings in the July 17, 2005 issue of the Washington Post, Career Track section, Mary Ellen Slayter wrote about why young professionals resist the offer to move to management. "I am not good at managing people" is the reason provided by a 49-year old lady for resisting the offer. In defending the new Department of Homeland Security's merit pay system, Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget asserts "The Federal government as a rule is pretty bad about managing people" (Washington Post, National News, July 19, 2005).

This mindset of people management is entrenched in our social and organizational systems. It is very important for organizational leaders to know that machine control techniques apply to things, not people. Except for the military, we manage things. We lead people. The role of a manager is to provide a rich and rewarding environment to enable workers to do their work. A human being is an agent in an organizational context. This agent's behavior is unpredictable. The agent must interact with other human agents, within a team, whose behavior is also unpredictable. The team must interact with other teams in a department. Next, we have inter-departmental interactions, which can lead to inter-divisional interactions, and so on. The result of the interactions is a complex organization, which must adapt to its environment to survive, because the organization is a living system. As articulated by Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja in their book: Surfing the Edge of Chaos, (Random House, 2000), as a living system, the organization must abide by "the laws of nature and the new laws of business".

Whether managing a corner store or a global conglomerate, the manager/leader must always remember that an organization is a socio-technical system and the machine metaphor should be applied only to the technical or machinistic elements. To ensure the survival of the corporation, the leaders need to identify and understand those elements of the organizations that exhibit unpredictable behaviors, and those elements whose behaviors are predictable. They need to master and apply the management science of complex adaptive systems to the former and machine metaphor to the latter. These two approaches constitute the essence of a mixed-initiative perspective.

*(Plsek, PEP&A, Inc; Lindberg, VHA, Inc; Zimmerman, York University; 1997-Some emerging principles for managing in complex adaptive systems).

Dr. Odubiyi is the author of Blueprint for a Crooked House-a book that reflects on the factors that caused the collapse of a $10 billion global joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom. He is an associate professor of computer science at Bowie State University in Maryland. He was a Principal AI Researcher and R&D Manager at British Telecom North America/Concert Global Communications (USA).

http://www.blueprintforacrookedhouse.com

---

Mantra for Managers

What do organizations look for in a prospective employee with... Read More

Joint Accountability: Another Key for Your Effectiveness

I once was part of a group of management professors... Read More

How to Delegate Effectively

ACCOUNTABILITY: Delegation is not complete unless subordinates are held accountable... Read More

Controlling Your Cash Flow

IntroductionAre you looking for a way to gain control of... Read More

Knowledge Management - Creating a Sustainable Yellow Pages System

How can I "know who knows" None of us can... Read More

Attract and Retain Positively Great Employees - An Action Plan for Employee Training

Everyday a business owner, CEO, or manager somewhere is complaining... Read More

Know the Source of Business

One of the first questions we ask a prospect or... Read More

Five Essential Hiring Practices

Recruiting and hiring are often done in haste, leaving the... Read More

Spinning Gold from Straw: Low-Cost Employee Retention and Motivation Tools in a Changing Economy

New York, NY, February 25, 2005 ? Employee retention and... Read More

Five Strategies for Profitable Services Growth

In today's era of Professional and IT Services competition and... Read More

Telephone Techniques: Boost Your Productivity With Effective Phoning

One of the things that most impacts people's productivity is... Read More

The Retailers Calendar

The Julian calendar we use to pass the time every... Read More

Get Out Of The Stone Age: Give Leadership Talks

160 years ago, the newly invented electric telegraph carried the... Read More

How to Meet Quality Standards with ISO 9001

In today's hectic business environment, it is vital that we... Read More

Solving the Problem Solving Problem

The meeting started like a hundred others before. There were... Read More

Communication Mix-Up

My friend Delia is the owner of a small private... Read More

Business Innovation ? Ignoring Content

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Creativity Management and Time Pressure

There is a pervasive belief that time pressure stimulates creativity.... Read More

Managing Performance: Don?t Let Slackers Bring Down Your ?A? Players

As a manager, it is your job to ensure that... Read More

Policy & Procedure Manuals - Tools For Greater Productivity and Efficiency

In today's tough retail environment the retailer needs all the... Read More

Building A Stellar Business One Employee At A Time

Top businesses that continually lead their industry clearly understand a... Read More

Building Shareholder Value Through Your People

Increasing shareholder value is the most important driver for organisations... Read More

Involving People Gave Us the Improvements We Needed

We had a problem with handling materials in a production... Read More

Data Delivers Credibility

Over the past couple of days I've been setting up... Read More

Making Meetings Work

We have all attended meetings that were boring, mindless and... Read More

The Power of ?Ask?

For Call Center managers, it is not a pipe dream... Read More

Take the Easy Route - Delegate

It was 2.30 am. It was cold and dark and... Read More

5 Creative Evolutionary Leadership Niche Strategies!

I have a short story to share with you about... Read More

Forget The Sandwich Technique

Do you remember being told to use the "sandwich" technique... Read More

How Businesses Can Stop Wallowing in Bad Debt and Prevent It in the Future

"Become the Squeaky Wheel", a new book just published, explains... Read More

The Ivory Tower Syndrome

"His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself, and allows... Read More

Building Trust in Your Business Relationships - 10 Steps

There are some simple things you can do with your... Read More

Delegation: When to Delegate, Who to Delegate to

There are some very simple guides for delegation.Most people delegate... Read More