(Day 19) 13 April - How to Manage and Moving On

 Although the difficult discussion was kinda heated, full of disagreements and blame? We all simply moved on. Come the new week we all had fresh mindset, moved on and no grudges were held. This made progressing as a group easier as well as allowing those to rid of previous concerns. 

In the beginning of 'How to Manage' Jo Owens summarises the three types of management for effective leadership which lead into the three dimensions of successful management. IQ, EQ and PQ (political savvy/quotient). The summary introduces the revolution and understanding how this came about. 

Rational Management 

When there was civilisation, there was management. It began to evolve within the Industrial Revolution, "large scale operations require large scale organisation". The early management style, following the army style strategy was the command and control. As theories and disciplines evolved, management followed suit looking for the key of management success. 

The main theories behind scientific management is Frederick Taylor, who wrote 'The Principles of Scientific Management' in 1911. Jo Owens "Taylor took it a dim view of workers as a whole, believing that would work for as little as they could without getting punished". This was based on observational studies, leading to new ideas at this time: 

- Workers were made to rest regularly, because it made them more productive.

- Different types of people should be given different types of jobs, therefore being more productive in the right job.

- Production lines, which break up complicated jobs, maximise productivity and minimise the skills and cost employees is required.

It is evident these ideas are still live today, whilst not all adopt this style of management, breaks and lunches are required by law after set amount of hours. You also see the style throughout assembly lines and fast food chains. Many organisations are "taking the logical step and removed the humans completely". 

Emotional Management

Following on from science and "cold calculations", employees started to become people rather than numbers and production, Therefore progressing managers to not just "handle problems, they also had to handle people". The evolution of managers followed the evolution of workers, becoming more skilled, educated and demanding. Moving the workplace from a "culture of compliance to a culture of commitment". 

84 years after Frederick Taylor published his book, Daniel Gorman 1995 began the new world of emotional management, introducing emotional intelligence and why it was so important. Although his way of thinking had emerged as of early 1920, he popularised EQ over IQ. Therefore, leading into managers needing IQ and EQ thus raising the performance bar for effective management.

Political Management

"two-dimensional managers cannot exist, except as cartoon characters. Real people and real managers exist in three dimensions". Whilst a high IQ and EQ are needed, an element of this is missing. Jo Owens states the first observation is noting the workplace has conflict. "This is a surprise to many academics who think organisations are set up for cooperation. In reality, managers have to fight for a limited part of their organisations time, money and budget". 

Internal conflict is how priorities are decided. It is argued many managers find the market place isn't the real competition but fighting for the promotion or bonus. Conflict and politics is unavoidable in a workplace, and well in team work too. IQ and EQ are not enough to deal with politics, PQ is "the art of making the organisation work with you and for you. It is how you make things happen for a part of the organisation you do not want to control."

Jo Owens writes, that a successful manager needs deep political and organisation skills. Whilst I believe I have IQ, building my EQ and organisational skills. It is clear that I do lack political skills, as I can sometimes become too emotional or reactive. Mainly because of who I am as a person, my passion and personality type.

Management Quotient (MQ)

MQ = IQ + EQ + PQ.

MQ is about management practice, not a theory. The framework built by Jo Owens can help "access your own management potential, access team members and help them identify how they can improve, identify and build the core skills you need to succeed, identify the rules of survival and success in your organisation". 

IQ, tasks and functions, represent the rational world.

EQ, individuals and groups, represent the emotional world. 

PQ, control, power and change, represent the political world. 

Each world builds into management quotient. 

References

Owens, J (2018) How to Management. 5th Edition. United Kingdom. Pearson.