5 Dumbest Management Concepts — Is HR One Of Them?

Books On "Management Concepts"

"It's a truism that nothing is certain in this world except death, taxes and bad management. But why?" asks author and blogger Geoffrey James. He blames five flawed management concepts that became popular in the 20th century. HR is one of them!

James is a prolific writer and observer of the business scene and is the author of seven books, including Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite. We found James's "5 dumbest concepts" in his blog on bnet.com.

Dumb Concept # 1: "Downsizing"

Thousands upon thousands of articles in the mainstream business press characterize CEOs as "courageous" because they instituted a downsizing, James says. Apparently, the decision to fire people is so difficult, the CEO who takes that path must be a brave and lonely soul. He's putting the interests of the investors ahead of his own kindhearted inclinations, and making the difficult decisions that will allow the company to remain profitable, James adds.

But, wait a minute, Chester! How, exactly, did the company get into a situation where it needed to fire people in order to remain competitive? James asks. Sure, markets change like crazy in today's world, and business conditions have become more challenging. But isn't it the job of the CEO and the management team to predict those changes, and to staff the company appropriately? Isn't it their job to retrain people, so that challenges can be addressed?

Here's the truth, he says. Downsizing means that management has failed and rather than doing the right thing—which is to quit without severance—they're passing along the penalty for that failure to the people who, in good faith, tried to execute the flawed strategy, says James.

That's why top managers love the word "downsizing," James explains. It makes the results of failure sound like a strategy, rather than a desperate way to remain profitable after top management has made a complete pig's breakfast of things.

Dumb Concept # 2: "Leadership"

Peter Drucker, says James, pointed out what should be obvious to everyone—that all this talk about "leadership" is a bunch of horse manure.

James says that he can't hear the term "leader" without thinking of the leader of a marching band. That's the person who takes a big stick and makes it go up and down, while the band does the work of actually making the music.

Drucker's point was that the business world doesn't need leaders. It needs managers—people who can actually manage a team of people.

Being a manager means being in service to the team. It means giving the team credit and making everyone else successful, James says.

Dumb Concept # 3: "Human Resources"

When you talk to people who work in "Human Resources," they pretend that they're all about helping people to become more successful. But the truth is that the entire concept of HR is really just a way to make sure that employees don't act uppity, James says. (!)

What better way to let people know that they're expendable commodities than calling them "resources"? he asks. Indeed, the entire concept of HR is designed to make the process of dealing with real live people as bloodless as dealing with electricity or shipments of iron ore.

Let's face it. Many, and probably most, HR groups are just spies and shills for management, says James. "Don't believe me? Try taking a complaint about your manager to the HR group and see what happens."

So, as we go forward, he says, let's stop talking about "human resources" and start calling people what they are: people. People who have real lives and real ideas and real emotions and who, frankly, are doing work that's often more important than that of the top executives.

James is a prolific writer and observer of the business scene and is the author of seven books, including Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite. We found James's "5 dumbest concepts" on his blog on bnet.com.

Dumb Concept # 4: "Empowerment"

Back in the 20th century, there was all kinds of talk about how technology was going to empower people, James notes. Today, however, it's abundantly clear that technology isn't empowering employees; it's empowering management to spy upon employees.

The way this "empowerment" concept plays out in business is the insane idea that new technology is going to make people more innovative, more entrepreneurial, more creative, yada, yada, yada. "Such total BS," says James. "All those things come from the heart, not from the hand."

As we go forward, says James, let's stop talking about technology as "empowerment" and start talking about what really counts: human creativity freed from the limitations imposed by bonehead "leaders" who think they're managing "human resources."

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Dumb Concept # 5: "Business Warfare"

Many traditional business leaders have a militaristic view of the way the business world works. A glance at the titles of popular business books—Marketing Warfare, Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, Guerrilla PR—suggests that we must imitate generals and warlords if we want to be successful managers.

Taking all this to heart, many executives talk as if they were planning the next world war: "This product will do major damage in the marketplace! We've armed our sales force. We've targeted the right set of customers! The new ad campaign will explode into the territories! This is going to be a major victory! Our troops are ready!"

Ugh, James says. The problem, he says, is that the warfare dogma gets reflected in nearly everything the corporation does. For example:

Executives assume that victory in business goes to the largest "army" and they'll build large, complicated departments stuffed full of people and resources.

Military-minded managers become control freaks. Because they see themselves as generals and officers, they tell people what to do. They think that good employees should shut up and follow orders.

Executives lose track of what's needed in the marketplace. Customers are, at best, faceless territory to be "targeted" and "captured" with marketing and sales "campaigns," and not as living, breathing human beings with opinions, interests, and concerns of their own.

So, going forward, says James, "let's deep-six the militaristic jingoism and start talking about business in terms of relationships, agreements and profitability."

Militaristic managers—just one more HR headache. We're talking about intermittent leave headaches; accommodation headaches; investigation headaches; training, interviewing, and attendance headaches; to name just a few. In HR, if it's not one thing, it's another. And in a small department, it's just that much tougher.

Thanks to HR Daily Advisor / BLR

Books On "Management Concepts"