This course is intended to provide 4 hours in the prescribed area of human resources topics relating to community association management, with particular
attention paid to management techniques, employee relations and communication skills.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE…………………………………………………………………………………………...4
PLANNING, THE MOST IMPORTANT MANAGER'S FUNCTION………………………...5
WHY MANY MANAGERS FAIL…………………………………………………………..7
PLANNING…………………………………………………………………………………..7
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT…………………………………...8
NOW WHAT?...........................................................................................................................8
THE ROLES OF MANAGERS……………………………………………………………...9
THE SKILLS A MANAGER NEEDS……………………………………………………..10
SECTION TWO - ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY…………………………………13
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR………………………………………………………………………...13
TRYING TO RESOLVE DILEMMAS……………………………………………………...13
"MORAL" MANAGEMENT……………………………………………………………….15
TYPES OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR………………………………………………………..16
SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………………….17
INTEGRITY………………………………………………………………………………...17
SECTION THREE - PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS………………………………………….20
PURPOSES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS………………………………………….20
WHO DOES THE APPRAISALS?.............................................................................................21
METHODS OF APPRAISAL………………………………………………………………21
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO)……………………………………………….25
MISTAKES IN APPRAISALS……………………………………………………………..25
PAY AS AN AWARD……………………………………………………………………….27
SECTION FOUR - RECOGNIZING THE BENEFIT OF GROUPS……………………………..30
USING GROUPS IN MANAGEMENT………………………………………………………30
GROUP ASSISTANCE……………………………………………………………………...31
FORMAL AND INFORMAL GROUPS…………………………………………………...32
STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………...33
SECTION FIVE - - COMMUNICATION……………………………………………………..35
TRANSMISSION OF COMMUNICATION…………………………………………………..35
PROCESSING COMMUNICATIONS……………………………………………………...36
FEEDBACK………………………………………………………………………………...37
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS………………………………………………………...37
THE FLOW OF COMMUNICATIONS…………………………………………………….38
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION………………………………………………….38
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION……………………………………………………….39
ACTIVE LISTENING……………………………………………………………………...39
DISTRACTIONS……………………………………………………………………………40
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS BETWEEN RANKS……………………………………41
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION…………………………………………………………….41
SECTION SIX – MBWA………………………………………………………………………….44
MANAGEMENT BY WALKING/WANDERING AROUND………………………………..44
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MANAGEMENT SKILLS – COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS
“Management is the magic of combining individuals who are fulfilling their potential as
human beings into groups that enjoy success in achievement.
A manager develops himself—others may guide, inspire, motivate or teach—but he or
she does all the developing.
A good manager plans and controls his plans. The poor manager never plans and then
tries to control people.
James L. Hayes
There are a plethora of “Management” treatises, textbooks, courses, etc., and obviously
this subject cannot be completed in this truncated text. This course is designed to provide
a better understanding of “management,” a discussion of ethics and social responsibility,
the role of performance appraisals, a discussion of using groups in managing community
associations, and a dissertation on “communication.” This text concludes with a brief description of a management technique that has been quite successful if used properly, and a
technique that, it is expected, many present community association managers practice.
Note: This text is written in the masculine gender for simplicity purposes only. It is
recognized that many Community Association managers are female but it is less distracting
and simpler to refer to “he,” “his,” or “him,” instead of “he/she,” “hers/his,” or “him/her.”
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this course, the learner should be able to:

Better understand the ramifications of the Manager’s position.

Develop and control planning.

Be able to recognize ethical problems and develop methods to resolve dilemmas.

Establish methods of measuring employee performance.

Appreciate the value of using the expertise of others and developing methods and
techniques for using such expertise, particularly in a group setting.

Improve communications with employees, residents and superiors.

Appreciate a management “technique” used often, usually with excellent results.
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PREFACE
Management is a technique that is applied to the operation of any business of any kind,
where there is more than one person involved. While it does not necessarily encompass the actions of non-employees, such as would arise in a Homeowner’s Association—volunteers must be
“managed” as well as employees, with only some slight differences in “how” they are managed.
This text will provide suggestions as how to manage and benefit from employees and volunteers
alike.
Management is a true science that has been developed ever since Ooga, the largest and
meanest caveman on the mountain, delegated the authority to start a fire to another caveman.
Still, there are only certain basic techniques in managing the activity of others, although
many managers “manage” in areas in which they have little expertise, little responsibility, but,
perhaps, excessive authority. This has become so common that our expanding-language created
a new word to describe it: Micromanage. This developed because the “boss” felt that no one
could do the job as well as they could, so it was necessary to continually “look over the shoulder” of those who had been given responsibility to do the job. Doesn’t seem quite fair and it is
not only unfair, it can lead to chaos when the micromanaging manager reaches the limits of his
endurance.
In today’s business environment, it may seem that large corporations, in particular, should
know all of the “in’s and out’s” of running a business correctly. But whether the economy is
booming or crashing, certain managers always seem to rise to the occasion.
A familiar and interesting business principle arose in, The Peter Principle, written by Dr.
Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, in 1948, but still one of the most quoted business management books around. This “principle” held that in a hierarchy, members are promoted as
long as they are competent at their work. Sooner or later, they will be promoted to a position
at which they are no longer competent—their “level of incompetence—and there they will remain. Peter’s Corollary states that “in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee
who is incompetent to carry out his duties” and further, “work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.”
Another way to put this is that anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails. The truism here is that there is much temptation to use what
has worked before, even when it may exceed its effective scope.
In the discussion of assessing the potential of a subordinate, promotion is typically based on
their performance and they will continue to be promoted until they teach the level where further
promotion would lead them to be in a job in which they are incompetent. A good example of
how this works is where a factory worker is good in his job, and when a manager position comes
open, the factory worker is promoted into an area in which he has no expertise whatsoever.
There are exceptions, which then involves the “Septic Tank” Principle, described as “excrement rising to the top.”
The solution (of course there is one—actually, two…) is that employees who are dedicated to
their present job, should not be promoted for their efforts, but instead, be rewarded with a pay
raise. Secondly, employees should be promoted only after being sufficiently trained to the new
position, which then reverses the problem of discovering individuals with poor managerial abilities before they are promoted.
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So, where does one get good managers if not from subordinates who have done a good job in
their present position? Actually, as hard as this is to take at times for those on the job who have
done a good job but, for whatever reasons, would not make good managers—this opens up a new
level of management which is attractive to, and generally filled, by a class of people who are
brilliant and of a higher class and who would not be here at all if they had to start at the bottom.
(Except: “Tom, you are only 25 and already you are a Senior Vice President. What do you have
to say for yourself?” Tom replies, “Thanks, Dad.”)
This Principle is alive and obvious in some of the big companies that are having financial
problems today—this principle has veracity in the smaller organizations also. When you interview a subordinate for a managerial position—where the person will make their own decisions
and/or will supervise others—make sure that you are not promoting a good bookkeeper into an
“accounting” position just because they are remarkably good at making correct data entries, etc.,
etc.
PLANNING, THE MOST IMPORTANT MANAGER’S FUNCTION
The manager’s job typically is four-fold: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling.
The best tool to accomplish all that a Manager is required to do is based solidly and concretely in
planning, using some sort of a formal plan. Once planning has been completed—although to be
effective, it never is “completed,”—all the other functions of management feed off the plan.
Long-range considerations must precede short-range considerations in planning, except for
management in a crisis mode (“management by crisis”) where the major problem is to make sure
the sun comes up tomorrow.
MANAGEMENT BY CRISIS
Those who have been in management for any period of time will probably, at some time or
other, have faced situations where only this type of “management” seems to work. Simply put,
this is where there are unforeseen situations that arise and action is required immediately and
there is no time for any planning, contemplation, study, referral, or sometimes, even much
thought. For instance, your boss (whomsoever that may be) walks in and informs you, that
you—the manager of a residential complex owned by your employer—have just had your duties
expanded considerably as the company has purchased a similar complex in a neighboring town.
The manager of that complex passed away suddenly, “and surely you can manage both for a little
time, can’t you?” Usually, you cannot just say “NO” because (1) you do not want to appear uncooperative, (2) they may hire another manager who might like your job too, or (3) you really,
really can’t but you sure don’t want your boss to know the shallowness of your ability.
Great! Your duties have been increased (and maybe your salary?), your responsibilities have
been doubled also. Then you discover that with the change in ownership, the new complex has
lost most of its functioning Board, there are major repairs to be performed, and they just do everything differently than you do or have done. Panic time. There are decisions that must be made
immediately and you feel that you are on a desert island. You immediately go into survival
mode, and management by crisis is a reality.
How do you get out of “crisis” management? One thing to NOT do is to “get on your horse
and ride off in all directions.” Stop, mentally and physically, take a deep breath or two, collect
your thoughts—writing them down is important—and then share them with those who are going
to have to help you get things under control. If you have chosen your employees and business
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associates wisely and correctly, they will probably appreciate knowing what is going on and may
be eager to help in any way they can. You may find out that the cute clerk with the tattoos and
short skirts actually has an active, functioning brain, along with great loyalty. Maybe not, but
then you, at least, will know.
MANAGEMENT BY COMMITMENT
The best laid plans are useless unless there is total commitment to the business plan by all of
those involved. If you have a “one-man shop,” you make the decisions, and therefore the commitment. Typically, though, others will need to be committed to the plan. In a small organization where you use outside accounting services, inform the accountant of what you are doing and
you will find that their help will probably be crucial. Remember, getting others involved is the
best way to get commitment from everyone. It is difficult to be uncooperative on an issue where
the person being uncooperative is the one who was involved in making the plan.
Persons who understand the plan, the reason for the plan, and who have committed to the
plan by contributing to the planning procedures, will together produce the greatest harmony of
effort.
Think of the plan as a network of explicit individual commitments to observable results, and
where they are linked in some reasonable way to the goal of the organization—without these
commitments, the plan has a good chance of failing.
MANAGEMENT CONTROL
As with any plan, it is necessary to have proper controls, which are the sum of all things that
manager does to increase the probability of the plan’s success. The manager is in control when
he has created a system and a climate in which people can control themselves. To take this one
step further a person can control themselves only if they know what they are supposed to do and
are allowed to do so. Does Job Descriptions come to mind?
To some, the idea of being “in control” may be an anathema in your personal conjecture as to
what a “manager” must be, but the fact remains that —
if the planning is done correctly, it never appears to subordinates that they are being “controlled.”
THE MANAGER’S BASIC TASK
The manager’s basic task, superimposed upon and acting with the planning-and-control system, is to make his/her people successful. The multiplication of good results and the perpetuation of the enterprise depend absolutely upon the continuous development of people.
Does this mean that there must be several people in the organization? Absolutely not. The
planning is highly important to the Board or to whomsoever the Manager reports. Those who
own and operate their own business, regardless of size, also find that it is necessary to do formal
planning—indeed, they are the greatest promoters and users of formal planning as after all, they
stand the most to lose if they do not succeed! With the governmental rules, regulations and tax
problems of any business today, the successful business is rarely, if ever, run by one person using a pocket notebook and handwritten notes.
Smaller establishments use computers in today’s world, and one of the advantages of using a
computer is the ability to project actions and results into the future, necessary in “formal planning.” One still must determine variations of results as situations arise that are not expected. A
computer does not have the experience to know what will happen to your complex if certain tax
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laws change, if a similar development is going to build next to yours, etc., but it, of course, is
invaluable in determining how much you will lose in income if certain assumptions regarding the
erection of a competitor next door, the deterioration of the neighborhood, the building of a stadium within 2 blocks, etc.
WHY MANY MANAGERS FAIL
Even with all of the sophisticated electronic equipment, managers who fail usually fail not
for lack of sophisticated techniques, but for either a lack of application of the basic principles
and known methods—they didn’t apply or apply correctly the basic principles of their business,
and/or they did not apply the methods that should have been used—or, lack of integrity. The latter, “lack of integrity,” does not necessarily mean illegal, but usually means the lack of “ethics.”
PLANNING
Planning is often defined as the determination of where we are, where we want to go and
how we are going to get there. There are volumes of data and research on the techniques used in
planning, but this definition is the most succinct and encompassing.
THE PURPOSE OF PLANNING IS TO DETERMINE WHAT MUST BE DONE THIS
WEEK OR THIS MONTH OR THIS YEAR TO BE IN A SATISFACTORY SITUATION
NEXT MONTH OR NEXT YEAR OR FIVE YEARS HENCE. PLANNING DOES NOT ADDRESS ITSELF PRIMARILY TO FUTURE DECISIONS, BUT TO THE FUTURE IMPACT
OF PRESENT DECISIONS.




Planning is not intended to eliminate risk—risk is essential to progress—
but to assure that the right risks are taken at the right time.
Planning is not intended to predict the future—the future cannot be predicted—but to rationalize the decision-making within a future environment which is temporarily assumed. As assumptions change, plans are
modified.
Planning cannot absolutely guarantee a specific future result. It is intended
to mobilize commitment toward attainable results so that most results will
be attained most of the time.
Planning is not intended to head off crisis. Frequent crises and impulsive
priority-changing are ordinarily indicators of poor planning.
“Strategic Planning” can be a time-consuming, highly-technical operation, far beyond the
scope of this text. Yet, a Manager may have long-range planning performed by the accounting
experts in the larger organization, and, on occasion, become intimately involved. In any event,
nearly all Managers are involved in short-term planning through the budgeting process which, in
effect, compares the actual income of the association, with anticipated expenses of the association. If, for instance, there is an unanticipated increase in costs, the Manager’s job would be to
determine why such an increase; is it expected to continue to increase; and plan accordingly.
Whether it is the job of the Manager to actually prepare such a financial statement, or to work
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with the numbers produced elsewhere, the Manager MUST know the differences in Income and
Disbursements, at the very least.
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT
The field of organizational behavior may seem like just a little “much” when the organization
is rather small, but it is very important that the manager be able to understand and master the
special challenges and problems that arise for a manager. Managers face unique challenges that
carry certain but distinct performance responsibilities.
Managers help other people get important things done in timely, high-quality and personally
satisfying ways.
The job of any manager is largely one of adding value to the work setting by doing things
that help others to accomplish their tasks—back to the old standby’s of planning, organizing,
leading and controlling. These four functions are:
1. Planning sets the objectives and identifies the actions needed to achieve them.
2. Organizing divides up tasks and arranges resources to accomplish them.
3. Leading creates enthusiasm to work hard to accomplish tasks successfully.
4. Controlling monitors performance and takes any needed corrective action.
NOW WHAT?
Like the old joke: “Six months ago I couldn’t spell MANAGER, now I are one.”
To summarize the job of a manager, it is fair to say that it is a very demanding and complicated job, normally requiring long working hours and forget about a 40-hour week. The length
of the workweek tends to increase as the manager advances to higher (and almost always, more
complicated) managerial levels.
The work of a manager is fragmented and variable, nearly all tasks have to be completed
“yesterday” and what makes it particularly tricky in most cases, is that a manager has to work
with other people. There are very few managers that, at some time, do not think back as to how
simple life and the job was when there were few responsibilities, particularly in managing people
and events.
Community association managers are primarily in offices with few employees, and although
they do not have to work much with “customers” per se, irate tenants/residents/unit owners can
be more troublesome than the worse kind of “customer”… particularly since in many cases such
tenants are the ones that own the establishment, (or at least have legal standing) plus many tenants (coop owners, etc.) can make the manager’s life livable, or at least not a living purgatory.
The use of computers has grown rapidly which allows managers to get, give and process information without a face-to-face confrontation. Good managers use computers for scheduling,
record keeping and communication with outside sources, but they never give up the personal
face-to-face meetings and conversations with the tenants, board members (if such is the case), or
fellow employees. Computers are, indeed, a mixed blessing as they can make detail work much
easier but at the cost, sometimes, of losing touch with those that are to important to ignore.
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THE ROLES OF MANAGERS
At the risk of sounding too theoretical, management educators recently found that the duties
of a manager fall into some ten roles, from three basic categories. These apply to the small CAM
office, or to the management of a large corporation.
INFORMATIONAL ROLES
In performing his duties, a manager becomes a:

Monitor,

Disseminator, and

Spokesperson.
This involves exchanging information with other people, (monitoring) sharing relevant information with insiders (disseminating), and then sharing relevant information with outsiders
(spokesperson).
INTERPERSONAL ROLES
This describes how a manager interacts with other people.

Figurehead

Leader

Liaison
Interpersonal roles involve working directly with other people, such as hosting and attending
official ceremonies (figurehead), creating enthusiasm and serving the needs of people (leader),
and maintaining contacts with important people and/or groups (liaison).
DECISIONAL ROLES
A manager uses information in decision making in the role of:

Entrepreneur,

Disturbance handler,

Resource allocator,

Negotiator.
Decisional roles involve making decisions that affect other people. They include seeking out
problems to solve and opportunities to explore (entrepreneur), helping to resolve conflicts (disturbance handler), and negotiating with other parties (negotiator).
Some of the roles are more important than others to various managers at various times, for
instance, resource allocator. The allocation of resources can be the most important, most timeconsuming, and the most frustrating of all managerial roles—on the other hand, there are many
managers who have accountants or those with fiscal authority that handle the flow of funds, particularly in the area of spending. Sometimes these financial employees report directly to the
Board, but in most cases, they would report directly to the manager.
Sometimes, also, the manager is more than happy if another person handles the allocation of
resources, and usually also handling the influx of resources also. One might want to heave a sigh
of relief and feel they can now concentrate on more important managerial problems. Problem!
If the manager does not have any “say-so” about the allocation and/or influx of resources, they
have just lost control of one of the most important functions of any manager. Not only has the
manager lost control of the “bottom-line,” but they are not in a position to know just exactly
what the “bottom-line” is.
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Further, the question has often been raised as to what does it mean to think like a manager.
Again the management experts have broken the “managerial mindset” down into five categories.
The reflective mindset, which means the ability to manage oneself. Self-control in case of
emergencies, the ability to look at a problem and say “What would I do in that situation.” Experience comes into play here, as many problems are solved as a result of previous decisions in
similar situations.
The analytical mindset pertains mostly to managing organizational operations and decisions.
A good manager, obviously, has the ability to analyze situations (not only problems) and relate
them to decisions affecting the entire operation. Whether analyzing situations takes a lot of time,
or is a spur-of-the-moment thing, it is wise to NOT do the latter if at possible. There is an old
adage in marketing that applies to managing as well:

Casually offered, casually received.
Think about it….if a decision is made rapidly, then the impression is that the problem has either not been thought out, or, is not important enough to give any thought to the problem itself.
Of course, sometimes an answer is so apparent it would lead to an immediate answer. This response, then, can be interpreted that the person posing the problem is incompetent, otherwise he
would have not have even posed the question.
THE SKILLS A MANAGER NEEDS
Technically, a skill is the ability to translate knowledge into action that results in the desired
performance. Usually, management texts have a tendency to translate skills into technical, human and conception skills. These skills come into play at various stages of management. Technical skills are usually more important at entry-level of management where supervisors have to
deal with job-specific problems, senior executives are more involved with issues of organizational purpose, mission and strategy, areas where conceptual skills are very important. Human
skills which form the backbone of organizational behavior are important at all managerial levels.
Technical skills have become more and more important in this computer age (sometimes it
seems that 14-year olds will rule the world as they understand computers better…) and this ability comes from experience and/or education. In this technical world, education never stops and
technical knowledge must expand exponentially. Word-processing, spread-sheet analysis, email, database management, communication networking, etc., are used in the modern office (or
will soon be used). A manager does not necessarily need to know exactly how these programs
work or have the ability to use them, but managers MUST know what can be expected from the
programs. Probably, the majority of managers can use word processing effectively, are familiar
with e-mailing, can use of spread sheets and computer-generated reports, and can solve so many
short-and long-range problems that managers must have a pretty good understanding as to what
can be expected from a spread sheet, or database management system.
Human skills are simply the ability to work well with other people. Psychologists maintain
that a person with good human skills will have a high degree of self-awareness and a capacity for
understanding and empathizing with the feelings of others. They are able to interact well with
others, can communicate persuasively and handle disagreements and conflicts and other peopleinvolved situations. Plus, the ability to understand and deal with emotions—self and/or others—
is now considered an important element of leadership.
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Another skill that is needed by good managers is the ability to view the organization or situation as a whole and to solve problems to the benefit of everyone concerned. This skill is the ability to identify problems and opportunities, gather and interpret relevant information and make
good problem-solving decisions that serve the purpose of the organization.
STUDY QUESTIONS – PART ONE
1. Managers help other people get important things done in a timely and high-quality ways
A. by helping and supporting others.
B. only by controlling and out-maneuvering subordinates.
C. through micromanagement.
D. using the “carrot and stick” method of salary considerations.
2. The ability to translate knowledge into action that results in the desired performance is called
A. skill.
B. power.
C. politics.
D. threatening personality.
3. The best conceived business plan is useless unless
A. there is sufficient funds to keep everyone happy.
B. there is sufficient and necessary governmental control.
C. there is total commitment to the business plan by all those involved.
D. the total plan has been reduced to print and published.
4. If planning is done correctly, as far as subordinates are concerned
A. there is no plan and the company is run by edict.
B. they soon are aware that they are being pushed into odd decisions.
C. they are victims of the classic “carrot on a stick” maneuver.
D. it never appears that they are being controlled.
5. Planning does not address itself primarily to future decisions,
A. but to the future impact of present decisions.
B. but to the present impact of past decisions.
C. as decisions in the future should not be considered.
D. as the planners have no control over the future.
6. The most used four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading and
A. reorganizing.
B. micromanaging.
C. controlling.
D. adlibbing.
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7. Decisional roles of a manager involves
A. political campaigns.
B. making decisions that affect other people.
C. getting involved in employees personal lives.
D. acquiring a degree in Education.
8. The ability to view the organization or situation as a whole and to solve problems to the benefit of everyone concerned is
A. a skill needed by good managers.
B. a requirement for a financial officer.
C. oft required but seldom achieved.
D. strictly the domain of the Board of Directors.
ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS
1A
2A
3C
4D
5A
6C
7B
8A
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SECTION TWO - ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
Numerous texts have been written about the failure of prominent businesses. Enron, WorldCom, and recently General Motors, Chrysler, Citibank, AID, etc., etc. A group of prominent attorneys were reported to have approached a well-known and reputable author of various texts on
ethical behavior, and was asked to write a new Legal Ethics text. His reply was that it would either be the largest book ever written on ethics…or the smallest. (Actually, it turned out neither.)
Ethical behavior can be defined as what is morally “good” and “right” (and as my Grandmother used to say when faced with the question of whether something was ethical, “Is it proper?”). Simply put, it is not easy. Matter-of-fact, it can be (and usually is) extremely difficult.
Sometimes you will have the famous: “Enigma, wrapped up as a dilemma inside of a quandary,
which is part of a conundrum.”
First let’s take a look at one of the most prominent methods of solving the enigma/ dilemma/quandary or conundrum.
TRYING TO RESOLVE DILEMMAS
These decisions are not easy, and as the world of business become more complex, so do the
ethics decisions. But before a dilemma can be solved, there are certain steps to be taken before
one can start applying ethical theories or ethical principles.
An ethical dilemma is where a person must decide whether or not to do something—although
benefiting himself or the organization, or both—must be considered in the decision. It is difficult to state with any precision exactly what dilemmas will be encountered by a manager, or a
Community Association Manager. Generally speaking, relationships with superiors, subordinates, customers, competitors, suppliers, regulators—can all create dilemmas. Common issues
involve honesty in communications and contracts, gifts and entertainment, kickbacks, pricing
practices and employee terminations.
Often managers in such situations may try to justify (rationalize) ethical decisions by pretending the behavior is not really unethical or illegal; or in any case, excusing the behavior by
saying it’s really in the organization’s (or your) best interest. Or, the famous “look the other
way” syndrome, where it the behavior is OK because no one else should find out about it. And
the final fallback—presuming your superiors will support you and protect you if anything should
go wrong.
COLLECT PERTINENT INFORMATION
Every effort must be made to collect all of the information possible that pertains to the “dilemma.” In the situation previously discussed, it would be easier to make the proper and ethical
decision if it were known that the client is not incompetent. It may be surprising to learn that
many quandaries are solved when all of the information is collected.
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DISCOVER ALL OF THE PLAYERS
Before
it can be determined as to what is fair, those that are involved in the
dilemma must be discovered.
Sometimes this is not easy and will require a lot of “digging,” but as they say, “You can’t determine the program until you know the players.” Sometimes there are hidden agendas discovered when all participants are known. Also, sometimes there are those with “shady” reputations
on one side of the question, which would raise red flags and which alone could determine the
proper ethical decision.
DETERMINE THE OPTIONS
There are many who maintain that since a dilemma (or quandary) must have at least two options, in order to determine the proper option, a third option is necessary. The reasoning seems
to be that if one has not spent enough time and thought to the problem without coming up with at
least a third option, then they simply haven’t thought enough about the problem.
Practically speaking,
in order to solve a dilemma, there MUST be another choice, other than just two.
There would not even be a dilemma if there were not two choices – a right choice and a
wrong choice – and the dilemma is trying to figure out which is correct. Sometimes the third
choice is an acceptable combination of the other two, sometimes it is completely different, but in
any case, it usually is not easy to discover.
ESTIMATE THE AFFECT OF THE OPTIONS
If the action under consideration is fair to all parties, benefits those that it should benefit, and
is consistent with such actions in other situations, then there really is no reason not to choose that
action. Conversely, if taking such action requires that a commitment is broken, it is harmful and
unfair, then that action would not be proper.
Of course, it is really not that easy in “real life,” primarily because of the conflict that occurs
when an action is beneficial but it still not fair – hence the quandary/dilemma.
TIP: In making decisions of any type, remember “Occam’s Razor," which says:”
WHEN THINGS ARE EXTREMELY COMPLICATED, THE SIMPLEST ANSWER IS
USUALLY THE RIGHT ONE,
In line with the solving of dilemmas above, there actually is a more formal method of dealing
with Ethical Dilemmas:
1. Recognize and clarify what the dilemma actually is.
2. Collect all possible facts.
3. Make a list of your options.
4. Test each option by asking: Is it legal? Is it right? Is it beneficial?” and as my
grandmother would have asked, “Is it proper?”
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5. Take a deep breath, pray if you are so inclined (it never hurts) and then make a
decision.
6. Ask yourself “How will my family feel if they every find out?” or “How would I
feel if this were to be printed in the newspaper?”
Take another deep breath, another prayer if so inclined, and then, and only then, take action.
The Texas Instruments website says “Our reputation at TI depends upon all of the decisions
we make and all the actions we take personally each day. Our values define how we will evaluate our decisions and actions.” TI backs this up with a business-care sized mini-pamphlet with
the TI ethics quick test:
Is the action legal?
Does it comply with our values?
If you do it, will you feel bad?
How will it look in the newspaper?
If you know its wrong, don’t do it.
If you’re not sure, ask.
Keep asking until you get an answer.
“MORAL” MANAGEMENT
In management theory, there are three types of managers: Immoral managers, Amoral managers and Moral managers. The Immoral manager does not subscribe to any particular set of
ethical principles and makes decisions and acts in any situation depending upon how if would
most be advantageous to him, personally. It would appear that several of the recently-disgraced
managers subscribe to that type of behavior, as this type of behavior is chosen by the manager.
The Amoral manager simply ignores any ethical considerations in any situation. Profit and
profit only, many times is the mindset of an amoral manager. What is interesting is that they
usually have no idea that they are operating in any way, except morally. This is often manifested
by showing bias based on group favoritism (Jim is the best man for the job because everyone
likes him; Jane has all the attributes for a manager’s slot, but she is so attractive that other female
employees seem to be jealous of her). The next manager, anyway, will be the result of my setting examples and training and close attention to detail—my prodigy! “Perhaps Bill should be
the next Supervisor because his father plays golf with the Chairman of the Board of the company, and getting on the good side of Bill will help my career.”
The Moral manager can be determined as he/she is the one that incorporates ethic principles,
goals and actions into their personal behavior. They look upon ethical behavior as a goal to be
achieved and should be part of their life’s routines.
As a general rule, most managers have a tendency to act amorally, perhaps well-intentioned
but rarely taking ethics into consideration when making a determination. What would cause an
amoral manager to become a moral manager is an enigma (again) for many, but some authorities
believe that when a person is first appointed to a managerial position, they are concerned with
the day-to-day problems of getting to know their job, they are aware of the importance of profitability in many cases, often to the exclusion of any other driving force behind their decisions. As
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they grow into the job, they feel more comfortable with it, and start to know others with whom
they come in daily contact, and then they start taking morality into consideration more and more.
TYPES OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
Ethics and law are bound tightly together so that there is no separation in many cases, but
ethics actually goes further than the law, to a much broader moral code common to society as a
whole. There are several ways of looking at moral behavior, commonly restricted to four views
of moral behavior of individuals and or organizations.
The type of behavior that brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people is referred
to as the “utilitarian” view, i.e., ethical behavior that delivers the greatest good to the greatest
number of people, leading to the agreement that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of
the few.” This can be illustrated by corporations who are closing branches in various locations
so that the parent company can continue to operate and be profitable in several other locations.
The “individualism view,” on the other hand looks upon ethical behavior as what is best for
their individually long-term self-interests. An example might be where a supervisory position
opens up and the best qualified person for the job is Hispanic. Those who report to this new supervisor are heavily anti-illegal immigration, and they paint with a broad brush. The manager is
concerned that for the long-range, a Hispanic could not supervise these people and his superiors
would not be pleased if there were any unhappiness among those he supervises and it would have
a direct reflection on future promotions—so he appoints a non-Hispanic to the position. He has
taken a short-term action that should not be tolerated in order to satisfy his individual selfinterest. If everyone operated with long-term self interest in mind, then their short-term actions
would probably be ethical.
Contrasting, is the “moral-rights view who steadfastly considers ethical behavior to be behavior that respects the fundamental rights of all persons, tied closely to the basic human rights
of life, liberty, and fair treatment under the law. In an organization, these people strongly support rights to privacy, due process and freedom of speech. Ethical behavior does not violate any
of these fundamental human rights. Still, one must be a little careful here, particularly with
“freedom of speech,” keeping in mind the “shouting ‘FIRE’ in a crowded theatre” syndrome.
The “justice view” considers behavior to be ethical when it is fair and impartial in the treatment of people, and is based on the concern for equal treatment for all people. Of course, there
are various “justice” subdivisions. “Procedural justice” is where the rules and procedures specified for certain situations are properly followed in all cases where they apply. Example is in
sexual harassment situations, where formal hearings are held for every case submitted for administrative view. And there is “distributive justice” where the degree that all people are treated the
same under a policy, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. In this case a sexual harassment case where a man files against a female would receive the same consideration as one filed
by a woman against a man.
“Interactional justice” is the degree to which the people affected by a decision are treated
with dignity and respect. Back to the sexual harassment case, this would mean that the accused
and the accusing parties must both believe that they have received a complete explanation for
any decision made.
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SUMMARY
Fear not, ye of timid heart, surveys (what would the world do if it weren’t for surveys?) according to Organizational Behavior” indicate that 56% of those participating in the survey reported that they feel pressure to act unethically in their jobs, 48% admitted they had committed
questionable acts within the past year (so if 48% admitted it, how many actually had committed
“no-no’s” in the past year?). Another survey by the Ethics Resource Center reported that about
44% of workers in the US still fail to report the wrongdoing they observe at work.
The top reason for not reporting such wrongdoing was primarily that they believed nothing
would happen anyway, and besides, they were scared-to-death (so to speak) that word would get
out that they had reported the wrongdoing.
Fortunately, many corporations have ethics codes that spell out how employees are expected
to act in ethical quandaries and dilemmas.
INTEGRITY
No discourse on ethics is complete without a discussion of integrity as integrity and ethics
are the same in the mind of many. Actually, ethics is a foundation in leadership for anyone. Integrity is displayed when people act in ways that are always honest and credible, and consistent
in putting one’s values into practice.
When a leader has integrity, they earn the trust of their followers, therefore, when followers
believe that their leader has integrity, they are willing to commit themselves to behave in ways
that live up to the expectations of their leader.
Integrity, per se, almost always is part of a corporate mission statement, and very often publicized and companies seem to “wrap themselves in the banner of integrity”…not only used car
dealers. Like so many factual behavior patterns that promote the honesty and character of a person or a business, too often is it pure hokum. When a business first starts and/or puts together
any type of business plan extending into the future, mere vocalization of the incorruptibility and
honesty of the business is insufficient to create an honest company. It often seems that the management or ownership states their position on “integrity” and then worries about the actual application of honesty later down-the-road. The test is always whether integrity is firmly embedded
in the organizational culture. Testimonies to these values must be actual, shared and reinforced
by leaders from top to bottom.
Perhaps the most memorable example was the Tylenol scare of 1982 where 7 people died after taking the pain relief capsules as those were laced with cyanide. The capsules came from different factories, so it soon became obvious that someone (still unknown) had gone to supermarkets and had injected the poison in various packages. Johnson and Johnson, who manufactured
Tylenol, took to the air and warned everyone against using any Tylenol, even products where it
was one of the ingredients. They recalled some 31 million bottles with a worth of over $100 million. Their market share tumbled from 35% to 8%, but since Johnson and Johnson had done the
ethical thing (they were not told by the government to take ALL of them off the shelves) they
recovered within a year. “Insiders” at Johnson and Johnson have all stated repeatedly that there
was never a question, even a slight one, about what to do as soon as they were aware of what had
happened. Their employees are still proud of the ethics of this large company.
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JUST FOR FUN
You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a
bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2, An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be one
passenger In your car?
Think before you continue reading.
This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application. You could
pick up the old lady because she is injured and will die, and thus you should save her first. Or you
could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay
him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.
The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. He
simply answered: "I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."
Sometimes we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations.
Never forget to "Think outside of the box."
STUDY QUESTIONS SECTION TWO
1. When a person talks about what is good and right in a business sense, they are talking about
A. religiosity.
B. blindsiding a superior.
C. ethics.
D. laws only.
2. Many quandaries are solved
A. when forced for decisions by threat of loss of income or respect.
B. when the parties simply wait it out.
C. accidently.
D. when all of the information is collected.
3. In order to solve a dilemma,
A. none of the solutions should really make much sense.
B. there can never be more than 3 solutions on the table.
C. there must be another choice, other than just two.
D. all details must be submitted to an outside and, hopefully, wiser person.
4. A manager may be considered as moral if he incorporates ethic principles, goals and actions
A. into their business behavior only as ethics is only for business situations.
B. into their personal behavior.
C. into every memorandum or correspondence that he signs.
D. in his personal relationships with subordinate employees of the other sex.
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5. There are three types of managers: Immoral manager, Amoral managers and
A. Moral managers.
B. Non-descript managers.
C. Casual managers.
D. Psuedo-managers.
6. When a person acts in ways that are always honest and credible, and consistent in putting
one’s values into practice, this is
A. intelligence.
B. integrity.
C. dishonesty.
D. performing.
ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS
1A
2D
3C
4B
5A
6B
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SECTION THREE - PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS
One of the most important managerial functions is performance appraisal, which helps both
the manager and the subordinate to maintain the match between the job and the employee, and is
a process of systematically evaluating performance and proving feedback on which performance
adjustments can be made. If the level of performance that is desired exceeds the actual performance, then special attention needs to be paid as to why this is the case. If the maintenance and
cleanliness of the units are sub-par, then the maintenance supervisor is responsible and he should
be informed of the situation at time of performance appraisal. Perhaps an adjustment needs to be
made so as to reach realistic goals, or maybe he is just lazy.
PURPOSES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS
A performance appraisal system is an important facet of the human resources management of
any organization. Basically, they define the specific job criteria against which performance will
be measured, and at the same time, the measurement of past job performance must be accurate.
Ordinarily, rewards are given to those who have a high job-performance rating, and therefore,
there must be discrimination between rewards for those with high performance ratings, and those
with low ratings.
It is not unusual to rate the performance of an employee as unsatisfactory because of lack of
development experiences that the employee needs to become better at his present job and at the
same time, and importantly, prepare for future responsibilities.
If the performance appraisal systems do not evaluate and also provide feedback and development, it is not doing what it should be doing as it should let people know where they stand relative to objectives and standards.
“Evaluative” decisions are those that are concerned with promotions, transfers, terminations,
and salary increases. When these decisions are made on the basis of performance—as opposed
to some other basis, such as seniority—the performance appraisal is absolutely necessary.
Performance appraisals also serve other management needs for placement and position selections as it provides a method of determining what characteristics are most closely related to performance. As an example, it can be used to determine why Joe does not do his job satisfactorily
while Jane, who had the job previously, was such a whiz at it. Perhaps the position requires
some familiarity with certain laws, and Jane had studied business law in college. Joe, on the other hand, had performed at a similar position with another company where such legal knowledge
was not required as they had a larger legal department. On the other hand, Joe may have employee loyalty and is looked upon as a leader by those under him. All factors that come into play
are important at appraisal time.
Management can check into many individual characteristics, such as education, mathematical
ability, verbal ability, mechanical ability, and achievement motivation, to see how closely they
are related to performance.
Those who score well on these characteristics that are closely tied to performance for a given
job are considered for that position, but if certain aspects of the performance are not adequate of
up to par, then this may lead to remedial training. Conversely, if there is a performance20
contingent reward system—wherein performance and income are interrelated–then the appraisals
form the basis of such rewards. Do a good job and you get paid more.
FEEDBACK
Another function of the appraisal system, and often the most important, communicates to the
person being rated where they stand in the company’s expectations and performance objectives.
The appraisal should involve a detailed discussion of the person’s job-related strengths and
weaknesses. This can help the employee better understand what kind of rewards they can receive if they perform well and what they need to do to reach the required (or desired) level of
performance. A manager performing the appraisal should always take advantage of the two-way
conversation that should be part of the process, to do some coaching or training to help a subordinate overcome any performance deficiencies. Surveys have shown that about two-thirds of the
firms using performance appraisals use them for developmental purposes.
WHO DOES THE APPRAISALS?
One would think that this question has a simple answer—the immediate superior, of course.
This makes sense as they are the one responsible for the performance of the employee, however,
on occasion and in certain circumstances, peers may perform part of the appraisal because they
are “closer to the action” and their appraisals are quite valuable if they are obtained by several
sources. This is used in larger operations mostly, but it is interesting, nonetheless, because some
companies are also using self-ratings, customer ratings, and by others with whom the person being evaluated deals with outside of the regular work unit. Very large firms are using these techniques, which must be computerized to provide information that is needed.
In one company, the subordinate rates him/herself, on the importance of a given job function
to the subordinate’s performance and on how well the subordinate things he/she is performing
that particular function. The supervisor also performs a similar evaluation of the employee.
Then a computer program highlights the areas on where there is the most disagreement. The associate only gets these printouts and may choose—or not—to discuss these areas with the supervisor. Interestingly, both the timing and the specific comment of such a meeting are at the discretion of the subordinate. Interesting, but hardly a functional approach for a community organization manager.
METHODS OF APPRAISAL
How to measure the outcomes of work or behavior that are part of a performance appraisal is,
for many organizations—particularly where there is a strong sales function—is rather simple as
it provides a ready-made measure of work output. If there is a certain number of jobs that a subordinate is supposed to do over a certain period of time, then whether they meet that number is of
prime importance. If a person is to change tires on trucks, and is expected to change 4 tires an
hour, and does not meet that number, the appraisal will show that. Or conversely, the employee
changes an average of 6 tires an hour, then either he is fast and needs a bonus or the standards
have not been set high enough. Such is life. There are all kinds of quantity and/or quality requirements, depending, of course, on what the job is.
Another way to appraise actions is where the action is a product of a group function, which
can open a new can of worms. For instance, many jobs cannot be measured by output because
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the job is (a) too technical, (b) too time-consuming, (c) or just too difficult to measure. In some
of those cases, activity or behavioral measures may be called for, instead of output. Activity
measures are typically more useful for employee feedback and development instead of output
measures alone.
Appraisal methods, per se, can be either comparative or absolute. Comparative methods attempt to identify one’s relative standing among those being rated, such as when one compares
the job that Henry is doing to the job the Betty is doing, even though they have different jobs as
such, and it is obvious that Henry is doing the better job by whatever standards pertain to those
particular jobs—then the question becomes, how much better, or in what area is one person better than another. If a job is customer-oriented, where customer service is the primary function,
then the employee must be rated according to an outside source—the customers. Often the comparative system can determine that one person is better than another person at the same job, but
not how much better. And, one has to be concerned that even if Walter is the best at his job, he
might just be the best of a bad lot. Therefore, comparative performance appraised methods can
indicate ranking, paired comparison, or forced distribution.
Absolute methods, on the other hand, specify precise measurement standards. This is pretty
common, for instance, tardiness may be evaluated on a scale measuring, “never tardy” to “always tardy.” There are all kinds of absolute methods.
RANKING
The simplest of the comparative techniques consists of ranking each individual from best to
worse on each performance attribute under consideration. For instance, on work quantity, work
quality and cooperation, each employee is rated from “Far below average” to “Far above average.” This is a very popular method of appraisal, primarily because it is so simple. However, it
does not work well if there are many people to consider.
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EXAMPLE OF SIX MONTH PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND COMMENTS.
EMPLOYEE:__Jose Mendez________________ SUPERVISOR:__C. Motley___________
DEPARTMENT: _Maintenance______________ DATE: ___6/24/08_________________
Work Quantity
Work Quality
Cooperation
.
1. Far below average
_____ 1. Far below average
_____ 1. Far below average ______
2. Below average
_____ 2. Below average
_____ 2. Below average
______
3. Average
_____ 3. Average
__X__ 3. Average
______
4. Above average
__X__ 4. Above average
_____ 4. Above average
______
5. Far above average
_____ 5. Far above average
_____ 5. Far above average __X___
COMMENTS: Review Job Description in 6 months and made aware of possible legal problems if he
Continues to perform functions outside of job description. Modest $ increase recommended.
EMPLOYEE:__Barbara Kyle ________________ SUPERVISOR:__C. Motley___________
DEPARTMENT: __Acct. Bookkeeping_________ DATE: ___6/24/08________________
Work Quantity
Work Quality
Cooperation
.
1. Far below average
_____ 1. Far below average
_____ 1. Far below average ______
2. Below average
__X__ 2. Below average
_____ 2. Below average
_X____
3. Average
_____ 3. Average
__X__ 3. Average
______
4. Above average
_____ 4. Above average
_____ 4. Above average
______
5. Far above average
_____ 5. Far above average
_____ 5. Far above average ______
COMMENTS: Slow and overly deliberate probably due to lack of formal accounting training. Recommend
Study material provided by our CPA in basic bookkeeping. Tries hard, good potential.
EMPLOYEE:____Bart Flint _________________ SUPERVISOR:___C.Motley__________
DEPARTMENT: __Security_________________ DATE: ____6/24/08________________
Work Quantity
Work Quality
Cooperation
.
1. Far below average
_____ 1. Far below average
_____ 1. Far below average ______
2. Below average _____
2. Below average
_____ 2. Below average
__X___
3. Average
__X__ 3. Average
__X__ 3. Average
______
4. Above average
_____ 4. Above average
_____ 4. Above average
______
5. Far above average
_____ 5. Far above average
_____ 5. Far above average ______
COMMENTS: Tends to appear arrogant to residents. Slow in correcting problems such as survey of fence
adequacy around property, repairing cart, tends to show favoritism among more wealthy residents.
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COMMENTS ON APPRAISALS:
JOSE MENDEZ, MAINTENANCE FOREMAN.
Jose (Joe) legal immigrant from Mexico, works extremely hard, probably best liked person,
employee or otherwise, in the community. Always does more than what he has to, however had
to discuss with him possible legal problems as he tries to help residents with any of their problems and he has to be made aware of his legal limits. For instance, after hours he helped a resident replace front brake lining on his personal car, refused to accept any money (usually does not
take anything except a cold coca-cola), but resident nearly had an accident as the rotor was not
turned on the brake, causing the car to “grab” when making a left turn. No legal action was taken by the resident, particularly since Joe corrected the problem (still no cost), but this incident
helped to explain to Jose problems that could arise. Strongly recommend increase in salary, and
if he continues to excel, nice bonus at Christmas if possible.
BARBARA KYLE, ACCOUNTANT/BOOKKEEPER
Barbara is quite slow at entering data as she is not completely comfortable with this job since
she has only been here for 6 months and had only data entry experience before, therefore she
takes her time to make sure she does not make any mistakes. As she learns more about the accounting functions, she will become more comfortable and that should take care of her work
quantity problem. Will contact our CPA to see what studies he recommends. His cooperation
could be better, but that seems to be a function of her concentration on her job so it seems that
she is “short” with others. Will work with her during next six months, but if there is no or very
little improvement, she may be an example of the “Peter Principle,” and she has risen to the level
of her own incompetence. No salary considerations at this time.
BART FLINT, SECURITY SUPERVISOR
He only does what he has to do, which, in reality, is not much. The work quality is low as he
seems to want to just sit in the guard house, making only required tours in the cart at night. The
residents are aware that he feels the job is beneath him. He is particularly outgoing and friendly
with the more affluent residents, and with the other residents he is not impolite, he just ignores
them. His job description requires that he must personally check the perimeter fence around the
property every two weeks. He could not document that he does this every two weeks, and recently a resident reported a hole in the chain link fence around some of the common property
including the water treatment plant. He reported it to Flint the next morning, but work orders
show that no action was taken to repair the fence until 25 days later. When asked about this, his
response was that the work order had to have had the wrong date, and besides, what did it hurt if
animals or kids got on the property because of the hole in the fence?
Recommendation: Review possible contracts with professional security systems with possibility of contracting this position out. Nearby similar residential areas have reported that they no
longer have their own security personnel and they are happy with the professional companies.
Suggest that any arrangement/contract with a professional firm includes a provision that they
will not hire Flint in a security position for this community as sometimes this can happen.
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In addition to this type of performance review, there are other methods, such as the “paired
comparison” where each person is directly compared to every other person being rated, with frequency of endorsement determining the final ranking. Other systems include a “forced distribution” system that forces the rater to use all of the categories and avoid rating everyone as outstanding, poor, average or what have you. There are other similar and more technical methods,
but for the smaller staff, these systems would be overkill.
MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO)
Of all of the appraisal methods, management by objective is linked directly to means-ends
joint goal setting between a supervisor and a subordinate. When this system, developed years
ago by Harvard (and MBAs using the MBO system were turned loose on unsuspecting businesses) subordinates work with their supervisor to establish specific task-related objectives that fall
within their aura of responsibility and which, therefore, provides the means to help accomplish
the supervisor’s higher level objectives. Each set of objectives is worked out between a supervisor and a subordinate for a given time period. The objectives are much like a job analysis except
that it is directed toward a particular individual in his or her job instead of particular job type itself. This means that, generally, each specific person is likely to have a tailor-made set of work
goals while still working within the organizational operations.
This works well for counseling if the objective goes beyond the desired outputs and focuses
on important activities as well. In comparing one employee with another, a key concern is the
how easy or how difficult it is to accomplish those goals. If one person has an easier set of objectives to meet than another, then comparisons are unfair. Since MBO tends to rely less heavily
on ratings than do other appraisal systems, rating errors are less likely to be a problem.
Obviously, this system is devised for large corporations, but it is good to know what the “bigboys” are doing with performance appraisals.
MISTAKES IN APPRAISALS
There is a flip-side to most things, and performance appraisals are included. The appraisal
has to be reliable and consistent, obviously, and actually measure people on reliable and relevant
job content. Errors can, and do, arise in performance appraisals, as, after all, they are pretty
much individualized. There are names to some of the most common errors, which may help to
recognize them when (and if) they appear.
HALO ERRORS
A halo error occurs when one person rates another person on several different dimensions
and gives a similar rating for each one. Typically a person is rated high in one area, such as job
enthusiasm, and this would carry over to where he would also be rated high on dependability,
tact, and whatever other criteria is used. If a person is doing a really good job in one area, the
tendency is to overlook any areas in which he may not be so superior.
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LENIENCY/STRICTNESS ERRORS
Many college professors have a tendency to give high grades for virtually everyone under
their supervision—which is a form of self-aggrandizement—and which is often called a leniency
error, or, conversely, a strictness error depending upon the situation. A leniency error is the
tendency to give relative high ratings to nearly everyone, and the strictness error occurs when the
rater tends to give everyone a low rating. A Manager in a small shop may often give excellent
ratings to those that he has to work with on a daily basis—very common. This may keep up the
close relationship between the Manager and the employees, but it defeats the purpose of the Appraisals.
CENTRAL TENDENCY ERRORS
This occurs when managers lump everyone together around the average (or middle)category.
This gives the impression that there are no very good or very poor performers in the area being
rated. Both leniency and central tendency errors occur when the raters restrict themselves to only a small part of the rating scale. “I don’t know, I am not an expert on this, everyone seems to
be doing a good job so who am I to say they aren’t?”
RECENCY ERRORS
This occurs when a rater allows recent events to influence the performance rating over earlier
events. Example, James shows up late for work the day prior to the appraisal, and since he had
never, ever, been late for work before, he offers no excuses and works a little longer that day to
make up for the time he lost. The rater, not being aware of his impeccable promptness record, is
rated low for tardiness.
PERSONAL BIAS ERRORS
This error can happen, unfortunately, if there is a kind of personal bias such as racial, age or
gender, to enter the performance appraisal. Interesting case recently involving the Monarch Paper Company, when a former vice president was demoted to warehouse-maintenance job because
he did not accept early retirement. A federal judge declared the firm was guilty of age bias.
Raters must be very careful not to “let any of their biases show” and if there is a situation where
personal bias would come into play, or the rater could be accused of bias, then the performance
appraisal must be done by another party. Imagine a lady supervisor whose late husband was
killed by the Viet Cong in Vietnam, and who has never been comfortable around Vietnamese
ever since. If she is to give a performance review to a Vietnamese immigrant, Nguyen, regardless of how she would evaluate Nguyen’s performance, there is always the fear that personal bias
may enter into the evaluation, even if the appraisal is “good” the supervisor could be accused of
not giving even a better evaluation because of personal prejudice.
CULTURAL BIAS ERRORS
Managers must be aware of the cultural backgrounds of those they are appraising and care
must be taken not to criticize employees for cultural differences. There is not much of a problem
with small companies as usually the employees rapidly discover their differences and learn to
accept the differences much more readily. For instance, there can be many differences between
Muslims and those of other religions and a manager must be aware of these potential problems.
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PAY AS AN AWARD
It is a fact of life that people work for pay generally, unless they are rich from other sources
or unable to work, etc. Basically, pay is an award that allows organizations attract and retain
good, capable workers and pay will generally satisfy and motivate those workers to higher limits
of performance. For pay to serve as a motivation for work, there must be the view that high pay
is a reward for high performance. This is called merit pay. Simple and basic, right? However,
surveys have shown that although merit pay is an attempt to make pay contingent upon performance, as many as 80% of those responding to the survey felt that they were not rewarded for a
job well done. This would indicate that there is a problem relating pay with performance.
Merit pay should be based on realistic and accurate measurements of individual work performance and employees should believe that the way to get higher wages is to perform at high
levels. Also, merit pay should discriminate between high and low performers in the amount of
pay reward received. Managers should make sure that employees understand that there is a difference between a merit pay raise and a “cost-of-living” adjustment.
Performance should not always be the main criteria for merit pay increases as in some situations organizations are composed of primarily highly skilled individuals that may be in short
supply—in which case employee retention may be more valuable than performance.
Paying a salary for work performed can take various forms, such as rewarding people for acquiring and developing job-related skills. Skilled-based pay provides more flexibility among
workers and many larger organizations are into employee cross-training where they learn more
than one job—a feature of Japanese employers for many years but only adopted recently in the
US. The biggest problem with that is there are higher pay and training costs that are not offset
by greater productivity—which US companies have proven to the Japanese in some cases.
Advances in pay can be tied to cash bonuses or extra pay for performance above standards or
expectations, and while originally was used with managers and executives for years, in recent
years has spread into gain sharing wherein pay and performance are linked and which give employees the opportunity to share in productivity gains through larger earnings.
There are also profit-sharing plans where employees are rewarded based on the performance
of the entire organization, and Employee Stock Ownership Plans which are based on the total
organizations performance but measured in terms of the stock price—which has the added advantage at times of creating a continual market for the stock so that the value of the stock does
not nosedive as others in the same field may in case of a market downturn. There are lump-sum
pay increases where the full increase is received at the beginning of the year, or given out in two
payments, sort of a forced savings plan. Then there is the lump sum payment, which is different
because the salary of an employee becomes fixed and increases are then paid as a bonus, depending upon certain criteria. Unions dislike this as the base pay does not increase and the employer
determines the size of the bonus, however, most employees have quite favorable reactions to this
form of pay.
Employers sometimes have flexible benefit plans also, which are pay systems that allow
workers to select benefit according to their individual needs.
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STUDY QUESTIONS – SECTION THREE
1. A Performance Appraisal is a system of evaluating employee performance and providing
feedback
A. in order to show the employee “who is boss around here.”
B. for upper management without having a written record.
C. which is only used in large corporations.
D. on which performance adjustments can be made.
2. Performance Appraisals also serve other management needs
A. as it provides a method to determine what characteristics are closely related to
performance.
B. because it can be used as a warning of personality conflicts within the organization.
C. in unionization or anti-unionization of the job.
D. such as determining the political attitudes of employees.
3. Those employees who do not score well on the Performance Appraisal
A. should be terminated immediately.
B. must be transferred to another department.
C. should be demoted.
D. then this could lead to remedial training.
4. Often the most important part of the appraisal system is
A. that it allows the company’s representative and the employee to become chummy.
B. when there is an immediate and important bonus if the employee does well.
C. that it shows the employee who is boss.
D. that it shows the employee where he stands in the company’s expectations
and performance objectives.
5. Comparative methods of appraisal attempts to
A. identify one’s relative standing among those being rated.
B. identify one’s standing compared to those in similar positions in similar firms.
C. categorize each employee as good, bad, or indifferent.
D. minimize the value of appraisal as individuals are so different.
6. In a large company, some managers tend to give their employees almost unreasonable appraisals as that would indicate the manager has done a better job with his employees. This
would be called
A. a halo error.
B. a leniency error.
C. preferred employee mistake.
D. typical.
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7. Merit pay is
A. where a person is paid because of length of time of employment.
B. a reward for high performance.
C. rarely used in actual practice.
D. nothing more than blackmail.
ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS
1D
2A
3D
4D
5A
6B
7B
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SECTION FOUR - RECOGNIZING THE BENEFIT OF
GROUPS
USING GROUPS IN MANAGEMENT
Particularly in many community associations, groups can be of immeasurable benefit. Of
course, many associations are, in effect, “run” by groups. Home owners associations can be considered as a “group” with a manager as an employee, per se, of the group. Condominium residents are, in effect, just a group—sometimes irritating, bossy, exasperating and presumptuous—
but a group that can make life easy or impossible for a manager.
The only way to approach the “group” when they are all-powerful, is the same way that one
would approach a group that has little power of the office of the manager, and that is to understand group dynamics and us them to your advantage. Groups, as such, are so diverse that they
can be only discussed in generalities and it would be presumptuous to discuss methods on how to
“handle” all groups.
Groups can help organizations (of all kinds) and, for example, where there is no clear “expert” in a given task or problem, groups make better judgments than individuals alone—one of
the reasons that the legal system uses juries in criminal cases. In Florida, and other “retirement”
states, many community associations are composed of a number of older persons and it is wise to
consider them as a pool of experience—one of the reasons why an intelligent manager will know
the background in experience and education of the residents. Keep in mind if you need some
expertise in, for example, legal matters; it is not absolutely necessary to talk to a retired attorney
or judge. Often retired executives, paralegals or law enforcement personnel, may have a good
background in the law so that one can decide whether to get formal legal advice. A background
in “Medicine” may be extremely important, such as retired (or still active) nurses, paramedics,
and various others in the field.
Still, even if there is a “home-grown” expert in the group, still better judgment can be made
by those with varying backgrounds. Often nothing takes the place of good-old common sense.
Secondly, when the problem(s) is complex, as it may require a division of labor and the sharing of information.
Third, because of the tendencies of a group to make riskier divisions (think about this, where
one person would not want to make a decision that could be “wrong,” or where it would require
drastic action, they may not want to carry that burden alone, but if there are a couple of other
people that agree that the action is needed, drastic a it may be, then there is a far greater chance
that the correct action will be taken). In any discussion involving others, have you heard (or
said) “Now that you mention it…”
Groups are important for a variety of other reasons as people can learn from each other and
share job skills and knowledge. This can be particularly helpful to new people who still are a
little unsteady in their job knowledge.
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And the social aspect cannot be disregarded. When people congregate on a regular basis,
there is bound to be offshoots, and generally the most popular are when there is entertainment
available or emotional support for those who need it.
Psychologically, however, there is a concern known as the Ringlemann Effect or to put it
more easily understand, social loafing. This means that people have a tendency to work less hard
in a group than they would individually. Not to stretch a point, but how this was determined is
kind of interesting: A German psychologist, Max Ringlemann, asked people to pull on a rope a
hard as they could, first alone and then in a group and, guess what? Average production dropped
as more people joined the rope-pulling job. Therefore, he deduced that people do not work as
hard in a group as individually because their individual contributions are less noticeable in the
group context, and further, they prefer to see others carry workload.
How to handle this problem? (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…)
The manager should define the role and jobs of each person participating in the group, which
maximizes the individual interests. They should raise accountability by making individual performance expectations clear and identifiable. They should also tie individual rewards to their
performance contributions to the group.
If you have ever sang in a choir, or listened to choirs frequently, this solution to “loafing” is a
perfect example. The choir director (manager) must blend the various voices into a single sound
according to the music and the “ear” of the choir director. Every singer can perform individually, some excellently (soloists) and others perform better in a support role (Soprano, Alto, Tenor
and Bass). Each choir member has a particular task (singing) and their accountability is a combination of the music before them and the director as he blends the voices to make the most acceptable and preferable sounds. It is a privilege to sing a solo part in a cantata, for example,
which is a method of rewarding those who have worked hard to perfect their part and their performance contributions to the choir.
GROUP ASSISTANCE
Groups can help organizations because they improve creativity, they can make better decisions, they can help control their members (a group member saying “Don’t worry about Mable,
she always complains about garbage pickup. I know her well and I will take care of that for
you.”).
Another way groups can help is that groups can increase commitments to action. For example, there is nothing in the Rules and Restrictions that dictates how mailboxes are to be decorated, or even if they can be. Originally, all mail was picked up at central locations, but with
growth, the post office now delivers to the individual unit. A couple of “greenies” decided to
paint their mailboxes green, another paints animals and pictures of nature on the mailbox. Some
are large, some are small, some are quite original, many are painted the color of the residential
unit, etc.
The Board of Directors, under pressure from and assistance from the manager, appointed a
“Beautification” Board, whose first job was to come up with regulations in respect to mailboxes.
The Beautification Board consisted of (actually was hand-picked by the manager making recommendations to the Board) a young attorney, an interior decorator, a retired architect, etc. This
worked well, for instance they had a “mailbox contest” giving a half-dozen choices as decided by
the Beautification Board.
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If the organization is large, then it only makes sense to have groups involved which helps to
offset the possibility of overwhelming numbers. In recent years, churches have proven this rule.
Very large (membership in the thousands) churches have arose and continue to grow. Many
cannot understand this phenomena but the church leaders are aware of how groups help organizations, and you will find that every one of these “mega” churches consist of many smaller
groups that are organized for various purposes, such as bible study, charities, parenting problems, etc., and while each unit has a different base purpose, the overall purpose is control by the
church. It really is remarkable and can work as well with any large community organization.
For the “purists,” this may seem to be alien to businesses and corporation management, but it
really is just another version of MBO – Management by Objectives.
SOCIAL FACILITATION
An important function of group work is the tendency for one’s behavior to be influenced by
the presence of others in a group or social setting. The social facilitation theory indicates that
working in the presence of others crates an emotional arousal or excitement that energizes behavior and thereby, affects performance. Such stimulation works best when one is proficient with
the task as it leads to extra effort in doing something “that comes naturally.”
An example often given of social facilitation is where John Smith returns to the town where
he played high school football and who is now a starting tackle for the Green Bay Packers.
The flip side of this is if the task at hand is not well learned, for instance, public speaking.
When asked to speak before an audience or class, one may stumble around if they try to talk
about an unfamiliar topic in public. Example: Johnny Carson used to introduce the AllAmerican football team on his program. On one occasion, he severely mispronounced the last
name of a University of Mississippi senior (from Louisiana) with a (Cajon) French name. There
was so much consternation that he was invited back, and Carson profusely apologized for mangling his name. The player stated, (exact quote): “Aw, hit don’t make me no never-mind.” Ole
Miss Alumni will never live it down.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL GROUPS
There are many ways for groups to be used to great advantage. A formal group is one that is
officially designated to service a specific organizational purpose and they can be temporary or
permanent, depending upon their purpose. Temporary workgroups are those that are created to
solve a particular problem or perform a designated task, and usually disband when their purpose
has been fulfilled.
An informal group sometimes seems to spring out of nowhere, as they are usually not officially designated and are formed spontaneously, usually through personal relationships or special
interests. There are all kinds of these, including friendship groups where people just kind of
“hang out” together because they have similar tastes and interests. Interest groups can be informally formed where, for instance, there are those who do day-trading by computer and need to
“compare notes.”
Where there are informal groups, it certainly behests the manager to become acquainted with
the groups and those individual inside the groups, as they can often make the job of the manager
much easier, or conversely, make the job much harder. Whether they are aware of it or not, these
informal groups can have the potential to speed things up, satisfy needs that are ignored by oth32
ers, and generally, informal groups can provide their members with social satisfactions, security
and a sense of belonging.
Suggestion: If the community has informal organizations operating, if possible, the manager
should attend as many of the meetings as possible. There is no better way to get the “pulse” of
the community. Generally, it is best to wait to be invited, as without an invitation, it could appear rude to attend their meeting, and the purpose of the manager attending can be suspect. A
few well-placed hints usually suffice.
STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT
In the early, forming, stages of a group, the first problem is “who is going to be in the
group.” This can only be accomplished by asking a lot of questions of individuals who may be
interested, may have some important ability or education, how gets along well with others, etc.
It is so important that the manager does not jump onto his horse and ride off in all directions.
The primary stage answers the questions that arise as to “What is the purpose of the group? How
many people will be in the group? How much time will it take to accomplish its purpose? How
do I join the group? And the key question: “What is in it for me?”
The next stage is often called the “storming” stage, as it is a period where emotions can run
high and the tension among the early members is like a violin string. Usually, the group can experience many changes, either personnel changes or purpose-changes. If the group has been
formed to address a situation that just seems like no one wants to address, then back up and form
a group that may want to discuss a similar but relative situation. If a resident wants to put up a
statue of the Virgin Mary in the yard, and someone else wants to have a statue in the yard of
Saint Francis and there are rumblings that a Jew may want to erect a large Star of David, etc.
There are no restrictions presently. One would not want as a member of this group, any one who
presently has a religious statute in their yard, but at the same time, members should be particularly sensitive to the wishes of devout members of the various religions.
But once they all become comfortable with each other, then efforts should be made to find
ways to accomplish group goals while also satisfying individual needs.
When the group starts to really come together as an coordinated unit, with the (sometimes
precarious) balancing of forces, sometimes it is more important at that particular time, to hold the
group together than actually working on their designated tasks. At this particular time, it is not
wise for the manager to descend upon the group and demand to know why they are not working
only on the task at hand, instead of making goody-goody with each other like it was all an exercise in cordiality.
Actually, at this stage, minority viewpoints, deviation from group directions and criticisms
may be discouraged as the members, themselves, experience a new sense of commonality and
closeness. In actual practice, this period of time may come-and-go rapidly, and in other situations, there seems to be no progress towards the eventual goals at all/
Once this stage passes, the group is considered to be “totally integrated” and are a mature,
operating group, able to function quite well, thank you! They are now a mature group and
should be able to work towards the designated goal with encouraging results.
Once the problem(s) has been addressed, and decisions made, then the group should be ready
to disband. Remember, this was formed as a temporary group and while it may seem that since
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these people worked together well on solving one problem, then perhaps they can “stick around”
and take on another task. If they are willing to disband when the job is over and to work well
together informally in the future, then this has been a successful group. Sometimes, they can become a more-or-less permanent group able to handle a variety of subjects with minimal changes
in personnel.
STUDY QUESTIONS – SECTION FOUR
1. Groups
A. make better judgments than individuals alone.
B. can never make up their mind.
C. create monsters, such as a “camel is a horse created by a group.”
D. consist of several people with more minds than there are people.
2. People have a tendency to
A. work harder when they are part of a group.
B. work smarter when part of a group.
C. work less hard in a group than individually.
D. shun groups.
3. An important function of group work is the tendency for
A. imitation that is greater in a group.
B. the undecided to shut up and sit down.
C. one’s behavior to be influenced by the presence of others in the group.
D. birds of a feather to flock together.
4. When it is determined that a group solution may be helpful, the next question is
A. what is the formation of a group going to cost me?
B. who is going to be in the group?
C. what can I do to influence the group so that my desires are accepted?
D. what kind of discount can I get with a group?
ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS
1A
2C
3C
4B
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SECTION FIVE - - COMMUNICATION
TRANSMISSION OF COMMUNICATION
In today’s world, so much communication depends upon computers and other high-tech
mechanisms to pass information between parties. Our children will ask, someday, “Did you
really have a computer on your desk? How weird!.” Still, large, sucessful, businesses harness
computing power to spread information among employees, management, stockholders, and all
other interested parties. Just a few months ago, no one knew what “text messaging” was, outside
of a few young “nerds,” but now, there are children in Middle School who can text-message to
their friends—often on a continual basis—using a cell phone and the cell phone keyboard, and
what staggers the minds of the older generation, is the fact that they can text-message with their
hand and cell phone in their pocket!! To send “c” one must strike key “2” three times, “o” is
tapping “6” three times, and “e” is “3” twice. Yet, they “cope” with it. And now we have
“Twitter” and “Tweeter” using “Facebook.” (Will wonders never cease?)
The newest method of communication and transmittal of information—receive and/or send—
will be “virtual” computers, where one is sending information on a computer that doesn’t
actually exist where the keys are being pressed…. This is the world in which those making a
living must participate and understand. But while the method of communication has advanced
and continues to advance exponentially, the mechanics of using these types of communication is
beyond the scope of this discussion. What is important, and what has not changed very much, is
what you say. The art of communication is what is important to a Manager who must transmit
information to others in their position as manager.
Information technology has a great impact on communication practices, there is no doubt,
and impact cannot help by increase because, for instance, experts estimate that there are more
than one billion voice-mail messages exchanged, and about 4 billion e-mail messages will be
sent annually from more than 100 million internet users that come online each yearand, perhaps
the most amazing point is that Internet traffic will double as fast as every 100 days.
These figure are mind-blowing, and it means that the appetite for information grows by leaps
and bounds—exponentially—which, in turn means, organizations require information to be
available from information technology in order to keep a competitive advantage. And, it has
been said, that in the “center of the communication flow” are demands and opportunities for
communication.
GREAT ORGANIZATIONS ARE BUILT ON AN EXTRAORDINARY
WILLINGNESS OF MANAGERS TO COMMUNICATE AND TO BUILD
ORGANIZATIONS WHERE COMMUNICATION IS PART OF ITS BASIC CULTURE.
The American Management Association recently conducted a survey of Managers, and the
respondents gave their managers only a 63% success rating in regards to “communicating
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information and direction.” And, in another survey, the respondents there rated their manager’s
skills in “listening and asking questions” at an average of only 3.36 out of a possible 5-points.
Yep, there is a problem.
PROCESSING COMMUNICATIONS
“Communication” has many definitions and interpretations of definitions, but the most
precise is that it is a process of sending and receiving messages with attached meanings. The
source of communication encrypts the intentional meaning into a message, which is they sent to
the receiver which then interprets the message into a perceived meaning. The person who
receives the message may, or may not, provide feedback to the sender. If something interferes
with or disrupts the transmission of the message, this is called noise. Simple, huh?
Expanding on this somewhat, the source of the communication or information, is a person or
group of persons, that want to communicate with another person/group of persons. That is what
is done. Why is there communication? Presumably to change the attitudes, knowledge or
behavior of the person/group receiving (receiver). All that streaming of information in
quadrillions of giga-bytes just to do some changing.
Many times there is more than just transmitting information. For instance, there are many
people who “talk with their hands” in order to emphasize of explain their verbal speech and to
translate an idea or thought into a message of verbal, written, gesturing or other nonverbal
methods or combinations. Even skywriting, or signs being pulled by airplanes (e.g., Edna, will
you marry me?).
Messages are transmitted through various communication channels, starting with face-roface, e-mail and/or online discussions, written letters or memoranda, telephone communications
(including voice mail), and other methods. Some people are better at using a particular form of
communication than others, or other forms of communication. Some people have the ability to
transmit their thoughts extremely well through talking, by memo, by e-mail, by telephone, etc.
Does it really make a difference how the message is transmitted. You bet! If there is a
security problem at a complex, which would work best?: sending e-mail to employees stating
that there is a security problem and they are to e-mail the manager is they see any problems with
existing security; Or, circulating a memorandum stating there is a problem and report any
problems; Or, initiating a telephone conference with security as the topic and eliciting
comments; Or, the Manager approachs each employee on an individual basis and informs them
of the security problem, listens to their input, and then verbally instructing each one in the
manner of reporting security breaches.
Most people would feel that personal face-to-face contact gets the message across best, but in
addition, to follow the personal meeting with individual written confirmation of the discussion.
Would it seem that the message has been received and understood? Not completely, at least
not until the message has been “decoded” and its meaning interpreted. This is affected by many
factors, especially the knowledge and experience of the receiver and his relationship with the
receiver. The message, while on the surface seems absolutely clear, canstill be interpreted a little
differently because of other points of view. “When the Manager talked to you, Bill, she was a
little hot about security around this place. Did you get the feeling that we all should be on the
lookout for people who don’t belong here?” “I, personally, believe that she wants me to call 911
if there are any suspicious people loitering near the condominiums.” “Security, Hah! She is just
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having problems with that doofus husband of hers so we should watch out for him and if he
shows up, call the police and the Manager, in that order!”
Sometimes, the “decoding” can end up in completely different result that anticipated and
originally intended by the source.
FEEDBACK
Most people, of at least average intelligence, are aware that there are often gaps between the
intended message and the way the message comes across. Any discrepancy can be identified by
the receiver of the information returning another message regarding the information received.
An excellent rule of managing communication is to always keep the feedback channels open.
Sometimes, and unfortunately often, “feedback” is construed to mean that one or more
persons communicage an evaluation of what was said originally or done by the original sender.
Performance Reviews are an example of feedback (often called “360-degree” feedback).
There is an art of giving feedback so that the receiver accepts it and uses it constructively.
Often the mere choice of words that are intended to be polite and even helpful, can be
misconstrued as being negative, unpleasant and antagonistic. This is noted especially in the
performance reviews. There are certain “hints”on how to give constructive feedback.
Always give feedback directly and in a spirit of mutual trust. “We all have the same goal so
any feedback that can be helpful is great.”
Be specific and clear about the feedback, no generalities, and give examples.
Give it when the receiver is most ready to accept. Sometimes there are those who are
nervous about giving any feedback to the “boss” so they try to give it when the receiver is
busiest, imagining that he will be too busy to discuss it in detail and it can slide by.
Be accurate, check the validity with others. If, for instance, the Manager wants to change
employee hours so that they will not be caught up in heavy traffic, and the employee has heard
that a cooperative community in a nearby town tried it with disastrous results—contact the
source of this information (the manager of the cooperative) to verify this information and to
make sure that, for instance, it did not work elsewhere because of immediate road construction
fouling up everyone’s commute, etc.
Focus on things that the receiver has some control over. If the receiver is concerned about
security, don’t give the feedback that would the problems would go away if the strip clubs on an
adjoining street is a haven for all kinds of criminals—doubt if a manager can do anything about
that.
Lastly, limit how much information is “fed-back” to the receiver at one time. If the receiver
seems to have several problems that are connected in some fashion, respond to each problem
individually. They will have a much better chance of being accepted if they are not all “piled”
on her desk at once.
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Technically, there are three channels of communication: Formal channels as established by
the organization; informal channels which go outside of the formal channels by diverging from
them or cutting across chains of command; and the famous “grapevine,” or networks where
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rumors and other kinds of unofficial information passes from one person to another, usually
through friendships and acquaintences.
Formal channels follow the paths as set forth by the organizations hierarchy and consist of
policies, procedures and other official announcements.
Much networking goes through the informal channels which exist with formal channels and
are valuable as they help to create open communications in organizations and make sure that the
right people are in touch with each other.
Grapevines are networks of friendships and acquaintances where rumors and other unofficial
information is passed from person to person, with the advantage that information can be
transmitted quickly and efficiently. If the information is transmitted correctly, grapevines allow
people to participate in situations that helps them to feel like they really are part of the
organization. Of course, the big disadvantage of grapevines is that the ifnormation may not be
accurate and inaccurate information has therefore moved rapidly and rumors fly. One can avoid
grapevines by making sure that key persons get the right information at the beginning.
THE FLOW OF COMMUNICATIONS
Communication among members of an organization, i.e., organizational communication, is
the process whereby information moves and is exchanged throughout an organization—as it
“flows” through the organization. Like liquid on a slope, communication must flow, except that
it flows not only downward, but also upward and laterally.
DOWNWARD COMMUNICATION
Downward communication is the flow through the chain of command, from top to bottom,
for the primary purpose of achieving influence through information. For instance, lower-level
empoloyees need to know what higher-level employees are doing, and to be reminded of
company policies, stragegies, objectives and technical developments. What is particular
important here is feedback on performance results. This is so important because it is here where
rumors and inaccurate information on what is going on “higher-up” are quelched. This allows
employees to feel like they know the whole story.
Upward communication on the other hand keeps higher levels information about what the
lower levels are doing, their problems, their solutions, suggestions, and their personal feelings
about their jobs.
Lateral communication is important in today’s worls because organizations are quite
customer sensitive and they need timely and accurate feedback and product information, so they
must get the right information and get it fast into the hands of workers. New organizational
designs are emphasizing lateral communication through cross-departmental committees, teams,
task forces, matrix orgnizations, and cross-training.
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
Organizations, whether they are aware of it or not—or even if they like it or not—are
information rich and high-tech-going-higher.
But even with the modern high-tech
communication devices, it is still all “people-driven.” In order for people to excel in today’s
world, they must be willing and able to work together well and commit their mutual talents and
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energies to their endeavors, and in order to do so, they must excel in the process of interpersonal
communication.
People communicate with each other properly if the information is effective, which means
that the meaning of the source and the perceived meaning of the receiver are virtually the same.
This sounds like basic stuff that does not need to be reiterated, however, this is not always
achieved. Example, as this text is being written, there is concern that what is being written is
being understood exactly as it is intended. If, for instance, this were a classroom and questions
could be asked, face-to-face, then opportunities for feedback and asking questions would
increase the effectiveness of the communication considerably.
The information communicated must also be efficient which happens only when a minimum
cost in terms of time, is expended. In a classroom, for instance, if the instructor could
communicate individually with each student, while the quality of learning would be exemplary,
the time cost would be prohibitive—unless the class day were increased by hours. People who
work for a living usually rely on written memorandums, posted bulletins, group meetings, e-mail
or voice main as the most efficient method of communication. Still, there are problems with that
method also, for instance, if there is to be a change in procedures in an organization, the best way
to make sure that everyone understands what is going on would be for supervisors to explain the
changes with each employee individually, but that would be cost prohibitive.
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
There are ways to communicate other than verbally, as everyone knows. Facial excpressions,
body position, eye contact, and other physicial gestures is important to understand and to master.
It is basic to the art of speaking, particularly public speaking, without using words. For business
purposes, we all tend to be more favorably impressed by a person who uses eye contact and erect
posture as opposed to someone who looks down a lot and slouches.
Nonverbal communication can take place through physical arrangement of space, such as in
various offices. For example, if the person walks through a door and immediately faces a desk
with an individual behind the desk, this is saying “I am the boss here.” A modification could be
where the desk is against a wall off to the side from where a person would enter, a chair is
opposite the desk for the visitor, and the “boss” would slide away from behind his desk so that
there is open space between he and the visitor—“I am the boss, but that’s OK. Let’s talk.”
The other arrangement would be in the office where the “boss” comes out from behind his
desk (which is against the wall) and sits in a chair next to the visitor, or sometimes, even a sofa.
The message here is “Forget I am the boss, let’s talk.”
ACTIVE LISTENING
Modern management textbooks stress the importance of listening for those who spend a lot
of their time communicating with other people. One guideline for active listening is that the
listener must try to hear exactly what is being said—with some people this is not necessarily
easy, but it is so important. One must listen for feelings so as to identify how the source feels
about things. The listener, to be effective, must respond to the feelings, to show some sympathy
or empathy if needed—empathy is the key here.
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Once the message is received, then it should be repeated back in his own words what he
(listener) thinks he was hearing.
DISTRACTIONS
In most communications, there are or can be distractions—also called “noise.” These come
from culteral differences, such as where there are language problems and particularly where
there is ethnocentrism which is tendency to believe one’s culture and it’s values are superior to
those of others. This can be a real problem if there is a considerable gap between beliefs of a
supervisor and a subordinate. All one can do—outside of language school, etc.—is to spend time
trying to understand the differences. If one is employed by a foreign company, it certainly is
usually worth the time and effort to learn their language and customs. Just the fact that there has
been interest shown can carry a lot of weight in the eyes of the owners.
Stereotypes must be avoided, particularly with recognizing how work values vary with age.
Studies show that at age 35 and younger, communication and work-life balance is of most
importance, those ages 35-55 look for job security and benefits, and those ages 56 and older,
benefits and communication are most important. Notice how “communication” is a primary
concern at all ages?
Physical distractions are quite often the source of misunderstanding of communication. If
time is to be spent with an employee, or subordinate in particular, clear the deck and do not allow
for telephone calls, intruding secretaries, etc., to interfere. To say the least, it is basically
extremely rude and disconcerting to be interrupted during a serious business discussion. There
are examples in corporate histories of companies losing valuable, highly-paid executives as they
were simply not able to communicate with their superiors as the superiors were “too busy.” One
oft-quoted case was where a Marketing Vice President, considered as perhaps the best in his
field, and who had performed extremely well with his employer, was shuttled off three times
from an important product review meeting with the company President, and when he finally
complained the last time, the President informed him that he (the VP) was highly paid to solve
these kinds of problems. The VP immediately dictated a letter of resignation, stating that his
unability to communicate on an intelligent level with the President did not allow him to do what
he was being paid to do. Therefore, he resigned “to seek employment with more cooperative
companies” in his field. Ouch!
No discussion of communication is complete without mentioning semantic problems.
Everyone in business should be familiar with the “KISS Principle: —Keep it short and simple.
Two actual “executive communications” are pointed out in Organizational Behavior:
A. “We solicit any recommendations that you with to make, and you may be assured that
any such recommendations will be given our careful consideration.”
B. “Consumer elements are continuing to stress the fundamental necessity of a stabilization
of the price structure at a lower level than exists at the present time.” (What?)
Why not (A) “Send us your recommendations and they will be carefully considered.” Or (B)
“Consumers want lower prices.”
Another distraction is Mixed Messages.” Don’t you just hate those? Reminds one of a
person involved in a discussion with a Japanese –where “no” in Japanese sounds like “yeah.” It
was disconcerting for Americans when a Japanese would answer a question “yeah” and at the
same time be shaking “no” with their heads. If a person agrees to a situation or a question, but at
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the same time pushes their chair back, rolls their eyes, looks at the ceiling, or grimaces, that is a
sign that there really is no agreement.
Another sign of disagreement without actually voicing disagreement, is, for example, where
a rather important e-mail is sent and there is no direct or immediate feedback from the recipient.
If immediate or rapid feedback is expected, and is not realized, the sender should review the
message to make sure that the urgency is stressed and the point is well explained, and if still not
answer, then take other measures—get on the phone and ask why they did not respond to the email. It might be problems with the computer, or they have given a lot of consideration to the email and are composing a response.
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS BETWEEN RANKS
These can often occur because the managers have a tendancy to do the “telling” and very
little listening. Subordinates often want to tell their bosses only what they believe the boss wants
to hear, sometimes because of a fear of retribution for bringing bad news. Sometimes
information is filtered so that the boss will get only what he wants to hear, and sometime people
just want to please so badly that they cannot deliver bad news. There is a term for this, the mum
effect which means that sometimes people keep mum from having to dispense bad news or are
just too polite to want to spread bad news.
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION
Perhaps the best place to end this discussion of communication is discussing the very complex social context of organizations today. One of the more interesting studies is the study of
male and female communication styles. Yes, indeed, women and men are different in many
ways, one of which is the different styles of communication. Now you know why sometimes
men and women who would appear to have a lot in common, have such a difficult time in communicating with each other.
Women, in would appear, are more interested in building relationships using communications, while men are more interested in status building. Since people surround themselves with
those who communicate in the same basic styles as they do, this would imply that either women
or men may dominate communications in situations where they are in the majority.
This raises the questions among some, as to whether women are better communicators than
men, and a consulting firm’s study seems to indicate that yes, indeed, that may be the case. Supervisors rank female managers higher than male managers on communication, “approachability,
evaluations, and empowering others—a similar study of subordinates finds that women rank
higher on the same items. Why, one may ask? Probably because women have early socialization and training that better prepare them to be more sensitive to interpersonal relationships.
Men, on the other hand, are usually more aggressive, competitive, and individualistic—factors
that would cause communication problems.
Still, it is important to avoid gender stereotyping and to focus instead on the real point, which
is how communications in organizations can become more effective.
To further complicate matters, the society now is much more politically correct in communications. People are more careful in their choice of words so as not to offend another individual
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or group—ala “people of color,” physically challenged,” even “seniors,” any of which were
phrased differently in the past.
Whether one likes it or not, they may be different again in the future. Therefore, in order for
people in organizations to be aware of such issues, many employers offer training so that their
employees can better understand and be able to address the need for language to support all criterion and sensitivities, tolerance and including to the difference between individuals.
STUDY QUESTIONS – SECTION FIVE
1. The appetite for information in our society
A. has remained level for generations.
B. is growing exponentially.
C. creates a monster that will devour all small businesses as we know them.
D. is “high-tech” related so soon children will rule the world.
2. According to recent surveys in respect as to communication from their managers, respondents
indicated that
A. managers, as a whole, do a great job of communication.
B. managers, as a whole, do a terrible job of communication.
C. they gave their managers a 63% rating in communicating information and direction.
D. their manager’s skills in listening and asking questions were nearly perfect.
3. When someone encrypts an intentional meaning into a message, sent to a receiver who then
interprets the meaning, and may or may not provide, feedback, this is called
A. communication.
B. Twitting.
C. Tweeting.
D. dissemination of gobble-de-gook.
4. Performance reviews are an example of
A. lousy communications.
B. non-verbal instructive messaging.
C. feedback.
D. dictatorship.
5. The advantage of “grapevine communication” is that
A. information can be passed quickly and accurately.
B. information is passed slowly, but fully digested for accuracy.
C. information can be passed quickly and efficiently.
D. it should be totally disregarded as an organization communication means.
6. If the information transmitted between people is perceived the same by both the sender and
the receiver, then
A. this is inaccurate communication.
B. the information has been property communicated.
C. it would be a miracle.
D. a third party would be necessary to translate the intent of the communicator.
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7. The listener must try to hear
A. what the communicator should have said.
B. not what is said, but what the listener thinks they should have said.
C. exactly what is being said.
D. how more than one party would conceptually define the message.
8. Distractions in communication is also called
A. intermediation.
B. tweeting interruption.
C. noise.
D. ethnocentrism.
9. Men and women often seem to have difficulty communicating, and a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that
A. they have different styles of communication.
B. underlying the communication of the men is sex, for the women it is money.
C. other than obvious physical differences, in communications, they are exactly the same.
D. women do not expect anyone to listen to them, and therefore, the men don’t.
ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS
1B
2C
3A
4C
5C
6B
7C
8C
9A
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SECTION SIX - MBWA
MANAGEMENT BY WALKING/WANDERING AROUND
And, finally, one easy-to-understand management technique that works well in many situations and, in particular, can also help with communication problems:
Obviously, managers must develop trust in their working relationships with subordinates and
take advantage of all face-to-face communications, and MBWA – Management By Walking
Around (also known as “Management by Wandering Around”) can help in many cases. This
was introduced as a management technique in 1982 by Tom Peters in his book In Search of
Excellence and it is still considered by many as a powerful management strategy, used by such
firms as Hewlett-Packard, GE, PepsiCo, 3M, Disney and WalMart, and acknowledged more and
more as one of the best communication techniques. The name of this technique is selfexplanatory—get out from behind your desk and go talk to your employees on their ground. It
works as well in an office of 5 employees as it does a huge corporation. Nothing is more
effective in creating an atmosphere of open and free-flowing communication between the ranks,
as it leads to more and better information being available for decision making, and the relevance
of decisions to the needs of operating workers increase.
It is simple in concept,but there can be some problems that can be avoided by following
some simple points.
Number One should not even have to be mentioned—NO GOSSIPPING.
Managers who use this technique will often be surprised when they stop by a subordinate’s
office and is met with “Glad you came by, I was thinking last night about what you said in the
memo….etc.”
Management consultants have cautioned that this does not mean leaving your responsibilities
behind as you stroll through the business environment, and it can do more harm than good if not
executed correctly.
To start with, be relaxed (or at least, act relaxed—employees do not confide in bosses who
are “uptight.”) If you are relaxed, there is a far greater chance that the employees will be
relaxed.
It is vitally important that you remain open and responsive to questions and concerns. That,
after all, is one of the most important reasons to be talking to an employee. You must “observe
and listen” to what the employee says, and if there are others around, let everyone see you do just
that.
The meetings must be sponteneous and unplanned, otherwise the employees will plan their
agenda so as to tell you what they think you want to hear. Managers have tried to set up a
schedule for “wandering around” which, obviously, defeats the whole purpose. One manager
reported that he had his secretary keep count of his business telephone calls, and when that
number reached a certain number, he would get up from his desk and start his tour. Also, it is
not necessary that on your “walking/wandering around” you talk to all employees, but if you
split it up, try not to set up a set pattern as to what order you speak to the employees—but don’t
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forget anyone. If you have a row of “fabric boxes,” it is not necessary to go down the line in
order, unless, of course, the cubicles are such that conversation carries well. In that case, if it
seems that an employer in the next cubicle heard what you said, then pass over that person (he
has been forwarned about what the other employee has said) that day and come back another
day. Random, random, random.
What do you talk to the employee about? Most experts feel that you should talk to them
about their passions—family, hobbies, vacation, sports, etc.—this might entail listening to a
discussion of profesional hockey (and you probably don’t even know what a “blue line” is) but if
business is not discussed, you are still “establishing rapport.” If, for instance, one employee
wants to talk about the NFL while most other employees want to talk about the new vacation
schedule, maybe you might want to see how the vacation schedule affects this NFL fan as maybe
he hates it and doesn’t want to appear negative.
All is not, and should not be, just jabber about personal life. Ask (and often), for suggestions
to improve operations, service, marketing, etc. Encourage suggestions, but NEVER, repeat
NEVER argue with an employee. Accept his suggestion, tell him you will get back with him on
his suggestion, then actually consider what he suggested. Sleep on it, and give it honest
consideration, and then explain to the employee why you cannot—or will—institute what he
suggested. This can be the heart and soul of this technique as it requires considerable tact at
times, but it pays off. A negative reponse to his suggestion should not be too short—indicating
lack of interest in his opinion—or very lengthy as he can then pick holes in the reponse. If the
suggestion has been well thought out but has been found not acceptable, it could be to your
advantage to set up a meeting with the employee and discuss his suggestions. Treat him as an
equal in this respect.
If the suggestion has any merit at all, or the employee has obviously and sincerely studied the
situation thoroughly, this is the kind of employee you want, so treat him accordingly. In some
business environments, taking the employee to lunch to discuss it more works wonders. The
employee will usually spread the word that “his suggestion” was the subject of a luncheon
discussion with the boss. Don’t you think that other employees will try to get such recognition
also? Just make sure that the suggestion is the major topic of luncheon discussion.
Try to spend an equal amount of time in all areas of the organization and this may be quite
difficult—but keep trying. Some employees do not want to talk to their “boss” informally, some
simply do not have anything to say, some are taciturn by nature and just maybe, an employee lost
a previous job by saying something to an unforgiving and non-understanding superior. It should
be your job to try to find some area of agreement, where you can open lines of communication
between you and your employee. One way, if the employee does not want to converse, is to seek
a common ground (without being obvious), so you can at least ask the person “How are you
doing today?” Be sincere in any event. But NEVER discuss an employee with another
employee without both being present. The company underground will kill, dead, your attempts
to gain the respect from employees that you need to do your job right.
If, thank heaven, you catch an employee doing something “right,” THEN you recognize them
publicly. Try not to give the impression or say something like: “See! Mary did this the right way
—why can’t you do it this way too?”
In this modern age, “aura” can be something special. In an earlier time, it would be called
“impression” that you wish to convey. Your “aura” should be that of a COACH. Never, never
an inspector.
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
You are trying to help them with their job, not “checking-up” on them!
What is the purpose of all of this? :
Encourage your employees to show you how the real work of the company get done.

Keep in mind that MBWA works best when you are genuinely interested in employees and in
their work and when they see you as there to listen to them. Remember, that any suggestions
require a follow-up, so get back to them within 48 hours.
STUDY QUESTIONS – SECTION SIX
1. Management by Wandering Around means
A. leaving your responsibilities at home.
B. only listen to yourself and your boss, but walk around with a smile on your face and look
through employees.
C. never make important decisions sitting behind your desk.
D. talking to employees “on their grounds” so as to have open and free-flowing
communications,
2. In using the MBWA technique, you MUST NOT
A. argue with an employee in his office.
B. talk with them about their personal life.
C. approach an employee on an unscheduled and unexpected visit to his office.
D. try to act like a Coach, never an inspector.
ANSWERS TO STUDY QUESTIONS
1D
2A
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END OF FINAL EXAMINATION
MANAGEMENT SKILLS – COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS
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