#mytcspp

I came across this entry in one of my readings for IO525 - Organizational Leadership. It provides an interesting perspective on management and how aspects surrounding leadership (highly motivated or inspiring behavior) are practically irrelevant where management is concerned.

How's this for a way to look at human capital within an organization. Though from both an engineering and management perspective and seeing how cost cutting typically equates to decreasing staff (the most costly of all assets in an organization), I can understand this perspective. It is easier to simply reduce overhead by eliminating positions rather than identifying deficiencies in organizational processes or streamlining operations. I'm more of the position to fix the business flaws and identify the strengths in the people and maneuver those individuals into positions where they will be of the greatest benefit to the organization.

"The executive culture, thus, has in common with the engineering culture a predilection to see people as impersonal resources that generate problems rather than solutions. In other words, both the executive culture and the engineering culture view people and relationships as means to the end of efficiency and productivity, not as ends in themselves. If we must have human operators, so be it, but let's minimize their possible impact on the operations and their cost to the enterprise."

Phase 1 (Exploitation) - Low potential/weakly connected

Phase 2 (Conservation) - High strongly-connected potential

Phase 3 (Creative Destruction) - Low potential/strongly connected

Phase 4 (Renewal) - High weakly-connected potential

Organizations follow a sideways figure 8 (think infinity symbol), along the path through the phases above.  As they grow, new businesses gain potential and interconnectedness. However, as they age, they lose that potential until such a time the organization must innovate or risk dissolution from lack of progress. Once renewed, the lifecycle begins again.

  Hurst, D. R., & Zimmerman, B. J. (1994). From Life Cycle to Ecocycle.

Low-cost leader/Defender = Efficiency orientation

Differentiation/Prospector = Learning, innovation, adaptation

Analyzer = Characteristics chosen based on needs

Reactor = Just plain bad...

Low-cost leader/Differentiation -> Porter's Competitive Strategies

Technical core: Consists of the people who do the actual core work of the organization. They produce the output as a product or service based on the goals of the organization. 

Technical support: The people responsible for support the technical core through technology, research and development, and engineering, and serve to generate innovation in order to help the organization change and adapt to its environment. 

Administrative support: Entails the human resource and maintenance aspects of the organization and helps in everything from hiring and training to managing the facilities. 

Middle management: Passing down and implementing goals and directives from top management and providing the necessary translation between the executive level and the technical core. 

Top management: Responsible for driving the organization or major divisions through the creation of common goals, strategies, and policies.