1/6: Stop wasting time on debating whether or not we need managers. Focus on five elements of organization to support management.

This is the first article on a series of posts on management of post-hierarchical organizations. Rather than debating whether or not we need managers in the future, the aim is to look into five elements of organization and how through them we can rethink management to support e.g. innovation, adaptability, and employee engagement. Managers may or may not be included.

As I am interested in and work with organizational structures and management models, I run every now and then into articles such as "First, let's fire all the managers", "Is the era of management over?" or "Nails in the coffin: why a flat organizational structure fails", all debating whether or not managers are needed for reaching set business goals. We are drawn to this debate at least from three different perspectives, in each of which we believe that managerial intervention or the absence of it influences the outcomes and ultimately the productivity or bottom line: innovation, adaptability, and employee engagement.

1. Innovation fuels growth but is notoriously difficult to manage - successful innovation requires management, yet the management processes and practices must not kill the budding innovation.
2. Adaptability and sensitivity to changing markets in creating new business as well as reliability in running the current business are both needed but "often [managerial hierarchies] skew in favor of reliability - and create rigidity and red tape".
3. Employee engagement follows as employees psychologically invest in their organizations to produce outstanding results. In many countries, economical and political stability should enable us the luxurious search for meaning, purpose, and self-actualization from work to support the psychological investment, yet many management practices we see are simply harmful for employee engagement and well-being. Recent research shows that people don't really quit their bosses, they quit their jobs - but of whose content the boss is ultimately responsible for.

I personally believe that the debate on managers and management will continue and it should. The importance of innovation, adaptability, and employee engagement for business success coupled with the technological changes as well as the changing nature of work will see to it. However, to keep the debate relevant and productive in leading to better and actionable insights on management, we need to refocus the question. Instead of asking do we need managers - that would only yield "yes" or "no" answers - we should be asking:

What are the elements to manage an organization?

Any organization from the most hierarchical to the most self-managed one can be understood through five elements. These include: authority, goals, rules, participation, and motivation. To give an example, in an hierarchical organization, those high up in the hierarchy are the ones in possession of authority, including the responsibility of setting the goals, monitoring and managing performance, defining and reinforcing the rules and codes of conduct, creating roles and allocating tasks based on which employees can participate and contribute, and determining the means of motivation. In this kind of an organization, the role of a manager is essential as it is the person - the manager - who bears the responsibility of management.

Hierarchy brings control, reliability, and efficiency but can make organizations bureaucratic, which in turn slows organizations down. With all of the responsibilities outlined above and many more, managers become very busy persons with most of their attention and time typically allocated to reports, meetings, approvals, and so on instead of seeing to employee and customer needs and satisfaction. When this happens and we start craving for more agility and customer-centricity, it is not a surprise that we start questioning whether or not we need managers as their focus is not on innovation, adaption, and employee engagement - the key factors of the current and future success of the business.

How do we then avert from drowning into unnecessary bureaucracy and loosing sight of why and for whom the business exists? In the next posts, we will look into the five elements of organization - authority, goals, rules, participation, and motivation - and how through them we can rethink management for the benefit of people and the business.