Knowledge
Decomposition from Within
How do organizations develop over time? And what happens when top management, consultant networks, and hierarchies develop a self-interest that has little to do with the original goals of the organization?
When companies have reached a certain size, they usually adopt firmer structures with clearer hierarchies. At the beginning of the 21st century, new trends are emerging in very large companies:
Top management recruited in this way sees the world from its own experiential perspective. This is the clear view from a cruising altitude of 10,000 meters. The practice down on the ground is observed from this perspective.
At this altitude, one moves forward quickly and recognizes highways far below as thin lines and the slowly creeping vehicles. One may even be surprised, when actually looking closely, that perhaps far too few cars are driving.
The potholes cannot be seen from an altitude of 10,000 meters.
The middle management, which brings practical experience and has grown within the companies or through other active involvement, can disturb this pure world. It has a far too petty perspective. It simply lacks the broad vision, the clarity. Something like this can certainly be felt in top management.
At the top, the world is clear, unclouded, and the air is also thin. Thin air also means that you need an additional oxygen supply to survive. This is provided by your own consultant network, from which you came into this job. In many cases, it is essential for survival.
Top management consulting firms usually recruit their employees from the ranks of the best graduates of reputable universities. They are distinguished by polished manners and excellent abilities to grasp matters quickly. They can develop plausible-sounding strategies and generally reproduce and present matters well.
The ties must be maintained. Care must be taken that the nucleus of this connection — "one's own" management consultancy — is supplied with contracts. It is disturbing that other consultants also have former employees in the company.
Of course, costs must also be cut. This is then best done by further thinning out the middle management. For this, one needs projects. One already knows who will be commissioned.
Another effective measure is that commissioning a consultant can only be done with the approval of a senior manager. This already eliminates many small firms. Which manager from middle management would want to bother the high-ranking colleagues with something like that.
In public authorities, acquisition from within is more difficult. Here, one does not get into a managerial position so quickly. But there are good solutions. For example, in projects it is achieved that key tasks are outsourced to privatized companies. Their management can then be filled with one's own people.
Instead of visionaries and experts, high-flyers sometimes determine events. Bean-counters provide the arguments needed for wrong decisions.
What happens when you eliminate the many small rivulets and streams that meander through the landscape? Suppose we let the water seep into the ground. A plausible argument could be that more usable land would then be available. Besides, the streams are not economically usable. Only the larger rivers can be made navigable.
What would happen? One would discover before too long that the water fails to reach the larger rivers. The tributaries have dried up.
Now let us compare this water with the passengers of the German railway. Striking parallels become apparent. Many years ago, most branch lines were already shut down. They were uneconomical. Remaining bus connections were also thinned out under cost pressure. As a result, people in rural areas increasingly use their own vehicles. On the heavily trafficked main lines, passenger numbers have stagnated ever since.
A comparable process is just beginning with the German postal service. Many mailboxes have already been removed. Here, people will switch to email at a faster pace.
The lost business is almost impossible to win back.
Whom should companies serve in the long term? Whom do they actually benefit? Are shareholders and employees perhaps coming up short? If companies do not show the necessary fairness to their investors and employees, where will these turn? What consequences arise?
An alternative to decomposition and external control:
Discover GoodPoints →Original: "Organisationsdegeneration - Zersetzung von Innen" by Dr.-Ing. Walter Tritt. Further publications at www.scwt.de.