Most members of the BCC family have worked in an environment of traditional management before joining BCC. In BCC all its aspirations and the lives of BCC employees were directed towards the co-operative pursuit of excellence.
In order to help provide a clearer understanding for BCCI employees on the important differences between Real Management and Traditional Management, an analysis of the two was published in the BCC inhouse magazine Issue of September - October 1984. This is the integrative process that moves from the microscopic to the macroscopic where a manager who was expected to see BCC in the larger context of socio-economic and geopolitical forces playing a ''bit-part" on the larger stage of history. Since Real Management is a constantly evolving process, an unending journey to an unlimited future, this analysis was to only serve as a provisional definition of Real Management.
Real Management
1. Searches for the truth beyond conventional wisdom. This often lies in the unseen world behind perceptions. Seeks a greater understanding of self, of others, and of life itself. This process of discovery is forever unfolding.
Traditional Management
1. Accepts the principles of conventional management wisdom. Practises the generally accepted contemporary concepts of management.
Real Management
2a) Lives in both the tangible and intangible worlds (totality). Recognises the invisible forces governing our conscious perceptions. The real world is the interdependent interaction of the seen and the unseen - an indivisible, living system that does not separate the material effects from the moral (natural) causes.
Traditional Management
2a) Lives in the conscious world of tangible perceptions and objective reality. The real world is the seen, a relatively static system that concerns itself with the form and content of the visible, material world.
Real Management
b) Perceives the management process as a whole. Believes the essence has been lost in the pursuit of its parts. Manages the whole process and the whole person. Integrates the components to form a management eco-system.
Traditional Management
b) Perceives the management process in parts planning, organising, controlling, etc. Fragments the process and the person (managers' brains, egos, skilled hands, strong backs, etc.).
Real Management
c) Sees opposing parts as elements of this interdependent whole - an all-encompassing commonality. Wholeness demands the inclusion of opposites. Realises that interaction of interdependent parts produces evolutionary changes for all parts.
Traditional Management
c) Sees opposing parts as competitive - may be negative (destructive) or positive (creative). Often favours one part and compels or persuades the other part to change its position.
Real Management
3. Visualises the organisation as a process a vast stream of energy to which all contribute and from which all draw. Concentrates on the energy of flow and merger - its quality, vitality, velocity, quantity and direction. Sees the organisation as a dynamic, fluid and everchanging process. Views organisational changes as continuous and evolutionary, not episodic. Perceives each person as a being in progress - a self-directing, entrepreneurial source of energy. People belong when they relate to the process (flow).
Traditional Management
3. Visualises the organisation as a structure. Concentrates on form and content. Organises itself in a hierarchy of levels and positions (pyramid) which are periodically changed with organisational and personnel realignment. People belong when they have a place in the structure.
Real Management
4a) Accepts people unconditionally with positive regard. Trust is unearned. Practises a "give" philosophy. For example, poor performers are accepted as persons of worth. Poor performance, however, is not acceptable, and all who are aware of the situation have an obligation to contribute to its improvement.
Traditional Management
4a) Accepts people conditionally. Acceptance comes when performance reaches expectations. Trust is earned. Practises a "get" philosophy.
Real Management
b) Visualises the function of the home office as a support centre (CSO).
Traditional Management
b) Visualises the function of the home office as a control centre (CHQ).
Real Management
5a) Believes in “interfusion power” and the resultant merger of energies known as “joint personality”. (The concept of a corporate family emerges from the collective responsibility of interfusion.) Sees each person as autonomous in an interdependent network of relationships (i.e. free to interfuse). Responsibilities are less clearly defined. Manages and is managed equally. As such, power, authority and other conventional means of control are less necessary.
Traditional Management
5a). Believes in "pyramid power" the hierarchy of superior/subordinate relationships. Controls by reporting relationships through authority and clearly defined responsibility.
Real Management
b) Believes thinking is important but feeling is primary. Feelings energise and humanise thought. Without feelings thoughts are lifeless. Intellect and reason have limitations. They can develop ideas and communicate them but they cannot create ideas. Intuition is the source of creativity.
Traditional Management
b) Believes thinking is primary. Logic and reason reign supreme. Feelings have their place; but they tend to cloud the management process. Intuition is often suspect because it cannot be proven.
Real Management
c) Sees committee work in the larger scope of interdependence and joint personality. As such, the process is seldom formalised but operates continuously in an evolutionary process – management by interfusion (MBI).
Traditional Management
c) Sees committee work as a necessary but often time-wasting and risk-avoiding function.
Real Management
6. Sees humility as a strength. In effect real control occurs by taking the risk of relaxing control, by releasing one's ego attachment to a position. To let go of one's need to control is to allow interfusion to happen. This permits change to occur through a merger of thoughts and feelings (volume to volume). Thus through humility one may access greater resources by becoming a relatively smaller part of a larger whole. (From micro to macro process.)
Traditional Management
6. Sees control as a strength and humility as a weakness, because submission is a loss of control. (Because one cannot "see" the unseen, it is out of one's control - i.e. irrelevant or unimportant.) Takes a firm position to increase control. Tends to produce firmness or fixity, hardened positions, conflict or forced change. (Point to point.)
Real Management
7a) Takes initiative when it appears to be the appropriate thing to do. Perception and awareness of what needs to be done determine the scope of responsibility. Entrepreneurial.
Traditional Management
7a) Takes action if it is within the scope of responsibility as defined by job descriptions.
Real Management
b) Knows that one cannot control time but can control the timing of one’s interventions. Pursues a course of action with determination and persistence, exercising patience in waiting for the right moment. Acts after sensing the readiness and momentum (critical mass for change) of an opportunity. Intuitively perceives others’ needs for direction, support and inspiration, and intervenes accordingl
Traditional Management
b) Tries to control time. Imposes its time schedule on others. This forcing of events may accelerate or delay achievement. While recognising the importance of timing, this may be subordinated to the need for power or task achievement.
Real Management
8. Espouses a philosophy of success. Winning is a non-event, irrelevant in the cooperative pursuit of purpose. Competition is only with oneself and this takes the form of self-improvement. Commits itself to extraordinary success in pursuit of extraordinary vision and purpose. Believes extraordinary is the norm.
Traditional Management
8. Espouses a "win/win" co-operative philosophy but tolerates and often encourages a "win/lose" competition among its people.
Real Management
9. More likely to give direction to achieve a purpose rather than to limit aspirations with a specific goal. Objectives in the context of a larger purpose have a moral dimension. This gives meaning and perspective to the day-to-day operations and prevents the person becoming an instrument in the goal-setting process. Believes objectives must include the moral with the material. With the investment of moral capital comes the need for a moral ROI – thus the concept of a moral balance sheet and a moral profit (bottom line).
Traditional Management
9. Sets goals for growth to achieve objectives (MBO). May or may not be related to a larger purpose. Believes objectives must be measurable - tangible/material. Emphasis is on numbers and the "bottom line".
Real Management
10a). Defines management as the process of getting people "done" (developed) through work. Work is the .means through which people are developed. The task provides the opportunity to interfuse - the creative process of change - and to relate to a purpose larger than oneself. Has the capacity to empower because of the basic belief in the dignity and worth of every person.
Traditional Management
10a) Defines management as the process of getting work done through people. People are the means through which work is done. Can lead to manipulation and the use of people in an instrumental manner.
Real Management
b) Focuses on life skills for the whole person including the business/technical skills and performance. Concerns itself with all needs physical, mental and spiritual. The first requirement is to be a whole person of quality. The quality of performance will follow.
Traditional Management
b) Focuses on the person's business/technical skills and subsequent performance. Concerns itself with needs in order to elicit the appropriate motivational response. The first requirement is to perform the task at a satisfactory level.
Real Management
c) Believes managers must develop managers to be better than themselves, and they, in turn, must train others to be better than themselves. As in a family, each generation is expected to surpass the last.
Traditional Management
c) Believes in management training and development.
Real Management
11. Pays for progression. This includes the qualitative growth of the individual as well as the technical growth. Recognises that developed people enhance the quality of energy (i.e. work). Progression is linked to the evolution of the self the internal motivation to improve. If people are relatively autonomous in goal setting, they can be in reward-setting as well (i.e. pay oneself). The rewards are (1) increased job exposure and responsibility, and (2) qualitative growth towards excellence. Sees excellence as a process in terms of a journey.
Traditional Management
11. Pays for performance against objectives. Uses rewards as an end in terms of results. Views each person as an instrument of action to achieve these results. Performance is contractual quid pro quo.
Real Management
12. Expects all people to perform the marketing function. Marketing is the external application of the real management process. Sees marketing as the source of success and the opportunity for people to interfuse. Thus by marketing they increase their sense of belonging to the process (the organisation). If success is linked to marketing then all people should have the opportunity to share this experience.
Traditional Management
12. Expects the marketing people to perform the marketing function.
Real Management
13. Commits itself to a vision. Managers have this vision when they:
a) see the organisation in its wholeness;
b) see their role in this integrated whole, and
c) see both of these in the context of an even larger whole.
Traditional Management
13. Commits itself to a strategic plan. This function determines the direction of the organisation and the allocation of its resources for the long term. Tactical plans implement this strategy in the short term.