While working at a small staffing company, we frequently made changes (pretty much every Monday, to be honest, especially after a disastrous payroll Friday) via “all hands” meetings called by the VP/Manager and one of the owners. The methodology of these was pretty much the same – the VP/Manager, out of frustration and exasperation and having spoken with the owner over the weekend, came in with a proposed change to which she tried to lead the rest of the group through leading questions. We all shared our perspectives and experience, but rarely in any sort of productive manner.
The Formal Authority method was then enacted, with the VP/Manager making the final decision on the new policy, sometimes taking our feedback into account, frequently not. The owner was usually there for support and a motivational talk after. Many decisions were just exhortations to enforce what was already supposed to be policy. Some definitely ranged into very contentious Decision by Minority situations (citing that a decision MUST be made because the decision-maker knew what was best), e.g. when we were all stripped of our Gmail account passwords and forced to use Outlook (as the marketing guy, this was really not helpful as all my applications and services synced with Gmail, usually through extensions). I think in this case, and others, the Decision by Minority was used to try to force habit changes, while making them universal to “not seem discriminatory” or something. Not surprisingly, these rarely worked out long-term. The turnover at this company is extremely high, also.
Hi Alejandro. Wow. Sounds a little painful, especially with that kind of frequency. I think you have since left that organization, right? Your story speaks to a great example of an organizational cultural norm around decision making. One day, when I look for a different job or company, I think I’ll be asking them to describe their normal decision making process so I can avoid ended up somewhere like you’ve described. Thanks for sharing!
Alejandro,
This sounds like an exhausting manager to work for. It’s obvious that the manager and owner were not using the best decision making method. You would think after some time they would approach things differently. Taking the time to get to a consensus would have been much more beneficial.
Hi Alejandro!
Thanks for your post, this is a really good depiction of what happens when all decisions are made by authority. Before I read the last line of your blog, I was thinking “I wonder what the turnover rate at this place is!” In my opinion, is is unfortunate that in small business (or groups) the authority decision continues until the leader is willing to self reflect (or someone gives them the feedback) on their actions.
~Tania
Alejandro – I appreciate the detail that you share here, and sounds like there can certainly be some stressful situations at work – especially first thing on a Monday morning!
Although the leaders attempted to use a group discussion, it sounds like ultimately, what was done, was done. And what was going to be done, was already decided. Again I appreciate you sharing ..
Hello,
You bring up a very interesting point about the correlation between the type of decision-making used and high turnover within an organization. My organization is currently going through an acquisition (we acquired our competitor). A few years prior, my organization ruled by a very authoritative leadership style, where decisions were often based on top leaders and fear. Granted, this was not always the case, but it was more often than not. Since we acquired our competitor and newly hired new leadership, the culture changed to more of a servant leadership style, where decisions were based on collective feedback from leaders and employees within the organization. Although the organization has room to improve, about 80% of global employees would recommend the company to others as a good place to work (not to be confused with Good Place to Work rating) per a recent job observation study (JOS) that was recently done. Thanks for sharing!
– Natasha Whittle