Situations in Organizations
Two Sorts of Situation
In operational work in organizations (WL1-WL5) individuals are required to take responsibility for appreciating immediate situations and taking action. It is too time-consuming to expect groups to reach a consensus. Those at a lower level, are led by those at the higher level who have a wider view of the situation.
Micro-managing occurs when those at the higher level imagine they have a clearer view of the situation relevant to the lower level than the subordinate at that level. The higher level person will have a different view and it may be better sometimes. However, if that view is mysterious to the subordinate, they will not be able to keep it in mind and will likely fail to deliver the desired results.
Headquarters work (WL6-WL7) deals with integration of the firm in society, the identity of the firm and policies directing its future. The intrinsic uncertainty means that groups are used (boards, committees, panels) and there is an effort to reach a genuine consensus about the situation. While the leader may dominate, if this is taken too far, then other senior executives will not be able to personally own the outlook, which is likely to weaken performance.
Reasons for Decisions
Exactly how people use the Spiral in their work role has not been determined. What is clear, however, is that the degree of clarity that a person can bring to bear affects performance and the willingness of others to follow. As the endeavour framework reveals, the outlook on a situation serves as the contextual reason for decisions. In reaching decisions about handling situations, a manager's clarity is rarely spelled out, if indeed it even reaches consciousness.
Elliott Jaques wrote (my emphases):
"It is useful if all concerned can be aware of the fact that the final reasons for a particular decision or a proposed decision can never be given. Good leadership requires an easy-going reliance by the manager upon his own judgement.
Leadership and decision-making must be firmly based upon a person's intuitive feel of the situation. Leadership cannot be exercised by intellect alone, any more than decisions can be made upon the formulated data available.
These statements do not imply that the intellect is not important and that carefully researched data do not count. They have quite an important function in setting effective boundaries to the behavioral flux. But it is out of the normal unconscious flow of mental functioning a person's experience is mulled over and brought to bear upon a problem that the decision and the action emerge."
Elliott appears to be identifying the innate personal functioning that ensures a situation is sufficiently clarified to be grasped and used as the basis for action.
Originally posted: 30-Oct-2024.