Degeneration of a Pragmatic Culture
Degeneration is Inevitable
Cultural degeneration is unavoidable: it either results from the passage of time or is a perverse outcome caused by excessivelypower-centred , hyperactive (or sometimes burnt-out) managers. For many managers, the degenerate is a description of the normal and inevitable. If you think this way, this framework may seriously damage your mind-set.
No value tells anyone exactly what to do in any situation, and yet rapidly become the source of undesirable consequences. As becomes embedded, work becomes inefficient, uncoordinated, inappropriate, ineffective, insensitive, unethical and even criminal.
The time for change is definitely at hand, when spreading cynicism and demoralization combine with a widespread conviction that senior management is utterly incompetent, or punitive and brutal.
Features
Act now degenerates into Short-termism. 
e.g. ►
Be opportunistic degenerates into Mindlessness. e.g. ►
Keep it simple degenerates into Avoidance. e.g. ►
Manoeuvre politically degenerates into Power games. e.g. ►
Handle individuals degenerates into Manipulation. e.g. ►
Drive people degenerates into Exploitation. e.g.
Rely on yourself degenerates into Cocky arrogance. e.g. ►
How can anything so damaging and unethical as degenerate pragmatism be regarded as natural? Easy!
See Some Timeless Findings
In the 1990's, a survey of 989 public and private sector managers by the British Institute of Management returned results indicating is ubiquitous.
88% say internal communications are poor
86% suffer from time-pressures
83% experience constant interruptions
81% are expected to meet unrealistic goals
80% view senior management as incompetent
78% are stressed by office politics.
Managers are obviously socialized into this degenerate pragmatism, because 82% found work a source of satisfaction with 66% getting pleasure in work. Only 4% dread going into work—which is surprising, because side-effects included:
family-life interference — 77%
sleep problems — 68%
headaches — 53%
intrusive worries — 46%
stomach pains — 40%
constant irritability — 39%
undue exhaustion — 36%
excessive drinking — 21%
Something surely has to be done!
The Challenge is The Problem
Common sense says stick with the easy and obvious, and avoid the hidden or complex. Unfortunately, doing the obvious may worsen the situation, and avoidance of issues may lead to disaster. So, without devaluing the need for responsive action and common sense, something more must be added.
The aim is not to abolish , but rather to progressively strengthen them so as to remedy and prevent their degeneration. For a , this is anti-pragmatic! It requires a shift in attitude:
Not: expedience v principles or coping v values.
But rather: expedience within principles and coping through values.
New values/rules/principles must become positive convictions that are seen by all to protect and enable immediate necessary action, not to obstruct or cripple it. That is what is about. By the end of the developmental process, a form of must emerge that is admirable and near-unstoppable.
Getting conviction about change
The prevailing belief that pragmatic responsiveness is the bed-rock of achievement and the foundation of effective organizational life can and should be preserved intact. But everyone must accept the need to harness and channel pragmatism.
Starting with top management, everyone involved must become convinced that the new values are both essential and liberating —otherwise they will be experienced as an intolerable constraint.
Generating such a conviction is always difficult, and so it will be specifically examined at each transition.
How Pragmatists deal with Principles—and How Principles deal with Pragmatists
When a pragmatic manager in a pragmatic culture puts principles head-to-head with expedience and has to choose between them, expedience always wins. The reason is simple: an expedient response produces immediate and certain benefit for the person and the organization.
Respecting principles may produce less satisfactory immediate results and often disturbs colleagues. Principles are introduced, after all, to produce benefit for the organization as a whole and in the long run.
Gain depends on people adhering to the principles and feeling personally responsible for them. So every time a pressured pragmatist cuts corners, the rot grows.
A stronger management culture can only emerge, and the rot be prevented, if pragmatic managers realize there is no choice. They must accept that the values promulgated at each Stage are essential guiding principles for each and all.
The CEO must make it clear that those who avoid or sabotage new principles will likely need to find work in a different organization.
- Read more about getting control of activities.
- The need for control serves as an introduction to the second Stage of culture development: the .
Originally posted: 17-Jun-2011