Handling Employment

Management's Interests

Remember: Each of these Level/Centres contains a lot! To remind you what is inside them, review the introduction &/or see the originating framework.

Ready? Start now with the way the management views the 7 Groupings/Levels (shown in the diagram). The internal duality This internal duality needs further examination once both frameworks are completed. is proposed as the employees v the work. Re-read.

Management Prerequisites  
CG7-Use Incentives ↔ CG6-Adhere to Policies
Management cannot manage unless there are employees to manage, and employees require inducements. In addition, Management cannot manage unless there are goals, policies and rules. So the top two Centres work together as the prerequisites that make management possible. They are about energizing and controlling employees on behalf of the organization.
Detail:

Having offered incentives, management must be clear with employees about what their commitment entails. This needs to be done individually in relation to the roles each takes on, and as a body in relation to the organization's goals and policies.

Management Conduct
CG6-Adhere to Policies ↔ CG5-Devise Adaptations
This is about controlling and orienting employees. It deals with how management conducts itself in relation to employees as it steers the organizational ship amidst the turbulence and pressures that constitute daily life in the workplace.
Detail:

Management must handle individual employees and difficult situations (often associated with deliberate change or the unexpected), so that on the one hand, the cooperation and loyalty of employees is maintained; and on the other hand, the organization maintains and pursues those policies and strategies to which it is committed. This is a tricky social demand.

Management Justification
CG5-Devise Adaptations ↔ CG4-Report on Employees.
This is about management orienting employees in the context of reviewing work via reports received on them and others. It provides a justification for handling an employee or workforce in a particular way.
Detail:

Management is continually making demands on employees and handling requests from individuals for specific favours. The management of these is crucial to the atmosphere within the organization. Whether an organization is doing well or struggling, any changes are problematic. Employees naturally seek to be treated well and each wishes to be given special consideration. Management must be able to justify whatever course it takes and whatever favours it grants.

Management Credibility
CG4-Report on Employees ↔ CG3-Apply Resources
Reports on employees are a double-edged sword because they always reflect on management. It is management's task to place and enable suitable staff (the key resource) as well as to provide other resources so as to produce the results that make for successful organization. These two levels dealing with reviewing and energizing work, determine management's credibility in the eyes of employees and others.
Detail:

When management makes a poor report of an employee (CG4), it suggests that something has gone wrong in delivering results (CG3). Management's primary requirement is to get the right people in the right jobs, given them the resources, and allow them to use their ability and creativity to the maximum. Reported failure of an employee suggests a failure of management somewhere. Mass failure of employees, not uncommon in government agencies, is definitely a failure of management.

Management Facilitation
CG3-Apply Resources ↔ CG2-Assign Authority
Management is not a simple 'do this do that' power-trip. It must be thoughtful in order to facilitate the efforts of employees. This link is about how management gets the best out of employees by intelligently controlling and energizing their work through the deployment of resources and the provision of authority.
Detail:

This is the primary channel through which management can and must assist staff to perform at their very best. It is not easy because it requires clarity about authority (often missing), clarity about individual staff capabilities (often weak) and clarity about the work to be done (often confused), and appreciation of the other resources required (often woeful). If neither resources nor authority are properly handled, the level of management pressure increases and staff stress, illness, absenteeism and turnover surges.

Management Arrangements  
CG2-Assign Authority ↔ CG1-Set Expectations
The quintessential work of management is to set and balance the two critical parameters affecting employees: general expectations of the work to be done and the legitimate authority to get results through or with others. The development of these arrangements orients and controls work by providing structural clarity and constraints on interactions.
Detail:

Employees are naturally constrained by management at higher levels (e.g. by policies, rules, and procedures). However, the constraints here fall as much on management as on employees. Management shapes the organization and affects the output of employees by its success in handling these parameters.
Remember: Setting expectations-CG1 contains the 7 means of achievement; and assigning authority-CG2 contains the 12 instruments of control. It is up to management to use these many tools as well as possible.

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Knowing what handling employment is about, we can construct the framework step by step.

• So now apply the dynamic duality, Uniformity v Differentiation, to each of the Centres.
  

  OR:
  

• Skip this systematic development of Centres and Channels and continue to the end result and what it reveals.
• See the equivalent to this page for an employee handling being employed.
• Compare the Management and Employee frameworks.

Originally posted: 30 Nov-2011