The Human Element in Management Writing

Leave the Human Element Implicit

You will find that most definitions of management focus on:

► some goal (rationalist) or desired result (empiricist), &
► the use of resources to reach that goal or result.

e.g. «Management is the practice of using all available resources to obtain a desired result.»

Note that such a definition leaves the human aspects implicit.

«Management science» lies at the dehumanized extreme.Closed Also called «operational research», it emphasizes the use of mathematics and statistics to resolve operational issues and provide a quantitative basis for decisions.

Some do imply that human beings are involved:Closed «Management is the effective utilization and coordination of resources such as capital, plant, materials and labour to achieve defined objectives with maximum efficiency.»

Often these definitions include influencing words like: «organize», «direct», «coordinate», «motivate» , «control», that have a semblance of being human. Usually there is a string of such terms without much clarity about whether the string is complete, and with little attempt to relate them or explain them.

According to the bias of the writer, terms that superficially seem human are often mechanically conceived: e.g. controlling refers primarily to measuring results to compare them to what was planned; organizing refers to making optimum use of the resources. The issues of organizing and controlling people are thereby neatly sidestepped—at least in theory, but never in the workplace).

When you have a definition like: «Managing involves achieving for an organization by bringing together human, physical and financial resources in an optimum combination.» then placing 'human' first in the list is not enough to affirm the primacy of the human element.

The only terms which seem to be irreducibly human in this sort of approach are: leading and motivating.

Many of the definitions found by googling turn out to be provided by academic institutions. These are bloodless and often turgid formulations. They reveal a hostility to unsystematic styles of managing that everyone knows are essential. In short, the accounts are far more suitable for answering exam questions than handling work relationships.

Make the Human Element Explicit

The opposite approach generates a definition like:

«Management is the art of getting things done through others.»

This extreme implies there is no «science» i.e. no way to systematize, or analyze or improve, even optimize, work interactions with others. Management is indeed an art because it is a practice and each person will do it differently. However, there is also science of a sort in management, because valid knowledge can be developed and used to improve anyone's practice. The present framework is offered as evidence for that assertion.

The core of the human definition is «getting things done through others». The management consultancy and organization development literature, and also professional management literatures, are invariably explicit about what that entails.

An astonishing variety of materials are available.
Why?Closed Consultants have known for many decades just how intractable the human element within organizations can be. Whether they seek to help implement best practice, enable necessary restructuring, or offer sound principles, good models and useful methods, the going is tough.

The 28 items developed in the expectations of organizations framework and the additional 40+ items in the two frameworks dealing with relationships in employment emerge from the real thing: life at work. They engage with the sharp end of employment, and find their formal roots in the different ways of deciding. Naturally, they are the unrecognized underlying basis of much management consultant guidance/advice and most of its structured tools.

Any part of THEE can be significant in management. So the focus here has been sharply delimited and intense. The focus has been on achievement flowing from decision and action. Organization and management are big topics, like work, that will be returned to many times in the THEE frameworks posted on this TOP website.

Originally posted: 17-Dec-2011