"Competing Values Approach to Management" (book review, introduction)

1. I consider myself an academic entrepreneur of sorts. That's really why I came to Houghton, because I thought it might be a perfect opportunity to exercise some of these skills. One of the creations we saw happen this spring is the beginning of a Certificate in Business Administration.

It's ideal for a pastor wanting to improve the business skills that a pastor is often called on to exercise and yet for which most pastors are ill-prepared. 

Five of us signed up, including me. The first course is Principles of Management. We walk through the course and then take a comprehensive exam at the end to receive certificate credit. It is $200 a course.

In preparation for the exam, I'm going to blog through my reading and preparation. There were three key learning features of the first week for me.

• a Competing Values self-assessment
• reading the introduction to Becoming a Master Manager: A Competing Values Approach
• reading a Harvard Business Review classic, "The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact"

2. The fundamental approach of this book to management is to think of a manager's role as involving four different domains or values that are often in competition with each other:

• Compete -- the output and goal orientation (rational goal model) -- This is the oldest model of modern times. The goal is profit and productivity. It's the dollar sign. "The ultimate value is achievement and profit maximization" (5).
• Control -- good processes (internal process model) -- This is the bureaucracy model. You want stability. you want routinization. The pyramid.
• Collaborate -- cohesion, morale orientation (human relations model) -- Get everyone involved in the process and decision making. It will get more commitment. The circle.
• Create -- adaptability to circumstances (open systems model) -- Be flexible and able to adjust depending on the environment. The amoeba.

3. Those who have known me in my previous and current roles as a leader would predict that, on the Competing Values Assessment, I scored high on create. I also definitely have an output orientation. I scored fairly high on collaborate too. Predictably, my lowest score was on control. I fully recognize the need for good processes, but I get very annoyed by bureaucracy.

4. The four competing values correlate to varying emphases in the study of management that have played out over the years:

A. The beginning of the twentieth century saw an emphasis on output (rational goal model). Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) was the "father" of scientific management with four basic principles:

• There should be a science for every job.
• Pick workers to fit the job, and train them.
• Offer incentives to follow the science.
• Plan the work for each job.

B. Then as the century progressed, you had Max Weber and Henri Fayol advocating for a professional bureaucracy. "Routinization leads to stability" (5). Here are Fayol's principles of management:

• Divide up the work logically to reduce the number of tasks to be done.
• Give authority and responsibility to the right people.
• Expect discipline.
• One superior for each person
• One plan, one head, one objective
• General interest over individual interest
• Give a fair wage.
• Centralized authority
• Chain of authority
• Order -- a place for everything and everything in its place
• Equity
• Long tenure of personnel
• Think out the plan before enacting it.
• Esprit de corps

Here are the elements of Weber's bureaucracy:

• division of labor
• hierarchy of authority 
• personnel selected for each job
• Keep good records.
• Pay your managers.
• standard rules and procedures

C. In the mid-twentieth century an emphasis on human relations developed in management. A key book in this period was How to Win Friends and Influence People. It became important to pay attention to the needs of the people who work for you and not just to focus on output.

D. Change accelerated in the late twentieth century and the importance of being able to adapt to changing situations became more and more important. Thus the open systems model and the idea of an "adhocracy" over bureaucracy.

Contingency theory emphasizes a leadership that adjusts as necessary:

• Change the process and procedures as the size changes.
• Change the technology in relation to the situation.
• Change the structures and styles depending on the environment.
• Adjust your approach depending on the people who work for you.

Complexity in the 80s led to the hit book, In Search of Excellence. Then there was Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline in the 90s.

5. The book introduces a number of core competencies of a "master manager." Mastery implies a change in what you know (knowing), your skills (doing), and who you are (being). Character is part of being an effective manager.

The rest of the introduction introduces the process of the book and the first competency. The first competency is to be able to think critically. 

Thinking clearly involves being able to tell the difference between a "claim," a "ground" or basis for the claim in evidence, and a "warrant" which makes the connection between the claim and its ground.

6. The process of learning in the book is called the "ALAPA model":

• Assessment
• Learning
• Analysis
• Practice
• Application