Every Employee a Manager

by M. Myers


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Abstract

This article provides corroborative evidence of the wastefulness of bureaucracy and the advantages of democracy. A framework has been presented to erase the management-labor dichotomy and give substance to a slogan Every Employee A Manager, a manager being defined as one who manages a job. A self-managed job is one which provides a realistic opportunity for the incumbent to be responsible for the total plan-do-control phases of his job. Though many jobs in their present forms cannot be fully enriched, most can be improved and some can be eliminated. Whether the mission be to enrich, improve, or eliminate the job, it is achieved best by utilizing talents of the incumbents themselves, provided this involvement will lead to equivalent or better opportunity. Job enrichment is an iterative process. Though it finds most dramatic expression at the lower levels, it depends on supportive climate and action at the top. When achieved at the lower levels, its impact in terms of both organizational and human criteria reinforces its support from the top.

California Management Review

Berkeley-Haas's Premier Management Journal

Published at Berkeley Haas for more than sixty years, California Management Review seeks to share knowledge that challenges convention and shows a better way of doing business.

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