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For next week, read chapters 1-5, 9 and 13 of How Race is Lived in America. The book is a compilation of articles the New York called for on the subject of race.

Ellis Cose – Ten years ago, Cose identified subtle forms of racism at the workplace, success was superficial, high-level jobs not often given high-level responsibility. In 2002, he wrote a Newsweek article that suggested things have changed, read for next week.

For next week, identify the tensions in each article, and prepare to discuss or lead a discussion on each.

Managers and Leaders – Zaleznik

Kotter would say that management and leadership are different functions, and leadership can be learned; Zaleznik thinks that leaders and managers are different kinds of people. Zaleznik does not create a hierarchical relationship by making managers less than leaders, but distinguishes between them w/ 4 categories:

1) Their attitude about themselves
2) How they relate to others
3) How they view work
4) What are their goals

Zaleznik uses William James comparison between once and twice born. Once-born means that there is continuity between early development and current situation, he or she is in harmony with past, not in conflict with environment, is socialized; “The line of development from family to schools, then to career is cumulative and reinforcing”. Twice-borns are ill-at ease with surroundings, seem listless or directionless, sometimes bored or angry; they undergo a crisis, or rebirth, that results in a new sense of self. They are thus transformed, become determined and clear in their purpose. Twice-borns are often indifferent students, and develop as leaders later with one-on-one relationships with mentors. A clear example of such a transformation would be acknowledgment of homosexuality; after their sexuality is acknowledged, the person’s behavior changes, usually in favor of healthier behavior.

Steve Jobs refused to license its OS, which many considered a mistake; Jobs wanted to maintain the integrity of his products (He is doing the same with ipod, refusing a relationship with Real Player). Jobs was replaced with Jim Scully from Pepsico, the Gil Amelio, et al. Apple crashed and burned because under other leadership because there is too much theoretical/conceptual underpinnings to the work, not enough procedure. Jobs is brought back to run the company again. Jobs buought Pixar from George Lucas, and succeeds in non-linear fashion prior to coming back to Apple; now does both. Jobs also created ipod and itunes when other big-name computer companies avoided the online music business.
Managers relate to work like Alfred Sloan did; the dominant water-cooled car engine was what others in GM supported, but Kettering wanted Sloan to fund work on an air-cooled engine. Sloan manipulates circumstances to make everyone appear to get what they wanted; the air-cooled engine died on the vine.

Managers:

1) Try to go from win-lose to win-win situations, attention to procedure rather than substance;
2) Communicates with subordinates indirectly;
3) Plays for time.


Managers try to avoid risk, and act conservatively, whereas leaders do not. “Leaders may work in organizations, but never belong to them.” Manager is the most representative character in modern life, the most distinctive figure of modernity. According to Kotter, managers manage complexity, which is growing in business. (George Washington was a good manager, but Jefferson, a visionary and inventor, was often bankrupt.) Technologies used to handle complexity create more complexity, and leads to the depreciation of leaders because skill, rather than leadership, is necessary to manage technology. What happens when change is introduced to managers? They are stumped when their routines are interrupted; therefore, a different skill than the ability to manage complexity is required, leadership. Psychologist Eric Ericson wrote books on Gandhi and Martin Luther; Gandhi had a deep crises before becoming a great soul, and Luther was conflicted before creating the schism.

Kotter – Power, Dependence, and Effective Management

Managers are dependent on others; they cannot accomplish their work without the cooperation of others. How does a manager get cooperation? Exercise power. But in America, the idea of exercising power is an uncomfortable one, Americans want to camouflage the exercise of power. Why? A democratic sensibility? Other cause? The idea of parity is what makes he exercise of power unpalatable; we are moving toward an increasingly persuasive means by which we exercise power in America.

The military command structure is sacrosanct; the chain of command is clear, and based on rank. Persuasion is the opposite of military order, the other “pole”; the person of whom a request is made is free to make another choice, not obliged to comply. Persuasion takes time, but can be used to get more out of employees than prescribed by formal rules; the use of formal power gives a manager a range of options to make things happen with speed, but its scope is narrow, applicable in limited circumstances. (e.g. Dilip can ask Brenda Williams to make copies of an article, but not pick him up if his car is broken)

Establishing Power in Relationships – Face to Face Methods

1) Persuasion, by means of doing favors or “making friends”, helps create a sense of obligation, enables exchange of favors;
2) Identification with a manager can help persuade an employee to do more, e.g. Dilip can ask things of students with whom he shares ethic background that he couldn’t ask others;
3) Belief in a manger’s expertise gives manager leverage with people who may need them to grant them a favor later;
4) Perceived Dependence on a Manger indicates that one can be persuaded by a manager in exchange for promises of help, or to avoid being hurt by the manager (Tim Babcock story of flash-firings at a division of a manufacturing company);
5) Formal Authority – helps develop the other four types of power.
6) Combine methods

Indirect Methods

1) Manipulate Environments using any or all of the face-to-face methods;
2) Change the forces that continuously act on the individual – formal organizational arrangements, informal social arrangements.


Oncken and Wass – Who’s Got the Monkey?

How does a manager manage keep his or her work time sacred, and take the monkeys of subordinate-imposed time out of self-imposed time, in order to do planning and training, the boss- and system- imposed time?

What kind of report do you want? Choices are:

1) Wait until told:
2) Ask what to do;
3) Recommend, then take resulting action:
4) Act but advise at once:
5) Act on own, then routinely support.

The manager should outlaw the use of 1 and 2, then assign agreed-upon levels of initiative to each problem.



Care and Feeding of Monkeys:

1) Monkeys should be fed or shot
2) The monkey population should e kept below the maximum number the manager has time to feed;
3) Monkeys should be fed by appointment only
4) Monkeys should be fed face-to-face or by telephone, never by mail
5) Every monkey should have an assigned next feeding time and degree of initiative.


Managing Your Boss – Gabarro and Kotter
To “manage a boss”, employees must recognize, understand, and adapt to manager’s style. “Attend and Monitor