Managing People. Week 1. Part 8

Okay, journal entry:

"As a manager, your job is not so much about doing things, but more about getting things done. You are there to ensure that the organisation can achieve its objectives; be they philanthropic, service based or profit-based."

So, leading on from that, I notice it is crucial, essential, to know the organisations objectives. I can see how one of the groups I have been in failed at this base level. The volunteer employees all have differing opinions as to what the objectives of the organisation are, and it is not clear from the documents establishing the organisation what those are. A terrible consequence of this is that the group is almost impossible for anyone to manage.

"You will do this by controlling and coordinating the use of the resources available to the organisation. One of the key resources that needs to be deployed is labour (people’s ability to do work). Labour, however, is very different to all other resources used by organisations as it is delivered by people.

"People are not just an economic commodity but have feelings, values and anxieties. They can think, make decisions and be creative." 

This statement is particularly poignant to me, having suffered under a management regime that failed to acknowledge the human factor. I think it is increasingly common for managers and their bosses to treat their workforce as units of resource rather than people. My cynicism causes me to ask whether there is any real movement towards managing people differently to managing paper bags and delivery trucks. This course suggests that understanding people is key to managing them, but how manipulative do we then get with that knowledge? Hence the title of this blog. . . .

"This course is about engaging people so that we can better realise innate potential."

I have only twice been subjected to management which allowed me to 'realise my innate potential'. I wish to thank my managers from those jobs (Museum Development Manager and Department of Art and Design Head), Alan and Steve respectively, for that.