Page 40 - Managing Change in Organizations

CarnCh02v3.qxd 3/30/07 4:09 PM Page 23

The dilemmas of organization
Such problems are common throughout the various professions. Achieving the
right balance often turns out to be a question of creating the right systems within
which to manage the professionals (be they engineers, accountants, lawyers, doc-
tors or whatever).
Professionals have a knowledge base and a set of values which distinguish
them from other groups of employees. This knowledge base comprises the skills
and techniques which their training has equipped them to deploy. It is worth
noting that many people question attempts by professionals to monopolize the
application of specific knowledge and techniques. Nevertheless, we know that
organizations use professionals – engineers, accountants and lawyers – as well as
what we might call quasi-professionals – personnel specialists, marketing special-
ists, and so on (quasi-professional only because the relevant professional bodies
have yet to gain the status and control of the profession achieved by, say, the
accounting institutions). Our purpose here is not to define ‘professional’ but,
rather, to examine how organizations seem to manage professionals. Increasingly,
organizations manage professionals on the following principles:

■ Emphasize decentralization: managers depend on the contribution, effort and
skills of the professional employee. Thus motivation and control are sensitive
issues and too much direction can be counterproductive. Managers tend to
share responsibility and the professional has to learn to take responsibility for
management decisions and how to communicate with management. Examples
include the growing input into management of doctors in the healthcare
field and of data processing specialists and marketing specialists in corporate
management.
■ Depend less on ‘rational’ controls: too much concern and reliance on quantita-
tive measures can lead to unintended consequences (see Chapter 13). That
does not mean that less monitoring and planning is needed. Quite the oppo-
site. However, performance review is carried out with, rather than on, profes-
sionals. Involvement is important because judgement in handling a range of
quantitative and qualitative measures becomes important.
■ Place greater emphasis on intrinsic motivation: in particular, career development

seems to be of great importance and attention must therefore be paid to dele-
gation, challenge, training and development as well as to motivators such as
pay, status, etc.
■ Place greater emphasis on team working: different professional groups will hold
and argue strongly for their own diverse views. Thus professional organiza-
tions must handle conflict. People skills and team-building skills are therefore
of great importance.
■ Place more emphasis on conflict management: the conflict referred to above needs
to be managed. Uncertainty and complex tasks create the conditions for con-
flict, along with the previous point. Management need to keep in close touch
with the various professional groups and use team building and involvement
to communicate decisions quickly and effectively. All these are means of han-
dling conflict constructively.
■ Use matrix management and project structures: there is a real need to create struc-
tures which place primary emphasis on the work to be done and on how to

23