In June of this year the results were published of a research project for the Ministry of Economic Development, where management practices in New Zealand manufacturing firms were benchmarked against the best. These results prompted an article in the Listener July 3-9 2010. Page 54 The Works “Our slack Bosses".
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The findings suggest that while some of New Zealand’s business are as good as any in the world, there is a substantial tail of firms that are mediocre, especially in their approach to people management. The report notes, “This is a key differentiating factor between New Zealand and better performing, more innovative countries…”.
The research findings also suggest, “that there is a link between quality of management – scored across 18 dimensions of people, performance and operations – and enterprise productivity.”
It seems New Zealand managers are ‘average to middling’.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. We have fallen steadily in terms of productivity. Or should we look at this way. Just as the numbers of management schools, management and leadership programmes, MBA’s and the like have exploded over the last few decades; New Zealand’s productivity has plummeted.
There is no shortage of research in many countries showing the positive relationship between management and productivity. The research identified key drivers of management practices in New Zealand such as; The nature and characteristics of people management, including collaborative workplace relations and an open organisational culture, are primarily determined by firms themselves rather than by the structure of the labour market. Another finding, reported that NZ managers tend to over rate their firms management performance.
The international study found increased labour market flexibility correlated with a superior people management score in a number of countries. However the New Zealand findings did not support that. Although NZ has developed a fairly flexible labour market, we do not score well in people management practices.
So let’s just recap. New Zealand’s productivity continues to fall. Further, we have known for some time that there is a direct link between the quality of management and productivity. This new research indicates that our management (in manufacturing anyway) isn’t particularly good. And their response to improving productivity? To recommend to the government employees should work a nine day fortnight and, to pass legislation requiring any employee who is away sick for a day to produce a medical certificate – like that’s going to make a difference. Maybe the employees were off because they were sick of management. Go figure!
The findings suggest that while some of New Zealand’s business are as good as any in the world, there is a substantial tail of firms that are mediocre, especially in their approach to people management. The report notes, “This is a key differentiating factor between New Zealand and better performing, more innovative countries…”.
The research findings also suggest, “that there is a link between quality of management – scored across 18 dimensions of people, performance and operations – and enterprise productivity.”
It seems New Zealand managers are ‘average to middling’.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. We have fallen steadily in terms of productivity. Or should we look at this way. Just as the numbers of management schools, management and leadership programmes, MBA’s and the like have exploded over the last few decades; New Zealand’s productivity has plummeted.
There is no shortage of research in many countries showing the positive relationship between management and productivity. The research identified key drivers of management practices in New Zealand such as; The nature and characteristics of people management, including collaborative workplace relations and an open organisational culture, are primarily determined by firms themselves rather than by the structure of the labour market. Another finding, reported that NZ managers tend to over rate their firms management performance.
The international study found increased labour market flexibility correlated with a superior people management score in a number of countries. However the New Zealand findings did not support that. Although NZ has developed a fairly flexible labour market, we do not score well in people management practices.
So let’s just recap. New Zealand’s productivity continues to fall. Further, we have known for some time that there is a direct link between the quality of management and productivity. This new research indicates that our management (in manufacturing anyway) isn’t particularly good. And their response to improving productivity? To recommend to the government employees should work a nine day fortnight and, to pass legislation requiring any employee who is away sick for a day to produce a medical certificate – like that’s going to make a difference. Maybe the employees were off because they were sick of management. Go figure!
This should come as no surprise. Nice people, poor managers and in some cases even worse businessmen.
ReplyDeleteHeard about the company who had a paper based policy for dealing with all staff clocking in one minute late???
What I see most often is when faced with an issue or situation in stead of stepping back and looking at the cause or causes and who may be also affected, the management jump straight to the cure with limited success.