Just like numerical goals there are good and bad policies and
policies affect the motivation of workers. Bad policies are demotivating just
like bad goals. Good and bad policies are described and examples of each are
presented in this lecture.
Organizational polices are unfortunately one of those necessary
things for which doing everything right only gets you to a neutral position
with respect to motivating people but bad organizational policies can destroy
trust and induce fear. This means that fixing bad policies can improve the
organizations effectiveness by removing the source of some of the mistrust and
fear that cause ineffectiveness. However, creating the world’s best policy
won’t do any more for effectiveness that an adequate policy that workers trust
and believe is fair. Therefore we want to concentrate on identifying and fixing
bad policies because they are a form of negativity.
How do we identify bad policies? There are a couple of easy
clues. Policies written for the 5% of employees that cause problems are rarely
effective with the 5% and usually alienate the 95% of employees that are
excellent workers, with the result that the productivity of the 95% is
reduced. This is because the 5% that
cause problems are almost professional problem causers. They ignore polices,
either good ones or bad ones. They typically don’t even consider policies or
treat them as if they are for others but not them. Some of these problem people
treat bad policies as a challenge to be overcome.
Managers have to deal directly with the 5% that are problem
causers, typically this means getting them out of the organization as they
don’t usually respond well to direct oversight or corrective action. Remember
the other 95% expects you, as the manager, to deal with these problem causers
and they expect you to change or get rid of problem people as long as you are
fair about it. This means giving them the chance to change, but firing them if
they don’t. If a manager doesn’t deal directly with problem people then the
manager loses the respect of the 95% and effectiveness is reduced.
Policies written for the 5% reduce effectiveness of the 95%
because the 95% see such policies as written for them as well as the 5% and
they reason that management has such policies because management doesn’t trust
them. They resent not being trusted and question whether they should trust
management. This resentment takes energy that should be directed toward
productive work.
The second tip off to bad policies is that bad policies are
typically long, complex and often punishing. Why? Because they are intended to
thwart people that abuse simple policies, i.e. the 5%. It takes time away from
more important job functions for good employees to learn and comply with long,
complex and punishing policies. Such policies convey that the organization does
not trust the employee. For good reason because usually such policies are
written by managers who don’t trust employees. Recall that good employees feel
that if the organization does not trust them then probably they should not trust
the organization. If there is not an environment of trust then there is not an
environment of high effectiveness.
Managers can’t fix this perception of mistrust caused by bad
policies by telling the “good” workers that the policies don’t apply to them but
only to “bad” workers. Policies are necessary in any organization to provide
guidelines fair to all so this approach requires two sets of policies, either
two formal sets or a formal set and a set applied at the managers discretion.
It is far better to have a set of policies written for the 95%. The fact that
policies written for the 95% won’t work for the 5% is immaterial, no policies
will work for 5% except those that enable managers to remove people.
Some will argue that the bad policies are necessary; otherwise
it would be impossible to control the bad employees and fire them without data
in their personnel records. This is a misconception. Data in personnel files is
almost never of any aid in dealing with problem employees. In my personal
experience I have had to deal with numerous bad employees, typically left in
place by previous ineffective managers. I don’t recall ever finding anything
useful in any of these people’s personnel files. It was always necessary to
build the case for dismissal from scratch and good policies were just as
effective in eliminating such employees as bad policies.
At this point I must remind the student to not be hasty in
judging whether an employee is a “bad” employee. Don’t make judgments on the
basis of one assignment or one mistake. Be patient, if behavior is repeated
over and over then the manager can be sure of making the right decision. Note
that the manager must not act too hastily but must not let problem people
continue to cause problems. It is better to wait a little too long than to act
too hastily. People are forgiving if you take a little too long but they are
not forgiving if they think you have removed a “good” person by mistake.
Now let’s examine examples of bad and good policies:
Bad Policy
If an employee is absent, arrives late or leaves early without
permission of the employee’s manager more than twice then the manager must file
a form 13 with the personnel department. If three form 13s are filed then the
employee must be referred to the personnel department for counseling.
If an employee needs time off for personal business then the
employee must notify the manager a full day ahead. The equivalent of two days
per year is allowed with pay if the manager is notified at least a full day
ahead. Violation of this policy will result in no pay for time away from the
job.
Better Policy
Notify your manager as far in advance as you can if you need
time off for personal business or know you are going to be late or absent so
that the manager can plan work a rounds for your work.
Bad Policy
Employees may take off the funeral day and up to two other
consecutive days off for deaths in the immediate family. An employee’s
immediate family is considered, spouse, children, parents, grandparents,
brothers and sisters, step-parents, son-in-laws, daughter-in-laws and parents,
grandparents and siblings of the spouse. The personnel department may require
verification of death if the employee takes time off for more than two funerals
in one year.
Better Policy
Make arrangements with your manager as early as possible if you
require time off to attend the funeral of a family member or close friend.
I have read that organizations that have changed from “Bad
Policies” to “Better Policies” have found that time away from the job
decreases. Why do you think this happens? The reason is that the better
policies foster trust and trust leads to commitment so that the employees take
off no more time than they need. Bad policies build distrust and undermine
commitment so that employees are likely to take the maximum time off permitted.
Exercise
Review your organization’s policies on bereavement, personal
time off and absences from the job.
If your organization has good policies then you are fortunate
because this will help you build an effective organization. If the polices are
bad and you have the power to make changes then make changing the bad policies
part of your personal process improvement efforts. If the policies are bad and
you have no influence on them you are almost stuck. You cannot disown the bad
polices as that is a form of back stabbing and disloyalty to your organization,
which is a form of negativism that you must avoid. However, if your style
enables people to bring their problems to you then when one of the bad policies
causes one of your workers severe problems they are likely to tell you. You can
work with the worker and the human relations people to see if in such a case
there is a solution that helps the employee and is still fair to all. If you
make a sincere attempt to understand the worker’s situation and if you make a
sincere attempt to find a fair solution without badmouthing the bad policy, or
the human relations people if no solution can be found, then you are building
trust and your time spent is worthwhile.
If you find
that the pace of blog posts isn’t compatible with the pace you would like to maintain in studying this
material you can buy the book “The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership” at:
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