When a company falls into the trap of excessive management

Enterprise Management Magazine ©

Enterprise Management Magazine ©

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This article is from WeChat official account: Enterprise Management Magazine, written by Quan Yixuan. The original title is "Bringing Overmanagement Back on Track", and the head picture is from AI Generation

Article Summary

Excessive management hinders the development of enterprises, and processes should be simplified and power delegated.

•      Exploring the Four Manifestations of Overmanagement

•      Analyze the negative effects of excessive management

•      Propose strategies and measures to address excessive management

Shift the focus and authority of management downwards, and stimulate the work motivation of grassroots organizations and employees through the delegation of power.

To improve the efficiency of resource allocation, enterprises need to strengthen management in all aspects. However, management practices have shown that in emphasizing the strictness, institutionalization, standardization, proceduralization, and refinement of management, enterprises often fall into the misconception of excessive management.

Overmanagement refers to the excessive intervention and control of employees' work behavior by enterprises through a cumbersome, complex, rigid, and dogmatic management process, such as the excessive complexity and strictness of management systems, processes, and techniques. On the one hand, excessive management leads to enterprise managers being hands-on, which can easily result in "catching sesame seeds and losing watermelons"; On the other hand, it suppresses the work enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of grassroots organizations and employees, leading to an increase in enterprise management costs and a decrease in operational efficiency.

The fact shows that excessive management has surpassed the boundaries of scientific and standardized management, and has become a serious internal friction in enterprises, to the point where people exclaim, "Excessive management is more terrible than no management!" In response, enterprises need to take a series of effective measures to return to the track of scientific management.

The manifestation of excessive management

Many business managers lack empowerment and trust in grassroots organizations and employees, believing that only through strict and refined control and supervision can their execution be ensured. This has led to internal tension, negative emotions, and internal competition within the company, and business operations have become rigid due to excessive management. In the practice of enterprise management, excessive management is mainly manifested in four aspects.

Stricter management system. It is undoubtedly correct for enterprises to establish sound management systems and strictly implement them. However, when the management system and implementation process lose their scientificity and become a form of "harsh governance", it will lead to employees' rebellious psychology and distrust. The strictness of management systems is manifested in excessive regulations, restrictions, and supervision of employees' work behavior and processes.

For example, some companies strictly regulate the time and frequency of employees going to the bathroom in order to improve work efficiency, and those who exceed the regulations will have their wages deducted; Set up monitoring devices in the work environment to record and record employees' work behavior around the clock; At the swearing in ceremony for assigning work tasks, give employees' chicken blood 'and require them to crawl in public if they fail to meet the work task targets. Strict management regulations push employees to the opposite side of the company and its managers, causing a rift between employees and the company. Therefore, enterprises should examine their management systems and regulations, eliminate redundant and internal conflicts, and ensure the scientific and efficient management system.

The management process has become more complex. Some companies inappropriately understand and overly emphasize refined management, resulting in an increasing number of management levels, complex and lengthy management processes, more management links, and increasingly complex management nodes, leading to slow information transmission and low employee work efficiency. Under complex management processes, employees are exhausted from dealing with various reports, reports, uploading information, and other tasks; On the other hand, mechanically following the template requirements completely loses the necessary work passion. Under the constraints of this rigid and conventional process, employees' creativity is severely suppressed. In fact, enterprise management needs to simplify complex procedures. As Steve Jobs said, "Simplicity is harder than complexity. Simplifying complexity can create miracles

Excessive adoption of management techniques. Driven by informatization and digitization, enterprises are gradually applying a series of new management technologies and methods, such as 6S management method, process reengineering technology, ERP system, blockchain technology, remote monitoring technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, etc. The application of modern information technology has greatly improved the operational efficiency and management level of enterprises. However, some business managers are lost in the ever-changing and constantly evolving management technologies, without considering the type, industry, scale, development foundation, and growth stage of their own enterprise. They are seriously detached from the actual needs of the enterprise and management, blindly chasing technological trends and management fashion. Whenever a new management technology appears, they spare no expense and rush to apply it, resulting in the consumption of a large amount of funds, increased management costs, and intensified complexity of management work, without achieving the expected management results. Therefore, enterprises need to maintain a cautious attitude when applying management technologies, and clarify that the introduction of new technologies is to solve specific problems of the enterprise rather than blindly following the trend.

Daily management of mountains and seas. Frequently issuing documents and holding meetings to assign work and track work progress is a common management method used by many enterprises. Some business managers unilaterally believe that only through meetings and issuing documents can work be implemented, so they are extremely enthusiastic about holding meetings such as general meetings, small meetings, monthly meetings, weekly meetings, morning meetings, evening summary meetings, etc. in their daily work. They give orders through issuing documents, rely on reporting materials to understand grassroots situations, and treat meetings, issuing documents, and reviewing materials as daily work, creating a situation of "meetings implementing meetings and documents implementing documents" for the enterprise. This kind of work style, which involves meeting mountains and seas of information, keeps managers stuck in meetings and documents all day long, leaving them with no time to focus on the core business and actual work of the enterprise. It also promotes bureaucracy, causing resentment among grassroots organizations and a gradual loss of employee work responsibility.

The negative effects of excessive management

Firstly, excessive management suppresses the creativity and innovation ability of grassroots organizations and employees in enterprises, specifically manifested as: grassroots organizations passively cope with work and lack subjective initiative; Employees rigidly fulfill their duties and lack the awareness and ability to identify and solve problems based on actual work situations; Grassroots organizations and employees lack work flexibility when facing internal coordination and cooperation within the enterprise; Grassroots organizations and employees lack adaptability and innovative spirit when facing market changes and competitive challenges.

Secondly, excessive management creates a tense and oppressive working atmosphere within the company, leading to a crisis of trust among employees. The strict management system of enterprises, where managers are hands-on and constantly monitor and control employees' work behavior, requires employees to constantly understand the psychology of their leaders and cater to their preferences, resulting in high mental pressure on employees. At the same time, under surveillance, employees feel distrusted and develop negative emotions and feelings of alienation. Overmanagement stems from managers' distrust of employees, which in turn leads to employees' distrust of leaders. This crisis of trust is accompanied by repression, dissatisfaction, aversion, negativity, and laziness, which damage the cohesion of the team and reduce the quality and efficiency of the team's work.

Finally, excessive management can easily breed bureaucracy and formalism, hinder the smooth flow of information and effective communication within the enterprise, and undermine the stability of enterprise development. Enterprise managers, through a rigid management system and process, intervene, control grassroots work in every detail, without grasping the actual situation. In management decisions, it is inevitable to rely on subjective speculation, the will of superiors, and parental manipulation, which breeds bureaucracy; On the other hand, in the face of cumbersome management processes, grassroots organizations and employees only mechanically follow work procedures, work is perfunctory, and the transmission and distribution become mere formalities, without paying attention to actual work results.

In addition, complex management processes and multi-level management links result in poor information transmission, making it difficult to achieve convenient and effective information communication between vertical upper and lower levels and horizontal departments, let alone the timeliness and effectiveness of information transmission, which reduces the overall operational efficiency of the enterprise. The barriers to information transmission also affect team collaboration and employee career development, further exacerbating employee dissatisfaction with the work environment, leading to employee resignations and destructive effects on the stability of enterprise development.

Cracking Overmanagement

Grasp the "degree" of strict management. The existence of anything has boundaries, and going beyond those boundaries can backfire. Opposing excessive management does not mean underestimating strict management, but rather accurately grasping the boundaries of strict management, namely "degree". Overall, the "degree" of strict management is reflected in the scientific and effective nature of management systems, management systems, management processes, and management methods, which are in line with the actual production and operation of enterprises and the laws of growth and development. They can stimulate the initiative and creativity of grassroots organizations and employees, create a coordinated, harmonious, and upward working environment, reduce enterprise management costs, improve enterprise operational efficiency, and promote stable and sustainable development of enterprises.

Compress management hierarchy and simplify management processes. If functional departments and management levels are improperly established without considering the actual scale and business operations of the enterprise, it is necessary to compress and streamline them.

With the support of modern information technology, all types of enterprises should break away from the traditional hierarchical organizational pyramid structure, focus on business processes, and reduce management levels. The key is to reduce the intermediate management level between the top and grassroots of the enterprise, increase the scope of management, streamline functional departments and organizational structures, improve the efficiency of information transmission between superiors and subordinates, and make the enterprise agile, flexible, and creative when facing market competition. At the same time, in the specific management processes and chains, we should eliminate and simplify those cumbersome and formalistic management procedures and links, such as complex approval processes, regularly submitting repetitive reports, holding meetings without clear agenda items, setting examination indicators that cannot be operated, and overly emphasizing formal behavior norms. Simplifying management processes can save time and resources, and improve the quality and efficiency of team work.

Delegate power and establish trust relationships. According to the different levels of enterprise management, the focus and authority of management should be shifted downwards, and the power of grassroots organizations in autonomous decision-making, autonomous operation, and autonomous management should be given and clarified. By delegating power, the work motivation of grassroots organizations and employees can be stimulated. When the responsibilities and rights of grassroots organizations and employees are matched, self-restraint and self-control will be achieved, transforming passive management into active management and one-way management into two-way interaction, thus establishing a collaborative and trusting relationship between superiors and subordinates. Overmanagement stems from the distrust of grassroots organizations and employees by senior management in the enterprise. By delegating power, it stimulates the work enthusiasm of grassroots organizations and employees. Managers should believe that grassroots organizations and employees have the ability for self-management and self-development.

Establish a feedback mechanism for smooth information flow. On the basis of compressing management levels and simplifying management processes, enterprises should break down vertical and horizontal barriers to information transmission, establish an efficient management information platform, provide unified data interfaces and standardized data formats, and ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information transmission; Establish formal and informal channels for diversified information communication, promote information flow and sharing between superiors and subordinates, departments, and teams, solve the problem of information silos, and improve the efficiency and level of information transmission and sharing; By optimizing business processes, overcoming delays and errors in information transmission, and enhancing collaboration between business departments. On the premise of achieving smooth information flow, establish a two-way information feedback mechanism between superiors and subordinates.

On the one hand, higher-level departments should actively listen to and collect opinions and suggestions from grassroots organizations and employees, and promptly transmit the results of the handling to grassroots organizations and employees; On the other hand, grassroots organizations and employees should actively understand and analyze the work ideas and arrangements of higher-level departments, and promptly reflect action plans to higher-level departments.

Pay attention to and value employee growth and career development. Overmanagement limits employees' growth space and development potential, leaving them in a work environment lacking a sense of belonging and achievement. In this regard, enterprise managers should closely communicate with employees, develop personalized career development plans for employees, clarify career development directions and promotion paths, and provide diversified learning, training, and knowledge dissemination opportunities for employees to continuously improve their overall quality and work skills, and meet the personal growth needs of different employees. On this basis, a comprehensive incentive mechanism is constructed for employees around salary design, spiritual encouragement, organizational culture, work environment, etc., to stimulate their work motivation and potential. Enterprises focus on the personal growth and career development of their employees, which can enhance their satisfaction and loyalty to the company, and integrate their personal growth with the company's development, as well as their personal value with the company's value.

This article is from WeChat official account: Enterprise Management Magazine, written by Quan Yixuan

This content is the author's independent viewpoint and does not represent the stance of Tiger Sniff. Reproduction without permission is not allowed. Please contact for authorization matters hezuo@huxiu.com

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