CHAPTER ONE - AN INTRODUCTION - PROCESS MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER ONE
AN INTRODUCTION – PROCESS MANAGEMENT
BACKGROUND
Given the innumerable books written about leadership, motivation, effective habits of successful people, responsiveness to change and transformational cultural widespread knowledge application etc, it is paradoxical that management today remains complex, perplexing and as elusive as ever.
My main objective in writing this book is not to expound yet another management concept or theory but rather it is to share my own practical experiences in translating useful management fundamentals into practice.
I have recognized through working in diverse industries from property and facility management, to civil engineering contract administration, heavy crane and equipment rentals, and heavy-lift logistic marine and salvage operations that tasks are basically founded or constituted in abiding cause-and-effect internal task relationship. When tasks are stripped down to their bare basic constituent elements such simplification unveils certain internal relationship enabling workers to perform them in a user-friendly manner very much like assembling of the lego blocks.
It is common sense that business is largely about studying of ideas and implementing strategies on resource applications for seizing of opportunities. Hence at a macro level a business can be managed in cause-effect 4 basic steps namely: Step (1) study of ideas, Step (2) :enquiring on resources, Step (3) : securing contracts and Step (4) : administering diverse business deals of contracts in departments.
Study of ideas includes collecting of facts, decision making, and formulation of actions and strategic plans for implementation.
After acceptance of an idea it is only logical the accepted idea needs to be followed through with strategic enquiry on use or allocation of resources for seizing of business opportunities.
After strategic enquiry on use of resource it is only logical to position the organization to secure deals or contracts with a view to making profits on resources by leveraging on human and other resources through specialization and knowledge application.
The diverse operations of any business are actually no more than performing the myriad business contracts in practically departmentalized core tasks like in project management set with relevant quality-time-cost controls for easy consistent and focused performance with objective supervision and delegation with minimum of supervision.
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS – AN OVERVIEW
Whereas Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol have imparted the logics of job designing and planning to realize efficiency and productivity their methodology are generic and lacking the logical self-directed implementation processes. Moreover rational task-oriented efficiency alone does not guarantee final results. Hawthorne’s investigation and McGregor theory “Y” exposition have clearly established human motivational factors like need for appreciation and recognition as significant to efficiency and productivity. Quantitative, or Operational Research have provided us with management tools like the Gantt Chart, Linear Programming or Computer Programming for diverse operational purposes but such tools may be specious and limited in applications and should not be mistaken as fundamental processes of management.
It is sufficient to simplify and standardize tasks, adopt suitable strategies through studies of ideas for seizing of timely opportunities, build up unity of purpose and commitments among workers for leveraging on human talents and other resources and integrate and internalize tasks in attainable work processes as intrinsic personal competencies of workers and delegate them for decentralized motivational multi-disciplinary functional user-friendly implementation processes to ensure final results.
It is sufficient to coordinate multi-functional tasks among departments like general administration, human resource, marketing, facility and external services guided by internal task relationship and interrelated work routines and process all tasks holistically.
The diverse objectives, mission statements, plans and strategies need not remain conceptual decorations but become unifying commitment and as an integral part of actual works and services performed by workers with self-directed actualization to meet needs and demands of customers.
Mintzberg’s studies had revealed that managers are often not involved in planning or organizing but are rather merely playing short-duration roles of figurehead, liaison, negotiating or disseminating information, spending little time for reflective thinking because of constant interruptions.
As Mark Twain has paraphrased it in his famous recipe of success: “The secret of success is to get started. To get started one has to divide complex and overwhelming tasks into smaller attainable tasks and starting on the first one.”
Hence this book is all about translating goals and objectives, policies of all kinds to their original or natural constituent elements to make tasks attainable in a user-friendly manner. For an in-depth understanding of process management, let us first review the fundamentals of management as follows:-
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
(Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management 1911)
1. Tasks can be analyzed with gathering of information such as sales, production capacity required, type of machinery, foreign exchange requirements, organization structure in order to formulate an integrated plan for efficient execution.
2. Operation can be formulated with selecting men, finding out the “one best way” method of doing each job designing appropriate tools and implements, training and motivating the personnel.
Henri Fayol
(1841-1925)
1. Basic functional activities of organization are planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.
2. Emphasis on unity of command
3. Clear definition of roles.
4. Disciplining is what the manager makes it.
5. Structuring of functions of organization into technical, commercial, financial, security, accounts, and administrative.
6. Division of tasks into functional departments e.g. accounting, production, and marketing etc facilitates identification of activities and promotion of specialization and corporate strategizing and planning.
MOTION STUDY
(Frank , 1868-1924 and Lilian Gilbreth, 1878-1972)
1. Further develop Taylor’s scientific methodology with use of flow charts analyzing tasks e.g. 5 basic elements : Operation, Transportation, Inspection, Storage and Delivery or basic work cycle of Lifting, moving, resting. Through such analysis tasks in brick laying were reduced from 18 to 5 steps eliminating unnecessary or wasteful movement thereby increasing productivity and efficiency.
2. Simplification and standardization of tasks to increase efficiency and productivity.
THE HAWTHORNE INVESTIGATION
(Elton Mayo, 1880-1949)
1. Studies undertaken at Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois begun in early 1924 but extended through the early 1930s on behavior of workers towards changing conditions in work place. Firstly control and experimental groups were established with experimental group presented to varying illumination, while control group under constant intensity. Engineers had expected individual output to be directly related to the intensity of light. To their surprise, they found that as the light level was increased in the experimental group output for both groups rose. To their surprise when light level was dropped, in the experimental group productivity continued to increase in both group.
2. A group of 5 girls assembling small telephone part were subjected to changing conditions e.g. reduction in working hours from 48 to 40 per week, pauses in work period, given free lunches and at the end all the benefits were withdrawn but surprisingly the productivity increased from 2,400 pieces per week to 3,000 pieces per week.
3. It established that productivity is not just a technical phenomenon but a social phenomenon and that workers respond to recognition and appreciation.
Karl Weick and James March both attacked the rationalist approach of Mayo by their findings that people usually stayed fixed to certain past assumptions or forecast instead of improvisation, seizing opportunities rather than dwelling on constraints.
TASKS OF EXECUTIVES
(Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick - Science of Administration, 1937)
1. Tasks of executives are planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting.
2. General principles include fitting people to structure, one top executive, unity of command, staff special and general, necessity to subdivide tasks so that people can specialize in different operations, delegation, responsibility and authority, span of control, management not to be dictated by technical experts.
SECRETS OF SUCCESS
Besides the rational and scientific methodologies, there exist many intuitive or judgmental attributes responsible for successes as summarized below:-
1. Focus and Consistency.
2. Positive Work Attitude.
3. Foresight & Insight
4. Supportive Environment.
5. Passion & Determination.
6. Coordination, Teamwork and Bottom-up Approach.
7. Adaptation to Changing Environments.
8. Creativity and Entrepreneurship
9. Leverage on strengths and avoid weaknesses (Sun Sze Art
of War)
Max Weber challenged the charismatic leadership concept and proposed rule-driven bureaucracy as a more sustainable long-term solution to problem.
Steven R. Covey has proposed seven competencies as responsible for success in many individuals or ventures.
HUMAN RELATION, FELLOWSHIP AND SELF-RESPECT
Douglas McGregor formulated two sets of assumptions about human nature - Theory “X” and Theory “Y”. The former presents an essentially negative view of people like having little ambition, disliking work, shunning responsibility or requiring constant guidance. Theory “Y” regards people as self-directed, accepting responsibility.
MANAGEMENT ROLES
(Henry Mintzberg, study of managers’ roles, 1960s)
Mintzberg’s studies revealed that far from spending time performing management functions like planning, organizing, leading and controlling, managers were engaged in a large number of varied and short-duration activities like playing figurehead, spokesman, liaison and information and decisional role spending little time for reflective thinking because of constant interruptions.
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
K. G.Lockyer, a factory production specialist used simplification, standardization and specialization and adding of values to products to serve customers’ needs to increase efficiency in production and avoid wastage.
SOCIAL SYSTEM SCHOOL
Chester Barnard suggested management as satisfying the diverse needs of various groups e.g. shareholders, creditors, customers, workers and supervisors whose definition of organization is: “A system of consciously coordinated personal activities of two or more persons”
PROCESS MANAGEMENT
In Strategy and Structure, Alfred Chandler took the structure versus strategy approach emphasizing that once a business arrives at a strategy it will take care of its structure with the famous slogan "structure follows strategy"
In an article published by Professor Harold Koonz in 1961, Koonz described the diversity of management approaches as “management theory jungle” but conceded that each approach or process like planning, organizing, controlling has something to offer. He regarded (1) human resource and quantitative approaches as not equivalent to field of management but only as tools used by management. (2) A process approach could encompass and synthesize the diversity of the day.
Peter Drucker regarded Decentralization and simplification as the essentials to change. He discounted the command and control model and asserted that companies work best when they are decentralized. According to Drucker, corporations tend to produce too many products, hire employees they don't need (when a better solution would be outsourcing), and expand into economic sectors that they should avoid.
NEEDS AND ECONOMIC APPROACH
Maslow viewed management as existing to cater to five needs - (a) Physiological (b) Safety (c) Social (d) Esteem and (e) Self-actualization.
Management has been equated to "business activity to produce goods and services to meet people's elementary wants of food, water, clothing, shelter and medical care. Business grew out of specialization for only when people specialize can they produce a surplus."
OPERATION RESEARCH/QUANTITATIVE METHOD
Quantitative approach, operations research or scientific management according to Stephen P. Robbins evolved out of world war II when the British attempted to maximize their aircraft capability against the more powerful ones of the Germans turning to mathematics to devise an optimum allocation model; and similarly the U.S. anti-submarine warfare teams used operations research techniques to improve the odds of survival for allied convoys crossing the North Atlantic and for selecting the optimal depth-charge for aircraft and surface vessel attacks on German U-boats.
Scientific management techniques include the following:-
(1) Statistical Methods
(2) Mathematical i.e. Linear and Integer Linear Programming
(3) Simulation
(4) Network Models (including PERT/CPM)
(5) Decision Analysis
(6) Waiting Line Models
(7) Inventory Models
(8) Dynamic Programming
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
A smaller group of quality experts notably represented by W. Edwards Deming in 1950 went to Japan and advised many top Japanese managers on how to improve production effectiveness. According to Deming a well-managed company was one in which statistical control reduced variability and resulted in uniform quality and predictability of quantity with intensive emphasis on attaining customer’s needs and continual improvements.
CONSTANT CHANGE AND INNOVATION
Dr. Edward De Bono propounded a whole new concept of creative lateral thinking whereby new solutions are encouraged from seeking other alternative paths than those based on convention probability assumptions.
Andrew Pettigrew suggested that people often held on to fragrantly faulty assumption about their world for long period of time up to a decade or so even though circumstances have long changed.
In the mid 1960s, management was increasingly regarded as driven by needs arising from social and environmental environments competing for limited oil and mineral, political stability global warming and competitions for limited talent pools etc.
Environmentally friendly products are new trends of unprecedented impact on productions attributable to increasing evidences of global warming caused by increased mass energy-guzzling and pollutive manufacturing activities. MNCs are taking into account such new environment and resource availability factors in choosing productions, future business expansion and locations for manufacturing or production.
There is an increasing view that the many concepts and practices as stated in the foregoing review may be applicable in a more stable world of the past ages but not in today’s fast changing environments due to mergers, acquisitions and new competitors appearing and old ones disappearing.
To stay responsive to such changes, necessary changes include (1) Content - innovative technologies and (2) process - unity of purpose, commitment, motivation of workers in tandem with organizational change.
PRACTICAL SOLUTION - SIMPLIFY TASKS AND GO BACK TO BASICS.
From the foregoing review of fundamentals and assumptions about management it will be clear that concepts will remain complex and generic not easily related or translated to actual task performance to meet the diverse needs of customers.
There still exist great differences in views and opinions over cause-effect relationship about efficiency and productivity or methods in motivating workers in widespread knowledge and skill application, and creating an innovative and competitive culture in the actual work scene.
In the face of such dilemma, the obvious solution is going back to basics as recommended by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick “to subdivide tasks so that people can specialize in different operations, delegation, responsibility and authority, span of control, management not to be dictated by technical experts.”
After all management is all about effective delegation leveraging on human and other resources or getting things done through people - a major factor of success.
Karl Weick and James Marsh were right, Taylor’s, Fayol’s rationalist task-oriented approaches failed to take into account other factors like seizing of opportunities due to changes of conditions etc. Scientific Management tools like Gantt Chart, CPM, Linear Programming, Simulations or computer applications or spreadsheets are only useful production and engineering tools of limited applications and management is not technical but multi-disciplinary and humanistic in nature.
Leadership, insight and foresight, personal and all the personal and cultural competencies should first be translated into attainable processes before managers could lead or control otherwise such look-good attributes would remain conceptual, rhetorical and ineffectual.
OSP divides tasks in their natural constituent elements; unveils task relationship, formulates internal task interrelationship and set hands-on practical quality-time-cost controls alongside cause-effect measurable performance generating databases for continuous monitoring and self-corrections. Such constituent process management provides a practical platform for integrating diverse multi-disciplinary factors and assimilating processes as an integral part of human competencies to facilitate self-actualization as advocated in Maslow’s structure of human needs.
For example, administrative work processes are easily internalized as 4 manageable steps to facilitate management as shown in Appendices F-GF, F-GC avoiding procrastination, double-handling, duplications and waste.
In operations, departmentalized core tasks set up in Work Forms (Service –security) reinforce quality-time-cost controls as easy-to-remember acronyms like “M.I.S.T.A.K.E” for “misuse of facility”, “intruder” “stealing” “traffic”, “alteration”, “contractor” and “escape – fire” internalizing such hands-on as result-oriented security controls as security personnel’s own innate self-directed competencies to make security tasks attainable.
Harold Koonz has regarded the diversity of concepts and principles as “management theory jungle” and suggested synthesizing tasks in processes as the way forward.
After a stint of working in diverse management environments, I have concluded that tasks are universally founded in their basic constituent component elements e.g. administration consists of carrying out tasks in 4-step and 10-department processes. From 1985, upon resuming my original property management as building manager of a major shopping complex in downtown of Republic of Singapore, I began putting such process management designated as “Objective-Step Processing Management” or “OSP” to practice.
Administratively, I was able to efficiently follow through administrative tasks in 4 natural constituent component steps namely Step (1) – studying of ideas, Step (2) enquiring on resources, Step (3) securing contracts and Step (4) administering business contracts and scopes of works.
Operationally, I departmentalize tasks in ten functional departments to better coordinate multi-disciplinary tasks namely: human resource, enforcement, facility, marketing, production, revenue and services, revenue and compliance. The key to efficiency and productivity in operations lies in consistency and focus.
Core tasks set with quality-time-cost performance criteria or controls are sustained by self-generated measurable databases e.g. “1” for failure, “2” for “attainment” and “3” for excellence cutting down much workload due to ad hoc look-good judgmental window-dressing reporting or annual creative accounting.
Over time such process management has benefited many service providers performing services like security, cleaning, car park operations and a host of building and M&E maintenance and operations becoming highly efficient and effective due to workers’ internalizing of processes as an integral part of their own innate competencies.
Many supervisors have willingly abandoned their past ad hoc or judgmental fire-fighting approaches as unsatisfactory workers were effectively trained to become “best security guards or best cleaners” under motivational self-directed process management.
These service workers as mentioned in the foregoing were constantly motivated by objective supervision, appreciation and recognition, respect of worker’s individuality, fellowship with workers, fitting people to structure as tasks became attainable and manageable.
In his book “Working with Emotional Intelligence” Daniel Coleman described how a skilled welder Joe excelled at his best through creating a state of mind called flow, and concluded that flow blossoms when our skills are fully engaged by a work project that stretches us in new and challenging ways and in this state of mind we seem to handle everything effortlessly, nimbly adjusting to shifting demands. Flow itself is a pleasure.”
OSP creates a natural work flow while interacting with workers’ own inherent competencies as follows:-
(1) 4-STEP ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENTALIZATION
(2) INTERNALIZE USER-FRIENDLY CONTROLS
(3) TRANSLATING TASKS INTO ATTAINABLE WORK PROCESSES SUSTAINED BY SELF-CORRECTIVE DATABASES
Daniel Coleman’s finding of self-directed work flow or synergy with workers’ own competencies is internalized as an integral two-way top-down-and-bottom-up processes.
Quality-time-cost controls generate databases for self-corrections to realize effective delegation, enabling and empowering of workers’ own personal competencies, to attain results through teamwork, transparency and accountability.
No extra paper works or work loads are created by process management as reliable, transparent and accountable databases sustain efficiency and productivity with self-corrections to meet quality-time-cost controls set up.
Only existing forms and work forms used for performance of works and services are adapted as processing Forms and Work Forms as shown in Appendices F-IG, F-GL, F-QI, WF-SS, WF-SM etc to facilitate processing performance.
The ten operation departments communicate with the general department in two-way top-down-and-bottom-up processes through weekly inputting and processing and closing of tasks in 4-part task-line of the following format:-
[NAME]–[SUB_NAME]–[REF_NO.] – [DIVISION/DETAILS/QUANTITY]
Whatever the nature of your business or industry you are in any Managers could easily adapt existing procedures in performing diverse works and services as processing Forms and Work Forms as listed in Appendix F-GF to start process management. He may communicate customer’s feedbacks or task variances in 4-part task-lines to a database server through a mobile phone or other wireless device to make process management a breeze.
Hence as Mark Twain has advised, the secret of success is to get started and to get started one has to divide complex and overwhelming tasks in smaller attainable tasks and get started on the first one. Now with process management it is possible as Nike says “Just do it”
(ABOVE-STATED MANUSCRIPT IS THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF ROBERT TEH KOK HUA
FOR RIGHT TO PUBLICATION PLEASE OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM author through email : roberttehkh@yahoo.com)
posted by robertteh at 7:18 AM
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