nagement Consultants reported that only four out of ten managers demonstrated a high level of the management abilities that their employers desired most. Three of ten managers were considered to be severely lacking in their ability to manage people.

According to the survey, the three to

Globally, senior management as a profession is underperforming. A chronic case of under-management of tasks and people has developed over the years on the back of management fads and copy cat management replacing focused, systemic thought.

In the environment that this poor style of management and communication creates, enterprising employees will create their own goals and assume their own level of responsibility. The diffusion of effort created to achieve a broad range of contradictory goals results in an underperforming organisation characterised by low morale, blame shifting and poor utilisation of human and financial assets.

Evidence for the global nature of the level of underperformance arrives every day in the morning newspaper. We are confronted with stories ranging from the recent reported "lack of leadership" at Abu Grhaib to the apparent deliberate misreporting of profits at Tyco, WorldCom and Enron and rogue trading at the National Bank of Australia. These high profile cases, like the tip of an iceberg, are part of a much broader failure of management.

A recent survey of 133 organisations by Right Management Consultants reported that only four out of ten managers demonstrated a high level of the management abilities that their employers desired most. Three of ten managers were considered to be severely lacking in their ability to manage people.

According to the survey, the three top

oor style of management and communication creates, enterprising employees will create their own goals and assume their own level of responsibility. The diffusion of effort created to achieve a broad range of contradictory goals results in an underperforming organisation characterised by low morale, blame shifting and poor utilisation of human and financial assets.

Evidence for the global nature of the level of underperformance arrives every day in the morning newspaper. We are confronted with stories ranging from the recent reported "lack of leadership" at Abu Grhaib to the apparent deliberate misreporting of profits at Tyco, WorldCom and Enron and rogue trading at the National Bank of Australia. These high profile cases, like the tip of an iceberg, are part of a much broader failure of management.

A recent survey of 133 organisations by Right Management Consultants reported that only four out of ten managers demonstrated a high level of the management abilities that their employers desired most. Three of ten managers were considered to be severely lacking in their ability to manage people.

According to the survey, the three to

orale, blame shifting and poor utilisation of human and financial assets.

Evidence for the global nature of the level of underperformance arrives every day in the morning newspaper. We are confronted with stories ranging from the recent reported "lack of leadership" at Abu Grhaib to the apparent deliberate misreporting of profits at Tyco, WorldCom and Enron and rogue trading at the National Bank of Australia. These high profile cases, like the tip of an iceberg, are part of a much broader failure of management.

A recent survey of 133 organisations by Right Management Consultants reported that only four out of ten managers demonstrated a high level of the management abilities that their employers desired most. Three of ten managers were considered to be severely lacking in their ability to manage people.

According to the survey, the three to

ib to the apparent deliberate misreporting of profits at Tyco, WorldCom and Enron and rogue trading at the National Bank of Australia. These high profile cases, like the tip of an iceberg, are part of a much broader failure of management.

A recent survey of 133 organisations by Right Management Consultants reported that only four out of ten managers demonstrated a high level of the management abilities that their employers desired most. Three of ten managers were considered to be severely lacking in their ability to manage people.

According to the survey, the three to

nagement Consultants reported that only four out of ten managers demonstrated a high level of the management abilities that their employers desired most. Three of ten managers were considered to be severely lacking in their ability to manage people.

According to the survey, the three top areas that managers and executives most need to improve are engaging people in vision and strategy 47%, development of subordinates 44% and communication skills 37%.

A common failing of managers is the application of management fads as a replacement for systemic, detailed thinking about their enterprise. We've had leadership excellence, management by objectives, learning organisations, game theory, business process re-engineering and knowledge management to name a few.

A related failing is the copy cat syndrome. During my time working for Shell in London I could have been forgiven for thinking that I was working for General Electric. The tools we used, the words we used and far too often the strategy we used seemed to be straight from the latest book written about or by Jack Welch. The transplanted strategies did not work, nor have they worked for other companies. The reason management fads and transplanted strategies do not work is because the competitive environment, the capabilities and constraints of each organisation and the goals of the shareholders, employees and other stakeholders are different for each organisation.

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