| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Can Your Corporate Policy Pass the Monkeys, Bananas, and Water-spray Experiment?
Five monkeys were placed in a cage. A banana was hung on a string and a ladder was placed below it. Each time one of the monkeys started climbing the ladder, all the monkeys were sprayed with a blast of cold water. This experiment was repeated for several days. Then each of the original monkeys was replaced with a new one. The experimenter did not need to spray the new monkeys because, as soon as any new monkey proceeded towards the ladder, all the other monkeys attacked it simply for the fear of being sprayed. Finally, all the original monkeys were replaced with new monkeys that had never been sprayed; yet all the monkeys attacked any monkey that dared climb the ladder. Now you may ask why those monkeys that had never been sprayed would attack their mates without any rationale for their acts. The monkeys were just following the policy laid down for them. They had no clue as to the origin of the policy. (To get a complete description of this experiment, visit www.wowzone.com/5monkeys.htm.) It is highly likely that most of your employees follow policies established a long time before they joined the company and they did not contribute to their development. Ask a sample of your employees how well they understand specific policies within the organization (e.g., policies on who and what to tell the media, how to keep their computer passwords, or policy on handling confidential information). Are they doing things just because that is the way things are done or do they understand why they do them? What is a Corporate Policy? A corporate policy is a formal document that states specific rules that must be followed by members of an organization. To be effective, a policy must possess the following characteristics: · It must communicate a judgment acceptable to members of the organization · It must specify what is considered to be an appropriate behavior of a member of the organization · It must identify tools and procedures needed to perform specific tasks · It must be clear and understood by all employees and the human resources department to help in taking proper actions when the policy is violated · It should be a living document Who Developed Your Corporate Policy? Since it is imperative that your policy needs to communicate a judgment acceptable to all members of your organization, it is necessary that a policy implementation team should have representatives from at least four areas of the organization: · A senior level administrator · Someone from the management team who can enforce the policy · A member of the legal staff · A member of the user community As a living document, the implementation team should meet regularly (at least quarterly) to ensure the viability of the policy (Mark Ciampa, Network Security Fundamentals-Policies and Procedures, 2005). What is Policy-Based Management? Is it Old Wine in A New Bottle? Whether in government, industry, or academia, organizations have always employed policy-based management with varying degree of success. This paradigm is now being given a new life in designing and managing complex organizations and systems. The focus is to make such organizations autonomic. By this I mean, organizations are aiming to function just like the way the nervous system operates. The nervous system knows how to automatically transmit messages from different organs of the body to the brain for the body to function as a whole. Policy-based management is based on the premise that the organization should be able to adapt dynamically to changing environments (i.e., self-configuring); handle operational exceptions and prevent disruptions (i.e., self-healing); protect its information and resources from malicious attacks (i.e., self-protecting), and manage its resources efficiently by using self-optimizing strategies (On Demand Computing, Craig Fellenstein, 2005). The recent and ongoing accounting scandals among several well-established organizations could have been prevented had there been well-documented policies understood by those affected. Can the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) claim that it is not his/her role to understand the accounting practice of the company as presented by the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as in the case of Enron, WorldCom, and HealthSouth? A legal and well-articulated policy that documents the responsibilities of the CEOs and the CFOs could have exonerated either party. In defending its position regarding its document shredding policy, Arthur Andersen's case would have been much stronger if its policy development team had a representative from the legal department who ensured the legality of such a policy. What's the Cost of an Ineffective Policy-based Management System? Johna Till Johnson's brief article on Telecom Carriers (NetworkWorld, 5/23/05, pg. 62) stresses the gravity of the losses incurred by organizations that mismanage information because the companies did not have or follow policies. Her examples include: (a) Time Warner's loss of social security numbers for 600,000 employees while the storage tapes were in transit from the company to an external archive; (b) ChoicePoint lost sensitive customer data due to a security hole in the company's security policy; (c) Morgan Stanley lost $604 million because they were unable to produce email records to support their case. In conclusion, it is the responsibility of the managers and administrators to institute effective policy-based management that consistently educates the members of the organization on the value and rationale behind the policies. This is critical for the survival of every organization and reduction of economic losses, which creates a strain on the economy. Dr. Odubiyi is the author of Blueprint for a Crooked House-a book that reflects on the factors that caused the collapse of a $10 billion joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom. He is an associate professor of computer science at Bowie State University in Maryland. He was a Principal AI Researcher and R&D Manager at British Telecom North America/Concert Global Communications (USA). http://www.blueprintforacrookedhouse.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Devil We Know "I'm in an abusive relationship," sighed Andrew. "My bookkeeper annoys the hell out of me but I just can't let him go. People Are Our Most Important Asset! How many times have you heard or uttered this phrase in the last 5 years or so. As a "reformed accountant" this phrase makes me cringe more than any other business euphemism being espoused today. More Problem-Solving Success Tips The ability to solve complicated problems quickly is more important than ever in today's tough economy.From the time we're little kids, we're taught to solve problems by trial and error. Change or Die! To Change Your Organization, Hire a Business Coach It is a common business axiom - change or die. As a small or mid-sized business owner or a manager, there will be times you will need to make changes in your organization but may not be sure how to go about it. On the Road to Assertiveness Learning to be assertive takes time, courage and the ability to recognize the situation for what is really is.You want to get something done, and you need another's help. Computer Consulting Profit Secrets Do you own or manage a computer consulting company? Are you having trouble growing your computer consulting company's profits?If so, then you must learn how to focus on your computer consulting firm's profit and bottom line.In this article, we'll look at 7 profit secrets and strategies you can use in your computer consulting business, to ensure that you are able to balance your clients' small business IT needs against your own computer consulting company's profitability challenges. Innovation Management - Eliciting Dominant Ideas Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Communication Breakdown An ongoing series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble.COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWNThe "Seven Cs" are the danger signs that indicate your business partnership, or any partnership for that matter, is in trouble. Hire Winners: Avoid These 10 Interview No-No's Have you ever hired someone who did not live up to expectations? I'm sure many of us have at one time. The purpose of the interview is to obtain good information about an applicant to make a wise selection decision. Popular Business Misconceptions Cost You Money! Faulty information costs you money! Which of these popular business misconceptions do you believe?Popular Misconception #1: "We Only Need Our Books Done Once A Year For Tax Purposes." Are Your Accounting Records Adequate To Run Your Business?Although it is important to keep records for tax purposes, it is not the only reason (or even the primary reason) good accounting records should be kept. Top 10 Things NOT To Tell Angel and VC Investors I am not writing this to create a list of things not to say so people can hide the facts or in any way mislead potential investors. On the contrary I personally believe you must be 100% upfront with any potential investors, and even volunteer some weaknesses to be credible. Problem-Solving Success Tip: Define the Problem First Define the Problem First. It seems obvious, but how many times have we gone to a problem-solving meeting and the discussion started with either whose fault was it or an assertion about the proper solution?Explain what the problem is-what went wrong, what are the symptoms, what is the impact on your business and your customer's business. Directed Introspection One of the greatest obstacles to progress can often be our awareness of past failures. If we tried something a couple of years ago and fell flat on our faces (and especially if we were ridiculed or derided as a result) we tend to be reluctant to rock the boat again. Performance Appraisal Scenarios: Improve Your Communication IMPROVING COMMUNICATION DURING THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL: If the employee has trouble getting started on the self-appraisal you might say: "Why don't you start by talking about the XYZ project?" (Pick a topic that the employee will feel comfortable with, a success rather than a failure.) "It seems to me that the PDQ project was harder than we expected. 4 Simple Steps to Successful Delegation Last month, my featured article was about creating a "Stop Doing" list. Hopefully, if you followed my suggestion, you now have a list of tasks that you are looking to delegate away. Are you NICE or do you CARE? Are you NICE or do you CARE? Most people and most managers want to be nice. After all, it's easier to be nice than to not be nice. Smart Staffing: Replacing a Key Manager Have you been in this situation? One of your top managers left suddenly and you're under the gun to replace her quickly. So you promoted her assistant. Disaster Prevention Tips For Hiring A New Manager It happens over and over in businesses every day.Within large companies, people are promoted to management positions to reward them for performance as individual contributors. Why Employees Are the Best Source of Cost-cutting Ideas Cost cutting has become a necessary and important reality in the modern corporate world. Yet many executives do not realize that their people are actually the best source of cost reduction ideas. Classifying Motivational Needs While there exist several useful definitions of motivation, for our purposes we will define it as an individual's desire to do something based upon a need. When a person is confronted with a need (either perceived or actual), he or she usually is motivated to perform specific actions for some sort of gratification.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |
