My late father, Allahyarham Baharom Mat Alif, head of dredge-hands in 1960-70s who was the Branch Secretary of Tin Mining Union, based from his own experience, taught me that “There is - or and the only one right way to manage people, rest all the other assumptions about people in organizations. One of these assumptions is that the people who work for an organization are employees of that organization, dedicated working full-time & dependent on the organization for their livelihood and their careers. Another such assumption is that the people who work for an organization must be subordinates.”
I had observed then, to be sure, these workmen are “subordinates” in that they depend on the British or Australian “bosses” when it comes to being hired or fired, promoted, appraised and so on. But in their own jobs the superior can perform only if these so-called dedicated subordinates take responsibility for educating themselves, that is, for making the “superiors” understand should be doing, and what “results” are in their respective areas. In turn, these team of “subordinates” depend on the superior for direction. They depend on the superiors to guide them what the “endorsement & management score” is.
My late dad shared with me about their relationship, “Is far more like that between the conductor of an orchestra and the instrumentalist than it is like the traditional superior/subordinate relationships. We do the work of ‘subordinates’ based on 'score' of operating standards, values, performance and results."
I learned from my late dad experience in his company that the power of downward and upward communication must be reciprocal by who is “talking to” & who the other person to enjoin in “listening”. Otherwise, the way traffic communication will likely result with information gap. There can be no effective communication if it is conceived as going from the “I” to “You”. Communication works only from one member of “us” to another responsive team member.
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