Management Blues

So today we found out that the Transport Department is incompetent having cost us £87 million, 95,000 pensioners have been overpaid £126 million since 1978 and some geezer has defrauded the finance market of $50 billion.

For all that the politicians are whooping up about the incompetences of government this year, this isn't about politics but the inadequacies of managers around the world.

I checked Wikipedia for management:

Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.

Managers are those who tell us what needs to be done. They want to ensure the objective is accomplished and the job has been completed to requirements. It is they who are the organisers.

These last twelve months have shown us that there are a lot of managers out there with the integrity of a turkey visiting a shooting gallery.

It seems to me that (UK) senior management in financial institutions and local/central government have cornered the market in stupidity. Where is the accountability? Who is responsible for ensuring the rules and regulations are adhered to?

Outwith management in the organisations who have been affected, the FSA and the National Auditors come to mind. What role do their managers play in these fiascos, afterall they exist to ensure the guidelines are followed?

Are their managers also accountable?

They may all say they are following their own respective guidelines but isn't that where the problem lies? They don't question the guidelines they follow. They tick the boxes and gather their wage at the end of the month. They accept the comforts that their positions afford and reap the benefits of responsibility but as soon as something goes wrong then it is the fault of someone else. They were only following the rules.

Politicians are a reactionary force. Only after the event do they respond. It is management who are there to deal with realtime events. It is they who should understand whether the activities that they are paid to organise are successful or not and if it doesn't work it is their responsibility to organise improvements.

In future maybe those managers who are so keen to tell us how it should be done properly can spend a bit more time ensuring that they are also doing their job properly and maybe we wont see so many news stories of financial incompetence as we have seen recently.

Remember: If it seems too good to be true. It is.