Grasp the change

Author: (USA) Ichak Adizes
Translator: Zhao Rui / et al.
Editor-in-Chief: Chen Xiaolan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features:
Fragment: Is the management process not consistent? Not. In some countries, the management process that is practiced in the United States and taught in American business schools is prohibited by law. Under the former self-management system in Yugoslavia, if a manager made unilateral decisions for the company, he could face criminal charges. In Yugoslavia, management was considered a democratic negotiation process. Therefore, managers could only "advise," while decisions were made by workers. In Israel's collective farms, the secretary holds management power, but this position is regularly re-elected to prevent anyone from ruling others for too long.
Do you mean that after a while, the secretary of the collective farm goes back to milking cows? Or maybe they serve in the dining hall or wash dishes. In that case, management is not permanent, just like no elected government is permanent. This practice would make "meetings" lose their meaning; they are not professional managers.
So, what exactly is management? If some languages do not have a direct translation for it, and some socio-political systems deny or prohibit management in practice, can synonyms in the dictionary provide enough definition? What synonyms do you think there are? "Decision-making," "operation," "planning," "control," "organization," "jurisdiction," "achieving goals," "leadership," "motivation," "completing tasks." In several dictionaries, "management" is synonymous with the ones you mentioned. There are also some confusing synonyms, such as in the "American College Dictionary," which includes "domination" and "rule," and the "Oxford Dictionary" adds "manipulation" and "conspiracy." However, it is quite interesting that none of the dictionaries I have seen list "leadership" or "motivation" as synonyms. I don't like synonyms like "conspiracy" and "manipulation." There must be very strong reasons for that.
Let's analyze the common characteristics of all the synonyms we mentioned, except for "leadership" and "motivation," to see what the reason is. Imagine the processes described by these words and bring their meanings to life. Can you find any common characteristics? Operation—Planning—Control—Organization—Management—Achieve—Complete. They are all one-way processes, where the manager tells the managed what to do. The manager decides what to do, and the managed are merely means to achieve that purpose. That's why we call the manager the "head" of the department and the rare subordinates the "right hand"—that's the reason! The right hand does exactly what the head tells it to do, while the left hand acts as if it has its own will. The left hand is not fully controllable.