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\chapter{\cbmazerolongtitle{}} |
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\label{cbma0} |
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\beginchapterquote{``Being responsible sometimes means pissing people |
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off. Good leadership involves responsibility to the |
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welfare of the group, which means that some people |
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will get angry at your actions and decisons. |
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It's inevitable, if you're honorable. Trying to get |
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everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: |
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you'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting |
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the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid |
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offering differential rewards based on differential |
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performance because some people might get upset. |
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Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, |
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by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone |
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equally `nicely' regardless of their contributions, |
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you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind |
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up angering are the most creative and productive |
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people in the |
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\index{Powell, Colin}organization.''\footnote{General Powell's |
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presentation (\cite{bibref:d:powellleadershipprimer}) |
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is an absolute goldmine of tremendous quotes. There were |
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many equally striking contenders for this spot (the opening quote |
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of the chapter about bad management).}}{General Colin Powell (Retired) |
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\cite{bibref:d:powellleadershipprimer}} |
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\section{Introduction} |
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%Section Tag: INT |
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With the comic strip |
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\index{Dilbert@\emph{Dilbert}}\emph{Dilbert}, |
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and several books, \index{Adams, Scott}Scott Adams made his fortune |
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anecdotally characterizing bad management. Certainly, in any |
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country, \index{bad management}bad management |
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is an abundant natural resource |
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and a shortage of bad management is not |
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on the horizon. |
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We are less concerned with the humorous aspects of |
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bad management and more concerned with the practical |
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aspects. In this chapter, we offer opinion on the |
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following topics: |
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\begin{itemize} |
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\item What \emph{is} bad management (i.e. what do we mean by |
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\emph{bad management} |
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and what characterizes bad management)? |
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\item What do bad managers do? |
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\item Which employees are most sensitive to bad management? |
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\item In practical situations, how should one deal with bad |
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management? |
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\item What are the best strategies for escaping unrewarding |
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work situations? |
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\end{itemize} |
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |
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\section{Characteristics Of Bad Management} |
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\section{How To Detect Bad Management During The Interview Process} |
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The interview process is naturally an opportunity for a prospective |
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employer to form impressions of a prospective employee; but it is |
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also an opportunity for the prospective employee to form impressions |
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of the prospective employer. In this section, we supply some suggestions |
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about what to look for during an interview. |
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\subsection{The Automobile Taillight Analogy} |
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One of us (\index{Ashley, David T.}Dave Ashley, \cite{bibref:i:daveashley}) |
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has an acquaintance who has described his method of evaluating |
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a used car (for purchase) as checking every electric light in the |
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vehicle to be sure that it works. The stated rationale is that if |
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all of the light bulbs in the vehicle are maintained, the probability |
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is high that other [major] vehicle maintenance has also been performed. |
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Similar reasoning \emph{may} (or may not!) apply to evaluating |
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a work environment. |
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Stated more formally, it may be advantageous to find easily observable |
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indicators which correlate well with the quality of the work environment |
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at a company. |
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We are not sure precisely what indicators should be used,\footnote{We welcome |
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suggestions here \ldots please e-mail us \ldots{}} but the two |
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strongest indicators that immediately come to mind are coding standards |
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and lessons learned. |
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\begin{itemize} |
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\item \textbf{Coding Standards.} |
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During the interview process, it may be a good idea to inquire about |
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what coding standards are in place within the organization, to |
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ask to examine the standards, and also to inquire how the coding |
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standards are enforced (in some cases, tools such as QAC or |
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PC-LINT may automate this |
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process). The rationale for inquiring about coding standards |
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is that maintaining order in the primary workproduct of |
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software development---the code---is a fundamental goal. |
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An organization that has no coding standards in place probably |
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has other serious problems. |
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\item \textbf{Collection Of Lessons Learned.} |
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In any organization that produces embedded products, product failures |
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of one kind or another have probably occured. These may be cases |
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where a software defect has made its way into production, or even |
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software product build process failures where a software defect |
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was due to the build process or where a software load was not |
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reproducible from version control archives. A mature organization |
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would document and collect these failures, in order to feed them |
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back into the training (so that software developers don't make a |
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similar mistake again), into the process (if any changes in the process |
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would decisively prevent recurrence), and the tools (if the defect |
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is automatically detectable). During the interview process, |
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it may be prudent to inquire if product problems are documented |
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and fed back to prevent recurrence, and to inspect documentation |
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of past product problems. An organization that does not collect |
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product problems and try to prevent recurrence may have other |
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serious problems. |
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\end{itemize} |
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\subsection{The \emph{What You See Is What You Get} Rule} |
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During the interview process, any prospective employer will have a tendency |
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to misrepresent chronic problems as acute problems. As a general rule, |
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\textbf{problems of any type observed during the interview process are |
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\emph{chronic} in nature, no matter what claims are made by the employer.} |
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An analogy involving overweight people may help to explain this point.\footnote{We |
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mean no disrespect or insensitivity towards people struggling to maintain a |
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healthy weight. However, the analogy is rather good, and for this reason |
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we would like to use it.} It is very common to meet an overweight person |
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who describes themselves as ``trying to lose weight'', i.e. being actively |
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on a diet. However, a study of overweight people who are ``trying to |
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lose weight'' would probably reveal that nearly all of them are struggling |
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with a chronic problem---nearly all were probably overweight five years |
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in the past and will be overweight five years in the future. For this reason, |
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when one meets an overweight person, it is a safe guess statistically that |
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the condition is chronic. |
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Organizations are very similar to individuals in that patterns of behavior |
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are slow to change. Diets do not usually work. Individuals find ways---even |
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while on a diet---to consume ice cream and hamburgers. Organizations are |
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similar in that self-reform measures rarely succeed. Organizations, like |
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individuals, find ways to sabotage their own stated objectives. |
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For this reason, any anomalies observed during the interview process are |
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almost certainly chronic rather than acute; no matter what claims |
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are made by interviewers. |
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\section{The Employment ``Dating Game''} |
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\section{Authors And Acknowledgements} |
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\noindent\begin{figure}[!b] |
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\noindent\rule[-0.25in]{\textwidth}{1pt} |
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\begin{tiny} |
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\begin{verbatim} |
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$RCSfile: c_bma0.tex,v $ |
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$Source: /home/dashley/cvsrep/e3ft_gpl01/e3ft_gpl01/dtaipubs/esrgubka/c_bma0/c_bma0.tex,v $ |
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$Revision: 1.4 $ |
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$Author: dtashley $ |
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$Date: 2001/08/18 18:37:56 $ |
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\end{verbatim} |
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\end{tiny} |
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\noindent\rule[0.25in]{\textwidth}{1pt} |
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\end{figure} |
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |
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% $Log: c_bma0.tex,v $ |
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% Revision 1.4 2001/08/18 18:37:56 dtashley |
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% Preparation for v1.05 release. |
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% |
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% Revision 1.3 2001/07/06 23:46:55 dtashley |
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% Edits. Addition of K-map diagrams to Boolean function chapter. |
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% |
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% Revision 1.2 2001/06/30 23:32:07 dtashley |
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% End-of-month safety check-in. |
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% |
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% Revision 1.1.1.1 2001/06/19 21:26:28 dtashley |
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% Initial import. |
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% |
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%End of file C_BMA0.TEX |