首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Managers spend a great deal of their time in meetings. According to Henry Mintzberg, in his book, The Nature of Managerial Work,
Managers spend a great deal of their time in meetings. According to Henry Mintzberg, in his book, The Nature of Managerial Work,
admin
2013-03-22
33
问题
Managers spend a great deal of their time in meetings. According to Henry Mintzberg, in his book, The Nature of Managerial Work, managers in large organizations spend only 22 per cent of their time on meetings. So what are the managers doing in those meetings? There have conventionally been two answers. The first is the academic version: Managers are coordinating and controlling, making decisions, solving problems and planning. This interpretation has been largely discredited because it ignores the social and political forces at work in meetings.
The second version claims that meetings provide little more than strategic sites for corporate gladiators to perform before the organizational emperors. This perspective is far more attractive, and has given rise to a large, and often humorous, body of literature on gamesmanship and posturing in meetings.
It is, of course, true that meeting rooms serve as shop windows for managerial talent, but this is far from the truth as a whole. The suggestion that meetings are actually battle grounds is misleading since the feelings of meetings has far more to do with comfort than conflict. Meetings are actually vital props, both for the participants and the organization as a whole.
For the organization, meetings represent recording devices. The minutes of meetings catalogue the change of the organization, at all levels, in a more systematic way than do the assorted memos and directives which are scattered about the company. They enshrine the minutes of corporate history, they itemize proposed actions and outcomes in a way which makes one look like the natural culmination of the other.
The whole tenor of the minutes is one of total premeditation and implied continuity. They are a sanitized version of reality which suggests a reassuring level of control over events. What is more, the minutes record the debating of certain issues in an official and democratic forum, so that those not involved in the process can be assured that the decision was not taken lightly.
As Dong Bennett, an administrative and financial manager with Allied Breweries, explains: "Time and effort are seen to have been invested in scrutinizing a certain course of action. "
Key individuals are also seen to have put their names behind that particular course of action. The decision can therefore proceed with the full weight of the organization behind it, even if it actually went through "on the nod". At the same time, the burden of responsibility is spread, so that no individual takes the blame.
Thus, the public nature of formal meetings confers a degree of legitimacy on what happens in them. Having a view pass unchallenged at a meeting can be taken to indicate consensus.
However, meetings also serve as an alibi for action, as demonstrated by one manager who explained to his subordinates: "I did what I could to prevent it — I had our objections minutes in two meetings. " The proof of conspicuous effort was there in black and white.
By merely attending meetings, managers buttress their status, while non-attendance can carry with it a certain stigma. Whether individual managers intend to make a contribution or not, it is satisfying to be considered one of those whose views matter. Ostracism, for senior managers, is not being invited to meetings.
As one cynic observed, meetings are comfortingly tangible: "Who on the shop floor really believes that managers are working when they tour the works? But assemble them behind closed doors and call it a meeting and everyone will take it for granted that they are hard at work. " Managers are being seen to earn their corn.
Meetings provide managers with another form of comfort too—that of formality. Meetings follow a fixed format: Exchanges are ritualized, the participants are probably known in advance, there is often a written agenda, and there is a chance to prepare. Little wonder then, that they come as welcome relief from the upheaval and uncertainty of life outside the meeting room.
Managers can draw further comfort from the realization that their peers are every bit as bemused and fallible as themselves. Meetings provide constant reminders that they share the same problems, preoccupations and anxieties, that they are all in the same boat. And for those who may be slightly adrift, meetings are ideal occasions for gently pulling them round.
As Steve Styles, the process control manager(life services)at Legal & General puts it: "The mere presence of others in meetings adds weight to teasing or censure and helps you to ’ round up the strays’. " Such gatherings therefore provide solace and direction for the management team a security blanket for managers.
Meetings do serve a multitude of means as well as ends. They relieve managerial stress and facilitate consensus. For the organization, they have a safety — net — cum — robber — stamping function without which decisions could not proceed, much less gather momentum. In short, meetings are fundamental to the well — being of managers and organizations alike.
Why do managers consider it important to be invited to meetings?
选项
A、They can impress their superiors.
B、All the important company decisions are made at meetings.
C、It makes them feel that their opinions are of importance to others,
D、They can share problems and anxieties.
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/wHXd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
TheFatProblemThatMenFaceItisapleasuretoseemenofacertainageworryingabouttheirweight.Listeningtothemis
TheFatProblemThatMenFaceItisapleasuretoseemenofacertainageworryingabouttheirweight.Listeningtothemis
Forachild,happinesshasamagicalnature.Iremembermakinghide-outsinnewly-cuthay,playingcopsandrobbersinthewoods
Forachild,happinesshasamagicalnature.Iremembermakinghide-outsinnewly-cuthay,playingcopsandrobbersinthewoods
Pollutionisa"dirty"word.Topollutemeanstocontaminate—topsoilorsomethingbyintroducingimpuritieswhichmake(31)unfi
Accordingtothespeaker,whatareconveniencegoods?
Accordingtothespeaker,whatareconveniencegoods?
Writeanarticleentitledas"KnowledgeEconomy".Youshouldwriteitaccordingtothefollowingoutline.Outline:(1)a
Accordingtothepassage,themassmediapresentuswith______.Theauthorusesthecomparisonwithbuildingacathedraltosh
随机试题
教学过程是教育心理学家们进行最早也是最多的一项研究内容。()
膳食中膳食纤维含量愈高,结肠炎、结肠癌发病率愈高。()
具有趋化作用的炎症介质是
心包摩擦音通常在什么部位听诊最清楚
A、麻黄碱B、小檗碱C、苦参碱D、莨菪碱E、乌头碱加热水可降低毒性
下列()不是混凝土管的管口形式。
下列关于投资产权结构的表述中,正确的是()。
开发建设单位申请在某城市中心区进行旧区改造,建设商贸、办公建筑项目。该地段西侧为风貌性建筑,集中成片,并有小游园一处,现已批准公布为“保护近代西式住宅风貌为主的历史街区”的重点保护区。拟改造规划可用地面积约3公顷,为历史街区保护的建设控制地带,其中有几幢可
某项目成本及成本构成比例数据如下表,正确的有()。
朱元璋做了皇帝后,下令江南百姓,村村建“尺五小庙”,阵亡士卒“五人为伍”,受百姓供奉。如此世代相传,便衍成香火极盛的()。
最新回复
(
0
)