EGOCENTRIC MANAGEMENT: AN ORGANIZATIONAL DISEASE PREVENTING GOOD COMMUNICATION AND WELLBEING

摘要

An ongoing research work on the causality of common industrial problems hasrnshown that most of such problems are deeply rooted on egocentric managerialrnpractices. This is so, because most managers are not able to make congruent theirrnown objectives with those of the company they work for, thus promoting interpersonalrnconflicts and hampering the firm’s competitiveness.rnThis paper aims to show some ways in which egocentric management is preventingrngood communication and wellbeing of personnel in a sample of companies. So far,rnall the companies surveyed are affected by this organisational disease and it isrnsurprising to ascertain how little awareness there is about it. The inescapablernquestions, are: How is it that so many managers are not aware or neglect thisrnsituation? What chain of events has brought us here? Who and how benefits fromrnit? How can we change for the better? Where do we begin?rnIs this problem deeply rooted in our culture? Does it bear a relationship with shortrnterm focusing? Indeed, there do not seem to be quick and simple answers to thesernquestions, moreover, one hopes that something can be done before the affectedrncompanies collapse. This disease appears to be a major barrier for teamworkrn(essential for total quality management), since it prevents the development ofrnsynergy, solidarity, and interdisciplinary work.rnThis analysis is based on a list of related manager features portraying thernegocentric profile. The evaluation of a given manager is carried out byrnascertaining the incidence of each feature; the impact of each feature is expressedrnby means of a semi-quantitative factor that indicates its severity.rnThe analysis of the various elements of a company’s system, as they relate to thernproblems examined, is carried out by means of a “causes and relationships of arnproblem (CROP) diagram” developed in a former research work (Oliva-López,rn1998).rnThe results obtained so far show that, because of the widespread lack ofrncongruence between the managers and their companies’ objectives, the analysis ofrnproblems and their causes must compulsorily look into the egocentric features ofrnmanagers.