It’s not just the managers

There are plenty of commentators, bloggers, book authors and columnists, pundits and others out there (including this one!) who point a finger squarely in management’s direction and declare that the root cause of all evil in the workplace lies with them. Lately, however, I’m starting to think that isn’t necessarily the case.

While “management,” writ large, isn’t blameless – a finger has to be levied at the rank and file, too. While we’d all love to believe that people want to do well and are simply put down by poor, ineffective management decisions, there are plenty of people at low levels who are entirely guilty of just showing up, doing the minimum, and collecting a paycheck. While we don’t want to believe this, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

I’ve talked with people in higher ed. often, many of them tenured, knowledgeable, experienced – and they all lament what they see in the classrooms: disinterested, disengaged students looking to do only the minimum necessary to pass the class. Hands routinely go up asking, “Will this be on the test?” Instructors find their students concerned only with what is functionally relevant at that moment in time, and isn’t necessarily investing in learning anything beyond what is necessary to demonstrate just enough retained information to pass the test. The concepts of intellectualism and mastery be damned.

We can always blame management for the problems we face, however, what we seldom do is look to ourselves, or others, and identify those who have chosen to be a part of the problem through their own lack of engagement. Perhaps it is time for each of us to engage in a more honest conversation over what is tolerable and what is not, and begin to measure not on the outcome, but on the inputs: effort for effort’s sake, an embrace of learning at the personal level, altruism, and the demonstration of that learning through the active development of others.

Copyright © 2011 David Kasprzak