03/ 08/ 2005
by Charles R. McConnell
A new manager arrives at the company and upon first speaking with the employee group says something like, "I'm a people person. My door is always open and I want to hear your ideas and concerns." A number of employees – except some who have heard the "door is always open" speech before – are encouraged upon hearing this, and they take the invitation literally. However, most discover that the boss is too busy to be readily accessible, and they are instructed to go through a different channel such as a first-line supervisor or human resources representative. The manager might sincerely believe he or she is a "people person," but with some employees this manager will quickly become perceived as largely distant and unreachable.
Many employees who have seen a few management changeovers in their careers have heard the "door is always open" speech a number of times. Rarely is this claim strictly true except in the instance of a conscientious first-line supervisor who remains readily available to employees. In fact, the "door is always open" claim can be hazardous for a middle or upper manager to make. If such a manager's door is indeed open and employees can be readily received, if properly observing the chain of command, the manager can do little more than listen politely and refer employees to subordinate management or other sources of assistance. Should the higher manager make a decision that fixes an employee's problem, employees will quickly get the message that you can bypass the immediate supervisor and "go upstairs" to get the answer you want. In such instances the immediate supervisor's authority is undermined and, as a result, he or she is perceived as powerless.
Citing another brief example, when young Mr. Smith accepts a position at a family-owned company, he is assured that he can go as far as his abilities can carry him. Yet within months he discovers that the most challenging assignments and the most desirable promotions go to friends and relatives of the proprietors. A fundamental contradiction between what Smith heard and what he sees leads him to perceive the company as a "closed club."
Sometimes, employees of companies that jumped on the total quality management bandwagon experienced a common problem that eventually torpedoed some well-intentioned efforts. Top management would kick off their management change by actively chairing steering committees, professing the belief in "walking the talk" and encouraging employees to join in the effort. However, after a few weeks of heaving emphasis on active participation, they would leave the leading to subordinates. The resulting perception is of a relatively disinterested management whose behavior says "do as I say, not as I do."
Whenever there is a contradiction between what employees are told or led to expect and what they actually see occurring, the result is usually a negative perception. In the employee-manger relationship, a greater presence of negative perceptions lowers the credibility of management and increases the difficulty of securing employee cooperation and commitment.
The task of minimizing employees' negative perceptions falls largely to the first-line supervisor, although the “door is always open” higher manager can make this more difficult. Consider the following actions (and perhaps omissions) common to first-line supervisors:
- When the supervisor turns a blind eye to employee misconduct and fails to apply disciplinary action, or perhaps disciplines too little and too late, employees perceive the supervisor as soft and tend to believe their violations of rules won't be addressed. This can be especially true of attendance problems; chronic absenteeism that goes unaddressed breeds more absenteeism.
- When the supervisor allows employee evaluations to run seriously late or fails to address them at all, employees perceive the supervisor as uncaring (and perhaps disorganized as well).
- Likewise, when an employee simply needs to talk and the supervisor is unwilling to be a sympathetic listener or is "too busy" to take the time, the supervisor is again perceived as uncaring.
The individual supervisor's behavior is always critically important in influencing employee perceptions. Since the supervisor is most likely the one member of management that the employees in the group know best, their perception of the supervisor will affect how they perceive the company. Should the supervisor be perceived as cold, uncaring and uninterested in employees, they will likely perceive the company the same way.
A supervisor's best defense against the formation of negative employee perceptions is to be visible to employees as much as possible and available to them when needed. Perception forever remains critically important. How things appear to employees can be just as important as how things actually are, and at times, perhaps even more important. It is worthwhile for management at all levels to remain constantly aware that, to the perceiver, perception is reality.
