Sunday, January 14, 2018

Hierarchy Hampered Down in American Business

Without going into either the labor or management camp, a person can viably critique the operation of hierarchy itself in business organizations. The notion is typically associated with the concentration of power at “the top,” rather than the relation of middle-level managers to “retail” managers and their subordinates. Efficiency of power at a corporate headquarters does not necessarily translate into “downward” efficiency at the level of middle management. I submit that precisely this efficiency is rather severely compromised in American business.
“The word hierarchy derives from ancient Gree (hierarchia, literally the ‘rule of a high priest’) and was first used to describe the heavenly orders of angels and, more generally, to characterize a stratified order of spiritual or temporal governance.”[1] The early focus on the situs of a high priest rather than all priests, and the heavenly orders rather than the relation between them and the earthly orders set the tone: the top matters most in a hierarchy. I am guilty in that my theory of organizational leadership applies exclusively at the top: the leadership of an organization. Supervisory management is in my view another animal. Yet it too is important, and I contend that it is woefully neglected in American business.
Customers, for example, of retail businesses will recognize the frustration in dealing with not only  a rude or stubborn employee—even acting at odds with a company policy!—but also that employee’s gatekeeping, or outright refusal to get a supervisor as requested. The sense of entitlement that a non-supervisory employee may have rivals the sense of importance of a CEO. Getting to a store manager can nonetheless require a lot of effort and patience; typically an assistant manager is sent to put out the little brush fires. Employees may know how to exploit this gap that exists between what the employees and a store manager are doing, such as by insisting that aggrieved customers first inform the indolent employee of what will be said to the manager (a conflict of interest to be sure!).
In short, retail-level managers tend not to be involved enough where customer-meets-employees; management by walking around is too easily sidelined by the endless list of things needing to be done behind a desk. Put another way, I contend that retail management is generally interpreted as being akin to upper management, rather than something unique. The situs one or even two levels above non-supervisory employees on the front line should be actively involved on that line, and the complaint access can be greatly improved such that customers do not have to depend on problematic employees for it and spend much time and effort in reaching accountability. Hierarchy is made for efficient accountability, whereas networks (e.g., organic organizational structures and flat inter-organizational relationships) may be overrated.[2] Yet the “lower” half of a company’s hierarchy is, I submit, underutilized and perhaps even unwittingly compromised in part due to the common association of hierarchy with “the top.”
Starbucks, for example, has a centralized customer service number, which can be used to register a complaint against a store employee. The offended customer may get a gift card for a few free drinks to compensate—and such compensation, rather than an apology alone, is important—but what about the distance from the centralized unit at headquarters and the store-level employee? The unit sends a communication to a regional or district manager, who in turn is supposed to communicate with the store manager, who in turn is supposed to have a talk with the employee. Considering the sheer number of links, and the distance involved, the intended message could be compromised both intentionally and unintentionally. A district manager, for instance, may just do enough to make it seem that a real correction has been made. A store manager might dismiss the charge, as it reflects badly on the store’s management. Rarely, perhaps, would a store manager tell a shift manager to listen to what the employee is saying to customers. I also doubt whether the typical complaint results in any actual and substantive negative consequences for the employee, especially if attitude is the culprit (which is not likely re-trainable).
For all that Howard Schultz’s CEOship of Starbucks has been lauded, I have been surprised at the number of times I have witnessed rude, close-minded behavior of employees at the store level. This is not to say that good employees have not worked in the stores. My point is rather that in the company’s hierarchy, the part between the district managers and the store employees seems weakest. In my booklet Bucking Starbucks’ Star, I argue that Schultz’s corporate social responsibility ventures “at the top” do not make up for managerial and employee deficiencies further “below.” I have never seen a store or even a shift manager “working the room” in stores to see how the customers were actually served, and such managers can confront centralized reports of complaints by rationalizing, the customer got free drinks, so there’s no need for me to take action against the employee. Management as walking around, even by district managers scheduling time to work along side the crews at the various stores, and in having direct access to complaining customers, could make a dent in shoring up hierarchy in business organizations where patching is most needed. Hierarchy can be a good thing, provided it is thought through in its various, distinct levels.


See: Cases of Unethical Business, Walmart: Bad Management as Unethical, and Bucking Starbucks' Star.



[1] Niall Ferguson, “In Praise of Hierarchy,” The Wall Street Journal, January 5-6, 2018.
[2] Ibid.