Between families and institutions

Another dichotomy that can drive people crazy is the question whether management of a given team should be “family-style” or rather “institutional”.

Interesting examples are small organizations that migrate from family-style to institutional and observe “growth pain”. Or big organizations like the Roman-catholic church, whose members leave massively in some countries, causing problems of oversized infrastructure.

Humans themselves can be classified into two opposite worker styles: clerks versus pioneers, managers versus experts. The clerks or managers “know” that individual humans and their personal beliefs and convictions aren’t as important as the humans themselves usually think. They know that humans a mortal, but institutions are immortal.

As with every controversial question, the camps are clear only in theory. In reality there is no difference between black and white. The most obedient clerk can eventually, in a given situation, become a courageous pioneer. And the most daredevil pioneer can become a nitpicky clerk in some other situation.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Keywords: family versus corporation