Dealing With an Authoritarian Management Style In IT?

A New Cog asks: "My software development group, including my manager, was moved recently under another bigger group with different style of management. The new objective for the group is to 'speak as one person', meaning that the reasons behind management decisions are well understood and technical information is well communicated. At first, it seemed to be a very good thing to do. In reality, it was just a disguised authoritarian method of imposing information censorship and making sure there is no opposition within. We used to cooperate openly with each other and people from other groups, exchanging opinions and ideas, but after few schooling sessions in front of the bigger group, everyone is now quietly doing what they are told. Now, there is less and less satisfaction from the work I do. Is this just a sign of maturing organization and transitional pain is a necessary side effect in order to have a better future, or is this a sign of things to come. I feel that no true creativity is going to happen in place where motivation and productivity are affected by frustration and threat of loosing one's job? I like my job, but what can I do now in order to keep my satisfaction with it?"

Comments

Re:You're not doomed..

[KDan]

That can also be a good way to test whether the boss is a good one. A good boss knows that he/she should invite his/her team out for drinks, buy a couple of rounds, and then excuse him/herself - so that the team can vent whatever they feel like venting.

Daniel

Re:Difficult choices

[Karl Cocknozzle]

Sadly, there is little satisfaction in IT jobs in large organizations these days. You'll need to go find a small company or derive work enjoyment from non-employment activities.

Its not all sunshine and roses in the small shops, though. True you definitely get to make a difference in the way things go, but to do so will require achingly long hours at relatively-low pay. In the end, you'll be just as disillusioned because your employer is getting this Class A service from you at bush-league pricing... It will only take a few years of one and two percent salary raises to realize your fortunes lie elsewhere.

And that isn't always a bad thing. I view my work in this small shop as hard-core education... I've been in this business for eight years now, but I've learned more in two years here than I did in the previous six years elsewhere. In a lot of ways, once you realize that "Mega-Corporate IT" really sucks to work in, and "bush-league" IT is rewarding but pays no money, you'll find yourself motivated to find the crossroads of those two extremes--satisfying work that pays enough that you might one day have a hope of retiring.

Now, I'm using the skills I'm learning here and the contacts I'm picking up so that in a year or so I can start my own consulting shop. I've already got a few clients on the side that I do things for, and I'm working steadily to build my stable of paying customers. I definitely see where being the service shop is where the real money is at in IT, and consequently, where the really smart people will end up pooling in the next few years/decades, if they aren't already in there.

My job as network engineer won't be heading to India--it requires too much on-site hands-on stuff, but I'd still like to make more than the assistant manager at McDonald's does, maybe have the opportunity to retire when I reach 65ish, instead of "semi-retiring" which means "I'm still working part-time but I take social security." I see the entreprenuership route as the only valid option to get there from here in IT at this point, aside from getting an MBA, holing up in some corporate IT shop and keeping my head down for the next three decades.

Google?

[otis wildflower]

Sounds like the start of the slippery slope that most small companies transitioning up tend to do.. It's a symptom of insecure (and thus poor) management.

There _is_ a hard balance between 'too much information' interfering with a group's concentration, vs. the kind of open communication that is constructive and can lead to 'your chocolate is in my peanut butter' serendipity moments.

Good, confident management will define expectations for work within and outside the group. It has the confidence of the group to be the point of contact for official communications with other groups. It has the confidence to not worry about informal communications outside the group. It has the confidence to know when it's wrong (for changing circumstances, mistaken assumptions, etc) and change course, and give credit where credit is due. A great manager has great people who do great things, and gets credit by giving it appropriately.

If a company undercuts that, that company is ultimately fucked, unless it has a monopoly.