I’ve worked for companies that emphasize management over staff – where all the cool training trips went to managers – and the business of staff was to support management. In almost every case, management was trained separately from staff.

As an engineer, I was expected to just “know and do my job” – and management was expected to utilize my expertise to the greatest advantage of the company. I was basically a tool to be wielded by management.

When I was management, my job was to “manage” my subordinates – like the machinery and vehicles the company used. I had lots of people working for me who had far superior knowledge and skills to mine – so thinking in terms of superiority was just dumb!

In that system, all management training was focused toward the concept that management meant superiority. Never mind that management and staff often did not get along well – that we often miscommunicated – that stratification sometimes thwarted mission objectives (think Dilbert).

“The management of a company should think again before they send their team leaders on management training courses. It would probably be more beneficial to send an entire team instead.” This according to Johan Bertlett of Lund University, Sweden.

I like the idea. Management doesn’t work in a vacuum.

“Of course you need a good manager if the interaction between the manager and the staff is to work”, says Bertlett. “But it is important to understand that the manager’s situation is also influenced by the staff. Simply focusing on the manager means turning a blind eye to the contributions of the staff, and in doing so you exclude a lot of the potential that exists within the company.”

A company that embraces symbiotic relationships between management and staff is a company that will succeed far beyond its mission statement. It also occurs to me that such a company would be much more socially and environmentally responsible and conscientious.