Comments on: IT Services Companies Should Empower Middle Management

By: Manoj Philip Mathen.

Manoj Philip Mathen. — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:42:23 +0000

The Middlemanagement has become powerless and true, they themselves dont believe in the company anymore and they are building more managers like themselves. It is all going in a wrong direction.

By: Ranga

Ranga — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:26:01 +0000

DMs and above are mentally retired lott of people …they think in a different world all together ..In companies like Infosys the game of DMs and above is like a game of chess/complicated puzzle where they use all sorts of trickery/political mindset …. to puppeteer the people but at the sametime not to jeopardise their personal wealth / hapniess and comfort …..the people at the top thinks like Old India and wants the people at bottom to deliver like New India(read West) .

By: Siddharth

Siddharth — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:51:20 +0000

In the 1990+ decade, morale in IT service companies was driven by stock markets. In the 2000+ decade, morale was driven by expansion and progression (until 2008).

Now, both factors settling down, industry is at cross roads. Everyone seems to be a victim. The problem really is that IT services industry had embraced too much of management in loss of software engineering. Some wise man thought more managers = more business! That backfired right?

Secondly, instead of maturing core competencies, companies wanted to be seen differently inguise of ‘rapid differentiation’ – please don’t call us Information Technology or Software Engineering. Why? Basics forgotten.

Now, HR is on a charge again. I think we need less of this too.

I would just encourage both management and HR to work less. I am sure then engineering will stand back on its feet with a healthy workforce in line.

Keep it simple. Dial in less.

By: Bharat

Bharat — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:35:21 +0000

Basab, As someone who had to toil to get multiple levels of approval and exception approvals and endure endless emails for things like reimbursing $40 taxi bills, being refused a spare laptop charger and things like that ( I can go on endlessly on this!), I heartily endorse the "empower the middle mgmt" mantra. When these mundane things become battles and larger things like employee retention or motivation are completely outside the ambit and subject to arbitrary diktats/"quotas"/bell curves, middle managers are truly squeezed. Not suggesting laissez faire, but you have to repose some trust and discretion on the middle manager.

By: Wit Real

Wit Real — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 06:00:22 +0000

Next, it is untrue that Indian IT workers have "nowhere to go with their problems".
The talented always find their way. The churn speaks about that.

Your observation is applicable to some of those pot bellied, pointy head (no offence intended, pl.) Infosys/Wipro/TCS DMs/GPMs only. The fact is that, their immobility is not due to external forces. You have to apply Peter's principle here. It is just that they reached their level of incompetence.

And this breed is actually created by the esops of your generation.

By: Wit Real

Wit Real — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:59:42 +0000

>> They are both about employees having nowhere to go with their problems.

I guess, this comparision is not correct

Firstly, HonHai's & Honda's problems are entirely different.
They have completely different brand equity. You may have to analyze the work practices of HonHai here. you need to see whether the overtime put in by the workers is anyway related to the look-alike gadgets, motherboards that make their way into the southasian markets. Then a different picture emerges.

Finally on the decentralization part, IMHO, it will automatically come if you tweak the ratios of your pyramid model that you discussed in earlier blogs. You just need to transform the DM/GPM from a postman like job to a post-master-general. And you dont need too many postmen anyway.

By: Wit Real

Wit Real — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:58:12 +0000

Suicides & Salary hikes?
Didnt they read Herzberg??

>> Yesterday Honda gave a 24% raise to workers, who were still _not_ happy.

Aha! There he is !

By: IT Services Companies Should Empower Middle Management « Two MBAs, One Blog

IT Services Companies Should Empower Middle Management « Two MBAs, One Blog — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:07:12 +0000

[...] IT Services Companies Should Empower Middle Management. [...]

By: basab_prad13041

basab_prad13041 — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:05:16 +0000

Arun – the companies that are more centralized in decision making will show these symptoms to a greater degree. But to a certain extent, all successful companies in the industry have gotten there by strong process orientation and financial controls.

By: Krishna

Krishna — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:02:02 +0000

But Basab, except for whining over the web, the middle managers have not been showing much spine either. How much of their clients' business they understand even after working with them for over months and years? If middle manager has to really stay relevant, they have to help transform clients' businesses with their unique insights and lasting solutions. Their nuanced understanding should overwhelm the client managements so much so that they insist on "Mr./Ms. XYZ" and not just any coder that fits the budget. That's how IT vendors can over-deliver on SLA. Instead if they just stop at writing codes and happy making once a year visit back to their Indian village to update their bank passbooks or to flaunt their American knickers, they're pretty much getting their fill don't deserve even the visa fee the vendors spend for shipping those bodies.