WHY CAN TRANSPARENCY BE DANGEROUS, AND IN WHAT TYPE OF COMPANY CAN IT HURT?
Company management needs to be careful with transparency, especially when it comes to a "design bureau" company. So what is the danger? The danger is that excessive transparency (when management knows absolutely everything that employees do) can lead to the formation of an "electronic whip”.
THE "ELECTRONIC WHIP" CONCEPT
You may have heard of the "electronic whip" concept. If you haven't, you've probably encountered it at work.
“Electronic whip” is a method in which the management of the company, regardless of the type of activity, tries to control absolutely every step of the employee. That's why management uses online tools or systems to monitor employee performance, late arrivals at work and so on. Some businesses want to track almost every second of an employee and use control applications to ensure that the norm is met on time.
The use of the "electronic whip" in the design bureau in its absolute variant is not applicable. This is due to the fact that the creative process takes place and a person cannot give out brilliant ideas exactly at 8:00 in the morning as soon as the workday has begun. We believe that there should be optimal transparency, and an “electronic whip” is unacceptable on humane grounds.
Chinese 996 work culture
Controls, especially in "“design bureau" companies, need to be more flexible, because clear time tracking and a grueling business culture do not guarantee the right result.
An example is China, where until recently there was a "996 work culture", which meant working from 9 am to 9 pm 6 days a week. For Chinese companies, including IT, working according to the 996 principle is a feature of the cultural canon and it is a normal working condition. Even though the Chinese worked 72 hours a week and came to work on time, the "electronic whip" method did not work because their software leaves much to be desired.
"ELECTRONIC FILTER" CONCEPT AS AN ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVE OF MANAGEMENT
In our opinion, there should be no "electronic whip" at all. It is better to use an "electronic filter" for people who don't like what they do. Take, for example, the aggregator Yandex.Taxi. Do you think it acts as an "electronic whip"? We don't think so. More likely, it acts as an "electronic filter," which is a softer method.
On the one hand, this concept makes it possible to see the details of the processes and react to negative trends promptly. On the other hand, there is no supercontrol and the driver has free will. "The "electronic filter" makes the service better, because people who don't like working for the company are immediately "filtered out.” If there were no "electronic filter", unscrupulous drivers would stay on and spoil Yandex.Taxi's reputation.
WHAT TO DO WITH IT?
Our answer is simple: find a balance, whether it is a manufacturing company or a "“design bureau”. On the one hand there must be discipline, and on the other hand there must be flexibility in management. After all, the main thing is not that a person comes to work exactly one minute at a time, but that the person produces creative results and that critical moments reach the management in a timely manner.
Read the next article "The concept of the "motivational matrix" and why doesn't the "electronic whip" work where creativity is needed?"
