Do we need managers or systems?

I am not sure whether I have read any managerial books but I do know that I have worked under many managers. Quantity being around 7. I must say they all were different. They did only one thing. Fulfilling their KRAs but their approaches weren't the same. They even spoke the same language.

Good managers are those who can use minimum resources with maximum effectiveness. They must also be endearing to their people. You will say this is what all managers need. This is unfortunately not true. Most managers I met where not endearing to their people neither did they not circumspectly avoided breaking rules. They did it however selectively. Obviously, this is not true for all of them. Some where highly rule oriented and others were highly people oriented. They were very good motivators both in positive sense and negative sense. They reprimanded their people, they set relationships, they even spoilt relationships. How do these managers knwo what is right for the situation. This is what I am here to find out.

If you know about how an organization functions then you can easily judge and understand as to what and why managers do the way they do. Still there were other managers who lived in I am right and you are wrong paradigm. How a manager grows is he understands that he is the moral pillar of his or her department while others are humans. After all there has to be a balance between morals and performance. We must also agree that there is a boss - subordinate relations with managers. The boss has its own challenges after all they are also people like us.

One more thing that I noticed is that managers don't mix up with each other very well. When two or more managers meet there is always a tussle. They don't agree. Most times the tussle is very healthy but other times it is just not so. They realize that they are independent and each of them have different views and morals. During the observation I also saw that systems and managers play a complementary role. Systems are friends of managers. Most job get done via systems. Systems is invisible but it is a powerful force in our society especially in organizations. People come in the morning to their work place, they don't stare at their bosses, they just do what the system has asked them to do. This one time system setting and there after it's changes are the job done by the managers along with an expert who knows about the systems or who has experience about the systems.

Are managers replaceable? Can't say. But certainly the managers having more systems can do much more work done than alone a manager can.

For the time being let us assume that this way is the best way.

Adieu!