Cerrisian Blog

Joel on software talks about a few management styles, the ones I have direct experience with are the  command and control and identity styles. The failure of command and control style management really hit home to me, you can’t force people to do things, you have to convince them.

Some managers understand this and excel, others don’t and fail. I think this also affects how much a manager micro-manages, what level decisions are made at, and even how open to new ideas managers are. It comes down to an issue of trust, and whether a manager trusts their employees or not.

It also depends on whether the manager thinks of employees as creative individuals that just need impedances removed, or squishy machines that need to be disciplined to instill control and predictability. Whether employees are humans to be nurtured, or slaves to be dehumanized.