rmacy · March 17, 2014 03:50 · Mar 16, 2014
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+* Reciprocal Needs in the Employment Relation
+We can look at two sides of the management coin: What do the
+individuals get out of it? And what benefit does the whole system
+derive from it?
+
+I will disregard any benefits that accrue to managers just by holding
+the position of managing. Those are just circular logic. Circular
+logic abounds in discussions of management and hierarchy. For example,
+consider status reports. It will be said that status reports are
+necessary so managers know what their employees are working on. It's
+circular because it treats the existence of hierarchic management as
+axiomatic, then demands an interaction to serve that hierarchy. In
+other words, I will not consider interactions that only exist to serve
+the structure itself.
+
+Let's look first at the needs that an individual has as an
+employee. From "Drive" we see that an individual is motivated by
+autonomy, mastery, and purpose\cite{Pink09}. Over the long-term, these positive
+motivators have the greatest effect. However, they do require security
+and trust. A developer working on a big, change-the-world project
+still can't be motivated if they fear layoffs will be coming next month.
+
+Over the short term, an individual also needs to avoid the
+demotivators. A bad fit in workload, autonomy, rewards, fairness,
+community, or values\cite{Masl97} will outweigh long-term positives by
+about three to one.\cite{Amab11}
+
+I will frame these needs in the form of questions to which an
+individual would like to have answers.
+
+1. "What should I be working on now?"
+1. "Do I know how to do it?"
+1. "Can I work in a way that I enjoy?"
+1. "Am I good at what I do?"
+1. "Does my work mean anything?"
+1. "Can I get my work done in time?"
+1. "Can I get the resources I need to do the work? (Training,
+   equipment, assistance.)"
+1. "Am I making enough money?"
+1. "Am I being treated fairly, compared to my peers in the company?"
+1. "Am I being treated fairly, compared to my peers in the rest of the
+   industry?"
+1. "How do I fit in here?"
+1. "Does anybody care about me?"
+1. "Does anybody care about my work?"
+1. "Do I agree with my colleagues about the right ways to work, act,
+   and interact?"
+1. "Where am I going?"
+1. "Can I get there from here?"
+
+With each of these needs, they are not met by "the company",
+because "the company" is not a corporeal entity: it cannot talk,
+think, act, or feel. Rather, each of these needs can be met by
+interactions with other members of the company. By the same token, if
+a need goes unmet, it is unmet because some important interaction is
+not handled. 
+
+Some questions also address relations among people. These are not
+questions a person would ask about themselves, but rather questions a
+person would ask about how to affect other people in their
+company:
+
+1. "How can I deliver a hard message to X?"
+1. "I believe that X is not meeting their commitments. How can I get that fixed?"
+1. "How do I ensure I never work with X again?"
+1. "I know that X is creating legal or financial problems. What should I do?"
+
+We will turn now to the reciprocal side of the employment
+relationship, which is the needs of the system as a whole. 
+
+In order to keep functioning, the system has to be able to deal with
+certain issues. When I say "the system", of course I mean that the
+individuals in the system need a way to arrive at collectively
+acceptable decisions and implement those decisions.[fn::Although John
+Gall would disagree with me. In his view the system has ends of its
+own, namely those which cause the system itself to grow.]
+Unfortunately, there will always be some systemic needs that are not
+unanimously popular. For example, you can't ask for 100% decision
+about the need to terminate someone's employment. It may be necessary
+for the company, and even good for the majority of the people, but it
+won't be a unanimous decision. Other decisions may involve changing
+the character of the system by hiring people in new skill sets or
+service areas or exiting service areas that many of us enjoy.
+
+These system mechanisms can't be expressed as personal questions,
+since there is no "I" to voice them. I'll write these as declarations
+of systemic needs. In order to function and scale, the system needs
+mechanisms to:
+
+1. Limit expenditures to within available resources.
+1. Ensure that all needed tasks get done, not just the fun ones.
+1. Incorporate new people as the company grows.
+1. Correct problems that could disrupt the system.
+1. Reposition within the market.
+1. Converge on cultural and community standards.
+