Staff ManagersStaff managers develop and operate the processes that support the core activity of an organization. These processes include finance, human resources, information systems, logistics, purchasing, marketing, communications, and so on. Collectively, these processes form an organization's infrastructure.
This infrastructure accounts for much more of an organization's activities than most leaders and managers realize. Indeed, these activities have a way of growing very large without attracting much attention. There needs to be a constant effort by top management to keep these activities from consuming too large a portion of total revenues.
Staff managers play a critical role in the business matching process: they must constantly adjust what they do and how they work to fit the current business match. In order to do this, they must be kept constantly and clearly informed of what that match is. If they are not, they will automatically prepare for a wide range of contingencies - e.g., changes in sales, products, customer needs, etc. This is precisely what leads to unwarranted growth.
Consider the example of an information technology department, which looks vastly different in a pioneer enterprise than it does in a warrior organization. The former needs to provide technical information to inventors and entrepreneurs; the latter needs to focus on supporting and streamlining large-volume production. Understanding these different focuses, and other differences among the four organizational types, enables staff managers to offer the most effective support, while remaining frugal.
The work of staff departments can be crucial to the proper positioning of an organization's products or services in the market. This is especially true in jungle markets, where the infrastructure needed to meet customers' demands is essential to winning and keeping them. Logistics services, for example, ensure that customers get their orders on time. While this is important in all markets, superior proficiency is demanded in a jungle, where customers have little or no brand loyalty, and a one-day delay may be considered intolerable. (Think of the office supply business, where many customers now expect same-day delivery.) Compare this to the frontier, where lateness is sometimes excused because of the newness of a product or process, and/or because of the lack of many alternatives.
Each staff manager needs to continuously examine their department's role within their organization, and be aware of its position on the archetype grid, so they can determine what needs to be adapted and improved.
To support the business matching process, staff managers need to:
- Participate actively with middle managers in assessing their organization's position on the archetype grid, as well as in developing appropriate operational strategies.
- Determine the roles their departments need to play in supporting both the organization's strategic plan and its operational strategy.
- Reach agreement with top management and other relevant managers on what is needed to create synchronicity between the organization's core processes and its infrastructure.
- Continuously monitor the effectiveness of the support structures in relation to the organization's position on the archetype grid; develop and adapt support processes as necessary.
- Help people in their support functions understand the moves, adaptations, and process improvements that will be necessary for success. Staff managers need to be clear about what benchmarks and measurements will be used, and what attitudes and approaches will be most helpful.
As they perform these tasks, staff managers need to avoid or address these pitfalls:
EntrenchmentSupport departments tend to develop cultures of their own. Not surprisingly, these are usually based on the styles and inclinations of the people who work in them. Over time, these mini-cultures can become entrenched and closed to influences from the outside. The people in these cultures then routinely engage in the kind of political activity that is rewarded internally, but is detrimental (or, at best, valueless) to the larger organization. In addition, they may work, both individually and collectively, to ensure the department's survival by sharing only the information they want others to know. At times they may even keep some of the most vital information to themselves.
These conditions steadily reinforce themselves and resist all efforts toward change. Those who attempt introspection and renewal are often eventually ostracized. Typically, managers are brought in from business line positions to change things, but people in the department may create an implicit plan to survive while that person is there without actually changing.
Low stature of staff managersIn many organizations, the premier management roles are in business lines and/or core processes, and most top managers are chosen from this group (and, perhaps, from finance). Staff managers may therefore have little political stature and may not be included in serious strategizing. They may be brought in only after a strategy has already been decided upon, at which point they are simply told to comply and mobilize their resources.
This leaves staff managers in a position of supporting the organization, but not sharing in any of the control. They are not part of the business matching process, no matter how supposedly open and explicit the organization's strategic planning may be.
Support departments that are too far ahead of the rest of the organizationSome IT departments, for example, are so far ahead of the rest of their organizations technologically that they speak a different language, and thus become politically isolated from other departments. These departments keep IT out of their meetings and strategy sessions, and include its people only after the fact, to create the electronic infrastructure needed to follow a strategy that has already been decided upon. This is, of course, far too late in the process, and does not lead to creating the kind of support actually needed from IT. It also can result in bypassing those strategies that may well be the most beneficial, practical, or cost-effective.
Something similar can occur with human resources departments. HR managers sometimes feel that they possess a certain cultural enlightenment that core process people lack - and that it is their mission to train these people to fit their vision. The core process people of course resist these efforts, which leads to HR's isolation from the real decision-making processes.
Inappropriate integration of support structures and business linesFinding the correct way to integrate support activities with business lines is a critical design task, but one which is not often performed well. The business-matching process can help a great deal here, by providing direction to top and middle mangers on the degree and type of integration needed to be successful in each market environment.
A ruler needs to tie together its strongest independent parts in a way that maximizes the power of the business. This might be done through brand management, cross-division programs, shared innovation, and so on. It isn't especially easy to get these little fiefdoms to cooperate, let alone integrate; furthermore, it is important not to destroy the sense of ownership and power felt in each separate unit or department. Nevertheless, efficiencies are important to protect the large margins in a kingdom market, and these can best be maintained through cross-functional and cross-divisional systems.
A warrior link should together the many efforts of the organization to increase sales volume and the efficiency of production. It is important to constantly work to streamline production - and, when possible, other systems as well. For example, special sales initiatives are often needed to stay a step ahead of the competition. However, these can become dangerously expensive if they are not integrated quickly and cooperatively in the field.
Hunters need to integrate systems that create a clear understanding of customer needs everywhere in the organization, so that everyone in it can work to satisfy those needs. The relentless drive to lower costs will naturally create some integration and promote efficiency; however, it is crucial that the organization remain focused on being responsive to customer needs.
A pioneer needs to tie together the loose parts of the system in a way that supports the innovation needed to get new products or services to market - all without seriously damaging the bottom line. The focus should be on obtaining needed resources and building appropriate technologies. Integration is not as crucial for a pioneer as it is for the three other types of organizations, because margins are usually sufficient to make up for inefficiencies (and, in some cases, poor customer service). Furthermore, it is important not to tighten up the organization too much, and thereby risk undermining the spirit of innovation. On the other hand, integration does typically lead to better service, greater efficiency, and more widespread acceptance in the market.
Mergers or acquisitions undertaken without significant involvement from staff managersAll the research suggests that mergers and acquisitions rarely achieve anything close to their original purposes. Even though due diligence groups are used to identify and address potential legal issues, and to make recommendations concerning the assimilation of one culture into another, most mergers and acquisitions run into serious problems involving the differences between the two cultures.
Often this is because staff managers have been left out of the picture. But even when staff managers are included in a due diligence group, they are well aware that the merger or acquisition is driven by highly political considerations and involves many ego issues, particularly on the part of the acquirer. They know whether management really wants to purchase a company or not and will, more often than not, provide the information they know management wants to hear, despite whatever reservations they might have.
