Profit and control have been the driving themes of the manufacturing industry over the past 150 years. However, as we get deeper into the knowledge economy, we find both of these concepts evolving. The issue of profitability is turning into the issue of sustainability. The issue of control is turning into the issue of empowerment.
In the early 1900s, the philosophy of scientific management was perfect for a domination-and-control theory of the workplace. Taking advantage of automation, we told employees exactly what to do and punished them when they failed to do it. In essence, we treated people like machines.
Control simply doesn't work as a motivator today. For instance, try taking that approach with a software programmer! With the advent of total quality management and learning organizations, even rank-and-file workers are being converted into knowledge workers-and knowledge can't be controlled. It can only be enhanced, unleashed, and managed.
As I explain in my workshops, much legal and management thinking has developed around yesterday's concepts of control. We define people as employees or independent contractors, depending largely on how much control we exert over them. We define employees as either exempt or non-exempt, depending largely on how much control we can place over them or they can place over others. We determine if someone is a common-law employee for benefits purposes, depending on the amount of control placed on them. But this control paradigm is rapidly becoming pass acute.
Recently, a software company client of mine asked, 'How can we stop putting all this money into training people, only to watch them leave for a higher salary someplace else?' I told her that we can't pretend that we can control these workers. We can't. Once trained, many employees jump at the opportunity to go off into business for themselves because of the greater potential for job satisfaction, flexibility, and income. Rather than thinking in terms of trying to control their continued employment, she should seek to make them partners with her company. Allow them the benefits of independence, but provide them with the support of the organization.
Remember, today's loyalty doesn't go to your company. People are loyal to their careers, teams, and families. Many companies realize that the best they can do is to keep talented people for three or four years before they naturally move on. Create a system that acknowledges today's new reality-not one that fights against it.
Control will be the issue of the next millennium. Governments will no longer be able to control education, economic development, employer/employee relationships, and other relationships, as they have in the past. (Heck, they can't even control themselves.) Companies (and governments) that ask themselves, 'How can I give up control and remain sustainable?' are the ones that will have the formula for future success.