Recently I read a newspaper article titled, “Managing? What Nonsense!” In this article, the writer joins the chorus in lamenting the uselessness of managers, stating that the position of manager should be abolished as quickly as possible.

According to this writer, managers are not the reason for organizational success at all but, instead, it is about people “following their own sense.” To this, I in turn reply: “What utter nonsense!” because simply trusting your own sense without employing a solid foundation from which to depart is never advisable.

Interestingly enough, the writer first quite correctly states that for many improvement theories, “empiric evidence” is lacking and that organizations become more productive when they apply such-and-such a theory. He offers examples from the work of Stephen Covey, Philip Kotler and Jim Collins, for which he is correct, there indeed is no evidence to support the idea that their theories will actually work. In some instances, in fact, it has even been scientifically shown that the research underlying these works isn’t valid. Read more…