Management theory has not fundamentally changed since Rene Fayol first articulated his “Principles of Management” (POM) in 1916. Employers hire a “super CEO” and rent robots to service bureaus of a limited liability corporation. Robots have no feelings and do not require the special treatment expected by knowledge workers. Robots do not protest when they are no longer convenient for owners and get handed away.
Unfortunately, robots are too limited and may be too expensive to replace with knowledge workers. Often the alternative of choice is to hire educated humans who have feelings and require special treatment such as authentic, safe, and smart team leaders and a culture, including the owner and employees, that is compatible with alliance-quality working relationships between teammates (leaders and members) and communities of alliance networks. Research informs us of the ways to construct organizations with culture appreciating the best of human exchanges (Graen & Canedo, 2022).
The main disconnects are created by the acceptance of POM as the one best way “to operate management systems,” and the markets have shifted to demand innovations over small model changes in the same product or service. Unicorn startups with the new design have shown the way to reject POM and design human intelligence and artificial intelligence integrated designs for rapid growth. It’s time to recognize that knowledge workers can think and create a better quality of life at work.
Today’s knowledge workers’ discontent with employment is at base a disconnect between the implicit promise of authentic respect for the dignity of fair exchange with complete personalities. Knowledge work is different from unskilled labor. It requires specialized knowledge obtainable by formal education and training including the creation of innovations and the integration of intelligence of experts and computers.
In general, the design and operation of intelligent startups requires the honest coordination of owners and knowledge workers. No longer do team leaders possess the technical knowledge to connect their team members and mostly rely on professional ethics. In turn, knowledge workers expect the owners will ensure to the best of their ability to enlighten, empower, and facilitate their cultures to coordinate to the result of fair value for relative contributions. Owners are then able to continue to create value and knowledge workers are empowered to continue to follow their dreams.
In summary, we have owners and knowledge workers playing different games. How do we convince them to agree to the same game?
