A fierce sense of individual equality combines with our belief in the power and right of the masses to vote against or resist centralized authority if they disagree with what is coming down the pike. And yet from the time we enter school, our first job, or the military, we are told to listen, obey, follow orders, respect the chain of command, and be good followers in order to be good leaders someday. One of the fascinating aspects of American culture is the dynamic tension that has existed for over two centuries between the Declaration of Independence engraved in each citizen s psyche, layered over top of much older, species-wide experiences that say just as accurately, All men are not created equal. No one talks about this contradictory tension. The new leadership gurus tell us that the hierarchical way of sailing a corporate ship can be tossed overboard with the captain and his first mate, and replaced with hands-off sailing or sailing by consensus.
Conditions often do.
Then grumbling begins about so-called communication problems in the organization. To avoid giving confusing and frustrating double messages, organizations need to openly examine and define as clearly as possible the line where hierarchical control ends and participatory management begins, a topic rarely discussed. That thin red line is hard to discern yet its presence can be sensed in every internal document, action, policy and decision made by an organization. If left unacknowledged, this tension at the demarcation line between opposing worldviews hierarchy vs. participation based on equality can and will create serious problems. In other words, so-called communication and micromanagement problems are really symptoms of the unacknowledged tension within hierarchical organizations striving for a participatory management culture.