Top Management's View of the Purchasing Function

Top Management's View of the Purchasing Function Every executive tries to please his boss. In at least a few cases, apple polishing (sometimes subtle, occasionally very direct) works effectively. In most cases, boss-pleasing behavior is possible only if the subordinate identifies what the boss really wants (which is often different from what he says he wants), and then proceeds to do whatever is necessary. Successful boss-pleasers inevitably move up in the organization; the less successful either stay where they are or move out. If upward mobility in the organization is a measure of proficiency in the art and science of boss-pleasing, then purchasing managers collectively do not do very well at it. Relatively few move on to general management. Furthermore, many, if not most, purchasing managers apparently have long believed that their function is not "understood" by top management. One reason purchasing managers may not be understood and also fail to do as good a boss-pleasing job as other executives is because top management's perception of the purchasing function is different from that of the purchasing managers themselves. In an N.A.P.M. sponsored study, we try to test and evaluate this hypothesis in a reasonably scientific and objective fashion. There is, of course, no stereotype general manager or purchasing manager. The backgrounds, abilities, interests, and other characteristics of executives within each group vary widely. Nevertheless, within the narrow framework of our study, the pattern of responses of each group differs markedly from the other. The general manager's attitude toward purchasing and purchasing managers is quite different from that of the purchasing manager himself. Therefore, the purchasing manager who wants to be a successful boss-pleaser may find this article helpful in identifying how top management thinks. In many cases, he should try to "educate" the boss. But if he fails to do this, he had best behave in a way that fulfills the boss's goals even though he perceives a different set of organizational objectives. THE CASE STUDIES Attitudes of purchasing managers and general managers were measured with a group of "cases" involving various purchasing problems. These had to be made easy enough so that non-purchasing managers could identify the problem but sufficiently subtle so that differences in viewpoint between purchasing and general management would be brought out. Case 1: Reciprocity A purchasing manager does not buy a customer's product and the customer complains. Since reciprocity is no longer fashionable, and may even be illegal, everyone is against it or at least says he is. Nevertheless, 15 percent of the company presidents (but only 4 percent of the purchasing managers) participating in the survey said they would reprimand the purchasing manager for offending an important customer, even after agreeing that the competing product is superior on its own merits. Another 7 percent (but only 2 percent of the purchasing managers) said they would react by alerting their sales manager to the obvious reciprocal opportunity that is created by taking on the new supplier. The wide differences between responses by general managers and purchasing managers can be explained in two ways, depending on one's point of view. First, a surprisingly high minority of general managers looks upon purchasing simply as an activity that might have some effect on sales and is presumably otherwise indifferent to it. Second, the salesconscious general manager might argue that the purchasing managers take too parochial a view of their jobs and overlook the inter-relationship between purchasing and marketing. Either conclusion supports the hypothesis that purchasing and general management don't think alike. Case 2: Price Buying Respondents are asked to react to a statement that the purchasing manager is a "price chiseler" who thinks he saves money by buying shoddy merchandise. …