Workforce Management Featured Article
Study Highlights the Perils of Mushroom Management
An old business practice is under new assault.
The practice in question is “mushroom management.” In this style of management, employees are shielded from company performance concerns and sometimes even the point of the work they are laboring over. Employees don’t need to know these details, it is argued, they should salute and do the work instead. Or if the news is bad, keeping employees in the dark delays a domino effect of key employee departures.
Mushroom management is not new, but the world of work has changed and employees no longer are putting up with it. It isn’t safe to entrust your livelihood to a company that doesn’t necessarily have your best interests in mind, and not knowing the real-time performance of the company reduces an employee’s ability to adapt if things start to go bad.
This is why more than 90 percent of employees in Britain would rather hear bad company news than no news at all, according to a recent report by data communications firm, Geckoboard. The report also found that when managers don’t share company data, nearly 80 percent of employees no longer trust them.
This same percentage of Brits also said that they want their boss to share more information about the business, and less than nine percent felt they were being kept current about the direction of their company.
This should be a wakeup call for businesses, because the report also found that 26 percent of workers head for the door and change companies when there is an information blackout.
The takeaway from the report is both clear and obvious: Mushroom management is a bad idea.
It can be argued that it never was a good idea, because employees who know the happenings of their company are more engaged and invested in their work. With the rising tide of entrepreneurship and a growing lack of faith in workplace stability, however, the days of mushroom management certainly should be numbered. Employees just won’t put up with it much longer.
Businesses have been served notice.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
