Harvard: Managers must scrupulously avoid impeding workers

Date: 11/02/2010

More advice has been handed to businesses over the role of management in times of high stress and low morale.

The Harvard Business Review gave a particularly detailed account of how people should act in such situations, underlining the need for bosses to "scrupulously avoid impeding progress" through oft-used, under-effective autocratic goal-changing, indecisiveness or resource hold-ups.

It was added that incentives and recognition could be put in place to avoid negative events, which have a greater effect on emotions, perceptions and motivation than positive ones, adding that setbacks are one of the most demotivating things a worker can encounter.

The review demanded that managers create a culture of helpfulness and added: "While you're at it, you can facilitate progress in a more direct way: Roll up your sleeves and pitch in. Of course, all these efforts will not only keep people working with gusto but also get the job done faster."

Harvard remains the oldest institution of higher learning in the entire United States.

Posted by Michael Ewing
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Harvard: Managers must scrupulously avoid impeding workers

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