The amount of decision making allowed to managers is very small. Their main task is to spread motivational ripples down the food chain, encouraging others to meet a range of very demanding targets over which they themselves have very little control.This statement is taken from a recent Durham Business School report. The analysis was referring to employees in the retail business but on reading it I thought it capture what it must feels like to be a manager in today’s public sector.As the harsh financial climate bits increasingly unpopular decisions are made about service cuts and staff are made redundant or redeployed. Decisions that are made at the top of the organisation. Increasingly managers have little or no influence over these decisions as they are routinely bi passed because those at the top consider them to be either too close to be dispassionate or disinclined to dismantle their own little empires. As capture in the often heard phrase “turkeys don’t vote for Christmas”.At one time managers would have been involved in identifying ways to make efficiency savings and drawn up restructuring plans to reduce costs. The urgent and dire budget situation involving year on year cuts means more dramatic action is required. So instead of being asked how could you make some saving in your staffing budget managers are told one in five management post are to be cut, services like HR, IT and Pay roll are to be out sourced and increasingly the organisation will commission and contract rather than directly provide services.This culture inevitably seeps into the day to day operations, targets are imposed not negotiated, attempts to discuss decisions even at a senior level are viewed as dissent and any criticism is seen as disloyalty. A safety first attitude means managers are over cautious, disinclined to innovate and tending to refer every minor decision upwards. Not that there are many decisions to make as posts are frozen there is no recruitment, the ban on over time allows for no discretion and defiantly no agency staff. The training budget has been centralised and is virtually nonexistent so no decision to be made. The standard answer to any request is we can’t afford it. Which just leaves approving annual leave requests!This doesn’t mean being a manager has got easier because as the Durham report states managers are expected to be positive despite dismantling services and abandoning professional values they are expected to be enthusiastic about the changes and keep their staff on message.Blair McPherson author of People management in a harsh financial climate and Equipping managers for an uncertain future both published by Russell House. http://www.blairmcpherson.co.uk/
