I came across another insightful article I wanted to share from HBR. The article, titled Good Communication Goes Beyond Open Door Policies, provides an interesting perspective into workplace communication between managers and their employees. As stated in the article, “managers can only know what they are hearing, not all the things they aren't.” While open door policies encourage employees to speak with their managers, it has been found this passive policy is not sufficient for promoting employees to continually speak up about business topics. Rather, “employees are much more likely to be forthcoming when their input is solicited.”
The insights in the article speak to the importance of managers taking the initiative to encourage employees to share their knowledge, ideas, insights, criticisms, and suggestions. Further, an environment must be developed that fosters open communication and stifles fears of speaking up too much. Employees may be enthusiastic to share information under their own will; yet, if managers do not take the initiative to seek out information they may be missing out on substantial insights that could be of great value to the organization.
Good article. I have found that people commonly fear retribution. The ones who speak out are seen as trouble makers even when they have the best interest of the company and fellow employees in mind. I'll bet in these economic times this withholding of suggestions is more prevalent than ever. There was a VP of engineering that I once worked with, who had an open door policy. One by one, the guys under him who spoke their minds were replaced with "yes men".
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paige that employees may not speak up about conflicts, problems, or by criticizing company policies, procedures, or ideas, out of fear of retribution. However, I think the article also applies to suggestions that are in no way negative or criticizing. Employees may have a simple suggestion on a new idea of theirs, yet they fail to speak up. A few reasons I think this happens is 1. They may not feel their manager has an open door policy; 2. They may think that such suggestions are outside their role or job classification; 3. They are very self concious about their ideas and are afraid they won't be well accepted; 4. They are afraid that if their idea is accepted and fails, that they may blamed for that failure; and 5. They may feel that if they share it with their boss behind closed doors, that their boss will use the suggestion and take all the credit for it.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate, but I have become skeptical of open door policies, particularly when the manager calls it an open door policy. The most effective managers I've worked with demonstrated their openness by their actions. I've worked with a few managers that have had to repeatedly emphasize that they had an open door policy. They were most likely to ignore feedback, retaliate against negative comments, and generally discourage "rocking the boat".
ReplyDeleteAs this article states, an "open door" policy is passive, and I found some managers hope that no one takes advantage when they are implemented. It's important to actively encourage feedback.
As the article suggest I think managers fool themselves when they say they have an" Open Door Policy" and then sit in their office. As the article suggest if you really believe in an "Open Door" policy then you have to make yourself available to your employee's in their comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteOr if it is in your office, you have to create and enviroment that makes the employee feel equal. Whenever I had discussion or meetings with my employees I never sat behind my desk. It is too intimidating for the employee and I think sometimes gives an intangible message of subserviance. I had a small round coffe table with 4 chairs. I had more effective conversations with my employees, my boss, and vendors at that table.
Greg, very well said. The article is particularly interesting. Despite having a formal policy in place at an organization, managers must also proactively seek input from employees. The open door policy alone does not sufficiently incentivize employees to offer their thoughts and insights. In fact, I've noticed many employees (myself included, at times) are skeptical of the potential implications of coming forward and speaking their mind. As you said, it is the responsibility of the manager to stifle any existing fears of the employees.
ReplyDeleteThere is a great body of research developed around this concept. Some of it goes so far as to affix economic and competitive impact to employee silence. Companies are wise to figure out how to promote environments where employees feel safe, interested and skilled in speaking up.
ReplyDelete