H R A N D SAXENIAN

A New Prescription
for Old-Fashioned Leadership
45

very successful executive must sooner

or later establish firm control over his
organization. Many men take this matter in
their stride; others face the dilemma of
maintaining a firm grip on operations without undermining the authority of key men.
Eventually, most executives call upon management control programs of one sort or
another, and many adopt strategies for
either centralizing or decentralizing control.
The most successful programs and strategies
are the ones that best help the chief executive to fulfill his primary function as the
leader of his total organization.

The author is president of Hrand Saxenian Associates, a business advisory group specializing in both
technical and human aspects of management communications and control.

FALL, l~)6~

Richard Austin Smith, in his important

and engaging documentary, Corporations in
Crisis, recommends:
"... the more crises one examines, the clearer
it is that many of them might have been avoided
if management had just done the things that
could reasonably have been expected of it:
keeping fit through keeping competitive, always reaching out but not so far as to go overboard about anybody or anything, making sure
the chief executive officer rides herd on the enterprise and the board of directors rides herd
on him-most important, developing the skill to
distinguish real trouble from normal operating
difficulty and mustering the courage to face up
to it in time. "1
Building a strong organization always has
depended on, and probably always will depend on, the personal leadership of the top
operating executive. The following program,
founded on this premise, is designed to give
the chief executive extensive help in meeting

HRAND SAXENIAN

46

these criteria. This program also sets the

stage for the effective use of modern financial and operating controls. It does this by
strengthening the control of the executive
and of each of his line managers, instead of
diluting their strength, as frequently results
from too much planning.
Here, in short, is a new prescription for
old-fashioned leadership. It is introduced in
a memorandum (see below) from the president of a hypothetical company to all his
vice-presidents and line managers. The approach consists quite simply of two procedures, monthly management reports and
meetings, and line management reporting
charts. Both procedures can be adapted,
either alone or together, to accommodate
the structure of any organization consisting
of three or more levels of line authority.
Assume, in a hypothetical example, that a
Mr. Fenn places the responsibility for good
management squarely on the shoulders of
each manager. At the same time, he provides
each man with the opportunity to learn to
manage and to make full use of his managerial abilities. This is a process in which
the men best qualified to manage are the
most likely to survive as line managers, and
the most likely to be promoted to positions
of greater responsibility as such positions
become available. Thus, while providing for
the effective use of management information, he is at the same time laying the foundation for a strong management team that
will be under his firm control.
This is a large claim. To evaluate management communications in The Fenn Company, or in any organization, we may find it
helpful to step back and view reporting
practices from two disparate but basic perspectives: first, from the point of view of the
mechanical availability, flow, and use of information; and second, from the human side
of communications. These two perspectives
can then be reunited in evaluating the allaround effectiveness of an organization.
1Richard Austin Smith, Corporations in Crisis
(Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
1963).

MECHANICAL POINT OF VIEW

SIGNAL AND NOISE: AN ANALOGY
In an electronic communication device or
network, useful information is often called
signal; any extraneous interference or static
that obscures or distorts the signal is called
noise. The relative amounts of signal and
noise in the network (its signaI-to-noise ratio) is a measure of its effectiveness. The
effectiveness of communications in a large
organization may be considered in similar
terms. The criterion for judging whether any
given message is signal or noise would be
whether or not the message can be converted
into action or decision for getting a job done.
The organization itself may be viewed as a
network designed to facilitate communications. How quickly a signal is converted to
action or decision is a measure of the effectiveness of the network.
In these terms, a manager's fourfold reporting responsibility is to generate signal
rather than noise, to convert the signal or
parts of the signal that he receives into action, decision, or plan, to transmit the remainder of this signal to other managers
who can convert it or facilitate its conversion, or to store it ( along with other signals)
for future conversion to action, decision, or
plan. As a corollary, the manager is responsible for using his judgment in rejecting
noise, without suppressing any accompanying signal, and without allowing the signal
to degenerate into noise.
An analogy is necessarily simplified. People are hardly devices or components to be
wired into a network. But this very simplification can be an advantage. It can help to
give a fresh view of actual reporting practices, and to show which complications stem
from time pressures and human frailties.
As this analogy can help to evaluate how
effectively information travels throughout
an organization, it can also help to evaluate
important aspects of the very structure of
the organization, to visualize the corporate

BUSINESS ttOI~IZONS

PRESCRIPTION FOR LEADERSHIP

c o m m u n i c a t i o n s n e t w o r k ; a n d thus, to c u t
t h r o u g h t h e c o m p l e x m a z e of c o m p a n y c o m munications.

REPORTING CLARIFIED
At the Fenn Company, the manager's chart
s h o w s h o w h e is d i r e c t l y r e s p o n s i b l e for
t h e flow of m a n a g e m e n t i n f o r m a t i o n t o a n d
from himself. He cannot help but see the
lines o n his c h a r t as c o n v e y o r s of e i t h e r
s i g n a l or noise. ( I h a v e f o u n d cases i n w h i c h
a m a n a g e r ' s c h a r t r e m i n d s h i m f o r t h e first

THE FENN COMPANY

Memorandum

To: All Supervisors, Line Managers and Divisional

Vice-Presidents
From: Carl Fenn, President
Subject: Line-Management Reporting
Date: May ~5, t965
Gentlemen:
Following the successful reorganization last year
of our corporate structure, we are ready now to take
another basic step to further strengthen The Fenn
Company. We shall institute a two-part program of
line-management reporting, as outlined below. By
helping us to make effective use of all our management and operating information, this program can
help each of us to maintain firm control over his own
division, department, or group.
I. Joint Monthly Management Reports and
Meetings
Each manager will receive a short monthly manager's report from each of his subordinate line managers. These reports will identify matters of general
management concern not covered in routine operating reports. The following day, the manager will
hold a monthly manager's meeting with all his line
managers to resolve problems and to make plans at
his level of authority. Within two days after this
meeting, the manager will submit his report to his
superior. Starting each month at the lowest supervisory levels, the practice will move up each department and division in successive steps until it reaches
my office.
All other management reports, meetings, and
communications will continue as needed at the discretion of the managers responsible.
Procedurally, this program specifies the mechanics for a small fraction of our future reporting; in
use, it will become the backbone for all our communications.
Many matters do not require scheduled meetings,

FALL, 1965

t i m e in m o n t h s of t h e v e r y e x i s t e n c e ot cert a i n r e g u l a r r e p o r t s a d d r e s s e d to h i m b y his
line m a n a g e r s a n d r e a d o n l y b y his a d m i n i s trative assistant.)
Similarly, g r o u p l i n e - r e p o r t i n g c h a r t s g i v e
t h e m a n a g e r a c l e a r p i c t u r e of his r e s p o n s i bilities a n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s for g o o d r e p o r t i n g
in t h e c o n t e x t of t h e r e s t of t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n .
H e sees his role in t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n m o r e
c l e a r l y t h a n h e c a n o n o r g a n i z a t i o n a l charts.
T h e s e l i n e - r e p o r t i n g c h a r t s h e l p h i m to a p p r e c i a t e t h a t w h a t is a s i g n a l at o n e l e v e l of
the organization may be noise at another,
t h e r e b y h e l p i n g h i m to k e e p i n f o r m a t i o n at

and often important decisions stem from chance,

spontaneous conversations. It has been my experience, though, that when managers have occasion to
meet regularly, but not too frequently, the formal
meetings carry over into useful informal discussions
that otherwise might not have developed. By keeping the two distinct, both formal and informal communications improve.
This procedure is the natural extension down
through the company of a practice I started last year
with the division vice-presidents. After just a few
months, we find that our monthly meetings are more
productive, especially now that they are preceded
by brief written reports. We are less involved with
the details of the work being done in each division
and concentrate more on corporate-wide interdivisional activities and plans. Hence, we no longer feel
a need for regularly scheduled weekly meetings,
and last minute emergency conferences have been
sharply curtailed. Although I may meet several
times with a particular division head during the
course of a month to discuss specific operations, I
look forward to the regular overview of company
activities provided by these joint monthly reports
and meetings. This overview will be even more
valuable to me as it becomes more and more an
accurate distillation of the state of activities within
each department and division. Each of you, in turn,
will also profit from a similar overview of your organization through communications that are firmly
grounded on information from lower levels.
The information you will be handling will vary,
of course, from month to month and will depend on
whether your responsibilities be primarily in marketing, manufacturing, research, finance, or general
administration; also, the decision will remain yours
as to how you will conduct meetings with your own
managers, supervisors, or foremen.
With regard to all our other more specialized
operating and financial reports and meetings, these

47

HRAND SAXENIAN

the level at which it can best be acted upon.

Once their purpose is understood, these
charts are inexpensive to introduce and
maintain in any large organization.
The joint manager's reports and meetings
facilitate orderly dissemination of management information up through the line channels. Individual attention followed by group
attention given periodically to management
problems encourages the generation of signal and facilitates the conversion of signal
to action. In effect, this unique combining of
written reports with group meetings, and
the specified time-phasing between them as
they move up the organization, keeps

"~4~

have mushroomed in the past few years. Careful

trimming is necessary now if we are to avoid serious
inefficiencies in reporting as the volume of operating
information grows with our increased use of automarie data processing. Yet beyond the basic requirement of the above specified ioint monthly
reports and meetings, I feel that no manager should
be told what, when, or how to report, except by his
immediate superior. Therefore, three months ago
I asked the corporate planning office to recommend
a method whereby, with this one stipulation, we
each could continue to determine for ourselves our
own reporting practices within some orderly framework. The planning office has since developed and
successfully tested the following procedure in the
commercial products division. It has also been
studied and accepted by all the division heads and
is now ready for corporate-wide implementation.
II. Line Mangement Reporting Charts
Every manager of the Fenn Company shall keep
two charts. The first, a manager's line-reporting
chart, will indicate all regularly scheduled reports
and meetings he uses for communicating with his
immediate subordinate managers and with his superior manager. The second, a group line-reporting
chart, will combine his manager's chart with those
of his subordinate managers. These two charts will
be kept by each manager at every level of the company, that is, by each group leader, section manager,
department manager, plant manager, division vicepresident, and by me for the office of the president.
Each man's line-reporting chart will be established and maintained by him to show clearly all
his repetitive line-management reporting practices.
His two charts will serve as tools to assist him in
determining and revising these practices as he and
his line managers see fit.
A manager's line-reporting chart, which shows
all of a manager's recurring management reports
and meetings, will look like this:

the organization's communications network

aligned-an adjustment that keeps the signalto-noise ratio high, and which can be instrumental at times in letting any signal through.
Together, both procedures provide strong
coupling between successive management
levels in such a way that each manager directly influences the specific reporting practices of only those managers who report to
him. He must rely on his subordinate managers to obtain in their own manner any
information he requires from still lower
levels. From the top of the organization
down, managers develop their own reporting styles.

Name of Each
Report and
T
F r e q u e n e y ~ IIl

l ll lll

OFFICE NAME
MANAGER'S NAME
DATE

I
I
I
Frequency

Key
Reports _ _

D-Daily
W--Weekly
BW--Biweekly
MlMonthly

Meetings . . . .

Q-Quarterly
A-Amnually
U-Unscheduled but Periodic

Reports and meetings will be listed from left to right in

order of their respective frequencies, with the most frequent
at the left.

A group line-reporting chart, as built up from

individual manager's line-reporting charts, will look
like this:
Na~e and Frequency~

OFFICE

DAtlN

tiit,

__

II
11

II

til t t ttlitt]
'

II

BUSINESS HORIZONS

PFtESG]RIPTION FOR LEADERSHIP

Of course, the p r o g r a m s u g g e s t e d h e r e
places stringent d e m a n d s u p o n e a c h m a n ager. T h o s e w h o do not m a n a g e effectively
are identified a n d w e e d e d out of the linem a n a g e m e n t structure sooner t h a n normal.
I n g r o u p m e e t i n g s w i t h free e x c h a n g e on
matters of i m p o r t a n c e to all present, the distinction b e t w e e n signal a n d noise b e c o m e s
clearer. T h e b e t t e r m e n s h o w up, while
m e r e l y glib m e n w h o habitually transmit
information t h a t has no s o u n d basis or value
are r e c o g n i z e d as such m o r e quickly. M e n
of h i g h m a n a g e m e n t potential b e c o m e
a w a r e of a n d are c h a l l e n g e d b y m o r e complex m a n a g e m e n t problems. "Quiet" m a n -

Your manager's line-reporting chart will be prepared by the corporate planning office from a listing
that you will provide within the next week of all
regularly scheduled meetings and all repetitive linemanagement reports, including the name of the
sender or receiver. You will supply this on a specially designed form (see Form 1 attached). Within
two more weeks, this chart will be sent to you for
your approval or suggested changes, and one week
later copies of your authorized chart will be sent
to you. In the meantime, the corporate planning
office will keep copies of it to combine into your
group line-reporting chart, which will be sent to you
after two more weeks.
Thus, each manager will have completed his manager's chart within a month, and his group chart
within six weeks. Thereafter, these line-reporting
charts will be reviewed by each manager with his
group at least once a year. They will be updated
whenever necessary to reflect reporting practices
actually in use. Optional use of Form 2 will facilitate
review, listing the need for reports received, the
purpose of reports sent, and the purpose of
meetings.
As a clear inventory of all cm'rent repetitive line
reports and meetings, these charts will help us to
separate management information from operating
information (for example, separate over-all manpower, equipment, facilities, financial, and management planning information from operating information on the status and progress of a separate
project or task); to determine what to report, and
how often; to eliminate duplication and reduce distribution lists; to separate current operations from
long-range planning; and to ensure that long-range
planning incorporates the best experiences and
judgment of managers and specialists at all levels.
The line-reporting charts will help us focus on and
meet these reporting needs that we all recognize as
~mportant, but which are often too general to handle

FALL, 1965

agers with g o o d ideas are m o r e likely to

contribute to the organization.
ADVANTAGES AND USES

This approach, w i t h its emphasis on

s t r e n g t h e n i n g the line c h a i n - o f - c o m m a n d ,
was first d e v e l o p e d in the d e f e n s e i n d u s t r y
as the result of a search for l o n g - t e r m stability within o p e r a t i n g d e p a r t m e n t s in t h e
face of short-term conflicting d e m a n d s for
m e n a n d facilities. L a r g e - s c a l e projects required coordination b e t w e e n departments.
This p r o b l e m of project control a n d largescale p r o g r a m m a n a g e m e n t is inevitable in

alone and too detailed to handle together without

such assistance as these tools will provide.
Individual manager's line-reporting charts may,
at the discretion of the head of the respective
organization, be combined later into department,
plant, or division line-reporting charts. Regardless
of whether or not they are combined beyond the
group level, the manager's charts will be building
blocks for an orderly, flexible corporate-wide management reporting network.
I am confident that within a few months we will
find this line-management reporting program to be a
prerequisite for all our management controls. With
the tightening of communications vertically, we will
have a solid basis for effective coordination of efforts across as well as within departments and divisions. Then we will be in a position to pare to an
eff~cent minimum those operating and project controis that involve the horizontal flow of information.
Each divisional planning office has already undertaken this as a goal.
The clear expression of new and opposing views
will still be encouraged within the framework of
this program on all matters involving our policies
and operations. Both procedures described above
will help us to continue to work in this spirit amidst
unforeseeable technological and market changes in
the months and years ahead.
Because of the importance of this program I have
taken this opportunity to introduce it myself to each
one of you. It is stralght-forward in concept, and
it should be kept so in use. I will appreciate the
effort you devote to making it an integral part of
our management practices, and I wish to assure you
of my continuing effort also.
CAm. FmcN
President
CF:el
Attachments Forms 1 and 2

49

HI,AND SAXENIAN

50

the space and defense industries, and it

highlights similar, though often less dramatic, problems of interdepartmental and
interdivisional coordination in many industries. Various methods are used to attack
the problem.
During the past few years, technologically
based companies have concentrated on increasing their project management capabilities by means of special organizational
configurations and carefully designed project controls. Also, an increasing number of
companies are complying with project control and budgetary reporting procedures
specified by government contracting agencies, such as the Navy's Program Evaluation
and Review Technique ( P ~ r ) . Good project controls are essential for intergroup, and,
on government projects, intercompany coordination. Still, company executives are
aware that neither the best of project controls nor the shuffling of the program manager's box on the organization chart will
maintain the corporate strength needed to
support good project management. Maintaining corporate strength necessarily means
maintaining strong line organization vertically within all departments and divisions,
for these comprise the supporting structure
of the company.
This is the approach that is now being
applied in similar research and manufacturing firms, and in such different types
of organizations as banks, hotels, insurance
companies, and police departments and
other public administration agencies. (It
has even helped the superintendent of
schools of a medinm-sized town to straighten
out a long-standing conflict of authority between his principals and his competent elementary school coordinator.) Managers and
proprietors of small companies have also
found the approach useful for tightening
their organizations and for improving the
climate for interdepartmental coordination.
While the two procedures (reports and
meetings, and reporting charts) are complementary to each other, the first has so far
been more widely applied. In particular, the
joint monthly reports and meetings help to

bring together the team of an executive and

his immediate subordinates in those cases
where, for one reason or another, the executive has been reluctant to meet with all his
key men at once. The reports preceding the
meetings seem to alleviate the feeling of
some executives that they must be as fully
qualified on all matters as are their key men.
Many executives have tried the first procedure because they like having their men
think about their management problems before coming to a group meeting. The time
saved is secondary to the improved definition and resolution of problems. Other executives are attracted by the possibilities of
less frequent management meetings made
possible by handling management information (needed for coordinating activities, and
for planning and policy decisions) separately from routine operating information
(needed to keepday-to-day activities under
control).
After they have experienced the benefits
of combining reports and meetings in this
way, many decide to have the practice
passed down through the organization. This
has often forced long overdue decisions
about who reports to whom. And it is at this
point that they find they have aligned the
communications network in their organizations, thereby helping to better set and meet
both corporate and departmental objectives.
Many types of management reporting
programs provide for periodic reports, conferences, round-table discussions, staff participation meetings, and so forth. But when
the chips are down, it is the line managers
actually in control who meet. To cite but
one example:
" . . . U.S. Steel's response to the different far
tougher market the steel industry now faces
(included changes that) reach into every nook
and cranny of the Corporation. Consider the
seemingly simple matter of executive communications. Under former Chairman Irving Olds
and Benjamin Fairless, U.S. Steel had tightened
its structure by converting over twenty of its
subsidiaries into about a dozen divisions. Meetings were held frequently and regularly among
V'Executive of the Year," Duns Review and
Modern Industry (January, 1962), p. 34.

BUSINESS HORIZONS

PRESCBIPTION FOR LEADEBSHIP

the heads of the corporation's serried ranks of

divisions, and at these each man had a chance
to toss up his problems, seek solutions and swap
ideas. Blough pulled this whole tightened structure even more closely together, no easy matter
in a 225,100-man company. ''2
When such meetings are efficiently held
at all levels of a company, the company's
effectiveness increases greatly. This is precisely what Fenn's program is designed to
accomplish. It is designed as an optimal
approach to increasing organizational effectiveness.

HUMAN SIDE OF COMMUNICATION

MATURITY: AN ANALOGY

In most sports, the relationship between

force and control is similar to the relationship between expression of one's self and
consideration for others. In tennis, for example, a player must hit the ball with both
force and controlled placement of his shots.
His game does not depend solely on how
often or how hard he hits the ball regardless
of where it goes, nor on his control alone
in easygoing volleys. Nor is improving his
game a matter of simply increasing one at
the expense of the other. Force and control
go hand in hand, increasing together with
experience and stiffer opposition-alternating at times in their gains, but still rising
together in the long run. Expressing our true
selves, and considering the thoughts and
feelings of others, also go hand in hand and
increase together in a similar way. Only as
we continue to learn to express ourselves
honestly and clearly are we able under increasingly demanding circumstances to remain considerate of others.
Life is more complex than tennis, but,
as tennis players with different playing
styles can all be judged by the one criterion
of how often and how hard they hit the
ball with controlled placement of the shots,
so also might a single criterion for maturity
apply to each person, whatever may be his
personal temperament and style of behavior.

FALL, 1965

A CmTERION FOIl MAT~mTY

Twelve years ago I began investigating the
following statement as a possible criterion
for maturity: A man's maturity is indicated
by the extent to which he expresses his own
feelings and convictions, with consideration
for the thoughts and feelings of others. The
general validity and the usefulness of this
statement have since received extensive support. It approaches what I believe underlies
our perceptions of how mature a person is.
A similar thought was expressed by Crawford H. Greenewalt, recent president of the
Du Pont Company, in his book The Uncommon Man. W h e n asked by the editors of
Fortune what constituted executive ability,
he replied:
"One thought that I passed along to my
friends.., was an observation that, while exeeufive ability cannot be catalogued or measured,
it can almost invariably be recognized. I cannot
say what there is about extraordinary ability
which projects itself so unmistakably, but somehow it does, transcending any personal differenees and defying all preconceptions . . . .
"It is my principal task to recommend candidates for our important managerial posts. I have
had to do that many times and have always accompanied my recommendations with a recital
of the man's virtues, much, I am afraid, in the
McGuffey Reader style. I frequently encounter
from my associates violent disagreement over
some particular virtue which I have emphasized, but, when it comes to an over-all judgment of the man and his suitability for the post
at hand, it is a very rare circumstance when the
choice is not unanimous . . . .
"So, as we pass more and more away from
special measurable skills into the less definable
intangible talents, it becomes clear that the
selection of executives becomes more of an art
and less of a science. We must rely. in large
measure on intuition and hope and pray that
our candidate's performance will reflect our
wisdom rather than our incompetence. "~
In 1950., when I was on the admissions
board at the Harvard Business School and a
member of a small research team called
"The Selection Study," our many discussions
of the relative maturity of specific students
were very lively and at times quite heated.
They inevitably involved our personal and
management philosophies as we took a close

51

HtlAND SAXENIAN

52

look at available evidence from extensive

tests and interviews of applicants, students,
and graduates. Enjoyable and valuable as
these discussions were, we failed to arrive
at the unanimity of agreement with which
Greenewalt and his associates seem to have
been blessed; but I tried to find some underlying basis for those few cases when we did
agree. A slightly more involved version of
the above criterion resulted, but my colleagues were not ready to receive it without
qualification.
In order to test the concept experimentally, this more specific hypothesis has been
developed: a manager's effectiveness as a
supervisor of men (that is, how effectively
he works alone and with others while under
pressure) /s indicated by the extent to
which he expresses his own feelings and
convictions with consideration for the
thoughts and feelings of others. This statement has been tested and used to help
distinguish between effective and less effective managers who have similar jobs and
responsibilities, and has been used as a basis
for judging a man's readiness for greater
managerial responsibilities. The early phases
of this investigation were reported in 1958
in the Harvard Business Review and Fortune# A large body of supporting evidence
has since accumulated from investigations
in industry, schools, and police departments
of the broader implications of the concept
for learning and training, as well as for judging people for recruiting and promotion.
Most executives find this criterion valid in
terms of their own experiences with men
they have known and worked with over the
years. Frank B. Maher, Senior Vice-President of The John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, approved of an investigation of the criterion in the fall of 1960
within the District Agency Sales Department, because it made sense to him. Reporting two years later on the results of the
~Crawford H. Greenewalt, The Uncommon Man
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1959),
pp. 65-67.
4Saxenlan, Hrand, "Criterion for Emotional Maturity," Harvard Business Review (January-February, 1958).

study to district managers and regional directors, Charles N. Brennecke, director of

selection and training procedure, wrote:
"Initial tests results and comments on this
research program suggest that the statement
helps us as a way of thinking about our own
jobs. This is the purpose of reporting on the research at some length. (The author) has attempted to provide and test an idea which is
natural and practical, without becoming unduly
'psychological.' I should like to stress that his
criterion does not lend itself to pencil-and-paper
tests of individuals . . . but is (rather) a basis
for careful thinking and judgment . . . . "
Many of the early tests were among foremen and first-line supervisors. Following
studies initiated in 1957, Polaroid training
directors Roger Stevens and Ray Ferriss are
currently reviewing the subsequent development and effectiveness of foremen earlier
evaluated by their supervisors in the terms
of the criterion-with the objective of now
making fuller use of the criterion as a way
of thinking about a man's readiness for promotion to positions of greater responsibility.
While this concept appears to have validity as an indicator of a man's supervisory
effectiveness at all levels of management, I
believe it has its greatest potential value
at higher managerial levels, where I am
also convinced that psychological testing is
not appropriate and should not be necessary.
With respect to the criterion's contribution
to the identification and development of executive ability, Fortune editor Perrin Stryker
has written:
"A man who could consistently maintain the
balanced behavior set up by (the author's)
criterion should show both courage and real
discrimination about expressing himself and
letting others express themselves . . . .
"Executive forthrightness of this kind, however, is relatively rare. As (the author) points
out, 'the considered exercise of restraint is not
inconsistent with the letter or the intent of the
criterion.' An executive may choose to keep
quiet and listen courteously to opposing views,
if he thinks, for instance, that such reasonable
behavior might influence his opponents' opinions, or believes simply 'that more may be lost
than gained by his speaking at a particular
moment.'
"Unfortunately, the out-~vard appearances of
conventional conformity are easily mistaken for

BUSINESS HORIZONS

PRESCRIPTION FOR LEADERSHIP

emotional maturity: deference shown to a superior, for instance. Maturity, however, is not a
matter of adjustment to an environment, but a
matter of hard subjective change and growth. "5
And after a series of tests of the hypothesis which relate the criterion to a man's
effectiveness under pressure in the Massachusetts and Connecticut State Police
and the Boston and Syracuse Police Departments, the criterion has been introduced
into the recruiting, assigning, and promoting of men within these departments. Syracuse Police Chief William H. T. Smith
reflects the experiences and sentiments of
many executives in industry, as well as in
public administration, when he says, "We
can handle the technical problems, the
tough problems have to do with the maturity
of our men."
Not only do most executives find this
criterion valid in terms of their own experiences, but those who have used it to evaluate the effectiveness of managers previously
unknown to them find that it sharpens their
perception in selecting, assigning, and promoting managers. The criterion encourages
and directs careful, objective observation
and thought, and, as a consequence, leads
steadily to improved supervisory practices
and communications among managers. With
proper use, it shows promise of becoming
the sound guide businessmen are seeking
to ensure the operating effectiveness of their
organizations.

MATURITY AND L I N E - M A N A G E M E N T

1REPO~TINC
This criterion lies at the very heart of the
line-management reporting program initiated in the example, the spirit of which is
also reflected in the practices of many capable administrators. Thomas S. Gates, Jr.,
President of the Morgan Guaranty Trust
Company of New York, recently commented

5Stryker, Perrin, "What Makes an 'Emotionally

Stable' Executive?" Fortune (July, 1958) pp. 16668.

FALL~ 1965

about his former work in Washington as

the Secretary of Defense:
"I tried very hard to see that the service chiefs
had plenty of time to argue their case. They had
their innings. I learned a lot. It always helped
to shape the ultimate decision that the Secretary
of Defense must make. I gave them plenty of
time to quarrel with what seemed to be the
emerging answer. This is a painstaking way of
work. But again, this is an inexact science . . . .
The service chiefs contribute their experience
and background and these are important factors
to take into consideration in a decision. Furthermore.., they each have a problem of leadership
and morale . . . .

Direct, clear self-expression with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of
others brings to the physical exchange of
information the elements of mutual respect
and understanding. This is essential for such
an elementary consideration as having directions carried out well by subordinates.
It makes it possible for men with different
immediate problems, opinions, and personal
goals to work toward a larger common goal.
Clear/y, the benefits of this program
will not be realized overnight. As our hypothetical Felm points out, it will take time
for his managers to learn to conduct effective meetings, but not as long as might be
thought, since each manager will have the
experience of being both discussion leader
and participant on successive occasions each
month. While Fenn wants free and open
discussions, tie cannot (nor does he try to)
dictate such discussions, nor does he specify
how meetings shall be run, that is, with or
without formal agenda. He leaves these
details up to each man.
Most important, he is setting an example
from the t o p - a n example that influences
his vice-presidents directly, and in turn will
influence all his managers. Fenn's reach is
effectively extended down and across the
whole organization through the classical
process of delegation of authority, and he
retains a firm grip on the reins.

6"Gates Backs Rival Services," The Christian

Science Monitor (Dee. 31, 1963).

53