Management by Objectives
Management by objectives (MBO) is advocated so much by management theorists today that it appears to be a sort of patent medicine. Although this is certainly not the case, at the present time it is surely a very important aid to minority career advancement.
Management by objectives, simply defined, means translating business plans of the firm down through the various levels of management to the point where each person whose work supports the basic plans has a set of related goals that he is trying to achieve within a given time period. His manager evaluates his success, then, in light of whether or not he is meeting these goals. The obvious advantages of such a process are that what is delegated is explicit, how it is measured is clear, and the individual knows as well as his manager whether he is achieving expected results. Thus, some of the errors described earlier can be corrected. The showcase job with its lack of substantive content cannot exist in an MBO system. The manager who delegates an activity or a small piece of work is forced, if MBO is used, to package the work in terms of results. If a manager habitually gives insufficient or inaccurate feedback, his inadequacies will be minimized since with clear targets and clear results the employee knows as well as his manager whether or not he's succeeding.
How does MBO help career advancement? Measurements protect minorities. It has frequently been pointed out that the reason black athletes were accepted so early and have been so successful in sports is that in the sports world the goals and measures are clear: a good batting average and a high score on home runs just cannot be overlooked.
In industry, a man is usually considered for a better job only when he has succeeded in his current assignment. If then, we can make his accomplishments undeniable through the MBO process, the minority worker is in a far better position to be considered for promotion.
Confrontation on Cultural Differences
MBO suggests evaluating employees according to results, not personal likes and dislikes. But judgmental decisions are still made. Many of these, by managers' own admissions, derive from personality, relationships, attitude, and similar factors. The minority employee who comes from any other than a middle-class American family may not respond in group and individual situations the same way as the WASP-the typical white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Managers whose values have been formed by association with WASPs may rate down something that is different though not necessarily poorer, thus creating further problems. To the minority employee, it looks like and of course it is prejudice. To the manager, it is not a conscious bias. He simply has not had broad enough experience to see the merits of other behavior patterns.
If the matter is left to smolder beneath the surface, little progress will be made in overcoming such ills as overprotection, under-confidence, and arm's-length management. Only the frank exchange of views, open confrontations of value differences, exploration of reasons for differences, and reconciliation or agreement to disagree will help solve the problem. This kind of process is best guided by professional group dynamicists or people skilled as catalysts in confrontation and resolution techniques. If everyone involved can achieve mutual understanding and at least some enlargement of his experience, the way to advancement for the supposedly different minority worker is going to be much easier.
Realistic Customer and Interpersonal Relationships
Even if a manager is willing to examine and test his values and enlarge them to include those of the minority worker, the employee must still face the reactions of others-of customers if he is in a contact position and of those within the company with whom he must do business in the course of doing his job. Protecting the employee so that he doesn't get a chance to learn how to handle these relationships is clearly unfair. "Treat me like a man. Give me the chance. How do you know I can't do it?" one young black salesman says. And that is certainly the first rule. Minorities have as much "right to fail," as it is sometimes called, as any WASP.
Perhaps the simplest thing to do is to say to the salesman, "Look, try again. If after several tries you conclude it's hopeless, tell me and we'll try another salesman. After all, every one of us meets some people who will not see us or won't do business with us. Sometimes the reasons are legitimate, sometimes not. So the main thing is not to hit your head against a stone wall but recognize the problem and devote your energies to other customers with whom the probability of payoff is higher. It's the results we need-the dollars and the sales volume. If you can't get it one place, get it another. We'll find some way to take care of the isolated guy here and there who judges our product by the way your hair is combed." This sort of plain language is usually acceptable. It will seem sensible to most and should clear the air and allow all involved to face matters realistically.
To help the employee handle internal contacts, invite those who frequently work with him to join the confrontation group if this is possible. If not, at least allow him to try to work matters out for himself. If a reasonable trial period shows no improvements, only then should the manager intervene.
More Career Information
It may be that the professional minority employee lacks a certain advantage open to his WASP counterpart, namely, an understanding of the rudiments of career paths. Quite often in the childhood home of a young WASP employee, much of the dinner-table conversation revolved around his father's experiences in the working world. Although the man's personal perception of his company probably dominated the anecdotes, nonetheless the boy acquired a sense of how things are done in business--how one gets ahead, what sorts of knowledge and skill seem to be required, and so forth. This kind of information may well be missing from the experience of the minority worker. Therefore, career clinics or any reasonable substitute should be offered. Clear information should be given both to groups and to individuals concerning business plans, how organizations function, what the organization structure is, what work makes up each job in the hierarchy, and the job requirements for higher-level positions to which a man might reasonably aspire.
Probably such sessions should be developed especially for minority workers. This is not to exclude others or deprive them of needed information but rather to insure that minority workers' questions are given full vent without fear of criticism from white associates.
Personal Career Models
Minority employees in key positions who have made it or are making it to the top are badly needed to serve as models for young beginners. One can usually find an exceptional individual who would have reached the top despite any handicap. But the typical minority employee, newly introduced to the business world, finds it hard to identify with a genius. He needs models in whom he sees something of himself-with some strengths, some weaknesses. The success of such models in the organization hierarchy gives him hope, an example he can trust, and some behavior patterns and work methods to copy. Such a successful person represents factual evidence that the company is really willing to give all competent people an opportunity. It thus encourages in the employee greater effort at career management, more confidence in himself, and greater pride in his origins. Organizations would, therefore, be well advised to recruit individuals who might serve as models. It is also probably wise to take more than the usual risks in promoting promising minority workers in an effort to provide this example for less senior employees.
