How to Avoid Micromanagement by Providing The Best Working Environment for Your Employees

It is not easy to define what exactly Micromanagement is. “Everyone knows that micromanagement is bad, still no one can define it. They just know it when it is happening to them.” (Chambers, 2004, p.1). (Chambers, 2004, p.1). Nevertheless, even though we could not define it in precise words, we still can see the behavior of micromanagers easily.

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Aaron Haynes said that the micromanager afraid to lose control, they don’t trust their subordinates, always itching to lead, and they always supervise and monitor other people because they suspect that the others may only be wasting time and resources if they work on their own. These behaviors kill the team’s creativity and motivation.

However, it is interesting that The Hawthorne effect said that people change their behavior into more positive when aware they are being supervised. The research team of Stanford University, USA states that when they research the workers’ productivity in a clothing manufacturing plant in India, they group the task into 2 groups: Easy task and complex task. Based on that research they found out that the productivity for easy tasks rose by 10% while the productivity of complex tasks fell by 8.5%.

The micromanagement and The Hawthorne effect might relate in such a way that affects the productivity of the company and/or the team.

The managers can use the findings from the said research to effectively manage their team by closely supervise the individual/team who work on simple tasks and make gamification of it while giving full freedom to the individual/team who work on complex tasks.

By creating a safe trusted working space where the staff feels safe and secure, the managers can regularly interact and supervise people in ways that increase motivation and build trust. “The way to create the best environment for personal motivation to grow is to create a culture of TRUST and affection within the organization.” (Robert Whipple, 2019).

To create the best environment for their staff:

1. Managers should take responsibility for their own mistakes (and sometimes for the mistakes of their subordinates too)
2. Managers should interact personally with all the team members in a friendly way.
3. Managers should not supervise in a rigid manner. They can just greet and ask their staff about their work in a way that the staff doesn’t feel supervised.
4. Managers should ask for feedback from their staff
5. Managers should lead by example

References:

Giselle A. Castillo. (2018). Micromanagement Behavior: A Qualitative Empirical Phenomenological Study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CREATIVE RESEARCH THOUGHTS. ISSN:2320–2882

Chambers, H. E. (2004). My way or the highway: The Micromanagement survival guide. ReadHowYouWant.com.

Haynes, A. 7 warning signs you’re the dreaded Micromanager. Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/289699

Motion71. Hawthorne effect. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN8R13aVHsw

Whipple, Robert. The link between trust and motivation. (2019). https://thetrustambassador.com/2019/03/19/the-link-between-trust-and-motivation/

Note:
This article is written based on University of The People Organizational Behavior (BUS 5113) written assignment by Fristy Tania in September 2021