Sacrificing the Front-line Managers

Abstract

Front-line managers hold the keys to success: they must be supported, ‘recognized’ and given the means to run the operations entrusted to them effectively. That this should be a theme companies are now rediscovering is no surprise. It stems from this generalized loss of control that has led today’s managements to shun all-devouring bureaucracies in favour of what is now seen as a guarantee of simplicity. ‘Toyotism’¹ itself has something to do with this, since it was partly responsible for the birth of the idea that it is the people who are in direct contact with the ‘operatives’ that can make the best use of them.