Friday, February 12, 2010

Undercover Boss

The Harvard Business Review's article "Be an Undercover Boss" highlights the reasoning on why bosses should have a more intimate role in the daily work of staff. There is a possibility for a deeper understanding of each job and to have the ability to see an inside view of their employees' work with by a boss having this type of role. The tips involve the bosses to switch up their location, be the shadow of their workers, and to make each job work with them having a personal experience involving their employees. This article has allowed me to see the benefit in a boss allowing themselves to swept up in the workflow and observe. The issue is the boss cannot start off hands on. I feel staff will presume the boss is approaching and following them to critique the employees, not help. It seems that it will cause employees to feel uneasy and not vocalize or show the issues or problems they are having. This plan will not be a quick fix to the issue. If you doubt the possibility of this, the idea has been transformed into a television show called Undercover Boss, which recently aired after the Super Bowl. For further information view the article in whole.

1 comment:

Larry said...

Some bosses have worked their way up through the production levels. And in these cases, I think that it is not a problem for them to understand the issues at that level. What is a challenge, however, is to keep that understanding current with changes in the workplace and work processes.