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August 26, 2005
Manage yourselves
WSJ.com published an article about an initiative at Schlumberger to have knowledge workers govern themselves.
The creation of islands of democracy in a hierarchical capitalist sea was the solution to a business problem of significance to a company that primarily sells not things but services and expertise: managing and motivating technical professionals. In the late 1990s, then-Chief Executive Euan Baird "felt almost everything that had been tried had failed," says Schlumberger veteran Henry Edmundson.Engineers, physicists, geologists worked well on individual projects, but the company hadn't a clue how to help them develop the professional sides of their lives. "If you can't manage these people," Mr. Baird decided, "let them manage themselves," recalls Mr. Edmundson. He was ordered to implement the idea.
I cannot tell from the article whether Schlumberger got rid of any layers following implementation of this initiative. Maybe they're keeping those managers around for the same reasons we always tend to put things in the attic for years, finally throwing them out only when we get ready to move.
Posted by Mark at August 26, 2005 11:13 AM