Do you believe that managers should be given more autonomy to make personnel decisions
Do you believe that managers should be given more autonomy to make personnel decisions such as hiring, appraising, and compensating subordinates, or do you believe that managers should be given less autonomy to make such decisions? Explain and substantiate your reasoning.
Managerial Autonomy
From a fundamental perspective, managerial autonomy is granting a great deal of liberty and rights to managers to make decisions and choices in a work environment (Krane & Van, 2019). On most occasions, managers outline the organization’s goals and grant their employees the freedom of using their professional discretion on how to complete the tasks that will achieve the desired goal. This provides an ideal medium for workplace independence, inclusiveness, a sense of belonging, discourages intimidation, micro-management, boost employee morale and job satisfaction. Managerial autonomy to some minor extent is healthy for organization management; however, granting autonomy beyond the necessary measure or absolute autonomy, in which managers can make a personal decision such as independent employment, employee compensation, and unfair disciplinary actions might lead to organizational failure (Metwally et al., 2019).
Granting higher or absolute autonomy to managers is the most comfortable means of power centralization, and it should be avoided at all coast; hence organization managers should be given limited autonomy. Increasing a manager’s autonomy can easily lead to the process by which the organization’s activities, particularly the decision-making, to be limited to the manager. Furthermore, managers with autonomy are more likely to be biased in their decision and lead to some unethical actions that will affect the employees’ morale. For example, a manager with absolute autonomy will treat the employee based on personal reasons and not according to its policy. It is worthy to note that managerial autonomy is allowed in a centralized company where managers could use greater authority on their staff (Gerhart et al., 2020 p. 153). Managers exercise their rights to hire, promote, or terminate an employee without a justifiable reason.
Furthermore, Krane and Van (2019) show that managerial autonomy has a significant contribution to workplace bullying, simply because there is no authority to control the manager’s actions (Krane & Van, 2019). Increasing managerial autonomy can disorient the environment and inflict both physical and emotional stress on the employee. Most managers in a decentralized organization have used their autonomy to establish and promote self-interests that are absolutely outside the organizational standard operating procedure (SOP) or work jurisdiction instead of doing what will benefit their subordinates.
Managers should be given less autonomy to work within the organization’s scope, in an ethical manner that will promote a good turn-over for the organization. The concept of federalism of the United States government should be encouraged whereby the use of a constitutional law that depends on the diffusion of power across different government sections is paramount. For instance, the government evenly distributes its autonomy to ensure no section or a person has absolute control.
Biblical integration
Giving less managerial autonomy may sound like micromanaging. However, it is better to centralize an organization’s autonomy for any decision-making to ensure the organization is under the control of a unanimous constitution and not an individual’s choice or decision. As Christians, we have the likelihood of gaining our organization’s trust or giving our trust to our managers. It is worthy to note that temptations will come to test our autonomy as Christians, but we should guide our autonomy jealously just as Jesus did. Jesus has absolute power, but he did not abuse it. For example, Jesus was tested by the devil to use his power to turn stone to bread, but in Luke 4: 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone (Luke 4: 4 NIV). As Christians, we should be always be rejecting anything that will tempt us to abuse our autonomy or power.
References
Gerhart, B., Hollenbeck, J. R., Noe, R. A., & Wright, P. (2020). The analysis and design or work.
Human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage 12e. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Education. (p153).
Krause, T., & Van Thiel, S. (2019). Perceived managerial autonomy in municipally owned
corporations: disentangling the impact of output control, process control, and policy-profession conflict. Public management review, 21(2), 187-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1473472
Metwally, M., Ruiz, P., Metwally, D., & Gartzia, L. (2019). How ethical leadership shapes
employees’ readiness to change: The mediating role of an organizational culture of effectiveness. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2493 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02493
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Answer preview to do you believe that managers should be given more autonomy to make personnel decisions
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