| Abstract: |
In today's corporate publishing environment, an individual - whether a
manager or a staff member - needs to be both generalist and specialist. People have to
become interdependent in order to tackle even moderately complex projects. Each person
must understand and commit to the overall goal of the project and apply his or her
specialized skill to its success. For the manager, this means that old ways of delegating
authority are no longer adequate. Staff need to be involved in shaping business goals and
implementing business plans. In short, the manager must also be a worker and the
workers must also become managers.
At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Electronic Communications group (E-Comm) has
piloted a management model that implements these principles. The ever-increasing depth and
breadth of the work we do have been categorized into business lines, each with a staff
member as business line manager. The group manager's job focus has changed considerably as
a result. |
