The merging company, however, has a motivation approach that places more emphasis on management and incentives. In order to ensure that both performance and job satisfaction remain high for all employees in the newly merged corporation, steps will have to be taken to implement both styles of motivation.
Thus, according to the theory of Covey, a management approach will have to have a strategy that lays out goals and incentives for those employees who prefer this style of management. However, within this structure opportunities for leadership will be created. For example, one motivational incentive could be more independence for the employee. In other words, in order to get the newly merged company efficiently operating quickly, the business managers will best be served by trusting their employees.
So, according to Covey's theory, what would an ideal manager look like, or what characteristics would exemplify a trust-based approach to business management? In summary, an ideal manager under Covey's theory would place a great deal of trust and responsibility in his or her directors. This form of trust can be seen, according to Covey, when a business leader:
Maintains open lines of communication with his or her directors;
Consistently gathers feedback from the people working under the director in order to gain proper and insightful evaluations;
Endeavors to remove roadblocks and assist the director succeed...
Although Covey stresses the importance of operating a very hands off and advisory role instead of hands on and directing, the typical business manager will put more of an emphasis on directing their directors, essentially telling them what to do, how to do it and then supervising every aspect of them doing it. Clearly, this is not what Covey means by a trust-based workplace and thus why the theories of Covey, like his father's, are considered revolutionary.
Even in personal experience, the majority of managers I have worked under have always taken a more hands-on or supervisory role in their job. Although this method worked, I can attest to feeling no connection to the company's overall success. This is what I find so attractive about Covey's theory. The management method advocated by Covey is effective simply because it uses trust as a method to empower others by giving them a personal stake or incentive in excelling in their work- Thereby leading to a more successful business endeavor.
Bibliography
Covey, Stephen M.R. The Speed of Trust the One Thing that Changes Everything. New York: Free Press, 2006.
