25. Is the most effective management approach to hire the best people, then to give
them as much autonomy as possible to serve the firm's goals? This strategy would
certainly enhance an employee's sense of involvement, purpose and personal worth. It
would also benefit the firm by encouraging employees to work creatively and
productively. But the strategy requires two constraints1 to operative effectively.
First, the strategy must be constrained2 .by strong leadership that provides clear
vision and direction. Simply putting the most capable people together, and letting them
loose on projects will provide neither. Thinking so involves the mistaken assumption
that just because the parts of a whole are good, the collection of the parts into a whole
will be equally good. Business organizations are more than just the sums of their
excellent parts; to be similarly excellent, the organization must also be unified3 and
cohesive4. And it is strong and visionary leadership that provides these two ingredients.
Second, the strategy must be constrained by an organizational structure that brings
all inpidual efforts together as a coherent whole. Of course, structure can be crippling
heavily layered, overly bureaucratic5 organizations probably stifle6 more creative
productivity than they inspire. Still, inpiduals will be capable at some things and not
others, so some organization of efforts is always called for. The moderateand perhaps
optimalapproach would be to create a structure that gives inpiduals some authority
across areas relating to their field of expertise7, while reserving final authority for higher-
level managers. For example, no inpidual in a finance department should have much
authority over a design department. However, within the design department, inpidual
researchers, artists, drafters, and engineers can all contribute meaningfully to one
another's projects, and a flexible organizational structure would allow them to do so.
In sum, the advice to hire the best people and give them wide authority requires
modification8. Hiring capable people and granting them some concurrent9 authority
across areas related to their expertise is better advice. Moreover, solid leadership and a
cohesive organizational structure are prerequisitesboth are needed to coordinate10
inpidual efforts toward the accomplishment11 of common goals.