Author Archives: naries

Welcome to PAF 9120 and the class blog.

This summer I read Management Rewired, a recent addition to the popular management literature. Using the findings of neuroscience, Charles Jacobs provides another refutation of the managerial assumptions established at the turn of the last century that continue to dominate our present approach to management. Jacobs demonstrates that the functioning of our brains does not necessarily lead to straightforward rational responses. Rewards, for example, are always motivating, and feedback does not always change behavior.  Our responses are dictated by past experience and our brains efforts to make new experiences conform to the ways we experience the world. Rewards may not hold unique meaning because they are expected, or we believe they are deserved. Inversely, feedback may threaten our sense of self and result in passivity or aggression. The net result is that how we manage and are managed are typically at odds with how we should manage and would like to be managed.

Jacobs’ challenge to managers is the need to rethink how we work with people if we are to be effective in our work. Although not grounded in neuroscience, this class raises the same sets of concerns. We need to understand why we default to authoritative control despite the efficacy of more participative modes of management. We need to understand the myriad ways to build participation into our management of organizations if we are to be successful.