How do you feel about "Management by Walking Around?"?

Question

It finally happened - I got a bad boss. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Among other really horrible things, such as sitting ON my desk and taking out his dentures in front of everyone and taking personal calls during meetings in front of everyone and knocking over people's plants etc etc, is his dreadful habit of constantly interrupting people's work and skulking around the office like a teacher during a test. I looked this up to find fellow sufferers and was astonished to find out that this is considered a valid and desireable management style called "Management by Walking Around". Are you kidding me? Slinking around and constantly interrupting people's work?

What do you think of MWA? How do you get any work done with a boss like this?

MBWA, not MWA, sorry.

Answer 1

That is the most asinine strategy I have every heard.

I have always taken the approach leading by example, and inspiriting my staff to work hard by getting in there and getting my own hands dirty too.

MWA is counter productive. Nobody likes to be watch. I am willing to bet your office is filled with edgy unfocused people who are all around uncomfortable for the majority of the day. I am willing to bet people take ext4ended washroom breaks or even head out for coffee or smoke breaks a little more frequently in order to avoid your manager's invasive gaze. Actually I am willing to say with some authority that you probably have a somewhat unproductive office.

It is of the utmost importance to know what your staff are up to, however blatantly watching them is not an effective strategy. Regular team meetings, brief status updates and deadlines are all that is required to insure that everything is on schedule. Listing to your employees and knowing their strengths and weaknesses and assigning work to compliment that is also effective.

Again I feel the need to reiterate, that just sounds like the most counter productive management strategy.

Answer 2

He is not doing MBWA; he is mentally ill. MBWA is NOT being intrusive and nosy--it is seeking to help, mentor and provide support when needed, not when the manager needs to push it on other people. Let's get Tom Peters after him! (Peters invented the phrase). I'll bet there is pretty high turnover and/or pretty low morale becuase of this. Don't his higher-ups know about his strange behavior?

I would anonymously write up what you've told here and give to the HRdepartment (if it's a larger-size company). There is no excuse for allowing this type of behavior in the workplace.

Answer 3

This is the only way to be a manager. A manager should not bug his employees but should be around and available to the staff and customers. I notice many bad managers will ignore their workers and thus the employee can get away with bad work and the manager does not know what the employee is doing. Keep walking manager!