Não é nada fácil abordar temas desta natureza. Subjacentes aos problemas exis v tentes, há também que referir aspectos positivos e progressos feitos. Os agentes
envolvidos também nos merecem todo o respeito. Contudo, transformações signi ficativas não podem realizar-se sem a prévia identificação dos problemas e das
causas. Este estudo é apenas um primeiro passo, que terá de ser seguido por outras
pesquisas de carácter quantitativo

Zait, Adriana

Zait, Dumitru

A Galileu Revista de Economia e Direito

English

Camões - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa

GalileuRevista de Economia e DireitoVol. VI, n°2, 2001, pp. 133-142Short essay on traditional management -an attempt of analysis in a Romanian contextDumitru Zait1Adriana Zait 2IntroductionThe success, as well as the failure in Business, is closely related to the qualityof management. Although it might be necessary to redefine the concept, in ourapproach we will accept for management the somehow classical and pragmaticsense of the notion: «a process consisting of a system of functions: communication,planning, directing, strategies elaboration, decision taking, control, motivation,innovation, recruiting, promotion..., having as main aim the determination andaccomplishment of the objectives defined within a human group for the valuingof resources. These resources basically consist of: people, materiais-capital, equip-ments, methods, markets.» (Terry and Franklin, in «Le management interculturel»,coordinated by Marc Bosche, Nathan, 1993). The acceptance of such a definition,somehow less «academic», requires from the very beginning the ability of managersand management to create and to push an entity towards the accomplishment of itsaims (we will use the word «aim» in a generic sense, although it will sometimeshave a particular and restrictive meaning, that of profit).Naturally, the management in transition should not have and does not have adifferent definition (if the previous one is correct). In a period of transition, the 1 Ph.D., Professor of Investments and Intercultural Management, Faculty of Economics and BusinessAdministration, «Al.I.Cuza» University of lasi, Romania.2 Ph.D., Ass.Professor of Marketing and Public Relations, Faculty of Economics and BusinessAdministration, «Al.I.Cuza» University of lasi, Romania.GalileuRevista de Economia e Direito134 Diunitrii Zait e Adriana Zaitmanagement comes with particular elements, an extension of what it was in the past,modifying and adapting to the new realities and to what it should become in thefinal, after the transition period. The analysis conducted, in a rather informal andunstructured manner, brought us to a conclusion which is certainly of interest: manyof the functions and attributes of management conceptually defined are neglected,left out or ... left over The success of many businesses was due to different conjec-tural elements or to a «smart» orientation of the entrepreneurs; we seldom have thecase of managers with vocation and anvergure, as well as a correct and realisticmanagement for that particular business.The beginnings of what we call “transition” were marked by enthusiasm, atthe levei of hopes, and disappointing, as far as actions are concemed. An attempt ofanalysis of those beginnings, in order to rediscover the management, on one side,and the manager- as key Symbol of management - on the other side, will help usto identify interesting elements for the intended study. However, we have to admitthat this is just a starting point for a larger and better-structured study, an attemptof underlying some of the main characteristics of the management in transition,especially in a Romanian context.1. AN ESSENT1AL CHARACTERISTIC: THE ROPE WALKINGOF THE “DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM”Named, at that time, direction, scientific direction or planned direction,management can be recognized, at least theoretically, by its basic functions: organi-zation, planing, coordination and control. Taught and leamt after Taylor and Fayol,this type of management, already out of fashion, was reserved to the elite of theState administration and businesses. Even the words used were sending us ratherto functions and honors, rather than mechanisms and instruments. The managementspecialist was synonym with an official naming through which attributions andresponsibilities were recognized.GalileuRevista de Economia e DireitoShort essay on traditional management - an attempt of analysis [...] 135What was fundamented - if and when this really happened - was seldomconsidered as a support for decision taking - strategic or tactical - in socialist enter-prises. Only sometimes and restrictively were they used as a support for short timeactions. Strategic decisions were the exclusive attribute of the political stafif ofthe party - from which were part, fortunately or unfortunately, the managers of thefirm. Such a conclusion could be seen as lacking a practical support, since evenimportant decisions were taking in an enterprise, conceming investments, mainte-nance and repairs, buildings and so on. However, the system of norms and stan-dards, as well as the circuit of orders and approvals are sending us to the areaof some pseudo-decisions; important investments were approved by presidentialdecree, the launching of a new product on the market needed approvals from primesecretaries of the party. The market study - or at least what we understand today bythis concept - was the responsibility of the State Commission of Planning, togetherwith the problem of suppliers’ or clients’ selection. The human resources manage­ment was apparently the firms’ job, but hey had to comply with numbers of regula-tions conceived and administered by the State and the party. All major decisionswere centralized and mediated by the unique political party. What was left forthe micro levei? Routine actions: the day by day activity of a production team, itscommitment in over-accomplishing the planned figures, daily work programs etc.The «democratic» centralism has simply suffocated the decisional act, as far asnarrowing and almost canceling the content of management in the now a dayconcept. The worst consequence for what seems to be a never-ending transitionwas that all decision capabilities were atrophied - and the whole transition shouldhave started with good decision capabilities! On another side, this atrophiationof decisional capabilities - essential in management - went together with theconviction of old «managers» that they have a sacrosanct capacity of administrationand management. Not knowing that you know might be acceptable; not knowingthat you don’t know is a serious problem for yourself; not knowing and pretendingthat you know is disastrous for the individual and, if that person becomes manager, GalileuRevista de Economia e Direito136 Duinitrn Zait e Adriana Zaitit is catastrophic for the whole group. If the situation continues to appear after tenyears of transition, is it a diabolic perseverance in error?2. The scientific direction in action: transition without compassThe attribute “scientific” for the management of the ancient period - beforethe transition to a market economy- is not entirely wrong, although it could beconfusing - especially as long as “scientific” should mean something exact,rigorous, pertinent and coherent. No matter which is the name (scientific directionor management) and the administration system, this later one has to be fullyflexible, easy to adapt and according to the State and evolution of the firm. Takenand applied in a mechanic way, using a biased ideology, to a hyper centralizedsystem, the principies of the scientific direction became dogma, and they broughtmechanic and meaningless rules and restrictions. Any modification had to be firstannounced to the hierarchic superior, from technical, then economic, administrativeand political point of view. This is why the circuit was so complicated, that anypossible feed back was cancelled The decision people of the period were used tothis “scientific” direction. Correct in principie, out of fashion and inefficient throughthe complicated informational and decisional circuits. Unfortunately, the remainscan still be found, now a day.The burst of the transition took most of the people by surprise, and the mostsurprised of all were the old directors, who became over night the new managers.An extreme “speed” of adaptation was requested. The essential differences betweenthe old and the new managers mainly consisted of abilities and scope. Abilities cannot be achieved over night. As for the scope, the newly become managers shouldhave been able to make/take rapid decisions conceming all the fields of activityof an enterprise, both tactical and strategic. Unfortunately, in the majority of thesituations the evolutions have been stopped because of a lack of responsibility and GalileuRevista de Economia e DireitoShort essay on traditional management - an attempt of analysis [...] 137action from the part of all managers - low levei, interface, top levei ones. Thecompass of the ship had been lost and nobody was able to sail anymore.3. Major problemsSome major problems can be easily underlined:a) A conservation of the old organizational and administrative structurescan still be found in many firms, especially the public ones, state-owned.The attempts of restructuring were rather shy and inefficient, naive andinconsistent. Changes of names for various departments of the firm werenot accompanied by real, content changes. Imagine situations in whichit would be possible to find a “Management department” or a “Directorof Management”. Purchasing and sales departments were renamed asmarketing departments, without real covering in specialists and activi-ties/actions. Only seldom programs were put into practice for a profes-sional re-conversion. Moreover, even young specialists, young graduateshave suffered negative transformations, because they entered the oldstructures and adapted to them, instead of changing them. Fortunately,changes were produced at the levei of new, private enterprises, as well asthose old State enterprises correctly privatized.b) The lack of assuming decisions and the apathy towards action continued toexist and still survive. The consequences appear mainly as lost oppor-tunities for projects and programs. Such projects were either rejected(programs offered by intemational organizations), or they were accepted,but failed shortly after, because of a disastrous management, depreciatingthe image of the next applicants. The formation of genuine managersand managerial systems in Romania is still a main difficulty when strate-GalileuRevista de Economia e Direito138 Duinitrn Zait e Adriana Zaitgies and coherent objectives have to be established. Foreign businesspartners constantly criticize the passivity and apathy. The apathy towardsactions, the passive behavior are most of the time the support for the indif-ference towards innovation, or even for a denial of innovation. A routinedecisional system brings comfort - innovation brings risk and supportersof the traditional continuity do not accept it. The result - an inhibition ofcreation and creators, a diminishing Creative potential.c) The improvised time management is another characteristic of the transi-tional management, mostly due to the past “experience” of the old manage­ment system. For these old managers, time is not considered a resource.Improvisation manifests in different forms:- insufficient preparation of business meetings, workshops etc.-late starts and retards, the incertitude in accomplishing started actions- postponing of actions or hurrying-up of others, as well as operating withundefined intervals of time-work without agendas or calendars, or any other form of time program-ming-“ideas” without any support, arguments, preparation etc., not related tothe subject in discussion- lack of respect for the personal, private time- launching actions with inadequate preparations- insufficient preparation of business meetings- interruptions of the meetings caused by non-important phone calls, notprogrammed visits etc.-elaboration of incomplete documents or without standards, as well asrequesting documents from subordinates without giving them the timeto really prepare them, and so on.Galileu .Revista de Economia e DireitoShort essay on traditional management - an attempt of analysis [...] 139d) Insufficient communication and the lack of transparency manifest onthree complementary plans. Any decision supposes a coherent and realisticassociation between the speed of reaction (the ability to give a promptresponse) and the rigor of the preparation (the ability to support actionswith arguments, fundaments). Both abilities need equilibrium betweenintuition and a 6th sense, on one side, and rationality and realism, on theother side. Romanian managers were used to operate in a centralizedsystem, in which decisions were taken strictly hierarchical - bad orgood, they carne from the top, but they were rather pseudo-decisions. Hereappears the First plan of the opacity. Surprised, in the transition period, byunpredicted situations, managers had to take difficult decisions veryquickly. As a reflex of their previous experience, they were waiting forsomeone else from the top to tell them what to do. Eventually, they realizedthey have to do it themselves, but time was already consumed, or moreexactly wasted doing nothing, and so they took decisions pressed by time,without fundaments and only by chance correct. On a 2nd plan, one canrecognize the lack of communication through the lack of genuine experi­ence in as far as collaboration and transmitting of information areconcemed. In order to have credible decisions, able to be transferred intopractice, these decisions have to be “translated”, sustained with arguments,by managers to their subordinates (if they did not participate at all to thedecisional process — quite often) - and this didn’t happen. A 3rd plan canbe considered that of the organizational culture. The employees have tobe placed in a cultural environment in which they should be recognized asmembers and participants to the business life of the firm; an employee isimportant and has to feel this. Therefore, he/she should be informed or atleast made sensible to the problems, objectives, actions etc. of theenterprise. This is the way in which the manager can motivate people,“push” them to action, make them participants to the organizational life;GalileuRevista de Economia e Direito140 Diunitru Zait e Adriana Zaitmanagerial transparency motivates, but this was not done by most of theRomanian managers.e) An apathical attitude towards the market can still be considered dominantfor most of the Romanian firms, as an extension of the former dominationof demand with respect to the supply. The decisional centers of manybusinesses do not react promptly enough to the changes in the structure andlevei of the demand. These enterprises still produce, and wait for the clientto come to them and buy; they wait for a miracle to have their stocksvanishing. The fact that the enterprise can not sell its products is motivatedonly by the poor buying power of consumers, the lack of financialresources; reports after reports are made, in order to get more and moresubventions from the State, and when foreign investors try to buy the firmsand restructure them, to make them more efficient, the social pressurebecomes so high that often contracts are cancelled. The genuine marketstudies are still rare, and they are realized mostly by joint ventures andnewly created enterprises.f) The passivity of the relation business-bank has as main cause the insuffi-cient and sometimes incorrect understanding of the positions of the twoeconomic actors. The perception of the opposed positions is still that ofa majority. The entrepreneur sees in banker an eternal opposition towardshis ideas and actions. The banker is only seldom opened towards the entre­preneur, and most of the time refuses to see him as a business partner.A credit is not, or at least should not be just an amount of money given toa business in exchange for a material guaranty. The guaranty should befirst of all the quality of the project and its people, its team. Moreover, abank should offer to her client Consulting and informational support, sothat the business could be successful on the market. The entrepreneurhas to be fair, correct, to provide all the needed information. Both theGalileuRevista de Economia e DireitoShort essay on traditional management - an attempt of analysis [...] 141bank and the entrepreneur can be successful if the credited business issuccessful.g) The decisional weakness and inconsequence don’t have anything to dowith the flexibility and ability to change and adapt. This characteristicof the Romanian transitional management has multiple causes. A firstone consists of the instability and inconsequence of the system of rulesand regulations that govems the decisional center of the enterprise. TheRomanian economic and financial legislation has suffered a normal processof transformation. However, the new rules and regulations were too volatileon long term - they changed sometimes more often than the govemment.The law of foreign investments is such an unfortunate example. A secondcause could be identified in the insufficient command of the firm’s fieldof activity. In the majority of situations firms are oriented towards theirinterior and don’t really care about the externai environment. But, withouta realistic placement of a business in its environment, one can hardly hopeto ever take good decisions. A third cause is induced by the often stochasticand inconsistent character of the distribution and attribution of job posi-tions and responsibilities. Persons with decisional attributions are most ofthe time at the disposition of persons with political positions or under thepressure of trade unions. The frequent replacement of these persons, as wellas their selection based on subjective and circumstantial criteria can notensure favorable premises for the creation and development of pertinentmanagerial Systems.h) The insufficiency of the managerial cidture of the firm manifests firstlythrough a very weak feeling of belonging to that firm. The employee is notattached to the business. The manager seems to be rather a passenger in ahurry, rather inclined to quickly obtain advantages from his position.The consequences of such behaviors are visible in the temptation of havingGalileuRevista de Economia e Direito142 Dumitru Zait e Adriana Zaitbig and rapid wage raises, without a real covering in positive efFects for theenterprise. It isn’t seldom the situation in which we see a waste of time,money, natural resources, apathy towards work, despise of the manager andthe enterprise and even thefts. The deficitary managerial culture is directlyrelated to the general cultural environment in which the business operates.On this subject, the cultural determinants of the Romanian managerbehavior are rather in a zone of passivity. The communist experience canstill be recognized in the individuaTs position towards the private property,towards profit and the business itself.Instead of conclusionsIt is not easy to even talk about these subjects, and many more related tothese. Underlying of all problems does not mean denial of positive aspects orprogresses, nor lack of respect towards the own people. But significant transforma-tions cannot take place without such attempts of identifying problems and causes.This is just a first step, which has to be followed by further quantitative researches.GalileuRevista de Economia e Direito

Short essay on traditional management - an attempt of analysis in a Romanian context

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