The article in the url below reports on a CEO, Stephen Martin, who decided to go undercover to find out what his employees really thought about the firm and the work they do on a day-to-day basis. In a two week period, the boss completed 10 separate shifts, at multiple locations, disguised as a normal employee:
“What lessons has he learnt? "Our key messages were just not getting through to people," Mr Martin says. … You have to communicate with people on their terms, and it is different for every location. One size does not fit all." For example, Mr Martin found that an apparently sensible idea - encouraging his workers to take a tea-break where they were working rather than coming back to a canteen - was taken to mean that the break had been cut.”
The CEO was able to go unnoticed for the two weeks because he was a relatively new appointment, who also grew a beard to further disguise himself. The CEO relished the opportunity to obtain unvarnished feedback that would never be communicated directly to management:
“Leaders may know exactly what they want to see happening. They send out messages down the management line. Employees ought to understand. But between the top table and the shop-floor something goes wrong. Leadership teams can be scarily ignorant of how badly their wishes have been distorted, and how much unhappiness there is among those on the receiving end.”
Interestingly, the CEO was followed around by a camera crew, using the cover story that they were filming a documentary on how an administrative worker would fare in a demanding manual labor job. The program:
“… called Undercover Boss, which will air on British television (Channel 4) in [June] and then in a US version (CBS) [later] this year.”
Have a good weekend.
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
Undercover boss gets the communication message
Stern, Stefan
899 words
9 June 2009
London Ed1
16
