So I’m wondering, from your perspective, this: what is the proper role of management? Do they have potential to add any value to the actual production? In what situations? And how much of the value that they add is a result of dealing with the bloated bureaucracies within and without organizations?

Seems to me like most management positions are filled to solve the problems that other management positions create. It’s all getting towards the problems of knowledge in hierarchical orginizations, where managers are most removed from the real work but retain the lion’s share of the decision making power. Half of what I see good management doing is simply keeping day to day business concerns off the backs of the creative guys (most of those “concerns” are really nuisances caused by OTHER bureaucracies outside or inside the organization, like your HR department, OSHA, another biz making a deal with your company, etc.). Management begets more management, because you’ll never be able to get enough control and information when you separate decision making from the actual work.

Perhaps in our society management is inescapable. There’s simply too much hierarchical structure (we’ll set aside the possible reasons for this polarization of labor and capital). But at least we could get rid of the unnecessary hierarchy, and put workers on more equal footing with management. Too much decision making is done from a position of least experience and information, and that’s not good for anybody.

So I'm wondering, from your perspective, this: what is the proper role of management? Do they have potential to add any value to the actual production? In what situations? And how much of the value that they add is a result of dealing with the bloated bureaucracies within and without organizations?

Seems to me like most management positions are filled to solve the problems that other management positions create. It's all getting towards the problems of knowledge in hierarchical orginizations, where managers are most removed from the real work but retain the lion's share of the decision making power. Half of what I see good management doing is simply keeping day to day business concerns off the backs of the creative guys (most of those “concerns” are really nuisances caused by OTHER bureaucracies outside or inside the organization, like your HR department, OSHA, another biz making a deal with your company, etc.). Management begets more management, because you'll never be able to get enough control and information when you separate decision making from the actual work.

Perhaps in our society management is inescapable. There's simply too much hierarchical structure (we'll set aside the possible reasons for this polarization of labor and capital). But at least we could get rid of the unnecessary hierarchy, and put workers on more equal footing with management. Too much decision making is done from a position of least experience and information, and that's not good for anybody.