The 10 worst management practices of all time?

I ran across an article this morning in Business Week on the 10 worst management theories of all time and was intrigued: Ten Management Practices to Axe

If you don't read this article and think to yourself, "Oh my God. These are oh-too-familiar to me," I'd be surprised. I have seen many of these practices implemented in places where I’ve worked, have questioned the effectiveness and rationale of them, and yet, as a loyal employee, was compelled to embrace management’s new philosophies on running the organization. 

I’m also certain there are many management practices that weren’t captured in this article and I’ve come up with a few that I’ve seen in action. Most of these are implemented with the best intentions: to help the company to be more productive, to make more money, to raise its public profile, to aid in new employee recruitment…but sometimes the results are not as intended.

1. When in doubt about what to do or if you don’t want to make changes yourself, bring in a consultant. I have witnessed the money spent, changes made, and the ensuing failures because of recommendations made by McKinsey, Accenture, management consultants, organizational consultants, and HR consultants. Often, I think it’s the people within an organization who have the best (and most cost effective) ideas for how to make a company more efficient. Someone just has to be empowered to make the changes happen.
2. Writing job descriptions: I have seen people hired into positions for which there was no job description…then the manager asked the employee to write her job description. Does the job description then capture what the employee wants to do or what the organization needs to support meeting its goals? If I’m hiring someone for a job, I must be very clear about what I’m hiring someone to do, the core responsibilities, required tasks, and scope of the job…otherwise how can I assure of making a good hire and getting someone with the right skills.
3. Change compensation structures regularly; some companies don’t want employees to become complacent, expect raises or bonuses, or think they have opportunities to be promoted. By changing the compensation structure, method of evaluating employees, and rating system every few years (usually as a result of a consultant’s recommendation or new management) then companies know that disgruntled employees may leave, content company-loyalists will stay and others will know that their pay scale is more limited but what can they do. The practice demoralizes employees and creates mistrust of the employer.
4. Implementing employee recognition programs…then ditching them, usually by never mentioning it again. This leaves people scratching their heads and wondering if they just were never recognized, if others were, or if the company simply doesn’t care about retaining valuable, contributing employees. Again, it’s a practice that builds mistrust in the workplace and it doesn’t have to happen. A good employee recognition program should be a way to motivate employees, to provide incentive to go above and beyond what is expected, to come up with innovative ideas, and to reward employees who think, care and want to make a difference.
5. Group interviews of job candidates: companies sometimes do this as a way to test the group interaction, to determine possible “fit” of a candidate, to maximize schedules and get every interested person in the room at the same time  (the “come and get ‘em” approach), or to demonstrate that “we all work as a team and this is the team you’d be working with so we’d all better like you.” This type of interview can devolve into the employees making inside jokes, wondering why you’re interviewing here, and chitchatting so no one gets to know a candidate very well. It’s harder for a candidate to shine and highlight his or her strengths.
6. Implementing layoffs (yes, layoffs, not firings as a result of poor performance) without letting other staff know. Typically word gets around a company faster than HR could imagine when there are layoffs occurring; everyone knows the conference room schedule changes, manager schedule changes, and closed doors to watch out for. So it’s well known that layoffs are happening within a department but no one advises after the fact as to how many or who was affected. If you’re working with someone on a project, it’s inconvenient, not to mention disturbing, to find out days later that she’s no longer with the company and no notification or contingent planning has gone out. This lack of internal communication shows a lack of respect for remaining employees, who are affected by the loss of colleagues…often because they have to pick up the pieces and take on even more responsibility.
7. Implementing a “Coffee (or lunch or breakfast or chat) with [name executive]” presented to employees as an opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas with the CEO or President or CMO of the company and to allow the Executive to chat more informally with employees…only to have the “chat” filled with pre-selected, softball questions from the corporate communications person or a “plant.” The Executive stays on script (this often sounds like a press release or trade pub interview) talking about how well the company is doing, she’ll be implementing exciting plans in the months ahead, there are no plans for personnel changes, I’m so excited to be here…then opening the floor for questions, but she/he has only a few minutes left.
8. Employees understand cost cutting during an economic downturn and are happy to have a job, but when an employer begins to strip away little perks one by one, they’re setting the stage for a less motivated workforce. Usually the first to go is the holiday parties, followed by the company picnic, then travel to conferences, and finally training classes and seminars. The part that’s hard for employees to swallow, though, is when the company is still enormously profitable but they are implementing employee potluck luncheons or cookie exchanges or blood drives in lieu of a year-end or thank you celebration – or a simple thank you for your hard work. Workers everywhere love blood drives, buying gifts for needy families, donating toiletries to the troops, mentoring underprivileged children, donating prom dresses, volunteering at food banks…but employers should call it what it is – employees doing good things for others not the company holiday celebration. When people are working long hours, taking on additional responsibilities (often after co-workers have been laid off), doing more with less, and forgoing raises they deserve a “thank you, well done” from the company whose stock price is rising. 

I could go on…but I’ll re-visit the topic at another time.

What senseless or bizarre management practices or philosophies have you experienced?