Bureaucracy

官僚主義

 

Bureaucracy: Productivity’s enemy. Welch told his people to “fight it, kick it.” The GE CEO fought a two-decade war against bureaucracy with initiatives like boundaryless and Work-Out. GE’s list of values specifically addressed the company’s intolerance for bureaucracy (it was at the top of the list for many years), and stressed the importance of building an organization of trust, excitement, and informality. Welch recognized the adverse effects of bureaucracy and knew that unless he rid the organization of the worst of it, GE would never become a legitimate global competitor.

官僚主義:生產率的敵人。韋爾奇告訴手下去“打倒它、踢走它”。這位通用電氣公司的首席執(zhí)行官憑借“無界限”和“群策群力”這類倡導行動，與官僚主義進行了長達二十年的戰(zhàn)爭。通用電氣公司在它的價值觀中明確聲言，公司絕不容忍官僚主義（多年來這一點都列在價值觀中的首要位置上），并強調了構建相互信任、充滿興奮和不拘禮節(jié)的組織有多么重要。韋爾奇認識到了官僚主義的不利影響，也知道自己如果不從通用電氣公司中根除它的惡習，公司就永遠不可能成為合格的全球競爭者。

 

THE ORIGINS OF GE’S BUREAUCRACY

All large organizations have some bureaucracy. It is a given, inherent in the organizing form that was crafted in large part by Alfred P. Sloan, who became president and chief executive officer of General Motors in 1923. The GM CEO recognized the need for coherence and a unifying order when he confronted a sprawling corporation that was in dire need of organization. It was Sloan who transformed GM’s loosely configured, far-flung divisions into a coherent corporation.

通用電氣公司官僚主義溯源

所有大型組織都有些官僚主義。它是大部分由阿爾弗雷德·P·斯隆手創(chuàng)的那種組織形式中固有的天性。斯隆于1923年成為通用汽車公司的總裁兼首席執(zhí)行官。他所面對的是一家龐大的企業(yè)，它迫切需要的是組織，因而他便感覺到凝聚力和統(tǒng)一秩序的必要性。正是斯隆將通用汽車公司相互遠隔、結構松散的分公司整合為一家緊密統(tǒng)一的企業(yè)。

 

 

Sloan speaks on the topic in his celebrated memoir, My Years with General Motors: “I became convinced that the corporation could not continue to grow and survive unless it was better organized, and it was apparent that no one was giving that subject the attention it needed.” Sloan did indeed give the subject the attention it needed and helped create the model for the modern organizing form that persists to this day. But while that organizing form worked well for many years, it had begun to become too restrictive as business became more demanding and more global in the 1980s.

斯隆在他有名的回憶錄《我在通用汽車公司的歲月》（My Years with General Motors）中談到了這個話題：“我開始認定，除非更好的加以組織，否則這家企業(yè)就無法繼續(xù)增長和存續(xù)，而對于這個課題，明顯沒有人給予應有的重視。”斯隆倒是對這個課題給予了應有的重視，并幫助創(chuàng)建了一直持續(xù)到今日的現代組織模式。不過這種組織形式雖說多年來都挺管用，但到20世紀80年代，隨著工商管理的要求更嚴格、全球化程度更高，它的制約性就過大了。

 

 

 

ON SLOAN AND WELCH: “BUREAUCRATS” FOR THEIR DAY

論斯隆與韋爾奇：他們時代的“官僚”

To provide a complete picture of Welch’s nemesis (bureaucracy), it is useful to contrast the two CEOs and the circumstances they encountered. One way to compare these two legendary leaders is to recognize Sloan as the man who helped construct the modern organizing form, and Welch as the man who helped tear it down. In the Sloan model, a company’s thinking and ultimate advantage comes from the company command center (its headquarters). That notion, however, was bogging companies down, not allowing units closer to the work, and to the customers, to think for themselves. After all, now there were managers in the home office who could make decisions for the workers. While Sloan’s watershed creation helped establish financial and managerial control, the concept of a mammoth hierarchy controlling a corporation had taken its toll a half a century later. Business was moving too quickly and that form was strangling creativity and innovation. Welch recognized that fact and worked to tear down the accouterments of bureaucracy when he became CEO in 1981.

在這兩位首席執(zhí)行官之間、以及他們所遭逢的環(huán)境之間進行比較，有助于完整地描繪韋爾奇的死敵（官僚主義）。對比這兩位傳奇領導人的一種辦法，是將斯隆看作是幫助構建了現代組織形式的人物，而韋爾奇則是幫助將它摧垮的人物。在斯隆模式中，企業(yè)的思想和最終優(yōu)勢來自于它的指揮中心（它的總部）。但這種觀念卻不允許更熟悉工作和客戶的單位自己動腦筋思考問題，從而使公司陷入泥潭。畢竟現在就有些總部管理人員無法代員工們作出決定。雖說斯隆劃時代的建構幫助確立了財務和管理上的控制，但以龐大的等級制度來控制一家企業(yè)的這種概念在半個世紀以后卻開始為害人間了。工商業(yè)的發(fā)展速度太快，而這種組織形式卻在絞殺創(chuàng)造力和創(chuàng)新活動。韋爾奇認識到了這個事實，并在1981年當上首席執(zhí)行官后致力于扯下官僚主義的鎧甲。

 

THE EVOLUTION OF WELCH’S WAR AGAINST BUREAUCRACY

Welch wasted little time in identifying the enemy. In fact, he knew it well long before becoming GE’s CEO. In his first days with the company, Welch worked in a bureaucracy-free environment that was more akin to a “family grocery store” than a giant corporation. After he almost quit because he felt that he deserved more then the customary $1000 raise (Welch felt that he contributed more than his colleagues and deserved more), he was given an assignment he liked: “He [his boss] gave me a project where I was the only employee. I was able to call myself king, emperor, any title you wanted. And I hired one technician. And from that, we built a plastics business.”

韋爾奇官僚主義之戰(zhàn)的演進

韋爾奇很快就認準了這個死敵。實際上他在當上通用電氣公司首席執(zhí)行官之前很久就認識它。在通用電氣公司的最初那些日子里，韋爾奇工作的環(huán)境中沒有官僚主義，那兒不像是一家巨型企業(yè)，而更像是一間“家庭雜貨店”。不過他覺得慣例的1000美元加薪對不起他所干的工作，差一點因此而辭職（韋爾奇覺得他比同事的貢獻更多，也應該得到更多的報酬），正在這時上司給他分配了一項他喜歡的任務：“他（上司）給了我一個項目，我是其中唯一的員工，可以自己封王、稱帝，隨便什么頭銜都可以。我聘用了一名技術員。從那兒開始我們便建起了一家塑料制品公司。”

 

To Welch, those early days in GE’s plastics division represented a leadership ideal, and he spent years attempting to instill that same spirit of excitement back into the vastness of GE.

對于韋爾奇，最初在塑料制品公司的那些日子代表了領導的理想境界，而他花了數年的時間，想要將那種鼓舞人心的精神回饋到整個廣大的通用電氣公司中。

 

In 1968, 33-year-old Welch became GE’s youngest general manager, and as he moved up the hierarchy, he saw all of the things he hated about large companies: red tape, layers of management, waste, slow decision making, etc. When he became CEO, he had seen the best and the worst of GE, and was determined to wipe out the latter while generating more of the former. He always felt that business should be about excitement and passion and new ideas, not about bureaucracy and turf battles and slow decision making.

1968年，33歲的韋爾奇成為通用電氣公司最年輕的總經理，隨著他在等級制度中的地位上升，大型公司中他所厭恨的一切東西他都見識到了：官樣文章、繁復的管理層、浪費、遲緩的決策制定等等。他當上首席執(zhí)行官后，同時看到了通用電氣公司最優(yōu)秀和最糟糕的地方，并決心將弊病蕩滌干凈，同時進一步發(fā)揚公司的優(yōu)點。他始終認為，經營管理所追求的應當是興奮、激情和新的創(chuàng)意，而不是官僚主義、地盤之爭以及遲緩的決策。

 

FIGHTING BUREAUCRACY FROM THE CHAIRMAN’S OFFICE

From 1981 on, Welch’s actions and programs waged war on GE’s intimidating bureaucracy, and he always knew that the battle would never be completely over. Even in his final months in office, Welch spoke of the importance of ridding the organization of this cancerous element. He called bureaucracy “the Dracula of institutional behavior,” meaning that it kept rising from the dead after they had driven a stake through its heart.

身為董事會主席而親自出擊官僚主義

自1981年起，韋爾奇的行動與計劃便對通用電氣公司嚇唬人的官僚主義發(fā)動了戰(zhàn)爭，而且他始終都清楚，這場戰(zhàn)斗永遠不會徹底結束。即便在任上的最后幾個月中，韋爾奇也時常談及讓組織擺脫這種毒瘤有多么重要。他稱官僚主義是“制度行為中的德古拉”，意思是說即便用木樁刺穿它的心臟，它還會死而復生再爬起來。

 

In the late 1990s, while GE was in full throttle with Six Sigma, Welch spoke of the importance of relaunching Work-Out on a wide scale. The GE CEO was concerned that bureaucracy was creeping back into the organization. He advised one young worker that the only way to rid a large organization of the bureaucracy and walls and hierarchy was to “get a hand grenade ... and blow it up” (Welch of course meant that figuratively, not literally).

20世紀90年代，盡管通用電氣公司在全力以赴地實施“六西格瑪”計劃，但韋爾奇還在談論再次廣泛開展“群策群力”活動的重要性。他擔心官僚主義正在潛回組織中。他告誡一名年輕的員工說，讓大型組織擺脫官僚主義、壁壘和層級制度的唯一辦法，是“抓一枚手榴彈……把它轟掉”（當然，韋爾奇說的是形象化的、而不是字面上意思）。

 

Bureaucracy-banishing lessons

關于驅逐官僚主義的經驗教訓

 

1.      Make sure that everyone knows the enemy: Welch let everyone know that bureaucracy was killing the company. In articulating that message, he enlisted the help of every GE employee. Once the entire company was mobilized, GE was able to dismantle the company’s multilayered bureaucracy.

1.確保每個人都認清敵人：韋爾奇讓每個人都明白官僚主義正在戕殺公司。在闡明這一精神時，他調動通用電氣公司每一位員工都前來提供幫助。在整個公司全體動員起來后，公司也就就能拆除層層疊疊的官僚主義了。

 

2. Use the principles of Work-Out to jump-start a meaningful dialogue: Work-Out, Welch’s grand program to eliminate unnecessary work, was the key to ensuring that managers listened to the employees. It also built trust and unlocked the ideas that dwelled in the minds of the people who performed the work. If a multiday event is not possible, find another way to get managers and employees to talk to each other. Even a half day get together can be worthwhile, particularly if the employees know that this is their chance to tell managers how to do things better.

2.運用“群策群力”的原則來快速啟動有意義的對話：“群策群力”是韋爾奇為消除多余工作而推出的大計劃，它也是確保管理人員聽取員工意見的關鍵。此外，這項計劃也在公司中建立起了信任，并讓那些實際執(zhí)行工作的員工頭腦中閉鎖的創(chuàng)意解放出來。如果無法開展歷時數天的活動，那就尋找另外的途徑來讓管理人員與員工對話。即便讓他們在一起相處半天也是值得的，而如果能讓員工知道，這是他們把如何改善事物的想法告訴管理人員的一個機會，那就會更加值得。

 

3. Always remember that even the best organizations have some bureaucracy: In the late 1990s, long after his software phase, Welch acknowledged that even his supercharged organization was not immune to bureaucracy (even after launching Six Sigma). In order to keep red tape in check, repeat step two (2) above at regular intervals (e.g., quarterly, biannually, etc.).

3、始終牢記即便最好的組織也會有些官僚主義：20實際90年代晚期，遠在軟件變革階段結束之后，韋爾奇承認說，即便他經過“增壓防護”的組織也難免會沾染官僚主義（哪怕是在推出“六西格瑪”計劃之后）。為了套住繁文縟節(jié)的籠頭，需要定期重復執(zhí)行上面列出的第2個步驟。