This post is mostly half-truths, I'll just stick to the core errors:
> Of course you could say that this is a badly run company, and to avoid arguing what that means, let’s stick to the definition of managerial competence as the ability to set and achieve objectives. Whatever objective you are expected to achieve, a bigger budget makes it easier.
Yes I would say this is a badly run company, and for some reason they just glossed over that. Probably he glosses over the "set" part of objectives and focuses only on achievement, when setting the right objectives is part of good management. Also bigger budgets don't make every objective easier to hit; it's certainly easier to make $1M of revenue with a $2M budget than a $500k budget but it's not necessarily easier to make a 20% profit.
Let's distinguish between two kinds of management and managers. There's high-level strategic stuff (ie should we deploy this proposed product line) and more operational stuff (which vendor should I pick). Likewise there are different kinds of objectives. A bigger budget will make some objectives easier, like a revenue target or a shipping date. But it won't make it easier to hit a certain profit margin or return on capital target [0]. For-profit companies should always be focusing on returns on investment. For government/non-profits the overall principle is to use money effectively; measuring that is harder but it's definitely not making Tom Everyworker feel good about his clean code. It's delivering value to somebody who doesn't work at the org.
If the senior management has set terrible objectives, and middle management achieves them effectively, then yes, bad things will happen. I would call this bad management; even if most of the managers are good the management overall is still bad. Bad middle managers might be better for the org overall in this case, if we assume workers are all angels who dream of nothing more than doing the "right thing", all agree on what that is somehow, and agree with the authors definition.
On the other hand, if senior management knows what they're doing, they'll set good objectives. It will involve profit not just revenue. It will involve delivering products/features customers want, not delivering things they don't care about, and doing so at a low price. If a division doesn't bring in profit directly (eg IT) they'll figure something else out which rewards good behavior and doesn't punish it. And then competent middle management will achive those goals effectively, and achieve the goals of the org. Note that making Tom happy and letting him ship as much code as he wants is at best only a small piece of those goals, so Tom might actually be unhappier in this scenario.
[0] Assuming there are no accounting shenanigans involved, which again, is part of good management.
> Of course you could say that this is a badly run company, and to avoid arguing what that means, let’s stick to the definition of managerial competence as the ability to set and achieve objectives. Whatever objective you are expected to achieve, a bigger budget makes it easier.
Yes I would say this is a badly run company, and for some reason they just glossed over that. Probably he glosses over the "set" part of objectives and focuses only on achievement, when setting the right objectives is part of good management. Also bigger budgets don't make every objective easier to hit; it's certainly easier to make $1M of revenue with a $2M budget than a $500k budget but it's not necessarily easier to make a 20% profit.
Let's distinguish between two kinds of management and managers. There's high-level strategic stuff (ie should we deploy this proposed product line) and more operational stuff (which vendor should I pick). Likewise there are different kinds of objectives. A bigger budget will make some objectives easier, like a revenue target or a shipping date. But it won't make it easier to hit a certain profit margin or return on capital target [0]. For-profit companies should always be focusing on returns on investment. For government/non-profits the overall principle is to use money effectively; measuring that is harder but it's definitely not making Tom Everyworker feel good about his clean code. It's delivering value to somebody who doesn't work at the org.
If the senior management has set terrible objectives, and middle management achieves them effectively, then yes, bad things will happen. I would call this bad management; even if most of the managers are good the management overall is still bad. Bad middle managers might be better for the org overall in this case, if we assume workers are all angels who dream of nothing more than doing the "right thing", all agree on what that is somehow, and agree with the authors definition.
On the other hand, if senior management knows what they're doing, they'll set good objectives. It will involve profit not just revenue. It will involve delivering products/features customers want, not delivering things they don't care about, and doing so at a low price. If a division doesn't bring in profit directly (eg IT) they'll figure something else out which rewards good behavior and doesn't punish it. And then competent middle management will achive those goals effectively, and achieve the goals of the org. Note that making Tom happy and letting him ship as much code as he wants is at best only a small piece of those goals, so Tom might actually be unhappier in this scenario.
[0] Assuming there are no accounting shenanigans involved, which again, is part of good management.