Comments on: Results Oriented Work Environment

By: Love in Action

Love in Action — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:48:21 +0000

As a secretary type I can assure you that ROWE needs to be implemented with care by uber-competent management. If it is not, employees will take advantage and those of us who are relegated to “serving” everyone will have to pick up the slack. My current manager has set up the laid back standards for the work environment, however he has never:

Presented ROWE as the new management style to all of his employees
Set a consistant standard of production
Removed employees who produce very little
Made himself consistantly available for communication; neither face-to-face nor via phone and email
Forged a relationship of mutual trust and respect with his employees (he “zones out” whenever a female speaks and is afraid to communicate with older employees!)

The result is a mess. His insecurities are keeping him from fully implementing the system making himself look simply lazy and our team (of contractors no less) look baaaaad!!! Eventhough he seems to want to change our work culture to ROWE, if we really followed it, he would have to be one of the first to go.

By: Terry O, CEO

Terry O, CEO — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:47:24 +0000

Mr Chu made the statement that ” their work was regulated by federal law”, I am not sure how that would affect ROWE in the work place. Those associated with each store unit would have organize their work shifts to comply with company policy, as well as governance compliance but where the Federal mandate issue applies, is for me a an unanswered question.
Let me interject that in creative work environments ROWE is a self satisfying process that brings very positive results. Also, as for our operation, if someone has gone through the HR process then the issue of trust has been determined.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:08:38 +0000

I’ve been in a similar environment before and one issue we could not resolve with the ROWE-type process was how to handle or replace the ‘value & synergy of face-to-face time’.

For example, communicating face-to-face was generally more effective (than phone and e-mails) given nuances, body language, etc.

Another example, it was more efficient for day-to-day operations. If some issue came up and you could just grab a couple people and solve the issue right away (when everyone is in the office) versus calling, trying to confrence call, playing message tag, endless e-mail trails, etc. which can take hours or days.

I’d be curious to know if the ROWE teams have tackled these issues and what you’ve come up with?

By: Shun Chu

Shun Chu — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 19:03:47 +0000

It sounds ideal for a working parent.

Indeed. I think it’s just a matter of sitting down with the management and working out a detailed plan of actions and stick to them. “Results” can be a very subjective term for non-sales positions. But then again, there’s always a way to determine it otherwise there wouldn’t be any performance reviews to determine raises and bonuses.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 17:31:58 +0000

How can other companies implement this? It sounds ideal for a working parent.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:42:21 +0000

I am thouroughly convinced that the old way of management doen’t work. I like in Jermey Rifkin’s book “the European Dream” how he points to the change in old hierarchical structures to a more networked cross-platform approach.

A good example is with Gore associates (they make Gore-tex products). They’ve flattened their structure to accomodate creativity. A nice description of their structure can be found in the book “the Tipping Point” by Malcom Gladwell.

The less management, the better. Even as a freelancer I get over-managed by agencies (I became a freelancer to avoid that stuff, dammit!).

It’s nice to hear that Best Buy is wisening up.

By: Shun Chu

Shun Chu — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 21:40:41 +0000

Well, the article did mention this:

No one is forced into it; teams sign up when they’re ready. Best Buy expects that ROWE one day will apply to the whole company. At the moment, it is working on a version for the 100,000 retail employees in its stores, a much more difficult task because most of those employees are hourly, and their work is regulated by federal law.

I suppose this may be something a branch store has to elect to join for now. Like the article said, it’s the managers who are resisting the change. Maybe it’ll come to your branch as soon as the HQ figures out what to do with a rollout that includes 100,000 people… Is that number right? That’s a heck lot of people.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 20:50:48 +0000

I work at a Best Buy store, and have to say– if only this would trickle down to where I am at… that would be interesting. In the article they said they planned to roll out ROWE (Best Buy is absolutely in love with acronyms) to the entire company, I wonder if that means the retail stores as well.