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...Academics have studied the actual day-to-day activities of managers, categorizing, timing, and describing the daily activities of effective and ineffective managers. These efforts notwithstanding, what managers do remains topic of interest throughout the field.
American icon Harold Geneen, former head of the conglomerate ITT, simplified this discussion for everyone when he said simply, "Management must manage!" (1984; p. 111). By this, Geneen meant that managers must do whatever it takes to achieve the goals they have set for themselves and their organizations. A similar perspective was recently espoused by Jack Welch when he defined 'tough-minded' bosses as those who "set clear, challenging goals" (Welch, 2006), connecting the goals to performance expectations. Unfortunately, modern organizations are hiring and promoting a growing number of technically-skilled managers who do not manage, choosing instead to stay at their desks, attend the occasional meeting, and avoid two things: Talking to their people and taking responsibility for workgroup goals. This is the description of the desktop manager, a new phenomenon in management and the focus of this paper.
In some respects, the desktop manager is a practical outgrowth of its cousins, the ingratiatory or impression manager and the charlatan. Indeed, impression management can involve a host of behaviors that attempt to control the images projected in social situations through verbal or nonverbal tactics (Tsai, Chen, and Chin, 2005). Impression management is an attempt to control others' perceptions (Leary, 1995). Parnell and Singer (2001) focused on charlatans (e.g., imposters) and developed a scale to measure the false performance of the impostor at work. While it should be recognized that everyone hopes and even strives to make a positive impression in the workplace, the behavior becomes negative when it is the focus of a manager's time, as opposed to managing the workgroup.
The desktop manager frequently exhibits behaviors akin to ingratiation, impression management, and charlatanism, often because they lack people skills that many believe are necessary to be an effective manager. While impression management and charlatanism are commonly exhibited in face-to-face communication, the desktop manager chooses to practice these behaviors through computer-mediated communication (O'Sullivan, 2000; Walther, 1992), developing relationships and forming impressions online. In the era of knowledge management, desktop managers use the personal computer and the Internet to create images of themselves that involve no visual interaction.
The Internet and the personal computer are used to increase productivity, but too many times this technology becomes a barrier, not a boon, to performance (Desouza, 2003). Performance can be damaged when a manager who lacks people skills tends to communicate only through technology. Employees are faced with a communication disconnect due to a lack of face-to-face discourse with their supervisor. With information systems' growth and sophistication, practically all operational data is captured in today's organizations, facilitating the almost constant use of the personal computer by desktop managers. To compound matters, the Internet is an inexhaustible source of information also accessed through the personal computer, providing a manager so inclined with the opportunity to spend an inordinate amount of time plugged into a vast internal and external network. This network facilitates reporting responsibilities and external analysis, while limiting communication to e-mail.
How have today's organizations moved from an aggressive agenda of must manage to the passive avoidance of people and goals exemplified by the desktop manager? With the recent introduction of a skeptical, less loyal generation of workers, it is easier for some individuals to masquerade as high performers in positions where they are poorly managed and appraised. Interestingly, the personal computer and the increasing importance of information management and the Internet have enabled managers to be more productive while facilitating the propagation of the desktop manager (Wallace, 2004). The problem is too complicated, however, to be blamed on the dissemination of computer technology and the central role it plays in today's organizations. A brief review of relevant research is presented as a background to a more in-depth discussion of the desktop manager and possible solutions for this growing problem.
Understanding What Managers Do
Early management practitioners attempted...
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