The Effects Of Organizational Structure On Employee Trust And Job: Fill & Download for Free

Agile is bullshit, that's why. OK let me qualify... The Agile Philosphy is perfectly fine, and it addresses the physical and psychological aspects of managing software development teams quite well. The bullshit comes in when a team or company makes the statement that "we are doing Agile" because they aren't. So, to clarify, Agile itself is a good idea, but when someone says they are "doing Agile" that statement is bullshit. Always.Programmers like things well-defined. When you tell me we're going to "do The Agile Process" (it's not a process), I expect an organization that follows these principles: Principles behind the Agile ManifestoThose principles are well defined, even beautiful. When all of those principles are taken into account and lived every day, you have a well-defined, even beautiful process. When you leave out even one of those principles, it all goes to hell, you're not doing Agile any more, and people who know Agile will recognize that immediately, as I have done in every single shop I've ever worked.I've worked in "Agile" development shops for the past 8 years, so let me tell you the reality, with relation to the principles, and I think you'll understand why "Agile" is bullshit...1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. - My customer right now is another business unit. I have never met them and I have no idea what they do. This is the reality in most companies. We don't even know the customer well enough to "satisfy" them, and certainly not well enough to make it job one.2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. - LOL! Nobody accepts changing requirements. It is universally hated, but it's the second Agile principle!3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. - Some companies do this quite well, but most teams aren't managed well enough to break software up into reasonable chunks for Agile time-scales. Delivery schedules are often based on large updates rather than small ones. Big updates isn't Agile.4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. - LOL! Again, this isn't really done. I don't think I've ever spoken to any of my customers on my current project. In past projects this has been hit and miss, and mostly based on organizational structure rather than anything meaningful. I can't talk to my customers because "they are above me" or "they are in another state" or whatever. Developers and business people working together is extremely rare. Most companies have a go-between who is supposed to facilitate this relationship, but it never works very well. I need to talk directly to the person using the application, NOT their manager, who doesn't really use it, and certainly not to the manager of their manager, through my manager - which is the typical case. Requirements are often determined by a person two levels up from the actual users and communicated through representatives, never directly from user to developer.5. Build projects around motivated individuals. - Most people don't know what this means. What it means is low level employees typically have the best ideas for software, and they are typically motivated to solve those problems because it will make their lives easier. Projects should be structured around those desires, which will affect the company bottom line directly by making workers more effective. Have you ever worked in a company where the lowest level employees are deciding what software should be built? Don't make me LOL, again.5a. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. - This is about developers here. Have you ever worked anywhere that you had all the tools, all the access permissions, and all the gadgets you needed to be most effective? Getting a good set of monitors is worse than a trip to the dentist in most companies. In one of my recent positions, it took three weeks to get me a computer that could run Visual Studio, and that was after I had told them two weeks before my start date, the exact specs of the computer I would need. Developers are rarely "trusted" either - usually we are told exactly what to do and when to do it rather than being given a job and a deadline and left on our own.6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. - You mean to tell me we can't do everything with IM and email? Seriously? Yes. Seriously. When a team is spread out all over the world and never looks each other in the eye, it hurts. This is particularly true for interaction between developers, but also important for interacting with customers. My most effective method of improving existing software was to stand behind someone and actually watch them use it. In many companies you just can't do that, even if you know who the customers are, they are "too busy" to talk to you, or it's impossible for some other reason. In-person interaction just isn't what it used to be. Companies don't think it's valuable.7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. - And yet, nobody measures that. What do we measure? Defect rates, hours worked, things like that. We almost never measure the thing that matters - did the customer get a working feature? How many working features did we release? Were they big features, medium ones, or little ones? Nobody knows.8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. - What this means is everyone works 30 hours per week on development and 10 hours on managing themselves and their workload, communicating with others, administrative stuff, etc. This can go on forever. What many companies do is demand overtime occasionally, and what some companies do is demand overtime quite often, and this is not sustainable. An Agile team rarely goes into emergency mode and pulls all-nighters. (You're kind of always in emergency mode)9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. - Most companies do an ok job of this, but technical excellence is often pushed to the side in favor of software that works. This is, in my opinion, the correct trade-off (principle 1 and 7)10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential. - Most teams simply don't spend enough time on this. A sense of urgency often overrides careful planning. The problem here is careful planning makes things get done faster. During the planning stage it feels like you're not getting anywhere, but you are setting up for a quick sprint. This setup is often overlooked, and we end up with not only complicated software, but complicated development habits, complicated code, and generally poor software design. This slows down maintenance and new development, as we try to fit into poorly designed structures that become ingrained and impossible to improve. "This new feature is poorly designed because the application it integrates with is poorly designed" can go on forever.11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. - Teams are organized by management, almost never by themselves. This is just a corporate culture problem, and it's very hard to overcome. Sometimes in startups and younger companies you can promote this idea and have it work, but in most companies it just doesn't work.12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. - Many companies do an ok job of this, but it's often in the form of "performance reviews" and it doesn't have the flavor we really want. What Agile wants is "lets all sit down together and look at what we did and how we can be better next time, AS A TEAM" - but what usually happens is individuals are evaluated against arbitrary and subjective measurements, and teams almost never implement any process improvements based on those evaluations.So, Agile is bullshit because nobody embraces the principles and puts them to work, but they still say they are doing Agile. This is extremely frustrating because developers know that if we did these things we could be way more effective.(Maybe that's not what you're looking for but I've been wanting to write that for a long time now)Update: Some people are taking this the wrong way. This is not a critique of Agile itself, it's an answer within the context of the question. It's an explanation of why programmers "consider Agile to be nonsense/bullshit" I'm NOT making the case that the Agile process itself is bullshit. This is just why "many" programmers say it is, which is a given of the question. This is, of course, opinion based on my own personal experience but it's clear that many people agree with me on this.

A business, church, army, or charity exists for a specific reason. Their organizational structures are designed to execute this function. Therefore, organizations that deliberately makes it a practice to promote people into management roles are in effect committing suicide as it is divorced from the purpose of the organization in society. They will not last long.Managers, as a rule, have much more influence on the ability of a firm to meet its business objectives. Implicit in their function is decision making, accountability, and responsibility for organizational performance. What this means is that managers are not defined by their title, rather, by their work and their attitude.Given the mostly undefined nature of the managers job, they sometimes do not hold themselves accountable for their units performance. They are susceptible to abuse of the authority and trust they have, and need to do their jobs. Dilbert's principle therefore is a caricature of these failures management.

A toxic workplace is a workplace that is marked by significant drama and infighting, where personal battles often harm productivity. Toxic workplaces are often considered the result of toxic employers and/or toxic employees who are motivated by personal gain (power, money, fame or special status), use unethical, mean-spirited and sometimes illegal means to manipulate and annoy those around them; and whose motives are to maintain or increase power, money or special status or divert attention away from their performance shortfalls and misdeeds.How To Cope With A Toxic Work Culture#1. Remind Yourself Who You Truly Are:Often times in a toxic workplace there is an abundance of tearing others down, passive-aggressive leadership, destructive gossip, conniving politics, and abundant negativity. When you are surrounded by this daily it can really start to affect your own self-worth. It is imperative that we learn to separate the negativity we are swimming in daily from the reality of who we truly are.Signs of Toxic Work Culture:#1. Dismissive Of Employee Ideas:A toxic work culture does not welcome employees to offer their ideas, input, creativity or strengths to the overall company strategy because they are merely worker bees. Managers dismiss the value of their people and employees are seen as cogs rather than worthy colleagues and business partners in producing excellence. This will suck the life, energy and motivation straight out of your employee.#2. Dictatorial Manager:The feeling of avoiding your manager at all times is not a good sign. It means you either fear or loathe your manager and facing him or her during the day probably means bad news because the exchange is never positive.#3. Backstabbing, Criticizing, And Blaming:This culture shows a lack of trust in the team and the fear that nobody can be trusted can be extremely detrimental to a person’s morale. In a space where you spend a large part of your day, you need to have a reliable support structure. While constructive criticism is always welcome constantly having to hear how badly you have done can instil a lack of trust in one’s own potential.#4. Gossiping And Spreading Rumours:If the means of communication in the organisation is gossip, then it’s not a healthy practice and this collaborates with the above point that nobody can be trusted.#5. Agreeing In Meetings, But Not Following Through Afterward:This can be an extremely unhealthy practice where lack of honest communication can work to the detriment of the organisation. If work and responsibility are not carried forward by the concerned person, it can lead to a spiralling effect of not achieving the company’s long term goals.#6. Caring Only About Personal Agendas (Over Team And Company Goals):At some point, we would all need to look beyond ourselves and work for something greater than ourselves. If everyone is aiming to achieve their personal goals then it would not help achieve the greater agenda of the organisation.#7. Poor Communication:Do you feel like you’re left out of the loop regarding important information? A pervasive lack of communication characterizes most toxic workplaces. You may get little to no feedback about your performance, and when you do, it’s negative and harsh — not the constructive type#8. You’re Told To Feel “Lucky You Have A Job”:If you’ve ever heard this statement from your boss or HR, it’s a major red flag. This scare tactic is a means of threatening you into staying in a marginalized position and is symptomatic of an organization that thrives on bullying behavior and control.How Can We Fix A Toxic Work Culture#1. Focus On Solutions And Not ComplaintsNothing is more toxic and contagious than employees complaining. Whether it be bad-mouthing each other, company leadership or dress code policies, complaints show a mentality of defeat rather than feeling empowered by the company culture.What do you want to overhear instead? Solutions.When workers believe they can change any problems that arise, they take action to alleviate issues instead of passively complaining. Positive growth is sure to occur when the focus turns to what is going well and what can be done better.#2. Encourage ResponsibilityInstead of letting laziness slide, be proactive and try these tips to promote responsibility in the workplace. If you’re taking steps to improve the culture but are still seeing negative behaviour in an employee, more serious action like a write-up or firing can be taken.#3. Foster Positive Relationships Among EmployeesThe animosity between employees is a key ingredient of a toxic culture. Of course, it’s a given that your employees won’t necessarily be best friends. However, all employees should be expected to complete their job responsibilities and collaborate with staff and customers in a courteous manner.To get the ball rolling, try a bunch of fun and unique team building activities. See how many hard feelings are left after a game of “organizational Jenga”.#4. Define Your Culture – And Live By ItA critical component to any company’s success comes from outlining a purpose and vision. While most organizations have mission statements, many have taken a step further to define the values of the company’s culture.#5. Coach Your Problem EmployeesProbably every office has at least one person that the whole company points to as “the problem.” This doesn’t come from a mentality of blame, but rather from acknowledging that a person with a negative attitude and poor work ethic truly does affect daily operation and stunts company growth. But what can be done about such a person, short of firing them?In his book Taking People With You, YUM! CEO David Novak shared about an employee who constantly wanted to cut costs at every opportunity – rather than adding value – and turned every meeting toward a negative direction. Novak didn’t want to let him go, so he had a frank chat with this employee – who, with constructive feedback, began to adjust his attitude to the betterment of the whole team. “I still believe in replacing people who are getting in the way of progress, but you need to be a coach first before you can make the right call,” Novak wrote in his book.#6. Focus On Exceeding ExpectationsLastly, a great way to boost morale among the whole company is to implement a focus on exceeding expectations for everyone you come across during your day. Employee to employee, manager to employee, employee to customer – each interaction should have the emphasis of going the extra step. Not only is this good for business, but in doing so, it provides consistent positive exchanges for everyone involved. These shared experiences make everyone, customers and employees alike, feel like they are a part of something important and meaningful.We are all going to have complicated relationships in our lifetime. While identification is one of the most important to begin working on a solution, giving it time and energy to improve is also extremely important. However, ladies, we need to stop accepting working in a space which undermines our abilities and stresses us out! We all deserve to work in good, happy and positive spaces!Tell us how you dealt with toxic work culture in the comments below and for more such discussions head to our Career and Exams community on SHEROES.