Management Theory Quotes

“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.”
― Abraham Harold Maslow

“...[I]ron discipline does not preclude but presupposes criticism and contest of opinion within the Party. Least of all does it mean that discipline must be 'blind'. On the contrary, iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes conscious and voluntary submission, for only conscious discipline can be truly iron discipline.”
― Joseph Stalin

“Every business should own, at minimum, a general liability insurance policy. The business needs to protect itself and mitigate against risk.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic

“The real problem occurs using the information in a negative base, and the real solution occurs using the information in a positive base.”
― Nr. M. J. K. Molai

“A leader who people do not perceive as worthy of following is really not a leader at all.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“People want to feel that you can lead them to victory. And often times that is a measure of competence - people are looking for cues, signs, indications, and proof of your level of competence.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“As a leader who delivers victory, people are more likely and more willing to follow you.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“Any vigorous competition will entail at least two elements: offense and defense. Offense is the effort you put into scoring against your opponents, and defense is the effort you apply to stop them from scoring against you. Those who suggest that "a little healthy competition can't hurt" are thinking only of the offense part....

The offense component of internal competition is problematic, but the defense component is always injurious. When peer managers play defense against each other (try to stop each other from scoring), they are engaging in anticooperation.”
― Tom DeMarco, Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

“Based on your perceived level of competence, people will make a determination as to whether you are worthy of following or not.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“Being a good leader inherently requires the ability to be a good follower. Good leaders follow as well as they lead.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“Let the energy of small victories permeate the spirits of those you lead.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“We don't have to be perfect. And we don't have to be Superman or Superwoman. But it is critical that we possess the ability to help the people we lead experience victory.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“Anyone who knows anything about data knows that it is critical to have authentic data – data that holistically represents the truth of something, as opposed to fragments or biased portions.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Business Leadership: The Key Elements

“Weak leadership will always hide behind ambiguity and rhetoric.”
― Amitav Chowdhury

“Fate can be tricky and troublesome when not managed well.”
― Steven Redhead, Life Is Simply A Game

“If the essential task of middle managers is reinvention, when is that task to be carried out? The answer is, during time that is not used up directing day-to-day business. The fact that managers have time on their hands (i.e., their operations tasks take up less than eight hours per day) gives them time for reinvention. The extra time is not waste, but slack. Without it they could function in only their operational roles. Reinvention would be impossible because the people who could make it happen are just too busy to take the time.

Even companies that didn't fire their change centers have hurt themselves by encouraging their middle managers to stay extremely busy. In order to enable change, companies have to learn that keeping managers busy is a blunder. If you have busy managers working under you, they are an indictment of your vision and your capacity to transform that vision into reality. Cut them some slack.”
― Tom DeMarco, Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

“There is no such thing as "healthy" competition within a knowledge organization; all internal competition is destructive. The nature of our work is that it cannot be done by any single person in isolation. Knowledge work is by definition collaborative.”
― Tom DeMarco, Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

“If you put fences around people, you get sheep.”
― William L. McKnight

“Some team members act as adhesives to unite the team.”
― Rajen Jani, Once Upon A Time: 100 Management Stories

“A competent manager ensures competent performance.”
― Rajen Jani, Once Upon A Time: 100 Management Stories

“Needless documentation hampers performance.”
― Rajen Jani, Once Upon A Time: 100 Management Stories

“Work works.”
― Rajen Jani, Once Upon A Time: 100 Management Stories

“Only by using a ‘structured means of control’ can an organization convert high-cost controls into business-assuring, profit-enhancing control.”
― Stephen Asbury, Health & Safety, Environment and Quality Audits

“Market demand for management system standards has led to an increase in the number of subject and sector-specific standards. There are now MSSs that cover health and safety, medical, environment, services, information technology and more... so the auditing of these systems needs to reflect the variety and number of standards being developed.”
― Stephen Asbury, Health & Safety, Environment and Quality Audits

“Efficiency without Effectiveness misses the Purpose
Effectiveness without Efficiency misses all the Profit
Effectiveness with Efficiency brings Performance.”
― Martin Uzochukwu Ugwu

“Right now, your company has 21st-century Internet-enabled business processes, mid-20th-century management processes, all built atop 19th-century management principles.”
― Gary Hamel, The Future of Management

“One of the most significant management functions is control. Controls are usually directed by organization policies and procedures. They are based on the concept that people should have a thorough understanding of management expectations. And there should be consequences for noncompliance. Penalties for noncompliance are predicated upon the theory, that people will not behave if they have nothing to lose.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 1978

“If you get into the habit of doing a thing in the physical, you will do it every time until you break the “Yes—But!” pattern determinedly; and the same is true in the unseen world of our teams thought process as they learn again and again you will get up to what goals are set before you because every time we surrender to the “Yes—But!” we will come to the point until we abandon resolutely and fail in our leadership.”
― John M. Sheehan

“Management is a science to be strategically imbibed and an art to be executed. It involves planning, coordination, strategizing, and implementation. Thereby it involves a process to achieve a goal. It involves a process of optimum utilization of resources to achieve a goal.”
― Henrietta Newton Martin, Legal Counsel & Author - Fundamentals of Airlines and Airports Management

“I am not a terrorist, I am a theorist.”
― Maliheh Sadat Razavi