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How Management Works - A Story

The document summarizes how over time, a department where an ant worked became overburdened with unnecessary bureaucracy and supervision. The ant had originally worked productively alone but a cockroach supervisor was brought in, recruiting more assistants like a spider, fly, and cicada. Paperwork and meetings replaced the ant's work, reducing productivity. An audit found the department overstaffed and the ant was fired for lack of motivation, though she had simply wanted to work as before without excessive oversight.

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2K views25 pages

How Management Works - A Story

The document summarizes how over time, a department where an ant worked became overburdened with unnecessary bureaucracy and supervision. The ant had originally worked productively alone but a cockroach supervisor was brought in, recruiting more assistants like a spider, fly, and cicada. Paperwork and meetings replaced the ant's work, reducing productivity. An audit found the department overstaffed and the ant was fired for lack of motivation, though she had simply wanted to work as before without excessive oversight.

Uploaded by

ashutoshkj
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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or

Every day, a small ant arrives at work very early


and starts work immediately.
She produces a lot and she was happy.
The Chief, a lion,
was surprised to see
that the ant was
working without
supervision.
He thought if the ant
can produce so much
without supervision,
wouldn’t she produce
even more if she had a
supervisor!
So he recruited a
cockroach
who had extensive
experience as
supervisor and who
was famous for
writing excellent
reports.
The cockroach’s first
decision was to set up
a clocking in
attendance system.
He also needed a
secretary to help him
write and type his
reports and …
... he recruited a spider,
who managed the
archives and monitored
all phone calls.
The lion was delighted
with the cockroach's
reports
and asked him to
produce graphs to
describe production
rates and to analyse
trends, so that he could
use them for
presentations at
Board‘s meetings.
So the cockroach had to buy a new computer
and a laser printer and ...
... recruited a fly
to manage the IT
department.
The ant, who had once been so productive and
relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork
and meetings which used up most of her time…!
The lion came to the
conclusion that it was
high time to nominate a
person in charge of the
department where the
ant worked.
The position was given to the
cicada, whose first decision
was to buy a carpet and an
ergonomic chair for his office.
The new person in charge, the
cicada, also needed a computer
and a personal assistant ,who
he brought from his previous
department, to help him
prepare a Work and Budget
Control Strategic Optimisation
Plan …
The Department where the ant
works is now a sad place,
where nobody laughs anymore
and everybody has become
upset...
It was at that time
that the cicada
convinced the boss ,
the lion, of the
absolute necessity to
start a climatic study
of the environment .
Having reviewed
the charges for
running the ant’s
department , the
lion found out that
the production
was much less than
before.
So he recruited the
owl , a prestigious
and renowned
consultant to carry
out an audit and
suggest solutions.
The owl spent three
months in the
department and
came up with an
enormous report ,
in several volumes,
that concluded :
“ The department is
overstaffed ...”
Guess who the lion fires first?
The ant , of course, because she
“showed lack of motivation and had a negative
attitude".
NB:
Os personagens desta fábula são fictícios; qualquer semelhança
com pessoas ou factos reais é pura coincidência.

The characters in this fable are


fictitious; any resemblance to
real people or facts within the
Corporation is pure
coincidence…
Adapted from Portuguese by PR. Obrigado
Mário.

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