Inspirational, but depressing

My wife was loaned a book "Stronger than Steel" by RC Sproul about the life of Wayne Alderson, and I had the privilege to read it this weekend.  More or less, it tracks the life of Mr. Alderson from poverty in a coal mining town to his leadership in a steel mill in Pennsylvania, where he managed to turn around a company from an 84 day strike to a quadrupling of sales and huge profit margins in less than two years.

How did he do it?  The book doesn't go into too many details, but more or less, it had a lot to do with treating employees with a bit of human dignity.  Some examples of basics he implemented were that managers ought to get to know line workers, manage by reason and consensus instead of by intimidation, stop using racial and ethnic slurs, and for managers to attempt some of the tasks that line workers were doing.

My response?  Consider me torn; it baffles to consider the idea that people would need to be told that it's a good, respectful thing for a man not to use racial slurs to his coworkers, or that managers ought to look a man in the eye and address him by the name he prefers.  On the other hand, I've seen a lot of "management by intimidation" in my days, and I'd love to see a lot more respect for people than I usually see at work.

Perhaps the best way of encapsulating the issue is to give "the end of the story," as Paul Harvey used to say.  After revolutionizing the way Pittron Steel did business and putting profits through the roof, Mr. Alderson was of course.......promoted, right?  Nope, the cynics were right; he was fired when the company which bought Pittron in 1974 was not ready to try a new way of management.

Sproul tries to put a nice light on it in noting that now Alderson was free to pursue a consulting business, and the book documents a number of successes he had.....for a time.  I looked up his current activities, and while it appears that he's still active, it's also clear that.....

.....management by intimidation is still alive and well, too.  Though most workplaces thankfully no longer have a place for racial slurs, workers will also tell you that their concerns are not exactly on the top of the list for management.  One might guess that truly implementing "value of the person" depends not on a seminar, but a heart change.