Management

Management: a profound reform towards a modern administration

Many of you expressed an increasing sense of discomfort vis-à-vis management. The gap between your professional aspirations and the constraints imposed by management is becoming increasingly clear.

In order to restore a good working atmosphere, it is essential to consider new management methods to tackle the human and organisational issues.

Currently, Heads of Unit, far from ensuring the effective monitoring and support of colleagues, are overwhelmed by purely administrative tasks and subjected to pressures and constraints which are often incompatible with the proper functioning of the services.

Senior management is increasingly selected on a purely political basis without necessarily taking into account the capabilities required for the job: the exercise of "parachuting" at the end of each Commission term clearly showed it! The game of Directors General musical chairs held periodically is more in line with a spoils system than the need to put the right person in the right place.

R&D is by your side to seek a radical reform of the management based on:
  • the enhancement of the essential attributes of any good manager: how to coach people and win their trust, accompany them in the team working, provide a vision and a real leadership at the unit, Directorate or Directorate-General levels;
  • the establishment of both a code of ethics and a guideline for managers: courage and sincerity, humility, generosity, creativity, being close to  their personnel in the context of a working relationship based on trust and accountability of staff;
  • procedures finally ensuring –that the right person is in the right post;
  • the establishment of fair and joint procedures to respond to detected problems with effectiveness;
  • the introduction of a credible assessment at 90° and 360°, whose results are taken into account;
  • the development of real management skills distinguishing the team management-oriented careers from those valuing technical expertise.
R&D is also by your side to:
  • award official recognition for the best managers of the Commission based on staff opinion, including reasons why colleagues are happy to work with these people; so it will be possible to establish best practices for the management of our Institution;
  • organise a series of lectures on good management practices in other institutions, international organisations and public administrations (eg. caring, emotional intelligence, developing employees' qualities, recognition and valuation of failures, ...)