Dialogic Management

Business Honors Seminar 390

Sangbin Park
Professor Raj Rakhra
Business Honors Seminar 390
3 June 2013



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Table of Contents
Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................2
Body of Paper .................................................................................................................................4
History of Management ................................................................................................................4
Current Implications .....................................................................................................................5
Management Issues: Limitations and Blocks ...............................................................................6
Management and Education .........................................................................................................7
My Proposal .................................................................................................................................9
Empowering Every Employees/Decentralization .....................................................................9
Providing Open Space For Collaborative Effort ....................................................................10
Giving Incentives....................................................................................................................12
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................13
Annotated Bibliography ..............................................................................................................15
Appendices ................................................................................................................. See Attached
Proposal Memorandum ........................................................................................ See Attached
Power Point Presentation Slide Deck ................................................................... See Attached


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Executive Summary
Education is a topic that has been and is constantly receiving negative publicity for its
stagnation. People have been criticizing the American education for multiple reasons including
the educational gap, ineffective teachers, and impersonal teaching and evaluation methods. Being
aware of the stagnation in American education, I was deeply interested in learning more about its
limitations and implications. Accordingly, last winter quarter, I took a class on education and had
a project on finding out what is working in our current educational system. In the process, I
witnessed something special at a local high school named Lakeside school, a school that is
nationally recognized for its prestige and exceptional educational program. An English teacher at
the school was teaching the students dialogically in a classroom with a big roundtable. He was
practicing the dialogic model of education, an idea that Paulo Freire, a famous Brazilian educator
and philosopher, was advocating for in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The teacher said
the roundtable enabled him to have students of all personal types, both extrovert and introvert, to
share their ideas and contribute to the overall learning of the class. Thus, it was evident that
innovation was taking place in how students are taught. What if this dialogic model of education
was applied to management? The similarities between education and management are evident.
The power dynamics within a classroom setting is no different than that of a corporate office.
Management in corporations has been suffering from a universal mindset of persistently
sticking to what is proven to workefficiency-focused, hierarchal management. Corporate
management knows the power of talent managing. However, many are not willing to take
innovation in management, because they are too focused on innovating aspects that matter
externally such as, making innovative products. Although the traditional way of management is
functional, it is not the most optimal management style for all companies. Some have deviated
from it and started innovating their own management style. Corporations such as Google and
Citrix are good examples of innovative corporations.
With innovation in mind, I propose that the companies implement dialogic model of
management to disempower efficiency-focused corporate culture and create a personal and
collaborative environment where employees can grow affectionately attached to the company. I
believe that this can be achieved in three ways: (1) empowering every employee/decentralization,
(2) providing open space for collaborative effort, and (3) giving incentives to employees. Firstly,
employees need to be empowered to make decisions within the company. They must know who
they can talk to and present their ideas to get their ideas heard. Secondly, companies need to
provide their employees with opportunities and accessibility to work with each other on a project.
Employees will be more efficient if they can work with people who they can trust and depend
upon for help. Thirdly, employees need to be recognized for their hard work. Employees will be
more content about their work if they know they are being rewarded for their work and, possibly,
perform better for more awards. Employees happiness will translate to customers happiness.
Clearly, my proposal is not the ultimate solution for all companies, but it can be a
solution for some. Companies need to take risk and invest in reinventing their management style.
Management is a subject to be refined. Employees as a whole form the company. How
employees are managed will reflect on how company performs and is viewed by the customers,
investors, and the public.
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(Blank)

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Body of Paper

History of Management: Henry Fords Innovative Managment
Model T is arguably the most famous example of American business success. It is an
iconic symbol of American industrialism and unchallenged innovation. In 1903, Henry Ford
found his Ford Motor Company and produced only three cars a day. By 1918, Fords Model T
accounted for half of all cars in the U.S. So, how exactly did Fords success come about? Can we
credit dramatic technological advancement? Or, was it Fords management? What history tells us
is that only Ford could have done what we have done.
Ford was different in two ways: management of the innovative assembly line and
management of his employees. Assembly line innovation was simply an improvement to
manufacturing process. Instead of workers working to put together a car, Ford built a factory
where workers added parts to each Model T as it moved down a line (Iacocca). By doing so,
Ford could churn out a Model T every 93 minutes. Fords introduction of the assembly line
shocked the world in both its efficiency and usefulness fueling Americas Industrial Revolution.
Ford also differentiated himself from other executives through his radical management style. In
1914, when the average wage for the auto industry was $2.34 for a 9-hour shift, he paid his
workers $5 a day as a minimum wage. He even took an hour off normal work hours. For this, he
received scorns and the Wall Street Journal called it an economic crime. However, Ford was
able to increase the wages for his workers by lowering the cost of manufacturing its cars. He also
envisioned that his workers would be able to buy Model T with their increased wages. Ford is
also known to have expanded his businesses globally during a time when automobile companies
operated mostly domestically.
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Through the story of Henry Ford, the importance of innovation is evident. Of course,
there were numerous other innovations that took place simultaneously. However, we have not
seen any major change in our currently efficiency-driven corporate world.

Current Implications: Perpetuating the Paradigm
To a certain extent, the current society owes much of its current advancement to the past.
It is important to know how some of the giant corporations that exist today rose to the top.
However, we must realize that we are perpetuating the paradigm. We are confined within our
patterns and following the traditional way that is proven to work. It is evident that we have been
and are constantly introduced to innovative products such as color televisions, commercial
airplanes, Kodaks Polaroid, cellphones, personal computers, and Apples iPhones. However, it
is hard to hear about innovations in management.
Certainly, there are some industry leaders that often come to our mind with their
innovative management. For example, Google embraces the flat organizational structure where
the organizational structure of the company is decentralized with employees more empowered to
make decisions. Still, with overflow of information and mind-blowing new products and
technologies from the Silicon Valley, one would imagine there has to be more innovation for
how people work together. In reality, there are only a few innovations taking place to
revolutionize or just to make a slight improvement on how people work each other. Companies
are too focused on the bottom line that they are missing out on how to people can work better to
yield growth of the company. Companies want efficiency; therefore, companies do not want to
risk investing in how they manage their employees to get behind their competitors.
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While there is some innovative management taking place in some companies, many of
the companies remain indifferent. Innovation in management is increasing in its importance as
employees seek for better work environment. A good indicator of employees discontent with its
job can be shown by the turnover rates. Although some industries show turnover rates as low as
5%, some industries show high turnover rates; one example is accounting industry. Accounting
industrys biggest firms coined the Big Four have suffered from historically high turnover
rates of 15%-20% (Accounting for good people). This means that every year, one in five
employees leave the company. This is really high. There are multiple reasons why these
accountants choose to leave the company. On one hand, their departure could be attributed to
demands for higher pay cheque. On the other hand, if the companies offered ample chances of
personal development and collaborative environment for growth of everyone, then employees
would have grown attached to their companies and stayed with the firm. This is not a problem
just for accounting industry, but a major problem for all industries. Why are employees deciding
where to work based on their pay cheque? Money cannot be the only factor that is considered
when choosing between which companies to work for. Thus, there is a need for new
management styles or structures that enable employees to build relationship with its company.

Management Issues: Limitations and Blocks
One size fits all is a phrase that comes to mind when observing the current corporate
world. Why do many companies believe that what works for other companies work for them?
Every company has different personality and different composition of employees. However, we
see that many companies are uniform in its management--they all embrace hierarchical, paternal
management. There is no arguing that top-down management works to certain extent, but not for
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everyone or for every company. Companies may not be obligated to change their management
style to fit their all individual employees, but they are certainly responsible for fostering an
environment where their employees can perform at their best ability with loyalty and pride in
their work and company. Thus, the limitations and blocks of the current management involves
around the companies inadaptability to keep up with changing society, simply, companies have
not been innovative in terms of their management.

Management and Education
Imagine that you are taking a quiz in your fourth grade class and you come across a
following question: When people work together to build a house, will the job probably (a) get
done faster, (b) take longer to finish, or (c) not get done? (Coutu). Obviously, most people
would circle (a) get done faster as the correct answer. Why is that? This is actually a question
that showed up in a standardized test for fourth graders in Ohio. In practice, most of us know that
working together with others can yield multiple results. However, we are taught that working in
teams is more efficient. Notice the emphasis on efficiency; it is just like how companies look at
management. This is where we can draw the relationship between education and management
because we, as a society, was ingrained the ideals of our own paradigm and learned to embrace
perpetuation. In some sense, the classroom setting and the student management are similar to the
corporate setting and employee management. Thus, the relationship between education and
management is highly relevant to our current stagnant corporate management.
Paulo Freire, a famous Brazilian educator and philosopher, introduced and advocated for
the dialogic educational model. With the publication of Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1968,
Freire challenged the traditional way of education as impersonal and ineffective. He declared that
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the authoritative nature of the educational system is a limitation to fostering a good educational
experience. He describes the traditional educational system as the banking education. Banking
education is simply an educational system in which the relationship between a teacher and a
students is a narrating subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the
students)...[and]...[teachers] task is to fill the students with the contents of his narration
(Freire 71). Freire reminds the audience that this is a mere reflection of our oppressive society.
Teachers are authoritative figures with the power and students are obedient listeners. This is no
different from the traditional, typical corporate culture where managers assume the role as
teachers and their subordinates become students.
Freire criticizes the banking model and introduces the dialogic model. Freire describes
the dialogic education as a place where no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught.
People teach each other, mediated by the world, by the cognizable objects which in banking
education are owned by the teacher (Freire 80). The idea is simple; disempower authoritative
figure and redistribute the power among all to create an environment where everyone, regardless
of their status, can learn from each other through dialogues. In comparison to the banking model,
it is an education as the practice of freedom--as opposed to education as the practice of
dominations (Freire 81). Educators need to stop forgetting that their fundamental objective is
to fight alongside the people for the recovery of the peoples stolen humanity, not to win the
people over to their side (Freire 94-95). The same idea can be applied to corporate
management. Like educators, business people need to stop being too objective and abandon their
mindset of winning the people over. It is time that they worry about winning with the people.
They can achieve this in multiple ways, but they need to be innovators.
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My Proposal
Along with his great achievements, Henry Ford was also known for his stubbornness. He
insisted on making only black Model T, and the Ford Motors Company did not introduce any
new model of car until 1920s when General Motors was gaining the market share. This shows
that innovations cannot stop. Stagnation can lead to a downfall like how stagnant water cannot
stay pure. Innovation stems from willingness to take risk. I propose that the future of
management lies with constant adaptability and management that implements dialogic
management, a place where employees work together with a freedom and a sense of security to
share their ideas and make contributions. This can be achieved in multiple ways, but there are
three elements that seem essential to me. They are (1) empowering every
employee/decentralization, (2) providing open space for collaborative effort, and (3) giving
incentives. The practicality of my proposal will be examined with examples from both
educational and corporate settings.

Empowering Every Employee/Decentralization
A company should empower every employee so, they realize that their voices are real
contributions that matter. Inevitably, a common notion of an innovative company is that its
organizational structure is flat. Many of us believe in less hierarchy in organizational structure as
something innovative. While this is somewhat true, an innovative management does not
necessarily entail flattening out organizational structure. Management is not one size fits all. For
example, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, proposed and passed under Bush administration,
shows how uniformity in management may not prove to be so effective. In May 20, 2013,
Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia join[ed] 37 other states and D.C. in getting relief from No
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Child Left Behind (Layton). Most of the states have requested to get relief from the law to
implement their own education policy and many have been granted relief. The government is
realizing that a nationwide standardized system will not work in all states. Therefore, it is
decentralizing to empower each state with power to come up with its own policies. Similar
efforts need to be made to management. There needs to be a redistribution of power. Many of the
employees are limited of their potentials by the power dynamics that exist in their workplace. An
idea will have to go through a hierarchical pyramid to get approved. In the process, a promising
idea might get abandoned or ignored. If employees have more decisions powers and managers
are better listeners, then the problem will be solved.
Facebook is a good example of company that has successfully distributed more power to
employees. Facebook embraces the hacker wayembodying the mindset of hackers, who test
existing infrastructure for flaws and make immediate changes, has become the core principle of
the company, the companys five point credo. In many companies, only the top executives can
make decisions; however, often times, it is not clear who exactly has the power to make
decisions, but you have to make it very clear who IS accountable for making the decision
(Bersin). By making it clear which senior leader is accountable for making decisions, employees
will have better chance of getting their ideas reviewed. The company will also be more efficient
through this elimination of unnecessary process.

Providing Open Space for Collaborative Effort
A company should be a safe place for employees to share ideas and to work together on a
project. In contrast to idealistic workplace, a typical workplace can be pictured as a place with
cubicles. For industries where privacy and individual work is important, a workplace full of
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cubicles would be fine. However, ideally, cube farms, an excessive number of cubicles, are not
best suited setting for collaborative work. In order to stimulate collaborative environment, the
workplace should provide an easily accessible group workplace. Citrix is a company that strives
to provide the solution to the question: What's needed is a more flexible space that better
supports teams and inspires more open thinking (Richardson).Citrix, a Silicon Valley based
multinational software company, built the design collaboration space for one of its corporate
buildings. The design collaboration space is a large open area where multiple disciplines can
come together to innovate (Richardson). It is a space with large windows and glass walls where
all activities are transparent. The space provides materials for sketching out ideas like markers as
well as moveable tables, chairs, and whiteboards that can be moved around to create the perfect
collaboration space (Richardson). The goal of the space is to change the behaviors of the
employees:
The design space has been the ultimate tool in driving behavior change. Even the
most analytical team members can't help but sketch their thoughts and ideas on
the table whiteboards while they sit and chat. The casualness of the space puts
people in the right frame of mind to go outside of their traditional comfort zones
and build stronger relationships with teammates (Richardson).
Although the space was originally built for designers, Citrix is benefiting from the usage of the
space by multiple other departments. Catherine Courage, VP of Product Design at Citrix, said
that the space is not only used by its designers, but also used by various other departments such
as human resources and engineering. Perhaps, through the design collaboration space, Citrix
created a place where individual employees can come together to freely form groups to work on
projects. The space has also helped out with the hiring process by attracting great candidates
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(Richardson). Its adventurous ambition to strive towards a better workspace is starting to inspire
its employees as well as its future employees. The company wants to replicate the similar
workspace in its other corporate buildings. Companies need to realize that organizations are run
by multiple groups of people, not just by managers.

Giving Incentives
A company should provide incentives and perks for its employees. Firstly, companies
need to care about the personal development of their employees. Training and giving
opportunities for personal development keeps the employees at their best performance level:
Facebook regularly moves engineers from project to project, whether they like it
or not. Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, and other high-performing engineering companies
do the same. This process of talent mobility creates diversity of thought, brings
great new ideas to every team, and helps people develop deeper skills (Bersin).
Facebook also holds hackathon where engineers are asked to stay all night to work on new
projects. Fostering an environment to enable curiosities and skills of its employees to flourish is
corporate responsibility.
Another incentive that companies can give to their employees is rewards. An example is
Googles Founders Awards. Once in a while, Google gives out awards to its employees for
working on outstanding projects. The company awards big rewards: The first two Founders'
Awards consisted of restricted stock that was worth $12 million stock (Hafner). By awarding
employees with good ideas, Google is keeping its talented employees content and rewarding
those, who are capable of starting their own companies, to continue to work for Google. The
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company is also motivating its employees through increasing the awareness that it cares about
their ideas.
American Express is another company that provides incentives to its employees.
American Express believes in three Es engagement, energy, and enablement to be the key to
employees and companys success. Doria Camaraza, the senior vice president and general
manager of American Express World Service Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, took the
initiative to keep her employees happy and engaged. She states that managers are about people
and she has done numerous jobs including opening up Healthy Living Center, a workout facility,
and the Kid Zone, a backup child-care facility, for her employees. Charles Johnson, the centers
HR relationship leader, summarizes the impacts in a statement:
You might ask why would anyone want to settle down for sixteen years in one
place, but when you talk with people here you get it. You are treated well, theres
an amazing level of care and concern. And when employees are happy, that
translates to customers (Click).
As a result, the companys call center maintains employee turnover rate at single digits annually
compare to industry average of 50%. It also earned an unprecedented five consecutive years of
J.D. Power & Associates awards for highest customer satisfaction among credit card companies
(Click). Doria and her leadership team knows that physically and emotionally happy employees
with high level of energy for work translates to boosted daily productivity level.

Conclusion
Clearly, my proposal is largely based on implementing the dialogic model of education to
management. Given that dialogic model of management is something that is rarely practiced in
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the real world, it may be beneficial for companies to invest themselves in reinventing their
management style to be more dialogical. The dialogical model has been proven to work in
education. The Harkness method, a classroom taught in a roundtable, is a form of dialogic
education practiced in a classroom at Lakeside and is widely practiced in Philips Exeter
Academy, where it was originated. The method gives empowers students and is also a good way
to teach all learning styles (TABLE TALK). In oversimplification, it stimulates students
active involvement in education. Just like how education can be more effective when dialogues
occur, management must stimulate active engagement and must be a two-way street with a
speaker and a listener. Dialogic management style will provide way for managers and employees
to communicate with each other and make changes for the better.
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Annotated Bibliography
Works Cited
"Accounting for Good People." The Economist. The Economist, 19 July 2007. Web. 2 June 2013.
<http://www.economist.com/node/9507322>.
The Economist presents an article on the topic of talent management in the accounting
industry. The article discusses how employees are the assets that generate revenue for the
Big Four and how these large public accounting firms are dealing with managing their
employees. It mentions that turnover rate at the Big Four have been historically high. The
Big Four are setting goals to retain their employees. They are creating programs for
career development and creating more rooms at the top positions to keep their employees
motivated to work for them.
Bersin, Josh. "How Facebook's 'The Hacker Way' Applies To Your Business." Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 15 Mar. 2012. Web. 2 June 2013.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/03/15/facebooks-the-hacker-way-applies-
to-your-business/>.
Forbes magazines article on Facebooks CEO Mark Zuckerbergs five point credo that
embraces the hacker way explores how its credo effects how Facebook is managed. Its
five point credo sets it apart from the competitors. The five credo includes (1) move fast,
(2) small self-organizing teams, (3) make the decision-making process clear, (4) hire
great people (define great), and (5) push people to stretch themselves. Facebook, as a
company, operates around its credo. Its unique management style is something that has
been receiving publicity with its growth.
Click, Christopher. "Engagement Isn't Enough." Strategy+business (2012): n. pag. Factiva. Web.
29 Apr. 2013.
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<http://global.factiva.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/aa/?ref=STPBS00020120912e8
9a00002&pp=1&fcpil=en&napc=p&sa_from=>.
Strategy+business published an article on how American Express keeps its employees
engagement level high. The article discusses one of the American Express call center in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida where Doria Camaraza, the senior vice president and general
manager of American Express World Service Center, has set up numerous programs keep
her employees happy. Doria mentions that employees content level translates into
customer satisfaction.
Coutu, Diane. "Why Teams Don't Work." Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review,
May 2009. Web. 03 June 2013. <http://hbr.org/2009/05/why-teams-dont-work>.
Harvard Business Review published an article based on the interview with J. Richard
Hackman who is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at
Harvard University and is a leading expert on teams. Professor Hackman talks about how
people are taught that teamwork is good, but, in reality, working in teams can yield bad
results too depending on how teammates work with each other. He mentions multiple
factors that affect teams performance such as the need to set a compelling direction for
the team and the experience of working each other. He concludes his interview by
mentioning that effective team will satisfy its internal and external clients and foster
growth of each other.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a book written by Paulo Freire, a famous Brazilian
educator and philosopher. The book, first published in 1968, contains Freires idealistic
ideas of how students should be taught in school. It is in this book where he introduces
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his idea of dialogic model of education and criticizes the banking model of education, the
traditional education model. Freires belief in dialogic model of education could also be
applied to management with the idea that people can learn through dialogues.
Hafner, Katie. "New Incentive for Google Employees: Awards Worth Millions." New York
Times Feb. 2005: c10. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 May 2013.
The New York Times published an article on Googles Founders Award. The article talks
about how Google rewards its employees who work on outstanding projects with its
Founders Award. Employees can receive the companys restricted stock as an award.
The first two of Founders Award that were awarded to two teams of employees were
worth $12 million. Sergey Brin, Googles co-founder and co-president, states that the a
large part of the reason for giving out this award is to give incentives to people who could
their own companies to join Google knowing that they will be rewarded for their success
of the project. Mr. Brin would like to give out the award once a quarter. Perhaps, giving
incentives to employees are a good management approach to keeping them productive
and happy.
Iacocca, Lee. "Driving Force: Henry Ford." Time. Time, 07 Dec. 1998. Web. 2 June 2013.
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989769-1,00.html>.
Time magazines article talks about the founder of the Ford Motor Company Henry Ford.
The article is written by Lee Iacocca, former president of the Ford Motor Company, who
recalls the Henry Ford and the companys history. The article attributes the success of the
Ford Motor Company as the result of Henry Fords innovative management. It brings up
Fords assembly line, unprecedented high wages for employees, and Fords stubborn, yet
visionary ideals.
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Layton, Lyndsey. "Alaska, Hawaii, W. Virginia Get No Child Left Behind Waivers." The
Washington Post. The Washington Post, 20 May 2013. Web. 2 June 2013.
<http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-20/local/39389127_1_no-child-waivers-
education-reform>.
The Washington Post published an article on Alaska, Hawaii, and West Virginia
receiving the waivers from the U.S. Department of Education to relieve them from many
of the requirements of No Child Left Behind Act. These states will be joining 37 other
states and D.C. that have received relief from the law. These states are allowed to make
changes on the educational policy to meet their states needs with promise that they will
focus on preparing the students for college and career and supporting the neediest
students. The requests for waivers are response to the Congress inability to propose
educational reform in time. This also shows that the states are deviating from a uniformed
standard to tailor their policies to meet their own needs.
Richardson, Adam. "Inventing the Collaborative Workspace." Harvard Business Review.
Harvard Business Review, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 2 June 2013.
<http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/inventing_the_collaborative_workspace.html>.
Harvard Business Review published an article on collaborative workspace of Citrix, a
Silicon Valley-based technology and software company. Citrix created a collaborative
workspace in one of its corporate buildings where the space is surrounded by glass walls
and windows with rooms filled with moveable chairs, tables, and whiteboards to
stimulate group work. The collaborative environment provides the employees with more
opportunities to work with each other and promotes a culture of collaborative effort. This
kind of workspace has benefited the company by employees willingly and naturally
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working with each other on a project and the workspace being a selling point to attracting
talented future employees who think highly of the companys culture. Many of the
employees at different locations want to have the same space in their location. Citrix
made a good move by exemplifying its belief in collaborative effort through constructing
and providing a workplace where collaboration can happen everywhere.
"TABLE TALK: Harkness Method Meets Public Education." District Administration 38.11
(2002): 49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
District Administration magazine published an article on the Harkness Method. The
article discusses that the method was originated from the Phillips Exeter Academy where
it is still being used. The article also mentions that the public schools are beginning to
implement the method. The method is known to have be very successful in teaching
students of all learning types. It also breaks down the barrier between the teachers and the
students by giving students more power to participate. This method is a form of dialogic
model of education.