Micromanagement is the term that is used in the context of the business world where the manager or superior tries to closely monitor and control the employees working under him which in turn can be very frustrating and demotivating for the employees as no one wants to be controlled and supervised all the time and micromanagement tries to do exactly that. In simple words, in the case of micromanagement, the idea of the manager is to become a CCTV camera just like CCTV camera keeps an eye on activities continuously in the same way a manager tries to keep an eye on activities and work of employees continuously. In order to have a better understanding of this concept, one should look at some of the examples of micromanagement –
Micromanagement Examples
Marketing Employees Micromanagement
In the case of marketing teams suppose you are a sales guy and your task is to do door to door marketing and your superior tells you to keep your mobile GPS and location turned on all the time and moment you go to any other place than planned and your superior calls you immediately that why you are deviating from the plan than this is an example of micromanagement as ideally the superior should ask the sales guy to report the daily progress in the evening rather than keeping a count on the sales employees every minute through GPS.
Software Employees Micromanagement
In the case of technical employees suppose the team leader of your team tells all the team members to be logged in for 8 hours and mail the team leader every minute detail regarding the project then this is an example of micromanagement because software engineers will be more focussed on mailing and ensuring that they are logged in rather than doing the actual work as ideally team leader should be reported about important developments regarding the project rather than reporting them every insignificant detail about the project.
Factory Workers
In the case of factories suppose the supervisor instead of monitoring day to day to activities of the workers try to monitor minute by minute activities of workers than it is nothing but a case of micromanagement as workers are not machines and they too need rest and break which cannot happen if the supervisor is constantly monitoring and pressurizing workers to do their task.
Teachers
In the case of teaching if the school or college authorities insist on ensuring that each class is taken according to them and gives no flexibility to the teacher with respect to their teaching style then it is a case of micromanagement as teaching is not something which can be done robotically rather it requires patience and creativity to ensure that students understand and learns the concept clearly.
Financial Services Micromanagement
In the case of banking and insurance suppose an insurance company has given targets to various employees and instead of checking their weekly or monthly performance the supervisor or team leader ask its team member to report the progress on an hourly or daily basis than it is a case of micromanagement as insurance policies are not like medicines just like medicines can be sold based on prescription insurance policies cannot be sold easily as it requires persuasion and time on the part of the insurance agent to crack the deal which cannot be measure on an hourly basis.
As one can see from the above examples of micromanagement that while it is good to have control over employees but doing it too much can have a negative impact on the morale of the employees as employees love managers but once that manager becomes dictator then employees won’t hesitate in overthrowing that dictator by either leaving the job or making a group which is against the manager as well the company which we all know can lead to a bigger problem for a company.