Specmaster wrote: ↑Mon Jul 03, 2023 8:53 pm
That is very true, so often it is management who stand in the way of progress, and from personal experience it tends to be those who came into into the role from an academic route rather than from the shop floor with actual knowledge of just what the job requires based on experience rather than a text book.
It is little to do with academic vs apprentice.
A far more significant cultural problem is the "gentleman amateur" knowing better than the "skilled artisan". That crap is imbibed through countless mechanisms, e.g. Lord Peter Wimsey who breezes in and effortlessly solves the crime that stumped policeman Plod. Wimsey does, after all, have the most important attribute: the right
breeding.
Real life examples include David Cameron, who thought he could have a good go at being prime minister. And didn't that turn out well.
Tied up with those attitudes is the concept of the generic manager who can breeze in and manage anything. While there certainly are transferable management skills, too often the result is seagull management - i.e. flies in, makes a lot of noise, and craps on those below him, and flies out again.