Conceptual Basis

For more Information in this area, click on the links below to go to each section:

1. Concepts & Principles

Concepts & Principles

GE, IBM, and others have been using feedback in various forms for decades. The MFS™ process is a synthesis of over fifty years of experience, experimentation and research. It traces its conceptual roots to the seminal thinking and writings of McGregor, Lewin, Beckhard, Drucker, Argyris, Herzberg, Litwin, Bavelas, Likert, and the Lippits, among others. More recently, Warren Bennis, James McGregor Burns, Michael Maccoby, Robert H. Schaffer and Tom Peters have added important new insights.

The MFS™ Process is based on concepts and principles from the work of those mentioned above and from the Program developers’ own work. The underpinnings of the process are:

• The manager’s job is to attain goals that support the organization's mission.
  
• The key role of managers is to ensure that the people they direct attain their goals. Managers' success is measured by how well they do this.
• Based on the preceding statement, it follows that the people reporting to a manager are critically important CUSTOMERS of the manager. Effective managers provide appropriate leadership behaviors and management practices for them.
  
• To do so, managers need to be in touch with the real needs of their work groups and provide excellent “customer service”. Knowing the real needs of their key customers, managers are then able to start doing things to support their groups’ productivity, and stop doing things that constrain their groups’ productivity
  
• The manager's behavior is a critical determinant of the climate within which people work. The climate influences the degree to which people show responsible risk taking, open communication, trust, innovation, and highly motivated behavior that are characteristic of productive, vital, organizations.
  
• To learn and grow, managers need timely, accurate information about the impact of their leadership and managerial behavior on others. Without this data, they have little basis on which to modify their behavior, and even less motivation to do so.
  
• The people who have the most valid information on the impact of the manager's behavior are those directly affected by that behavior. If this information is not available to managers, their growth and development is seriously impaired.