The effects of micromanagement in the organization

Micromanagement is management focused on excessive control of details. This control is reflected in the permanent pursuit of employees' activities or the emphasis with a negative connotation on every detail of a person's work. Moreover, micromanagement implies the lack of freedom of employees to make decisions independently of the formal manager, even in those aspects related to the daily activity in the field of expertise.

This control and focus on excessive details severely limits the freedom of action of employees, invariably leading to feelings of uselessness and dissatisfaction at work. The resentments that appear are the natural step in the management of the subordinate-manager relationship, which leads to the potentiation of the manager's resentments towards the subordinates. Distrust comes naturally, employees will have feelings of distrust towards their superior, which automatically leads to the negative impact on teamwork and / or involvement in work by adhering to the vision of the leader.

Studies show that these negative effects occur regardless of the cause of micromanagement behavior - narcissistic leadership, insecure leadership, the need for managerial control - and are correlated with stress and increased fluctuation within the organization.

Frequent request for highly detailed reports, permanent verification of attendance at the fixed time, delegation of responsibility for failure and permanent assumption of success are some of the observable behaviors of a manager who practices micromanagement.

Although it is defined and recognized as a completely unproductive form of management since 1960, micromanagement is practiced in the most direct or subtle forms in many organizations (national or multinational) in Romania even as we speak and in parallel with the concern of the same companies to motivate and involve 'the most valuable resource - the human resource'.