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Essay on Article Review: Soft vs Hard Management

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This article was in the Harvard Business Review December of 2001. Is “hard” management the way to go or is the other way around is “soft” management the best way to manage? In the article Peace is arguing that soft managers are better managers than hard managers. Peace describes a hard manager as a person who is self-confident, arrogant, and thick skinned. While he describes a soft manager one that listens to criticism and takes time to notice employees opinions. If one has ever worked they have probably experienced hard and soft managers.
In the article Peace describes two stories that illustrates the positive aspects to soft management. In the first story he tells of when he was a manager at Synthetic Fuels Division of Westinghouse. The …show more content…

This was a very brave act that Pearce had done. Most hard managers would not have taken the time to let the employees know that they are respected. Most hard managers would have had their “puppets” break the bad news to the unlucky 15. Peace being the soft manager that he is showed compassion towards them, which also showed the remaining employees his compassion towards them.
In the second story Peace was working as the vice president of Westinghouse Steam Turbine Division. In this story the focus is on Peace’s boss the president of the company, Gene. When Gene became the president of the company it was under a depression state in that it wasn’t making much of a profit at all. The workers were in a very brutal union that threatened those who even dared to cross picket lines. Gene understood the kind of people that he would be dealing with in trying to communicate the goals of the company to the entire work force. Instead of having the president of the union tell the work force about the companies goals, Gene decided he would do it a division at a time himself. When he done so he received much criticism while giving these presentations. Peace did not understand why Gene would do this to himself, but after a few weeks as Gene walked about the floor he received nods of gratitude. Gene had made a gesture of friendship to the workforce by doing it himself. This is another form of soft management and

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