Too Big NOT to Fail: Lessons in Internal Communication from “Undercover Boss”

I’ve never been a fan of large organizations, companies and (especially) governments because I frequently see decision makers screw up when they are so far removed from the lower levels of management.

These fault-filled bureaucracies often frustrate employees by making them feel that “the man upstairs doesn’t know what’s going on down here!” Indeed boardrooms, financial statements and policy meetings are extremely different than assembly lines and low-level cubicles, so unless “the man” comes downstairs to have a look around every now and then, how would he know what’s going on?

I’m a student at Boston University, and I’ve been surrounded by uproar this school year from both students and faculty at the budget cuts the university made restricting students’ printing on-campus. The University forced restrictions on the number of pages students are allowed to print free of charge and the number of printing labs for students. These changes have left many members of the BU community wondering if the decision makers upstairs really know what’s going on down here.

Internal communications snafus are everywhere. So when I saw previews for CBS’s post-Super Bowl premiere “Undercover Boss,” I thought, “This is great.” But I also realized how this show just proves how much of a problem internal communication gaps are! Can you imagine working for a company and not knowing what your CEO looks like? I would like to think that if I were working in a large organization, I would recognize the CEO if he/she came to me pretending to be a new worker bee.

Then I think that if this guy…

walked into one of my classes pretending to be a professor, I wouldn’t think anything of it. When he didn’t understand students’ weekly schedules, I would shrug it off and chalk it up to him being another academically-minded teacher. This is Boston University’s President Robert Brown, and I have never seen this man before in my life.

I don’t want to make him out to be the bad guy. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one making the printing decisions. His university is just another victim of current management trends.

I hope “Undercover Boss” draws some attention from executives. The first episode featured Larry O’Donnell, COO of Waste Management cleaning toilets, driving garbage trucks, and learning “a heck of a lot” in the process. When his undercover stint was over, he said “I didn’t realize the impact [I had]. [These policies] came right from my office…I had no idea.” He vowed to fix the problems he witnessed. Maybe the “faces” of these large organizations will become more recognizable someday soon.