High variety and quality of heterogeneity of long-term memory material

Это продолжение увлекательной статьи про управление организацией.

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его деятельность была эффективной:

1) как "один из нас";

2) как "подобный большинству из нас";

3) как "лучший из нас";

4) он должен "соответствовать экспектациям", т.е. оправдывать ожидания членов группы.

Наиболее изученной и богатой фактическим материалом является та область социальной перцепции, которая связана с описанием ее основных феноменов , эффектов, проявлений. Все они обладают одной общей чертой – одновременно являются и своеобразными "ошибками" (проявлением неточностей социальной перцепции), и важнейшими закономерностями, причины которых коренятся в фундаментальных особенностях психики. Отметим те из них, которые представляют наибольший интерес и значимость для характеристики управленческой деятельности.

"Эффект ореола" (галоэффект): его суть состоит в том, что общее благоприятное впечатление (мнение) о человеке переносится и на оценку его неизвестных черт, которые также воспринимаются как позитивные. И наоборот, общее негативное впечатление также ведет к отрицательной оценке тех черт, которые неизвестны. Этот эффект усиливается при уменьшении общей информированности об объекте восприятия; в этом случае он сам служит своеобразным средством восполнения дефицита информации об объекте.

"Эффект первичности " состоит в тенденции к сильной переоценке первой информации о человеке, в ее фиксации и высокой устойчивости в дальнейшем по отношению к другой, поступившей позже, информации. Он называется также "эффектом знакомства", или "первого впечатления". Как показывают исследования, эта – начальная информация крайне важна субъективно, она получает несоразмерную ее объективной важности субъективную оценку и в дальнейшем очень трудно поддается коррекции.

"Эффект новизны", в отличие от предыдущего, относится не к восприятию незнакомого человека, а к восприятию уже знакомого. Он состоит в том, что последняя, т.е. более новая, информация оказывается субъективно наиболее значимой. Это относится не только и даже не столько к информации о внешних признаках субъекта, но и к его, например, речевому поведению. Поэтому существует правило, согласно которому беседу следует заканчивать какой-либо эффектной фразой, поскольку именно она лучше всего запечатлевается собеседником и более всего влияет на его мнение и поведение.

The last two effects are due to a general psychological mechanism, the stereotyping mechanism. All the phenomena caused by them are sometimes separated into a separate group - the group of “ stereotyping effects”. A stereotype is a certain stable image of some phenomenon or person, which is used as a means, a kind of "contraction", a pattern when interacting with these phenomena. It arises on the basis of the “ordinary” ideas about the essence of certain phenomena that have developed in everyday life (or in professional activity). It also arises on the basis of limited past experience, as a result of the desire to build conclusions on the basis of limited information. Very often, the effects of this group arise with respect to group or professional affiliation (“all accountants are pedants”), but often also on the basis of purely everyday notions (“fat people are good-natured, thin — bilious”).

Stereotyping as a mechanism and a reason for the group of effects arising on its basis cannot be evaluated from the point of view of “bad - good”. It is dual: by simplifying the process of perception, a person unwittingly “pays” for this simplification by the probability of erroneous perception. One of the relatively independent varieties of this phenomenon are the so-called modeling errors . This is an image, a certain model of a person, developing on the basis of stereotypes and arising even before the beginning of interpersonal interaction, on the basis of preliminary information about him. Simulation errors arise, therefore, based on an inadequately adequate receptive setting. That is why it is not quite adequate, which is formed under the influence of stereotyping.

Private, but important for management activities, the type of modeling errors is a kind of "technocratic perception" of subordinates. The head "models" the subordinate on the basis of his official and professional affiliation and builds the image as it should be, based on this affiliation, and not on the basis of the characteristics of a real person. This phenomenon is a particular manifestation of the general technocratic, manipulative leadership style . It is often a source of interpersonal conflicts in the "leader - subordinate" vertical. Hence the well-known rule of humanistic management: in the subordinate one must see the person, and not in the person - the subordinate; to lead not posts, but people.

The “effect of condescension” consists in the unreasonably positive perception by the head of the subordinates and the hypertrophication of their positive features in the underestimation of the negative; in the opinion that they are "still correct." Its basis is the desire to protect oneself from possible conflicts that inevitably arise in the objective assessment of negative traits. This effect is more often seen in the leaders of the democratic and especially - conniving styles. The leaders of the authoritarian style, he "turns around" and appears as a "hypersensitive effect", shea "the effect of the prosecutor."

The effect of "physiognomic reduction" consists in a reasonable and, as a rule, hasty conclusion about the internal psychological characteristics of a person based on his external appearance.

There is also a phenomenon called the “intragroup favoritism” phenomenon. It consists in the tendency to favor in the perception and value judgments of the members of their own group as opposed to the members of some other group (or groups). This phenomenon as it sets the "most favored mode" interpersonal relationships and perceptions of members within the group (compared with intergroup relations). In terms of the relationship of the head of the group (organization) with subordinates, he acquires additional specific features. First, it can become, and most often becomes, selective for individual members of a group. Second, it hypertrophies, transforming into a known phenomenon of protectionism, i.e. moves from the plane of perception to the plane of action.

The phenomenon of “presumption of reciprocity ” (the illusion of reciprocity) lies in the steady tendency of a person to perceive attitudes toward him from other people like his own attitudes toward him. The reason for the phenomenon of “presumption of reciprocity” is that it is exactly the same, i.e. equal treatment, subjectively presented as the most "fair". The assumption of reciprocity is a kind of "starting point" with which interpersonal relations begin to be built. For a manager, this is also a regulator - a deterrent mechanism. He makes him remember that unfair appraisals may cause a "boomerang effect " on the part of his subordinates. Private, but important for management activities, the type of modeling errors is a kind of " technocratic perception" of subordinates. The head "models" the subordinate on the basis of his official and professional affiliation and builds the image as it should be, based on this affiliation, and not on the basis of the characteristics of a real person. This phenomenon is a particular manifestation of the general technocratic, manipulative leadership style . It is often a source of interpersonal conflicts in the "leader - subordinate" vertical. Hence the well-known rule of humanistic management: in the subordinate one must see the person, and not in the person - the subordinate; to lead not posts, but people. The phenomenon of the “assumption of similarity ” consists in the tendency of the subject to assume that other (other) people significant to him perceive those around him in the same way as he does. He transfers his perception of other people to his subordinates. So, the head is inclined, as a rule, to assume that the perception of the subordinates and other people, and himself is exactly the same as his own perception. Moreover, he builds his behavior and relationships with subordinates in such a way as to cultivate and strengthen this "unity of perception and evaluation." In limiting expression, this phenomenon can also go beyond perception and transform into a phenomenon of imposing opinions. Two more phenomena - the "mirror image" and favoritism have a similar content and are as follows. Members of two groups (usually conflicting) perceive the same personality traits as positive among the members of their group and as negative among members of the other group.

A characteristic “mistake” of perception, which, however, has its cause not only interpersonal, but also common factors, is the phenomenon of ignoring the information value of the “unbeaten”. Any leader knows well that more often than not what a person said or did is much more important, but what he did not say and did not do. In practice, however, this understanding is not always supported by actions due to this effect. Moreover, "information about the unimplemented" is not only underestimated, but in general is often ignored as having no place and therefore is not at all taken into account. Everyone knows the expression "silence - a sign of consent" as the most simple case of this phenomenon. In management, however, it is often quite complex and requires special reflection. Underestimating this very often leads to mistakes in leadership. This phenomenon as its cause has the fact that the interpretation and understanding of the "information about the unimplemented" is more difficult and, therefore, complicates the already complex activities of the head. At the same time, one of the most important features of professional competence and the experience of a manager is precisely the correct assessment of what could have happened, but did not happen and why it did not happen.

The considered phenomena of social perception reveal the specificity and complexity of perceptual processes in managerial activity. Along with them, another category of phenomena of interpersonal perception plays a significant role in the activity of a manager. It is, however, more general in nature and closely related to intellectual processes. These phenomena characterize not only how people perceive and evaluate others, but also how they try to explain the reasons for the actions and behaviors of others that they perceive. In Western psychology, this direction was called causal attribution. The main and underlying phenomenon of causal attribution is that people tend to explain their behavior with situational factors (i.e., the effect of "circumstances" on them), and the behavior of others with personal factors (i.e., their psychological characteristics). This trend is of a general nature, although it depends on the “sign” of the behavioral event being assessed - its success or failure. In case of failure, it is most pronounced, and in case of success it can change to the opposite. This is another fundamental feature of attribution. People tend to explain personal success by their personality traits, their attitude to work, and failures by circumstances, external causes.

In conclusion, the characteristics of perceptual processes in the activities of a manager should be noted that the main feature of management information - the informational basis of the activities of a manager - is its huge volume. This feature is inextricably linked with the other most important feature of management information - its fundamental heterogeneity, diverse content. It includes heterogeneous categories of information sources - information about subordinates, about technology, about facts (events), about opinions, about the current state of the organization, about forecasts of events, directive-regulatory information and much more. The fundamental heterogeneity of the information base is due to the main feature of organizational management systems - their complex, sociotechnical type. Therefore, the information basis of the activities of a manager imposes particularly stringent and specific requirements on the process of perception as a whole as a means of obtaining information. The essence of these requirements is associated with the following contradiction. On the one hand, the manager “is obliged to see everything”, and it is desirable not only as a whole, but also in details (the requirement of “sophisticated observation”), On the other hand, the most important psychological feature of perception is that its limitations do not allow it to be achieved. The way out of this situation is that the informational basis of the activity of the manager is subject to a natural transformation, a special organization. They occur on the basis of peculiarities in the process of perception. The main among them are integrity, structuredness, selectivity, objectiveness of perception. Therefore, the perceived information is subjected to structuring, dismemberment, selection of the main ones, comprehension, grouping, systematization - in other words, is organized in accordance with the characteristics of perception. The most important means of this (and above all the means of “combating” information redundancy is the mechanism of forming the operational image of the managed object (organization)). Operational image is organized in integrity, meaningful and orderly system of operational units, which presents generalized information about the main features of the organization.

The specificity of the other most important mental process, memory, which it acquires in management, is also determined by its organizational and psychological characteristics. Consider the main ones. A special place in the structure of memorized and stored information characteristics of the "social object". This is information not about subjects, but about subjects, and it, as was shown when considering social perception, is very specific. Characterized by a large amount of information to be fixed and stored in the memory of the head for effective activity. The highest degree of information diversity , due to the socio-technical nature of organizational systems; the presence of two fundamentally different categories of information - subject and object. The heterogeneity of the recorded information: this is information about "facts", about "opinions", "about relationships", "about the system", "about the environment", etc. Almost all information sources are interrelated in management activities. Consequently, it is not their mechanical memorization that is required, but the constant and active systematization, selection, and then the imprinting of only the main thing. The high dynamism of changes in operational situations of management, the inability to accurately predict what kind of information will be needed in the near future, provokes the need for constant readiness of the memory to update the information. The hard time mode of many control situations imposes corresponding requirements on the speed of reproducing the necessary information in memory. The need to take into account both the general features of management situations and their "details" (which, in reality, may not be details at all and contain the key to solving the situation). Increased management tensions that have a negative impact on mnemonic processes.

All these main features of management activity impose special requirements on two main types of memory - operational and long-term. Accordingly, under the influence of these features, they acquire a number of distinctive characteristics. So, the first and most common feature of the manager’s RAM is the relatively high degree of its formation and the level of development as a whole, its “training”, in mastering the methods and means of quickly remembering and reproducing information. In terms of its development, this kind of memory should occupy one of the dominant places in the structure of the head's mnemonic processes. The key condition for good RAM is the ability to subordinate all mnemonic processes to the specific task that is relevant at the moment, to direct all resources to it. The next most important feature of the manager’s RAM is the speed of updating the necessary information from past experience. This is due to the conditions of time trouble of operational management that are typical for management activities. Every idea has value if it comes in time. Conversely, the information recalled and necessary for a particular situation is useless and even harmful if the situation has already changed. The ability to remember what is needed exactly when it is needed is a key requirement for effective operational management, a condition of professionalism, and often a sign of the leader’s intellect. The process of operational management is characterized by a dynamic alternation of a number of different situations, their change, partial overlap, the need to solve several operational tasks simultaneously. In this regard, RAM has another feature - high dynamism, lability, easy non-switchability from one task to another, from one recalled array to another, then to the third, etc. In essence, we are talking about two characteristics of RAM:

1) about the ease, speed of switching the "focus" of memory from one information to another;

2) about a large number of such switchings per unit of time.

The next feature of RAM is related to the previous one. As shown in psychological studies, it is the operational (and short-term) memory that is the most among all mental processes subject to negative influence from the development of fatigue and other negative functional states in activity . However, there are large individual differences in this regard. For the head, it is important to keep the RAM in working condition when fatigue increases. This is the same, but it is even more pronounced in the negative impact of stressful, stressful situations on the working memory. Because of this, it is customary to talk about the so-called stress resistance of the RAM. The selectivity of RAM is a synthetic and extremely important feature of it. In order to successfully accomplish managerial tasks, we must not only remember the information relating to it and do it quickly, but also evaluate it and then distribute it according to the degree of importance for this particular situation. Selectivity, therefore, is the ability to quickly, accurate, but necessarily and assessed according to the degree of priority information. Effective manifestation of the selective is the accuracy of the RAM. A large amount of head memory and a large scale of its “units” is one of the most characteristic features. Virtually any management task is complex and, therefore, requires the retention in memory of a large number of information parameters and characteristics. Consequently, the amount of RAM should also be large, which is a factor that increases the intensity of management. Installation on the update is also a specific feature of the memory of the head and consists of the following. The logic of the development of the situation allows the manager to anticipate and predict its next move and to preliminarily determine what information will need to be updated and remembered. In this regard, the term of predictive memory is used. A very peculiar feature is the operative memory for misinformation. It would be an unacceptable embellishment of the reality of the opinion that the leader in his daily practice does not resort to some falsification, misinformation (and even deliberately false statements). Here, however, one of the most important psychological laws of memory comes into effect: it is much more difficult to keep in memory and constantly monitor statements and, in general, information of false content than true information. Particularly large load falls on the memory: it is necessary not only to remember about certain events, but also about their version of these events. The inconsistency of information RAM. The additional complexity and load on the memory is due to the fact that the manager has to keep in memory not only data that is in good agreement with each other, but also data that contradict each other. It is known, however, that it is precisely coordinated and structured material that is stored in memory much easier. On the contrary, a typical case of this inconsistency is, for example, the need to take into account the leader of many different opinions, the positions of subordinates. All the considered features of the head's memory are synthesized into the most important integrative quality - high mobilization readiness. It is precisely this that ensures the rapid and accurate updating of the “right information at the right time” and is the main operational-mnemic quality of the manager.

The peculiarity of long-term memory in management activities is also due to the main characteristics of this activity and the system of requirements for its implementation. In this case, however, on the forefront are somewhat different than for RAM, the parties and features of management. Most of the patterns analyzed above are related to the requirements that arise from the uniqueness - the “rigidity” and dynamism of the operational management functions . Long-term memory is more specific to other - tactical and strategic management functions. These functions are characterized, as it were, by less “linking” to the current situation, they impose new requirements on the information basis of their implementation. Therefore, the specificity of long-term memory is to a much lesser extent due to regime factors of management activity (operational management conditions). But it is more determined by the peculiarities of the “material” - information for memorization, storage and reproduction. In this regard, long-term memory in the activities of the head has the following main and specific features. The most obvious feature of the long-term memory of a manager is its large volume, which directly follows from the very essence of management activity. Moreover, in the general case, the amount of management information is such that it obviously exceeds the volumetric characteristics of long-term memory. Therefore, there is a need for special psychological tools that would allow the individual limitations of mnemic processes to be reconciled with a huge amount of management information. And such funds exist. They play a very important role in management. These will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

High variety and quality of heterogeneity of long-term memory material

This material is formed by different "information sources", for each of which there are their own - the best ways for them to memorize and even types of memory. For example, fixing interpersonal relationships involves an active connection of emotional memory. Memorization and identification of a large number of subordinates requires "memory for faces", placing special demands on visual-shaped memory. The preservation in memory of a huge amount of production and technological information requires reliance on verbal-logical memory, etc. At the same time, various methods of long-term memorization of material of a heterogeneous nature and, accordingly, different types of memory can “overlap” each other and interfere with each other. This phenomenon is known in psychology as a phenomenon of interference.

The specificity of the long-term memory of a manager is also attached to the uniqueness of the main object of managerial influences - other people, performers belonging to the type of "social objects". This was already mentioned when considering the phenomena of social perception. The "social object" as a material for long-term memory puts forward new requirements for mnemonic processes, gives them new features. The most famous is the necessary (or very desirable) for the leader "memory for faces". It is, however, only the simplest manifestation of another mnemonic property - memory for the subjective characteristics of subordinates as a whole: their abilities, capabilities, interests, strengths and weaknesses, biography features, and relations to them. Many of the most outstanding leaders had a truly phenomenal memory for both faces and other subject characteristics. Successful leaders are characterized by the desire to cultivate this quality in themselves. They are aware of its importance not only for its activities, but also in another, much more important aspect. For subordinates, the very fact that “they know you in person” and even remember some events close to you, interests and peculiarities, plays the most important motivational role, acts as a powerful incentive for effective work. The “personal memory” of a manager about a subordinate (especially when it comes to a large firm with more than one thousand employees) is generally very widely used in Western management as a means of stimulation, and often as one of the manipulative techniques. The head can pre-collect information through his assistants about a particular employee, whom he had once caught a glimpse of and contacted with him. Then “carefully planned improvisation” is developed, when the leader, meeting with this worker, supposedly “on-site” recalls this great and extremely “personal” information about him. The effectiveness of such "motivational-mnemic" manipulation is very high. The fact is that not only the employee is motivated in this way, about whom they "remember", but the rumor about it spreads instantly, creating also with others that they also remember them. Consequently, this type of long-term memory performs, in addition to mnemonic, also an important motivating function.

The large amount and heterogeneity of management information also determine such, perhaps, its main feature, such as structuredness, good organization of the printed material. The knowledge stored in the memory can only be effective when they can be easily and quickly found there, remembered (actualized). Structuring is carried out through a number of mechanisms: comprehension and grouping of material, systematization and categorization, ordering of events by significance and establishing links between them and much more. Naturally, the mechanism of associations also plays a large role. As a result of ordering and structuring, long-term memory material takes the form, which is denoted by the concept of a mnemonic, or semantic (ie, semantic) network. There are two main types of connections in it - horizontal and vertical. Horizontal, mainly formed by direct semantic associations between elements of experience. Vertical relationships structure experience according to the degree of its generalization: for example, information about a person as such can be further detailed into information about its individual features. One of the forms of vertical structuring is the selection of so-called hot and cold knowledge. The first include the information of memory, which is most relevant from the point of view of a specific situation; it is in the field of constant control and operation. The second constitutes, as it were, the potential contents of memory, is in a hidden - latent state. A characteristic feature of the long-term memory of the head is, further, its complexity. It is determined by the complexity of the material that is to be memorized and which should be recorded in all its diversity. In other words, not only aspects of situations and tasks of management should be subject to memorization, but all of them as a whole should be comprehensive: their “actors”, conditions, requirements and behavior of others, and their own at the same time. Only in this case the "grasp" and the main thing is remembered - the meaning of the situation as a whole. This implies the following feature of the long-term memory of the head - her situational capacity . This concept denotes the formality of the recorded information in the form of specific managerial situations that form integral "units" of long-term memory. Another important feature of the long-term memory of a manager, rooted in her psychological patterns, is that she has productive properties. As a psychological phenomenon, this property is well known; it is recorded in a number of expressions of everyday speech such as "the morning of the evening is wiser." Their essence lies in the fact that the task that is not being solved "now", being postponed and then remembered, is remembered not as a task, but as its solution. Information about the task, translated into long-term memory, is subjected to processing in it, a kind of - an unconscious solution. Then it manifests itself either in its full resolution, or in a solution that is easier than before memorization. Many managers, intuitively finding this feature of memory, then actively use it in their activities. “There is no need to bring premature clarity to the question, if it is not really clear; it’s better, if possible, to postpone it” - this is the rule related to this. This phenomenon is based on two main psychological mechanisms.

Firstly, the reminiscence phenomenon - the improvement of the indicators of mnemic processes some time after the occurred and remembered event.

Secondly, it is the active nature of the preservation process itself, during which the captured information is not in a passive state, but undergoes processing and transformation.

An important feature of the long-term memory of a manager, related to the multidimensionality of his functions, is its polyfocus. It consists in the necessity of mnemonic control over many objects, phenomena, spheres of its activity. This is the need to remember at once about many goals, since it is the multipurpose nature of management activity that is its specific feature. It is also the need to remember the various "put under control" purposes. The setting of tasks “for control”, which was then not supported by the control actions themselves, is a very negative trait of the leadership. This, finally, is such a very specific feature of the memory of a manager, as “a memory for promises”. Of course, many of them are not performed for reasons other than mnemonic; however, these reasons are also quite important. The head deals with information significantly different in the degree of its reliability. It is subject to not only characteristic of any other activity - objective distortion, but also subjective, including deliberate falsification. Often there is a direct misinformation. Consequently, the most important additional feature, accompanied by which any information is recorded in long-term memory, is its reliability parameter. It is necessary not only to remember something, but also to fix how much it can be trusted. This, in turn, requires memorizing the source and circumstances of obtaining information. Such an "information loop" is one of the specific characteristics of the long-term memory of a manager. It leads to a sharp increase in the load on it, increases the general requirements for it. Finally, last in order, but not least, the characteristic should be noted, which seems to be the opposite of the property of “good long-term memory”. It is referred to as the ability to forget. Forgetting as a whole is one of the four basic mnemic processes. It protects a person from excessive information load, “weeds out” less important information, acts as a “filter”, passing through which only really important information remains in long-term memory. At the same time, forgetting is a very complex and internally contradictory process. It does not boil down to the passive erasing of impressions from memory and their removal from subjective experience (although it includes this). Forgetting is an active process of selection - selection of imprinted information on the parameters of objective importance and subjective significance. As a result of selection, insignificant information is reduced and significant information is fixed. Without selective forgetting as an obligatory mnemonic property, the activity of a leader is simply impossible. Conversely, its presence and degree of excellence are one of the hallmarks of managerial competence. Often this property manifests itself already at the stage of receiving perceptual information. The head is selective, i.e. selectively, “blocks” those information channels that, as experience suggests, are not important or obligatory. Another proper organizational means of selection is the usual system of leadership - the system of "access to the manager." It involves the development of a number of organizational barriers to contacts of subordinates with the head. The mechanism of active forgetting also performs another very important function - the function of the stabilizer of the manager’s personal professional experience , “allowing” him only the little that deserves it, and filtering everything else.

Distinct specificity is acquired in management activities of the most important cognitive process - thinking. In order to better and more fully understand the originality of this process in management activities, it should be borne in mind that the thinking of a leader is, above all, practical thinking. This type is most specific to the content and conditions of management. The initial and main feature of practical thinking in general and the leader’s thinking in particular is that it is different from theoretical thinking and is associated with practice, with activity, or is included in them. This connection is direct and inseparable, and the whole process of thinking is carried out "in" and "for" solving specific practical problems. It is not abstract-abstract, but concrete in nature and is implemented in parallel with the performance of other managerial functions. Therefore, the tasks for practical thinking are set not by theory, the well-known, but unsolved problems that do not exist (as for theoretical thinking), but practical activity itself. This implies one of the most peculiar features of practical thinking. Before solving a problem, the manager must first formulate it himself - “see”, and then isolate the problem from the activity as a problem. Consequently, the peculiarity of practical thinking is the need to solve not only “already finished” - formulated tasks and problems, but also the ability to isolate them, to correctly set, to formulate. This requires an important mental quality - the ability to see the problem, to distinguish between tasks and routine tasks that need to be resolved. For a leader, this feature of practical thinking is also important because one of his main responsibilities is setting tasks for subordinates.

Further, for practical thinking it is very characteristic that, unlike the theoretical one, the tasks solved by him, as a rule, do not have the “only correct ” solution, the “correct answer”. The theoretical mind seeks its true problem in the problem — the only solution; and the person who decides it already initially has a statement that this solution should be the only one (that is, the right one). In practical thinking, the situation is different. Any management situation has many ways to resolve - in something more, and in something less successful. For these methods, as a rule, the evaluation criteria are either not available or they are uncertain. Moreover, they are often formulated by the leader who solves the problem. In practice, this leads to the fact that the solution of managerial tasks is not evaluated by the “right - wrong” parameter, but by the “more or less acceptable” parameter. The head often seeks not the most effective solution, but an acceptable, satisfactory solution. Along with this, the head also acts in a very specific with respect to the subordinate role of the " appraiser" the correctness of their decisions. For this, it must have ready-made criteria for solving problems to be evaluated. For the practical thinking of a manager, the form of responsibility for solving problems and problems is specific. If, for example, a theoretical scientist is responsible only for the final result of the decision and on the way of this decision has unlimited freedom of choice and formulation of hypotheses, methods and solutions, then the practitioner is different. His "hypotheses" are verified by the practice itself - by the activities of subordinates, by virtue of which their falsity immediately and immediately manifests itself in erroneous and sometimes irreversible practical consequences. The responsibility of practical thinking is the responsibility not only for the result, but also for the problem-solving process itself. The general direction of the thinking process in solving practical problems is also different compared with the theoretical one. This is not a “movement from the particular to the general,” from the concrete to the abstract, but, on the contrary, from the general to the particular. Practical thinking requires the “right hit” of theoretical knowledge in a practical problem. The concreteness of the leader’s thinking, therefore, is another of his mandatory and specific features.

Practical thinking is characterized by a completely different attitude of the person to the problems that arise. For theoretical thinking, the position of the subject is cognitive - aimed only at finding and finding the answer. For practical thinking, this position is initially transformative, effective. It requires the implementation of the decision as a means of organizing actions to change the situation. Therefore, thinking is directed not at a “perfectly correct” solution, but at a decision that is really capable of changing the situation in the right direction. The very nature of the work of practical thinking with information about the problem is different from the theoretical one.

In the first case, the thinking process is concentrated around its most common, major, essential features.

In the second case, the very differences between the “essential” and the “non-essential” largely lose their meaning. In the practice of management, the great importance that particular details have is well known. They often suggest a way to solve the whole problem. On the contrary, the omission of any “details” in practice can have serious or even irreversible consequences; the manager needs a specific combination of the ability to see and assess the situation in general and in all its details. For problem situations of practical thinking, it is generally uncharacteristic to separate their parts into essential and non-essential. Any seemingly irrelevant detail may be decisive in the future. In this regard, the concept of the principle of potential materiality of each element of the problem is introduced in the psychology of practical thinking. It assumes the presence of another specific feature of "sophisticated observation", which allows to notice details that may become potentially significant. For practical thinking, by virtue of its direct connection with activity, a very tough and fast assessment is characteristic, checking the truth of its results. The “appraiser” here is life itself; the activity of the one who got these results. For a manager, this feature is most important and specific, since he is responsible not only for his personal decisions, but also for the decisions of others subordinate to him. Therefore, the most important feature of the manager’s thinking is the ability to accept responsibility for the results of solving a particular problem ( “personification of responsibility”).

Следующая категория специфических особенностей практического мышления руководителя определяется своеобразием содержания и условий управленческой деятельности. Оно определяет ярко выраженную специфичность задач, решаемых руководителем, специфику их "материала". По содержанию управление требует мысленного оперирования не только с информацией о производственно-технологических процессах, но и с информацией о людях – о "социальных объектах". "Социальные объекты" более сложны, противоречивы, непредсказуемы и многомерны. Они предельно индивидуализированы, характеризуются разными и зачастую противоположными интересами и мнениями. В практическом мышлении руководителя возникает уникальная ситуация, когда субъект мышления (руководитель) имеет в качестве объекта мышления таких же, как и он сам, субъектов (в чем-то даже превосходящих его по сложности). Он должен принимать в расчет их "чисто человеческие" свойства:

– наличие у них собственного мнения;

– их неполную подчиняемость;

– наличие у них рефлексии и, следовательно, их возможность "играть по определенным правилам";

– предвидеть действия руководителя и заблаговременно влиять на его доведение; наличие у них "личностных барьеров";

– существования тенденции сопротивляться манипулированию со стороны руководителя и многое другое.

It is often the reason why a leader, especially of a democratic and permissive style, chooses not the decision, which is prompted by personal opinion, but that which will meet less opposition in the group, will be easier for her to take. "Social objects" (individuals and groups) are characterized in general by a very high degree of complexity, the multiplicity of their characteristics, parameters (personal qualities), as well as their secrecy from direct perception and therefore the difficulty of "decoding" and unambiguous interpretation. The characteristics of “social objects” in combination with other features of management activity lead to such specific features of the manager’s mental tasks as their high uncertainty. It has become commonplace to assert that it is precisely the high, constant, and “irremovable” uncertainty of conditions that is one of the main features of a manager’s activity. Indeed, the manager is placed in such conditions under which he almost never has all the necessary information to solve. Uncertainty may arise due to various psychological reasons. So, it may be due to a shortage - a shortage of necessary information, which initiates mental operations that are pressed to reconstruct missing information. In this regard, there is a so-called explicit and implicit information about the situation. The first is given directly and objectively; it is, as it were, the external side of the situation, its “photograph”; the second is also contained in the situation, but is not given in a simple and direct form. It must be "able to see", decrypted in the data that is directly perceived. Therefore, the most important mental quality of a manager is the ability to reconstruct information, the ability to see “more than given,” thereby compensating for the uncertainty of the conditions of activity. Further, uncertainty may also arise in connection with the directly opposite reason — high information redundancy. The amount of information can become so large that it makes it extremely difficult to isolate the main relevant content. A peculiar and very typical situation for a manager arises when uncertainty is generated not by a deficit, an excess of information. In this regard, another cognitive quality is important for a manager - the property of selectivity, selectivity of perception and understanding of information, the ability to single out the most important and filter out the secondary. The third major cause of management uncertainty is the high degree of complexity of the information on which it is deployed. Here it is necessary to distinguish two types of uncertainty - semantic and pragmatic. Semantic (semantic) uncertainty arises in connection with the ambiguity, incomprehensibility of certain data, messages, information as a whole. The complexity of management information is the direct cause of semantic uncertainty. The ability to identify the true meaning of management information is an important managerial ability. Understanding should be supported by actions, to find expression in behavior aimed at overcoming this or that situation. Pragmatic uncertainty is uncertainty about the ways and means to overcome the situation. The situation may be extremely clear and not have semantic uncertainty, but the ways to resolve it are not clear (pragmatic uncertainty). The activity of the leader is specific, which includes both types of uncertainty and implies the need to eliminate both the one and the other.

Any organization is a sociotechnical system and includes two groups of very heterogeneous components - subjective (managed people) and objective (production, technology). They, being extremely complex in their own right, are difficult to interact with each other. As a result, any managerial task as an object of practical thinking of a manager acquires the property of the complexity of information. Particularly vividly, the complexity of the tasks is manifested in the characteristics of the information with which the manager deals with their solution. This is its objectivity, confusion, inconsistency, conflict, confusion of reliable data with little reliable or even false data; quality heterogeneity (heterogeneity) of informational signs, their close relationship. The indicated "symptom complex" of the features of the informational basis of the activity of the manager imposes particularly strict requirements on the thinking process. It should allow to "cover" all the complexity and inconsistency of information in general. The leader must constantly bring "order into chaos," turn the "unorganized complexity" into an organized one. In connection with this, a specific mental property is singled out - a property of systematic thinking. Only a systematic one — an orderly and structured vision of an organization can adequately and effectively withstand the inconsistency and observability of information received. The same property lies in the basis of taking into account what management effects will arise when influencing a local parameter or part of the organization’s functioning. The combination of a high level of systems thinking with a sufficient development of its analytical aspects is one of the most important professional requirements for a manager.

Managerial situations are characterized by the property of variability - dynamism. One of the "golden rules" of leadership is, as you know, the fact that "there is nothing unchanged, except for the changes themselves."

First, dynamism - the variability of situations imposes significant restrictions on the possibilities of reproductive management; requires constant and active productive mental work.

Secondly, high dynamism, the rate of change of situations gives management activity and another specific feature - the regime of "chronic" time deficit ("time trouble"). He makes new demands on practical thinking. This is a high speed of thinking; the efficiency of the "inclusion" in the situation; the need to find a solution in strictly defined time limits; fast switching from action to reflection and vice versa. The general requirement of the manager’s thinking is the need to find a solution “here and now ”. The correct decision in itself may be erroneous if it is not timely — when the situation has already changed. It is considered, therefore, that the management decision has not one, but at least two main criteria for its assessment: adequacy (quality) and timeliness. The speed qualities of thinking (its dynamism, efficiency, mobility, lability) depend on the already considered features of the organization of memory and professional experience. They are the higher, the higher the mobilization readiness of the RAM and the structured past experience. The dynamism of thinking depends on two additional qualities. They are denoted by the concepts of the speed of updating information from memory (experience) and the readiness of the knowledge system to use.

Executive decisions must be specific. As a result of theoretical thinking, not only can common, fundamental solutions to problems be obtained; the more general they are, the more valuable they are. But for practical thinking, a decision is not an end in itself, but a means for organizing execution on their basis. This tool can be effective only in the case of its extreme certainty, concreteness, simplicity. The point is also that the more specific the decision is, the more it is clear to others. This is very important for the decisions of the leader, since others usually perform - the subordinates. The more concrete the decision, the less opportunities for its distortions, the greater the possibilities for precise control over its execution. There is a persistent misconception that finding concrete solutions is simpler than general solutions. Everything is the opposite, since it is a specific decision that should take into account more information, “harmonize” more contradictory factors. Very often, not the "sophistication" and "brilliance" of a manager's decision, and his concreteness is the key to success. The ability to make simple plans is not a consequence of intellectual weakness, but, on the contrary, intellectual power. At the heart of this mental peculiarity of a manager, acting at the same time as an important professional requirement for him, lies the psychological mechanism of "specifying synthesis ". This is not just an operation of instantiation that is usual for thinking; transition from the general to the particular. This is the derivation of a particular, concrete from a variety of initial premises, both general and, basically, also specific, but subjected to preliminary generalization (synthesis). A concrete and successful plan does not arise immediately, but is a product of a complex thinking process that has additional features. One of them is that there is a direct relationship between the number of alternative options (plans) for getting out of the situation, which the person distinguishes, and the quality of the final decision. The more such ways a person “sees”, the better his final choice will be.

In connection with the above, it is necessary to note the following most important feature of the practical thinking of a leader arising as a result of his (thinking) interaction with volitional processes and personal qualities of the leader. It is well known that volitional qualities are an indispensable and most important attribute of the personality of a manager. The concept of "good leader" is associated not only with the concept of "smart leader", but even more often with the concept of "strong-willed leader." The combination of these two qualities (mind and will) is the most important condition for the effectiveness of leadership, underlies such professionally important managerial qualities as strength of character, determination, courage, perseverance, vigor, etc. It is proved that the best option for such a combination is the proportionality of the mental and volitional qualities of the individual. This is reflected in the famous "square formula". Its basis is will, height is the mind, and the success of an activity depends on its area. A square will be exactly a square, and its area (successful activity) will be maximal if the sides are equal. If the balance is disturbed and the sides are unequal, then the square turns into a rectangle, whose area at a given perimeter will always be less than the area of ​​a square at the same perimeter. The strong-willed

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Продолжение:

Часть 1 4. MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION
Часть 2 Psychic regulation of management - 4. MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION
Часть 3 High variety and quality of heterogeneity of long-term memory material
Часть 4 Psychophysiological aspects in the activities of the head - 4.
Часть 5 Executive Training - 4. MANAGEMENT OF THE ORGANIZATION