# Management by Musical Chairs By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-12-05 Perhaps you can recall playing musical chairs as a child. In musical chairs, a person in charge has set up a circle of chairs comprised of one less chair than the children playing. The person in charge starts the music and the children march around the chairs. At some moment, the person in charge stops the music and the children sit down quickly in the nearest chair. One child is left standing. That child is removed from the game, as is one chair from the circle. The game repeats until two children are vying for the last remaining chair. On the positive side, this game can help children develop gross motor skills, spatial skills, balance, and coordination, along with listening and social skills. On the negative side, one experiences the boredom of exclusion. Management can resemble some key aspects of musical chairs. A manager is clearly “the person in charge,” who controls the music and direction. People move and stop based on this direction. Also, there is always a vague, ominous threat that a person might be removed (i.e., fired). Another similarity is that children seldom question the game itself. Once inside the game one simply follows the rules and tries to win. The same is often true in organizations. People are simply doing what they are directed to do, not wanting to get kicked out, and wanting to win no matter how pointless the victory is. One interesting aspect of this game is that often there are more than enough chairs. The scarcity of the game is completely artificial, used to motivate behavior and performance. Much of the organizational scarcity is equally artificial and created for the same purpose. Management by musical chairs is manipulative, it creates competition where none is needed, and it erodes one’s sense of stability. In short, management by musical chairs makes employees easier to control. Perhaps as you reflect upon playing musical chairs as a child you will recall also why you stopped playing it. #### Related Items [[Management]] [[Games]] [[Business]] [[Organizational Analytics]]