Seven Deadly Diseases of Management

Back to HR Glossary

What is seven deadly diseases of management?

The Seven Deadly Diseases of Management is a term used to describe a set of common management mistakes that can negatively impact an organization. These mistakes, or “diseases,” are:

Summarise this post with:

chatgptChatgpt geminiGemini claudeClaude grokGrok perplexityPerplexity
Image showing the meaning of the seven deadly diseases of management
  1. Arrogance: An overbearing attitude of superiority that can lead to poor communication and decision-making.
  2. Incompetence: A lack of knowledge, skill or ability that can lead to poor decision-making and ineffective management.
  3. Intolerance: An inability or unwillingness to accept and work with people who are different, leading to a lack of diversity and inclusion.
  4. Lassitude: Apathy or lack of motivation that can lead to poor performance and a lack of initiative.
  5. Pessimism: A negative attitude that can discourage employees and lead to low morale.
  6. Avarice: An excessive focus on financial gain that can lead to unethical behavior and a lack of concern for employees.
  7. Procrastination: A tendency to delay action or decision-making, which can lead to missed opportunities and a lack of progress.

These seven deadly diseases of management can have a negative impact on employee engagement, productivity, and the overall success of an organization. Managers who are aware of these mistakes and work to avoid them can help to create a more positive and productive work environment.

How can the seven deadly diseases of management impact an organization?

The Seven Deadly Diseases of Management can have a negative impact on an organization in a number of ways. They can: HBR’s management quality research

  1. Lead to poor communication and decision-making: Arrogance and incompetence can lead to managers disregarding the opinions and ideas of others, which can result in poor communication and decision-making.
  2. Create a lack of diversity and inclusion: Intolerance can lead to a lack of diversity and inclusion, which can negatively impact employee engagement, productivity and the overall success of an organization.
  3. Result in low morale and poor performance: Lassitude and pessimism can lead to apathy and low morale among employees, resulting in poor performance and a lack of initiative.
  4. Encourage unethical behavior: Avarice can lead to an excessive focus on financial gain, which can result in unethical behavior and a lack of concern for employees.
  5. Cause missed opportunities and lack of progress: Procrastination can lead to delays in decision-making and action, resulting in missed opportunities and a lack of progress.
  6. Affect employee engagement and productivity: All of the above can lead to employee disengagement, low morale and productivity in the workforce.
  7. Damage the reputation of the organization: The negative impact of these diseases can lead to a poor reputation of the organization, and can be detrimental to the organization’s ability to attract and retain employees, customers, and investors.

How can managers avoid the seven deadly diseases of management?

Managers can avoid the Seven Deadly Diseases of Management by:

  1. Being self-aware: By being aware of their own biases and weaknesses, managers can take steps to address them and avoid making common mistakes.
  2. Being open to feedback: Managers should be open to receiving feedback from employees, and should actively seek out feedback to help identify areas for improvement.
  3. Continuously developing their skills: Managers should continuously work on developing their knowledge, skills, and abilities to help them make better decisions and manage more effectively.
  4. Valuing and accepting diversity: Managers should value and accept diversity in the workplace, and should actively work to create a more inclusive and equitable work environment.
  5. Being optimistic: By having a positive attitude, managers can help to improve morale and motivation among employees.
  6. Having a balanced view of financial gain: Managers should focus on financial gain as a means to an end, not an end in itself.
  7. Taking swift action: Managers should take swift action when faced with problems, rather than procrastinating or avoiding the issue.

By avoiding these common management mistakes, managers can help to create a more positive and productive work environment and can contribute to the overall success of the organization. SHRM’s management development guidance

Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases provide a powerful diagnostic framework for identifying the management failures that most damage organizational performance and culture. Using pre-employment assessments alongside a structured hiring plan drives results. Strong talent acquisition focused on skills-based hiring improves outcomes.

Frequently asked questions

W. Edwards Deming, the quality management pioneer, identified seven management practices he called ‘deadly diseases’ that undermine organizational quality and performance: (1) Lack of constancy of purpose; (2) Emphasis on short-term profits; (3) Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review; (4) Mobility of management (job-hopping); (5) Running a company on visible figures alone; (6) Excessive medical costs; and (7) Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers working on contingency. Numbers 1-5 are the most widely applied in management contexts.

Lack of constancy of purpose occurs when leadership changes strategy frequently, chases short-term trends, or lacks a clear long-term direction. Employees, suppliers, and customers cannot align their efforts when the organization’s purpose is unstable. Deming argued that sustained quality improvement requires a long-term vision that guides all organizational decisions : without it, improvement initiatives start and stop, employees become cynical about change efforts, and the organization cannot develop the sustained capabilities required for excellence.

Short-term profit focus causes: underinvestment in research, training, and infrastructure (costs today, returns in years); decisions that boost quarterly earnings at the expense of long-term competitiveness; destruction of employee morale through cost-cutting that ignores human capital value; erosion of product/service quality when cost reduction trumps quality investment; and loss of customer relationships built over years. Deming argued this is particularly damaging in Western vs. Japanese management cultures, where quarterly earnings pressure overwhelms long-term thinking.

Deming argued that annual performance reviews: (1) Create fear and destroy intrinsic motivation; (2) Focus on individuals when most performance variation is caused by systemic factors (management-controlled processes, materials, equipment); (3) Produce arbitrary ratings that are more affected by who your manager is than your actual contribution; (4) Destroy teamwork by creating competition between colleagues; and (5) Generate 90 days of performance game-playing before review cycles. He advocated replacing annual ratings with ongoing coaching, process improvement, and system-level performance management.

This disease occurs when management makes decisions solely based on measurable financial metrics : ignoring the ‘unknown and unknowable’ figures that matter most: the multiplier effect of a happy customer, the cost of a demoralized employee, the value of a manager who develops people, or the loss from a process designed for compliance rather than quality. Deming argued that what gets measured gets managed : but many of the most important organizational inputs and outputs resist easy quantification.

HR applications: assess whether your performance management system is creating fear and competition (Disease 3 : if so, redesign toward coaching and growth); evaluate whether HR programs have constancy of purpose or change with every new CHRo (Disease 1); examine whether talent development investments are deferred for short-term cost savings (Disease 2); analyze whether people metrics (engagement, turnover) are truly driving decisions or just measuring them (Disease 5); and assess whether leadership mobility is creating constant reorganization that prevents organizational learning (Disease 4).