I watched a demonstration not too long ago where a doctor specialist in Miami walked another doctor on a cruise ship in the South Atlantic through a relatively tricky procedure (simulated) via webcam and microphones over a high speed satellite connection. How difficult would it be to add the extra peripherals to have similar capability in a corporate setting already rigged with high speed WIFI? Manager calls up from office or across the world and says, "Hey Joe, it's me, John Boss. Have you got time to talk and show me around your area? pick up the WIFI webcam and microphone and lets go talk to the folks and see what's happening so I can get some feedback straight from them."
Nobody says the worker's view of the boss has to be much more than on an ipod screen or vice versa, but it is technically feasible now. If a situation arises during the tour, there's always time for heavy duty follow up. Remember, MBWA is essentially two things:
(1) a goodwill tour and
(2) an information-gathering tool (one of several in a manager's kit, not least of which is an internal audit by a dispassionate team, reporting facts, not accusations for their enemies nor attaboys for their friends.)
Nobody says the worker's view of the boss has to be much more than on an ipod screen or vice versa, but it is technically feasible now. If a situation arises during the tour, there's always time for heavy duty follow up. Remember, MBWA is essentially two things:
(1) a goodwill tour and
(2) an information-gathering tool (one of several in a manager's kit, not least of which is an internal audit by a dispassionate team, reporting facts, not accusations for their enemies nor attaboys for their friends.)
I hate to say I completely disagree.
If my boss asked me to show him through web cam our manufacturing area/process I would show him the best of all things as most employees would. How much information will you get from a staged performance?
MBWA is an attempt for an personal interaction between a Manager and and Employee usually on the employees level. Where they work and are comfortable. You will miss a lot of information by I-podding it in since people will take a more formal approach to this type of communication.
In manufacturing we only succeed through the people that work for us regardless of the number of robots and cameras we employee to replace individuals.
