We first reported on the undermanagement epidemic in a preliminary study we released in June 2004, based on a study sample of 500 managers. We reported our findings that most managers simply do not spend enough time attending to the basics of managing people and that widespread failure is damaging to both employers and employees. Since that preliminary study, we have tested our findings in our intensive management seminars with more than ten-thousand managers at all levels in a wide range of industries. Having spent so much time behind the scenes in so many organizations, I am overwhelmed by how much undermanagement is the norm in today's workplace and just how damaging that is. In all the work we've done studying the changing workplace since 1993, undermanagement is by far the most significant issue we have identified. That's how I became obsessed with fighting the undermanagement epidemic.

Show me a case of bad customer service and I’ll show you a case of undermanagement. Show me just about any problem in any workplace and I’ll show you a case of undermanagement. Follow the trail into the workplace: What went wrong with the response to Hurricane Katrina or the failure to bolster the New Orleans levees beforehand? What went wrong with the loss of personal data of million veterans at the VA? Data theft from credit card companies? Jayson Blair and the “made-up news” scandal at the New York Times? Dan Rather and the “National Guard” debacle? Other corporate stars gone wild? What went wrong at Enron? Arthur Andersen? Tyco? Medical mishaps? Pension deficits? Most airline delays? Whose job was it to make things go right? Whoever it is, that person has a boss. The boss is in charge. The boss is to blame. For what? For failing to make sure in the first place that the employees did their jobs properly.

Undermanagement costs employers, employees, managers, customers, vendors, and society in so many ways. Undermanagement is not a household word like micro-management, but it should be because its impact makes micro-management look like a molehill.