Private Enterprise Internal Management Research/Pan Wenfu Regarding rules and regulations, bosses often hold two attitudes: one is that they are absolutely necessary—when the company grows and has more people, there must be rules, otherwise chaos ensues, and rules are the inevitable direction of formalization; the other attitude is that rules are useless—even if a bunch are created, employees simply don't follow them, making them almost like waste paper. Objectively speaking, rules and regulations are just a management tool. Whether they can be effective depends mainly on three factors:

  1. How does the boss view rules and regulations?
  2. How are the rules and regulations designed?
  3. How are the rules and regulations introduced and applied? In theory, these three points are not difficult. However, some bosses fall into certain misconceptions, resulting in rules that are neither fish nor fowl, failing to achieve the intended management effect and even causing internal conflicts. So, what exactly are these misconceptions? 1. Positioning the nature of rules and regulations What are rules and regulations for? Some bosses see them as management tools—they can use rules to impose specific requirements on employees, serve as a yardstick for assessment, and even as a weapon to lay off non-performing employees. If the boss holds this starting point, the rules will inevitably be rigid and, like a stone, directly hit employees. The reason is simple: no employee wants a rigid management tool specifically targeting them, and they will subjectively believe that these tools directly infringe on their economic interests and emotions. From an objective perspective, or considering employees' thinking patterns, rules should be positioned as follows:
  4. Not simply requirements and assessments, but more about telling everyone the specific methods of work.
  5. Clarify the responsibilities of each position to avoid buck-passing.
  6. Unify work standards to avoid confusion caused by multiple standards. 2. Is it legal? Well, let's assume we live in a society governed by law; at least for ordinary people like us, we still need to abide by the law. Therefore, company operations and employee management must be conducted under legal premises—that is, company rules must be within the legal framework. However, some bosses either don't believe this or are completely ignorant of the law. Some management systems directly violate current regulations, such as explicitly stating in the rules that employees will be fined (which labor law clause allows bosses to fine employees?). Avoid these low-level mistakes. Don't let employees report you to relevant authorities without knowing what happened. The drafting of rules must be legal. If the boss doesn't understand the law, he can hire a professional lawyer to review it, and the remarks page of the rules should also state that they comply with relevant legal provisions. 3. Should employees participate in drafting? The drafting of rules is often done solely by the boss or delegated to senior management. But don't forget that rules affect every employee. Therefore, it's best to involve all employees in the drafting process: first, to make the content more comprehensive and practical; second, to alleviate employees' resistance to the rules, since they participated and it's not purely a unilateral creation by the boss. 4. Should employees sign to confirm? After the rules are finalized, the boss will certainly publicize them to employees. However, few think of having employees sign. Don't underestimate this signature. If employees don't sign, in case of future labor disputes or lawsuits, the boss cannot accuse employees of violating company regulations, because employees can simply deny everything: "Is there such a thing? I didn't know. Did I sign to confirm? Did you just make this up last night?" Remember: company rules must be signed by employees, and the date and place of signing must be noted. 5. How to inform employees? The conventional way is simple: announce at a meeting or post on the wall for everyone to read. This is one-way communication and cannot ensure how much employees actually know. A more reliable method is to conduct a dedicated explanation session, followed by a small quiz to further confirm employees' level of understanding. Finally, print and bind these rules into booklets and distribute them to each employee. 6. Should the boss himself comply? Some bosses think that rules are for subordinate employees and that the boss is outside the scope of management. Thus, the boss often floats outside the company's rules. The boss doesn't comply himself, and even takes the lead in violating them. Consequently, relatives around the boss and senior management follow suit, forming a pattern: those who don't follow the rules are the ones with status and identity. The boss should view rules as an agreement between the company and employees. The boss is also a member of the company and must comply, even more strictly. 7. Are there supporting factors? Internal company management is an organism composed of multiple systems and links. Rules cannot exist independently; they need supporting factors to ensure effective implementation. These supporting factors mainly include:
  7. Can the technical aspects involved in these rules be clearly explained, i.e., is it clear how to do things specifically?
  8. What happens if done well? What are the benefits?
  9. What happens if done poorly?
  10. What happens if completely ignored?
  11. What happens if violated? 8. Order of establishment There may be many rules in a company, and it's impossible to establish them all at once. There needs to be a sequence design. Without such design, the random appearance of various rules will definitely confuse employees. A more reliable sequence design is as follows:
  12. First target things, not people. "Things" means managing items in the office and goods in the warehouse. Relatively speaking, standards for managing things are easier to achieve.
  13. Establish a service and support system for employees, i.e., the various services the company provides to employees. Let employees first feel the company's service to them, then guide them to serve external customers.
  14. Transparent management: make each position's responsibilities, work scope, work processes, work schedules, and information transmission confirmation transparent, so employees can clarify their responsibilities and avoid buck-passing.
  15. For specific work matters, ensure that protecting employees' personal interests comes first, and protecting company interests comes second. 9. The benefit points of rules In employees' eyes, the boss creates these rules for the company, i.e., to protect the boss's own interests, to make more money for the boss, and to supervise employees' work. Such practices may infringe on employees' personal interests, leading to resentment and resistance. Although the boss may emphasize that this is to standardize company management and promote better development, in employees' eyes, serving the company is serving the boss personally—what's the difference? Adjustments are needed here. When explaining the rules to employees, it's necessary to clarify the benefit points for employees personally:
  16. Improvement of professional skills
  17. Quantification and increase of personal income
  18. Clarification of personal responsibilities to avoid buck-passing
  19. Enhancement of personal management planning abilities
  20. Implementation quality affects personal promotion opportunities 10. Updating rules The market changes, the company changes, and employees change. So, should rules adapt? If they remain unchanged, they become obstacles to company development. Therefore, when significant environmental changes occur, corresponding rules must be updated. At least, a comprehensive update should be conducted annually. The author, a private business owner, has managed a family distributor company for many years, during which he also served as business manager and trainer in several production enterprises. His research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend setup, and the integration of demobilized military personnel into private enterprises. He continuously breaks down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and keeps updating materials and solutions. -END-