Ouchi Will Need Theory Z-Plus

Anyone want to take a bet on how long the mayor’s newly named chief of staff, Bill Ouchi, will remain a fresh breeze and a clearheaded voice for modernization and reform?

Any predictions on how long it will before the entrenched interests bare their shark’s teeth and start chomping away at this respected UCLA professor who is also an internationally renowned expert on management?

And anyone want to wager on how long it will be before some members of the City Council, respectful at first, start reacting to everything Ouchi proposes as if it was a frontal attack on their individual political fiefdoms?

Good luck, then, to Mayor Richard Riordan’s new staff chief--Prof. William G. Ouchi of the Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA, and author of the famed book on management: “Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge.”

What the city needs, of course, is an Ouchi sequel, something like “Theory Z-Plus: How Los Angeles City Government Can Meet the Current Challenge.”

And of course something along these lines is precisely what his boss wants, too. He wants a plan to make city government work better. That requires new ideas, not tired ones; it requires all parties to work together, not fight one another at every turn; it requires imagination, innovation, even sacrifice.

At least City Hall now has a catalyst. For with the departure of William R. McCarley, a respected insider who is slated to take over the powerful Department of Water and Power, Prof. Ouchi now becomes the man on the spot.

Can city government reform itself, becoming more responsive, more efficient, and more credible? Ouchi is known to believe that many city workers are highly skilled, care deeply about their work and can be motivated to new levels of performance. He is known to believe that it is the job of their bosses to harness that energy and commitment, not snuff it out in a maze of bureaucracy and mismanagement.

Is it too much to ask of all concerned, especially the City Council, to give the new chief of staff the benefit of the doubt and work cooperatively with him every step of the way? We think not.