There are tens of thousands of management books on the market, not to mention academic articles on the subject. One that came to my mind today was popularized by Kotkin and Kishimoto (1986), dubbed the “Theory F” style of management.

Theory F is different from micro-management, because the supervisor is not necessarily over the employees’ shoulders, though the staff are certainly under the manager’s thumb. Theory F is a fear-mongering style of management, one that means being concerned about losing your job for mistakenly ghostwriting a letter with the closing “Sincerely” instead of the preferred “Yours sincerely” (capital Y, never S). Theory F means saying yes to whatever is thrown your way, because the alternative is not having a job.

Except for rare cases in which one’s job is truly a matter of life and death, the implementation of Theory F management is generally dehumanizing and belittling and should be avoided.

Reference

Kotkin, J. and Y. Kishimoto. April 1, 1986. “Theory F.” Inc. Magazine. New York City, NY: Inc.