armstrong-photo-keynote-page.jpgThe more I hear from Mariner management, the more I realize this: Whatever you want to call the job Bill Bavasi held, it certainly isn’t what I’d think of as a general manager — a wheeler-and-dealer, working trades at the deadline and having God-like powers over the team’s roster.

Armstrong made a uniquely revealing comment about his management style to Jim Street of MLB.com last week:

“We think the most successful form of management is one that major decisions are not made in a vacuum by one person. When ideas are discussed as a group, so that everybody in upper management has had a chance to have their say, then the best decisions can be made.”

In other words, management-by-committee. Which, given the results on the field, evidently works about as well as bullpen-by-committee.

Now, as bosses go, you could do a lot worse than Chuck Armstrong.

Like, say you went to your boss and said, “Boss, I don’t feel like doing this job anymore. I’m quitting.”

I don’t know about your boss, but mine would not say: “Okay. Also, I’ll keep paying you for three months.”

But Chuck Armstrong did. When Mike Hargrove quit in July of 2007, Armstrong agreed to pay him through the rest of the season, no doubt improving the quality of lodgings Hargrove chose on that road trip down the coast with his wife.

Chuck Armstrong seems like the kind of boss who’d ask about your weekend and actually listen to what you said, who’d give you a ride to the hospital if you found out your kid was sick. Armstrong has been the Mariners’ president for 26 mostly crappy seasons, yet I can’t remember a single time when he publicly bad-mouthed a player, or a manager, or anyone else. Even during the dismal 2008 season, when his $100 million roster looked unmotivated and hopeless, his message to M’s coaches was an inspirational naval story, not the bawling out they may well have deserved.

He is, by all appearances, a nice, decent, wonderful man. And that congeniality is reflected in his management-by-committee style.

I showed Armstrong’s quote to Dr. Allen Sack, director of the Institute for Sport Management at the University of New Haven. Here’s what Dr. Sack had to say: “Including other managers in decision making is great for employee morale, and provides employees with a feeling of ownership in their jobs and companies.”

Said Jim Smither, Ph.D., a professor of management at La Salle University in Philadelphia: “People generally feel better when their views have been heard than if their views were never solicited and considered.”

In other words, giving everyone “a chance to have their say” is the nice way to do things.

But here’s the drawback, according to Dr. Sack: “Getting too many people involved and analyzing a problem to death can lead to organizational paralysis. The basic weakness of participatory styles is that they can lead to endless debate, and delay making timely decisions.”

Sound familiar? How often have we seen the Mariner decision-making engine sputter and lurch like a Chevy Nova when it came time to make a split-second decision? The Randy Johnson and Joey Cora trades come to mind, but there’s no better example than at the trading deadline this year, when Armstrong himself vetoed a deal that would’ve sent Jarrod Washburn and his outrageous salary to Minnesota. Despite facing an obvious rebuilding year, the Mariners didn’t unload any of their high-priced veterans. How could they, when minutes count but every decision has to go through a committee?

And it’s not just management style that will hamper the Mariners’ next GM. They’ll also have the whims of an absentee owner to deal with.

Howard Lincoln admitted to Art Thiel in the Seattle P-I that the signings of Ichiro, Kaz Sasaki, and Kenji Johjima were all mandated by majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi. Signing Ichiro and Sasaki worked out well; Johjima (whose three-year extension was opposed by Bavasi), not so much.

Whether or not Yamauchi has a future in baseball scouting is besides the point. The fact is that any Mariner “general manager” will be forced to incorporate Yamauchi’s wishes, whether he (or she) wants to or not.

So, in a message that can’t have been missed by any potential GM candidates, Armstrong makes clear that they’re looking for a company man (or woman):

“If your management style is not collaborative and inclusive and you want to fly solo and do this on your own, you are not going to be our GM,” Armstrong told Jim Street.

Whoever the M’s hire will face the same management-by-committee process that Bill Bavasi did.

Chuck Armstrong says that “when ideas are discussed as a group…then the best decisions can be made.” Like the decisions that led to the first $100 million payroll/100-loss team in history? After seven consecutive Octobers without a playoff appearance, maybe it’s time Armstrong reconsidered that philosophy.