Two Stories of Management Styles

Recently, came across a really old article by Joel Spolsky regarding contrasting management styles. What caught my eye was this phrase:

(At Juno)… it was the idea that no matter how hard you work, no matter how smart you are, no matter whether you are 'in charge' of something or not, you have no authority whatsoever for even the tiniest thing. None. Take your damn ideas, training, brains, and intelligence, all the things we're paying you for, and shove it. And at Juno, there were plenty of managers, something like 1/4 of all the employees, and so they had plenty of times to stick their fingers into every single decision and make sure that they were in control. The contrast with Microsoft, where VP's descended from Building 9 to make it clear that you have the authority to get things done, was stark.

Read the two stories contrasting the management styles at http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/TwoStories.html, and then think about which story would be true for your company!