| 18 March 2003 | Tuesday | 14 Muharram 1424 |
Welcome to a generous selection of articles from DAWN's Folio section.
This page is updated every Tuesday.
Workplace harassment needs to be dealt with
Appraising staff performance
In an increasingly competitive world, the readiness of Pakistani companies to compete on a global platform comes into question. In these rapidly changing times, every second counts. Survival and achievement demands not only being result-orientated, but also cost-efficient, continually innovative, or clearly just the market leader.
It is no longer sufficient for organizations to compete on just their national turf. They have to broaden their vision to enable them to match and exceed standards set by banks in Geneva, automobile manufacturers in Frankfurt, tea growers in Sri Lanka, sports gear manufacturers in Hanoi, or the computer giants in Silicon Valley.
Every year a survey is conducted bya local firm to assess the trends in management and leadership practices within Pakistan's corporate sector. Last year, a nationwide survey was conducted with the aim of "identifying transformations in corporate culture to meet world-class performance standards." Responses were received from thirty five per cent of the organizations surveyed, whereas three per cent refused to participate in the process for one reason or another.
The survey was analyzed on four broad areas viz, strategic perspective, processes, training and culture. All four areas were considered vital to ascertain how companies are responding to the challenge posed by globalization and increased competition to meet world-class global standards.
STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE: In the last five years, 69 per cent of the organizations surveyed answered that they have adopted strategic management practices. Thirty-one per cent of the companies have a vision, mission statement, guiding principles, values, or business objectives in place. Organizations in Pakistan are becoming more receptive to market trends and changes. They are becoming aware of the importance of laying guidelines and setting goals for their success.
In doing so, they realize that not only do they need to determine their direction in order to run profitable businesses, but they must look to the future as an opportunity to mark their presence in their area of expertise. Another very encouraging sign is that between 2000 and 2002, 77 per cent of organizations have undergone major policy changes to adapt to higher global standards and best practices.
PROCESSES: Organizations in Pakistan's corporate sector are fast adopting internationally recognized process improvement initiatives. A staggering 94 per cent of the companies surveyed said that they had undertaken initiatives in the past two years. Amongst these, the most popular process improvement programs are either ISO 9000 or TQM, which stand at 28 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
Twenty-nine per cent of the companies surveyed claimed that customers were their main reason for taking on such initiatives, indicating that the corporate sector is progressively developing customer orientation. What is even more elating is that 81 per cent companies already felt that they are enjoying the benefits from these initiatives, like higher profitability through enhanced customer satisfaction.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Companies have started realizing the importance of continuous learning and development of their people. Consequently, their spending on enhancing technical and managerial skills has risen, in order to further improve the quality of performance. As many as 56 per cent of the organizations have increased their training and development budgets by over twenty per cent.
This increase is driven by their expectation that a more competent, knowledgeable, motivated and inspired workforce, working as a team, will be better able to face future challenges. Companies have awakened to the fact that if they intend to remain competitive and move forward with speed, they must focus more on enhancing the capacity of their employees. For this reason they are aligning their training and development initiatives with their strategic business objectives.
Even though companies are now more willing to invest on training and development, they are beginning to establish precise learning needs critical for process improvements to measure the actual benefits. The survey established that companies are less willing to invest in people who look likely not to benefit the organization in the long run. As a result companies have registered improvements in performance in terms of reduced wastage, better efficiencies and higher quality, through skilled and competent people. Motivation is spiralling upwards; which in turn is improving customer satisfaction and profitability.
CORPORATE CULTURE: Senior management in most companies surveyed are actively working on improving their company's corporate culture. As many as 45 per cent of the respondents felt that their senior management was consciously and actively contributing to building an identity and culture for their organization. Subsequently as much as 78 per cent of organizations stated that they felt they had created their own culture.
Respondents felt that their company's culture had progressed to one that was open, family like, caring and that believed in values. At the same time, the same companies gave importance to target achievement, commitment, teamwork and competitiveness. As a direct result, as many as 61 per cent of the companies strongly agreed that the culture change in their organization had facilitated changes demanded by their company's strategic objectives.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Interestingly, when asked about influence our government had on corporate culture in Pakistan, not a single respondent answered in the affirmative. This shows an immense opportunity for our government to actively participate in developing and encouraging professionalism in organizations that contribute to economic growth of the country.
All organizations that were part of this survey had at least one strategic management goal in place. It can be inferred that leadership teams of organizations are ardently looking to the future strategically. By this method, companies have developed a clear framework that guides human energy in achieving demanding goals without losing direction in the short and the long term.
Fifteen per cent of the respondents identified competitors as the primary reason for undertaking process initiatives. This indicates emergence of healthy competition in Pakistan. Companies are willing to learn from their competition. Benchmarking and sharing of best practices between companies within the same industry, and from other sectors is on the increase.
Of the companies surveyed, 60 per cent registered improvements in behavioural and cultural aspects of their business, attributed largely to regular exposure to training programs. This shows that mindsets and paradigms change for the better through group interactions and reflections during formal and informal learning programs. Companies are giving up the old ways of doing things, and are becoming more aggressive and dynamic.
CONCLUSION: The one sure way companies can survive in a global economy, is by having a competitive advantage. Developed economies like Japan and Singapore, have demonstrated time and again, that natural and physical resources are not the only factors in achieving success. The question is how can Pakistan differentiate itself from other developing economies and demonstrate its uniqueness? Of course it can only be through recognizing and developing its vast pool of talent. It is only the human factor that has always played a key role in any nation's or corporation's prosperity.
In a labour-intensive country like ours, developing people must be at the forefront of every initiative. Pakistan's greatest potential has always been its people. A young person with no direction will not add any value to society. Instead he/she will become a burden. Given a little direction and opportunity for learning, this untapped resource will flourish.
This whirlwind of unleashed passion, tamed by self-discipline and guided by an exciting vision can sweep every goal set before it, reaching new unimaginable heights. All that is required is a conscious and genuine effort to connect with a shared goal.
Absence of shared goals lead to selfishness and ultimately anarchy and despair. When people are inspired by a vision, their thoughts will be aligned, energies will multiply and focus will be on mutual benefit. This sounds simple but takes a big heart and courage to implement at every level in a culturally rich and diverse society. The good news is that organizations within the private sector, are beginning to take the lead in not only strengthening and growing themselves, but in turn, inspiring our nation, through good corporate citizenship.
Workplace harassment needs to be dealt with
Economic difficulties have forced Pakistani women to come out of their houses and contribute to their houses finances. However, with more and more women entering the workplace, the problem of gender-biased harassment is increasing in our society. In fact it is now recognized as one of the major impediments to the development and progress of women who wish to join the national workforce.
'Gender-specific discrimination,' is defined as "an exercise of male power based on economic position, and authority in the workplace." Harassment at workplace is a form of violence against women that violates their fundamental rights, dignity and self-respect.
In spite of the progress our country may have made in gender equality, almost all working women face some sort of harassment everyday. It sadly makes one wonder that women are still not wholeheartedly accepted in the public domain as an active contributor to economy. The problem seldom comes up for debate an many people deny its existence. And of those few who do accept its existence, the argument is that it does not happen in the educated classes but only among the poor and illiterate!
Recently, a two-day workshop was organized in Islamabad to address this ever increasing nuisance. Participants at the workshop were given a glimpse into the different working environments, showing the vulnerability of women at workplace, through a theatre performance. The play tried to show how women, whether they are working in fields, factories or some posh office environment, feel threatened by the actions of their male bosses, colleagues and clients.
The play concluded with the note that even when some female collects the guts to stand and voice her complaint, she is either blamed for creating a fuss or threatened with blackmail. And even when there is someone to take note and do something about the wrong, he or she are left helpless in the absence of any laws on the issue.
Almost all working-women, at one time or another have faced harassment. Domestic servants and poor women working on the fields of landlords and contractors are especially venerable. Women working in offices and hospitals too are not spared. As a female consultant working in a multinational company said, "Right from my boss, given a chance, there was no one who missed any opportunity.
"Everyone knew I belonged to a well-off family and no one dared touch me. But I also knew that if I was not on my guard and became even a little bit frank, they will misunderstand my frankness for giving them a chance." According to this lady, clients, specially the rich and the powerful are always over-courteous. "They pass very personal remarks" she concluded.
"In our office the tilt is more towards single girls, whether unmarried or divorced, they are more vulnerable," says a woman working in the media. "Girls from lower classes are the worst victims of harassment, especially from men who are married, have children and some even my father's age."
Women with field jobs, specially those who have to stay away at nights, are at more risk. Harassment is found in hospitals with nurses being the most susceptible.
"Nurses are a part of this society, you cannot separate them," says the in charge of a nursing school. "They are enrolled at a very young age, hardly nineteen or twenty years when they are required to serve. They have to stay away from home over night and interact with all kinds of people in the hospital. You are surrounded by doctors, residents, medical students, male nurses, patients and their attendants. More over there is a severe shortage of staff, one nurse for 40 patients, makes them overworked."
This particular in charge feels there are flaws in the system that traps young nurses. Most of them come from lowers socio-economic background. If a complaint is registered, the administration is not supportive. There is a monopoly of doctors and the backing of doctor's organizations is very strong.
"There may be a superintendent nurse, but she has no power. With the result that when a junior nurse complains, she is told, Aap ney kuch kiya ho ga! (You must have done something!). It is power play of male dominance," she concludes.
Harassment is a world wide issue. But unfortunately in Pakistan, there are no mechanism for redressal. However, harassment at workplace is a starting point. Later it has to be tackled on the streets, markets and public transport.
Appraising staff performance
Performance appraisal is often perceived simply as a technique of personnel administration. But when it is used for administrative purposes, it becomes a part of managerial strategy.
The implicit logic is that in order to get people to direct their efforts towards organizational objectives, the management must tell them what to do, judge how well they have done it and reward or punish them accordingly. In actual fact most supervisors and managers put performance appraisal, formal or informal, on the back-burner so as not to 'offend workers', activate 'unionism' or to reveal their own inadequacies and built-in prejudices in performing this all-important task of management.
While the strategy of performance appraisal varies in detail from company to company and even manager to manager, in general it includes a number of steps:
* A formal position description, which spells out the responsibilities of the job, determines the limits of authority and provides each individual staff a clear picture of what he is supposed to do. Highly centralized method of working, over-lapping of duties and responsibilities and confusion over who is supposed to do what, is the style of working in most cases.
* Day-to-day direction and control by the supervisor within limits of the formal description of the job. In short, the supervisor assigns tasks, supervises performance and gives recognition for good performance while not holding back criticism for a job not done properly. Generally speaking, supervisors are stingy about praise. This is mainly on account of their own mental insecurities and either overlook faults (of favourites) or over-stress mistakes (of foes).
* A periodic formal summary of the sub-ordinate's performance by the superior, using an objective system of rating must be prepared. Typically, the rating includes judgments concerning the quality and quantity of the sub-ordinate's work, his attitude to work and company goals; personality traits like the ability to get along with others, judgment, reactions under stress and overall judgment on potential and readiness for promotion. In this respect too there are constraints and inhibitions.
First is the inability of most supervisors and managers to write coherently and clearly. Secondly while managers make all kinds of verbal comments when it comes to putting the remarks and recommendations on paper, they get cold feet for fear of reprisal both from the sub-ordinate and their own superior.
* A conference in which the appraiser communicates his judgments to the appraise, discusses the reasons for them and advises him/her on the ways to improve. This is more easily said than done. Most supervisors and managers find this to be the most difficult of their managerial task even though it happens to be the most important one. Often such conferences end up in a showdown, blame-game and mud-slinging bouts between the two sides.
* Instead of being used as a tool for human development and improving the skills and performance of the worker, the appraisal reports are quite unnecessarily used for the administration of increments and promotions that make them even less acceptable on both sides.
In the light of inhibitions and perceptions that the above stated system of performance appraisal generates, variations of these procedures are used to improve the objectivity of judgments and to remove discriminations that often arise in one-on-one appraisal system. Some companies utilise multiple judgments obtained independently from several superiors or developed in a group setting. Others use the 'forced choice' method in which a series of specific judgments are translated into scores that are not known to the supervisor.
Hence he does not know how he has actually done the evaluation until the results are calculated. The best alternative remains the training of supervisors in the rating of factors and in counselling techniques to achieve uniformity of judgment to the maximum extent.
Appraisal systems are designed not only to provide a more systematic control over the work output of the subordinates, but also to control the behaviour of supervisors. A good appraisal system will compel the supervisor to face up to problems of poor performance and deal suitably with them. It will also require the supervisor to communicate with his subordinates in order to discuss the performance. Considerable amount of expertise and experience has gone into the strategy of appraising performances. But how well does it achieve its objective?
Formal position descriptions provide management with an orderly picture of the organization and the comfortable conviction that people know what they are supposed to do. It establishes formal chain of command and delimits authority so that people will not interfere in one another's work.
Oft-times position descriptions are a basis for an equitable salary classification scheme, though at best, this is only a rough picture of reality. However, within the managerial hierarchy it is doubtful if any job is performed the same way by two successive incumbents, or by the same incumbent over a long period of time. Not only do conditions change but so do skills and relative abilities, perceptions and priorities.
Companies would require less human resource if managers would adjust to their position descriptions rather than the other way round. Management at middle and lower levels make little actual use of position descriptions. Typically they are glanced over, filed away and forgotten.
Many research studies show up substantial differences in the perceptions of sub-ordinates and superiors concerning the requirements and priorities of the positions of the former.
Organizations that attempt to use position descriptions for control purposes stimulate managerial behaviour that ends up defeating the system. The juggling of position descriptions to enable managers do what they would like to do, hiring a person who does not fit the classification, make salary adjustments, legitimize a promotion, is a common phenomena in such organizations.
The system is rendered ineffective by such countermeasures. Sometimes an attempt is made to eliminate these difficulties by a participative approach by the incumbent being encouraged to help in the writing of their job description. But while this would reduce resistance to the system it is doubtful if it would achieve the desired control and direction of behaviour. The dimensions of a managerial position can be precisely defined only for a particular individual in a particular set of circumstances at a given point of time.
The administrative objective of the appraisal process is salary fixation, increments, promotions, transfers, demotion and termination. But there are enormous difficulties herein. In the first place there is the variation in the standard of different judges that has never been completely solved. Nor, indeed, have we succeeded in eliminating the effects of bias and prejudice in making appraisal judgments.
The variations will be greater or smaller depending upon the method of appraisal used and the amount of training given in its use. But the variations remain substantial nevertheless. If we take this questionable data and attempt to make a fine discrimination between people for increments, it may make a pretty picture but one which has very little relation to reality. Using simple procedures and some safeguards against extreme bias and prejudice we may be able to make a distinction between outstanding, satisfactory and unsatisfactory performances. But if we make any finer distinction among the staff we would only be deluding ourselves.
Another problem of judging performance is that any individual's performance is, to a considerable extent, a function of how he is managed. For instance, an individual who operates best when he is given some freedom may find himself under a superior who provides close and detailed supervision.
Since most appraisals involve an evaluation of attitudes and personality traits, besides quantified performance, there is a tendency to invade the personality of the subordinate, which is a delicate matter. That is why 'counselling' for such factors are encouraged. But few managers are competent to practice psychotherapy and the fact that the superior is in the seat of a judge makes the situation totally inappropriate for giving advice.
The role of a judge and the role of a counsellor are incompatible. Likewise, appraisal reports are poor motivational tools in an atmosphere of defensiveness, inability to understand, perception that the superior is being unfair or arbitrary.
A six-monthly or annual appraisal report is not an efficient stimulus of learning because it provides "feedback" about behaviour at a time that is quite remote from the action itself. The most effective feedback comes immediately after the event and all the evidence is at hand.
It is a tribute to the adaptability of human beings that the procedure of telling people what to do, then judging their performances and, finally, rewarding or punishing them works at all! The strategy of management by integration and self-control is more appropriate for intelligent adults and is more likely to be conducive to growth, learning and improved performance.