tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/organisational-culture-26371/articlesorganisational culture – The Conversation2023-06-15T20:04:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2041982023-06-15T20:04:57Z2023-06-15T20:04:57ZToxic work cultures start with incivility and mediocre leadership. What can you do about it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532118/original/file-20230615-15-2eowb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C775%2C4880%2C2473&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’re in a meeting, with something important to say. Just as you begin, a colleague sighs and shares an eye-roll with their buddy. And not for the first time.</p>
<p>Workplaces aren’t always harmonious. Whether it’s a cafe, factory or parliament, people do and say hurtful things. They may talk down to you, “call you out” in front of others, make jokes at your expense, gossip about you behind your back, or give you the silent treatment.</p>
<p>This type of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1976">incivility</a> doesn’t quite rise to the level where you can complain to human resources and expect a satisfying resolution. Organisations typically have policies against racism, sexism, harassment and other overt forms of abuse. But incivility – being less severe and more difficult to prove – tends to fly under the radar.</p>
<p>Most of us will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.6.1.64">experience incivility</a> at some point at work. <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/01/the-price-of-incivility">More than 50%</a> experience it weekly. According to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000870">2022 meta-analysis</a> of 105 incivility studies, you’re more likely to cop it if you’re new, female, in a subordinate position, or from an ethnic minority.</p>
<p>Unkind and thoughtless words matter. As linguist Louise Banks says in the 2016 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164">Arrival</a>: “Language is the first weapon drawn in a conflict.” </p>
<p>What people say and how they say it affects us deeply. One cruel remark can ruin your whole day. Left unchecked, incivility makes for a toxic workplace.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-workplace-rudeness-on-the-rise-129876">Is workplace rudeness on the rise?</a>
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<h2>Why are people rude to each other?</h2>
<p>It’s tempting to simply blame bad character. Certainly such behaviour is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110090">much more likely</a> from people with dysfunctional personality traits, especially the “dark triad” of narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.</p>
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<img alt="The dark triad" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531870/original/file-20230614-25-exhvab.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Dark_Triad.png">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Narcissists are self-obsessed and dominate social interactions. Psychopaths lack empathy and don’t understand social norms. Machiavellians are manipulative, self-interested and amoral.</p>
<p>But even “nice” people can be uncivil, with the three most common <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1976">incivility triggers</a> being because they feel let down by their leaders, are under more pressure than they can handle, or someone else was rude first – to them or others.</p>
<p>Incivility can therefore become a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.2202131">vicious spiral</a> that turns victims and bystanders into perpetrators. That’s how toxic workplaces are born, develop, and perpetuate.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-jeremy-clarkson-taught-us-about-incivility-in-the-workplace-39913">What Jeremy Clarkson taught us about incivility in the workplace</a>
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<h2>Incivility in the workplace</h2>
<p>Leadership sets the tone. We’re social creatures and learn what’s expected and acceptable from those we look up to. Our leaders’ behaviour is infectious, and cascades down throughout and across organisations – for better or worse.</p>
<p>Incivility is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.621">most harmful</a> when it comes from a supervisor: someone we’re supposed to trust, who’s supposed to look after us. </p>
<p>The power asymmetry means leaders’ inappropriate behaviour is less likely to be challenged. Take, for example, Harvey Weinstein, who for decades abused his position as one of Hollywood’s most successful film producers to sexually exploit women, before finally <a href="https://theconversation.com/staying-in-grace-why-some-people-are-immune-from-scandal-until-theyre-not-140908">being held to account</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/staying-in-grace-why-some-people-are-immune-from-scandal-until-theyre-not-140908">Staying in grace: Why some people are immune from scandal – until they're not</a>
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<p>But managers can be derelict in their duty without being perpetrators. As in the case of sexual harassment, it may be easier to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000861">see and hear no evil</a>, perhaps because the perpetrator is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000910">favoured as a high performer or a friend</a>. With the capacity for one individual to make life a misery for many colleagues, this leadership failure can lead to a toxic workplace culture.</p>
<h2>Authentic leadership ‘in the trenches’</h2>
<p>It’s up to leaders to be the first movers against incivility and create positive work cultures with their own behaviour. What leaders will tolerate on their team sets the bar for how everyone else will behave.</p>
<p>With colleagues Stephen Teo and David Pick, I’ve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/7593926">surveyed 230 nurses</a> across Australia about the leadership qualities that help reduce incivility.</p>
<p>Why ask nurses? Because their work is stressful and demanding. The strain of providing critical care for patients creates conditions conducive to conflict, from swearing to <a href="https://www.acn.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/position-statement-occupational-violence-against-nurses.pdf">physical violence</a>. Workplace incivility is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244426">frequent</a> and these stressors increase the likelihood of <a href="https://www.osha.gov/hospitals/understanding-problem">medical mistakes</a>. So there’s good reason to reduce incivility to improve health-care quality.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Nurse" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531881/original/file-20230614-25-dbn8gn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Nurses work in stressful and demanding conditions, conducive to conflict.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/7593926">Our research</a> shows that authentic leadership promotes workplace cultures with less incivility and better well-being. Such <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1042-3">authentic leaders</a> are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, act on their values even under pressure, and work to understand how their leadership affects others.</p>
<h2>What can you do?</h2>
<p>Incivility isn’t okay. It should never be excused as “just part of the job”.</p>
<p>If this is happening to you, or others in your workplace, avoiding it won’t help you or your colleagues. Putting up with incivility is emotionally taxing, entrenches feelings of resentment and will likely lead to bigger conflicts down the track.</p>
<p>Responding with more incivility of your own isn’t a good idea. Retaliation rarely deters a person who engages in such behaviour and instead effectively endorses it.</p>
<p>One approach recommended by psychologists when dealing with high-conflict personalities is known as the <a href="https://ombuds.ucsf.edu/sites/g/files/tkssra2661/f/wysiwyg/biff.pdf">BIFF technique</a>: be brief, informative, friendly and firm.</p>
<p>When someone says something mean, you might respond, as calmly as possible, along the lines of: “Your comments are hurtful and damage our working relationship. Please, let’s keep things professional.”</p>
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<img alt="Don't retaliate. Be brief, informative and friendly but firm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532103/original/file-20230615-21-n0wdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Don’t retaliate. Be brief, informative and friendly but firm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>If the behaviour persists, approach your supervisor. Again, stay calm. Explain what’s happening and how it’s affecting you. You don’t have to go at it alone either: consider inviting colleagues who can support you, and your claims.</p>
<p>Will this fix the problem? Possibly not. Your manager might simply shrug their shoulders, or arrange a “mediation” that resolves nothing. But saying and doing nothing will almost certainly <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/04/an-antidote-to-incivility">leave you unsatisfied</a>.</p>
<p>If your manager is the perpetrator, contact your HR department first (if your organisation has one) or else your union. The union can offer advice on other avenues to seek redress. </p>
<p>Statutory agencies such as Australia’s <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/workplace-problems">Fair Work Ombudsman</a>, <a href="https://www.employment.govt.nz/resolving-problems/">Employment New Zealand</a> and the UK’s <a href="https://www.acas.org.uk/">Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service</a> have the power to investigate workplace complaints, and to intervene in disputes through formal conciliation or arbitration. But before embarking on such a process, it’s best to get expert advice. You might get justice, but also still need to find another job.</p>
<p>Incivility is unlikely to stop on its own, however. Your voice matters and can help break the cycle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrei Lux works for Edith Cowan University and is a Director of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.</span></em></p>Workplace incivility doesn’t quite rise to the level of bullying, harassment or discrimination, which makes it harder to tackle. Here’s why it occurs and what can be done about it.Andrei Lux, Lecturer of Leadership and Director of Academic Studies, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027932023-04-17T10:43:02Z2023-04-17T10:43:02ZCasey review: how the Met police needs to accept that it is institutionally racist and deal with failures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518223/original/file-20230329-1565-lblkzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/british-metropolitan-police-officer-hivisibility-uniform-1279370110">Carrie Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Louise Casey’s <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/met/about-us/baroness-casey-review/update-march-2023/baroness-casey-review-march-2023.pdf">review</a> of the standards of behaviour and internal culture at the Metropolitan police makes for uncomfortable reading. It was commissioned following the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, who was a serving Met officer at the time. </p>
<p>Casey highlights the prevalence of sexism and homophobia. Crucially, in considering police culture she draws different conclusions on the existence of institutional racism than <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-commission-report-the-rights-and-wrongs-158316">the position</a> taken in 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government on race.</p>
<p><a href="https://irr.org.uk/article/what-is-institutional-racism/">Institutional racism</a> is defined as racial discrimination in process, attitude and behaviour. It results from prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness or racist stereotyping. And it adversely affects people from minority ethnic communities. </p>
<p>In 1999, already, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf">Macpherson report</a> found the force guilty of institutional racism. The recent cases of Met officers accused of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54466254">racially profiling</a> the athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos and the two Met officers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/26/mother-of-murdered-sisters-bibaa-henry-nicole-smallman-met-police-apology">dismissed for</a> sharing photographs and making inappropriate comments about Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, the sisters murdered in 2020, have highlighted, however, how little has been done about it. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/28/metropolitan-police-safeguarding-risk-black-children-schools-strip-search-child-q">commentators</a> have grave <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/26/race-disparity-police-strip-searches-of-children-england-and-wales">concerns</a> about how black communities in the UK are disproportionately and unfairly policed. In 2020 the House of Lords <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/accusations-of-racism-in-the-metropolitan-police-service/&data=05%7C01%7Cangus.nurse@ntu.ac.uk%7C18829195b93740f3f6b608db2a227120%7C8acbc2c5c8ed42c78169ba438a0dbe2f%7C1%7C0%7C638150099632125799%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0=%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3WsQ7HZxf90pJZGM71coe48RjZEiz1tmeIEKIAik4f0=&reserved=0">reported</a> on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-and-search-new-data-shows-continued-ethnic-disproportionality-172260#:%7E:text=Racial%20disproportionality%20in%20stop%20and%20search%20has%20been,associated%20legislation%20%28the%20most%20frequently%20used%20stop-and-search%20powers%29.">disproportionate use</a> of stop and search against black Londoners. <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/mopac-publications/action-plan-transparency-accountability-and-trust-policing">Research shows</a> that people from black and mixed ethnic groups have lower trust and confidence in the Met.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/casey-review-key-steps-the-met-police-must-take-to-address-its-institutional-racism-and-sexism-202255">challenge</a> for the force, then, is whether it will accept this institutional failure. In figuring out how to deal with it, it should, among other things, examine how complaints are dealt with, how staff members are able to raise issues themselves, and how performance monitoring uncovers problems. </p>
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<img alt="Several police officers in uniform on police motorbikes by a street curb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Met is not representative of the people it serves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-03-19-2022-line-2140461621">RobertoBarcellona/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>The scale of the task</h2>
<p>Casey does not simply highlight the problems with how black citizens are policed, and the crimes perpetrated against them dealt with. She says the Met is unrepresentative of Londoners, noting that “Met officers are 82% white and 71% male” and that “the Met does not look like the majority of Londoners”. </p>
<p>She acknowledges that the force has improved the ethnic diversity of its workforce. However, she states that black communities in London are “under-protected – disproportionately the victims of homicides and domestic abuse; and over-policed – facing disproportionate use of stop and search and use of force by the Met”. </p>
<p>The Met’s response to scandals, the review says, often involves “playing them down, denial, obfuscation, and digging in to defend officers without seeming to understand their wider significance”. Casey also points to what many regard as a “hostile culture” within the force, with evidence of systematic racial bias against black, Asian, and ethnic minority staff. </p>
<p>Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, responded to Casey’s findings acknowledging that the racism, among other ills, is systemic. However, he <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-chief-sir-mark-rowley-again-rejects-use-of-term-institutional-to-describe-forces-problems-after-damning-report-12840225">rejected</a> the term “institutional”. To his mind, it is a political term, unhelpful because it is ill-defined. Instead, he emphasised the need to root out <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-chief-embarrassed-by-review-but-wont-use-term-institutionally-racist-12839225">“toxic individuals”</a>. </p>
<p>Individual offenders seeking to justify their actions will sometimes use what sociologists and criminologists call “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0140.xml">neutralisation techniques</a>” to minimise their guilt. Organisations also routinely deploy them, to underplay the seriousness of the allegations made against them. </p>
<p>This is because denial deflects from the need to act. Appealing to higher loyalties protects the profession or the organisation by asserting its value. </p>
<p>When organisations are faced with accusations of racism, the institutional response often emphasises that the fault lies with individual rotten apples, as opposed to the barrel itself. The institution thus avoids facing up to the reality of the situation and embracing meaningful and effective change, even when senior leadership displays willingness to do so.</p>
<p>Conversely, responses that are system led and process driven but ineffective are just as fruitless. Casey says the Met has often responded to problems by effectively just ticking boxes. A complaints system or procedure might provide a mechanism that allows people (or groups) to raise complaints. But the process (that is, the response) is taken up with logging the level and number of complaints and defending an organisational position. </p>
<p>Instead, organisations need to take their cues from what research and data tell them about the existence of institutional racism and discrimination. They need to identify the nature of issues and then implement thorough organisational changes.</p>
<p>When it comes to identifying misconduct, Casey suggests introducing a new misconduct system and overhauling the vetting processes for new recruits and for specialist units. She also recommends that the commissioner be granted greater powers to better enforce the misconduct standards and remove officers whose conduct falls short of the required standards. </p>
<p>On race, however, her recommendations fall short. The Macpherson report had 70 recommendations. They included implementing a code of conduct that would “ensure that racist words or acts proved to have been spoken or done by police officers should lead to disciplinary proceedings”. </p>
<p>And yet, 24 years on from that report, the Casey review is still recommending training and codes of practice. This suggests that Macpherson’s recommendations were not efficiently implemented. </p>
<p>Like many large institutions, the Met risks remaining in denial about the scale of its racism problem. It has failed to appropriately challenge discriminatory <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23303131.2016.1249584?casa_token=oKd7Odi9FfcAAAAA%3A4yRqis0UZf54Dq5eI2c0hNBFp6IoAQ4YxpKbxvz0ZFtPdPTc_I5ZVdHNFBYwsk1-76Gt9FdxZZ-1">attitudes</a> and behaviour. Inaction or ineffective action will only further enable those who hold racist attitudes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angus Nurse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like many large institutions, the Met remains in denial about the scale of its racism problem. The Casey review falls short in its recommendations for how to address it.Angus Nurse, Head of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1949992022-11-22T19:06:31Z2022-11-22T19:06:31ZElon Musk’s ‘hardcore’ management style: a case study in what not to do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496328/original/file-20221120-16-i80nmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2065%2C1053&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Jae C. Hong/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a case study in how to implement organisational change, Elon Musk’s actions at Twitter will go down as the gold standard in what not to do. </p>
<p>Among other things, <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/annals.2016.0095">the evidence shows</a> successful organisational change requires: a clear, compelling vision that is communicated effectively; employee participation; and fairness in the way change is implemented. Trust in leaders is <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/annals.2016.0095">also crucial</a>. </p>
<p>Musk, the world’s richest man, appears in a hurry to make Twitter into a money-spinner. But it takes time to understand the requirements for successful organisational change. <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/annals.2016.0095">Two in three</a> such efforts fail, resulting in significant costs, a <a href="https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.1100.1273">stressed workforce</a> and loss of key talent. </p>
<p>Change management never quite goes to plan. It’s hard to figure out whether Musk even has a plan at all.</p>
<h2>Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ style</h2>
<p>Since taking over Twitter on October 27, Musk has stopped employees working from home, cancelled employee lunches, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter-fired-criticism.html">laid off</a> about 3,700 employees – roughly half of Twitter’s workforce. Many realised they had been sacked when they could no longer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/04/twitter-layoffs-elon-musk-revenue-drop">access their laptops</a>.</p>
<p>Just days later it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter-fired-criticism.html">emerged</a> that Musk had a team of snoopers comb through employees’ private messages on Slack, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter-fired-criticism.html">firing those</a> who had criticised him. </p>
<p>Then, on Wednesday last week, Musk sent an ultimatum to staff to pledge commitment to a new “extremely hardcore” Twitter that “will mean working long hours at a high intensity”. Employees had until 5pm the next day to accept, or take a severance package. </p>
<p>About 500 staff reportedly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/after-elon-musks-ultimatum-twitter-employees-start-exiting-2022-11-18/">wrote farewell messages</a>.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tweet from Twitter employee Leah Culver: " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496687/original/file-20221122-15-2fp8s6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Musk appears not to have anticipated this reaction. As the “hardcore” deadline approached, he started bringing key staff into meetings, trying to convince them to stay.</p>
<p>He also walked back his working-from-home ban, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-17/musk-softens-remote-work-mandate-to-retain-twitter-staffers">emailing staff</a> that “all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution”.</p>
<p>It was unsuccessful. So many employees decided to leave that on Friday Twitter <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-17/musk-softens-remote-work-mandate-to-retain-twitter-staffers?srnd=premium&sref=QnKyEnuc&leadSource=uverify%20wall">locked all staff</a> out of its office until Monday amid confusion as to who actually still worked there and should have access.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Twitter has lost more than half its workforce in less than a month." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496660/original/file-20221122-24-qapv1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Twitter has lost more than half its workforce in less than a month.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Chiu/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Layoffs and restructuring are common in organisational change. But the way they are managed has significant <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2016-07814-001">effects</a> on those who are leaving, as well as those who remain. If you want employees to be committed and to respond to a crisis, telling them they are lazy and threatening them won’t help.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-breaking-up-with-twitter-heres-the-right-way-to-do-it-195002">Thinking of breaking up with Twitter? Here’s the right way to do it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Choice matters</h2>
<p>But what about SpaceX and Tesla – the companies on which Musk has built his fame and fortune? Doesn’t their success prove he is a good leader? </p>
<p>Not so fast. There is a big difference between a mission-driven company like SpaceX and a platform like Twitter. </p>
<p>When there is a common mission to achieve something extraordinary or which hasn’t been done before, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053482212000629?casa_token=KV2BSOHMY2sAAAAA:mKXmNigQSkRramqQQDrYRliLH3h4iS-NMSGniS7CwDR_LVDAnRvQ-pCR7gK2lSBomq2Ued5xMA">employees</a> will often willingly work extremely long hours in difficult situations.</p>
<p>They will choose to go above and beyond and work long hours if they feel aligned with the organisation’s purpose or that their work matters. But the key point here is that they choose. </p>
<p>As one <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63672307">Twitter employee</a> tweeted after Musk’s “hardcore” email:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I didn’t want to work for someone who threatened us over email multiple times about only ‘exceptional tweeps should work here’ when I was already working 60-70 hours weekly.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Musk ignores the fundamentals</h2>
<p>Both Tesla and SpaceX have <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/797952/summary">many unhappy employees</a>, with lawsuits filed over working conditions and Musk’s management style.</p>
<p>He has been commended for his <a href="https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/musks-5-step-design-process">thinking</a> on iterative design and solving engineering problems. Challenging old models that may no longer be useful is important. But the <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/annals.2016.0095">fundamentals</a> of leadership and organisational change are still essential – and on these, Musk falls woefully short. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-elon-musks-destruction-of-twitter-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media-194895">What Elon Musk's destruction of Twitter tells us about the future of social media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While his employees – real people who aren’t billionaires and who have rent or mortgages to pay – were grappling with what being “hardcore” even means, and how that might impact their ability to have a life outside work, Musk was tweeting about his poll on whether former US president Donald Trump should be allowed back on the platform. </p>
<p>Then, after Trump declined to return, Musk tweeted the following: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496428/original/file-20221121-14-gfq5yp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea of any other chief executive sending such a message on social media almost defies belief.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/twitter-and-elon-musk-why-free-speech-absolutism-threatens-human-rights-193877">Twitter and Elon Musk: why free speech absolutism threatens human rights</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some have suggested this whole debacle is an ego trip for Musk – a theory lent credence by his attempt to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/08/tech/elon-musk-twitter-deal-exit/index.html">get out of the deal</a>. His actions pose a significant risk to the business even if there are still enough employees around to keep it working. </p>
<p>Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, who resigned on November 10, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/opinion/twitter-yoel-roth-elon-musk.html">wrote last week</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Almost immediately upon the acquisition’s close, a wave of racist and antisemitic trolling emerged on Twitter. Wary marketers, including those at General Mills, Audi and Pfizer, slowed down or paused ad spending on the platform, kicking off a crisis within the company to protect precious ad revenue.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But even more powerful than the advertisers, Roth noted, are the digital storefronts of Apple and Google:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Failure to adhere to Apple’s and Google’s guidelines would be catastrophic, risking Twitter’s expulsion from their app stores and making it more difficult for billions of potential users to get Twitter’s services. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Organisations are complex, interdependent systems, underpinned by a web of behavioural processes. Creating <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/annals.2016.0095">successful change</a> requires aligning individual, work group and organisational goals. </p>
<p>Even if the little blue bird is still flying for now, the people-led systems that keep it aloft are under significant threat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Libby (Elizabeth) Sander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Change management never quite goes according to plan. But it’s hard to figure out if Elon Musk even has a plan.Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, MBA Director & Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1784232022-04-26T05:29:21Z2022-04-26T05:29:21ZCut yourself and others some slack: we need more time to experiment and fail at work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449729/original/file-20220303-2262-1j7c9uk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>In 1928 Scottish microbiologist Alexander Fleming, while studying the staphylococcus bacteria, noticed mould on his petri dishes inhibited its growth. He experimented, leading to the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic. </p>
<p>In 1945 engineer Percy Spencer, while working on developing a radar system, noticed a <a href="https://invention.si.edu/node/1145/p/431-percy-spencer-microwave-inventor">chocolate melt</a> very quickly when a new vacuum tube was switched on. He pointed the tube at other objects, which also heated up. This gave rise to the microwave oven. </p>
<p>The lesson from these examples is that great discoveries and new inventions can arise by accident. What also mattered is that Fleming and Spencer had time to experiment. </p>
<p>This is a luxury people working in modern organisations often don’t have. All the focus is on efficiency and meeting performance targets. There’s no slack to experiment or room to make mistakes and learn from them.</p>
<p>Over the years I have talked to many business leaders that dislike experimentation. They firmly believe in sticking to the way things are done. This is particularly prevalent among managers directly responsible for the bottom line. They want their subordinates to focus on tasks set them, not try new things. </p>
<p>It’s somewhat understandable. Better performance improves managers’ remuneration and promotion prospects. But the cost is limiting organisational opportunities for creativity and innovation.</p>
<h2>Fear of failure can infect organisational culture</h2>
<p>A graphic example of this is playing out in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>The Russian military’s huge blunders have been credited to factors such as low morale, corruption and poor logistical support. But equally important is an organisational culture that discourages initiative.</p>
<p>As The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/us/politics/russia-ukraine-military.html">has reported</a>, the evidence from dozens of American, NATO and Ukrainian officials paints a portrait of senior Russian army officers being extremely risk-averse, of</p>
<blockquote>
<p>young, inexperienced conscripted soldiers who have not been empowered to make on-the-spot decisions, and a non-commissioned officer corps that isn’t allowed to make decisions either. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a feature of Russian organisational culture more generally, according to Michel Domsch and Tatjana Lidokhover, authors of the 2017 book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Human-Resource-Management-in-Russia/Domsch/p/book/9780815389552">Human Resource Management in Russia</a>. They describe “the noted Russian apprehension and negative attitude towards failure and making mistakes”. As one expatriate businessperson told them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This attitude can also manifest itself in the hiding of bad news in an attempt to avoid harsh realities as well as to avoid being the unpopular messenger.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459645/original/file-20220426-14-g4bmkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russian organisational culture promotes deference to the leader and avoiding individual initiative that might earn wrath from the top.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexei Nikolsky/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Failure and invention ‘are inseparable twins’</h2>
<p>Employees at the coalface of making a product or providing a service often know more about certain things than an executive. They see inefficiencies and waste, they deal with customer complaints. </p>
<p>Involving them in thinking about innovation and trialing new ways to do things increases the probability of improvement. That’s why great organisations go to great lengths to empower their employees at all levels and encourage them to participate in generating ideas. </p>
<p>Even companies not known for worker empowerment understand the value of experimentation. </p>
<p>At Uber, for example, experiments are at the heart of improving customer experience. </p>
<p>The ride-sharing company can certainly be criticised for its “<a href="https://theconversation.com/algorithms-workers-cant-see-are-increasingly-pulling-the-management-strings-144724">algorithmic management</a>” practices and treatment of subcontractors. But its success is also due to encouraging employees to suggest new product features. </p>
<p>Uber developed an <a href="https://eng.uber.com/experimentation-platform/">experimentation platform</a> where proposed features are launched, measured and evaluated. More than <a href="https://eng.uber.com/xp/">1,000 experiments</a> run on the platform at any given time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-algorithmic-management-makes-work-more-stressful-and-less-satisfying-166030">3 ways 'algorithmic management' makes work more stressful and less satisfying</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another champion of experimentation is Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos. Again, his company is notoriously anti-union – but in a 2015 letter to shareholders he <a href="https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/annual/2015-Letter-to-Shareholders.PDF">did say this</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believe we are the best place in the world to fail (we have plenty of practice!), and failure and invention are inseparable twins. To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment. Most large organisations embrace the idea of invention, but are not willing to suffer the string of failed experiments necessary to get there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cutting employees slack and allowing them to be proactive means some mistakes will be made. What matters is that on average the benefits of new discoveries and new approaches outweigh the costs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-struggle-is-yours-why-failure-is-the-new-literary-success-46204">My struggle is yours: why failure is the new literary success</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Experimenting when everything is running smoothly seems to go against the maxim “don’t fix what isn’t broken”. But successful businesses and organisations experiment continuously, not out of desperation when things are going haywire.</p>
<p>So cut yourself, and others, some slack. It is OK to fail. If an experiment yields expected results it merely confirms what we already knew. But when the experiment fails we learn something new.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maroš Servátka receives funding from Slovak Research and Development Agency, International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics, and Czech Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Many business leaders dislike experimentation. They firmly believe in sticking to the way things are done. But fear of failure is a sure path to organisational failure.Maroš Servátka, Professor of Experimental and Behavioral Economics, Macquarie Graduate School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1657772021-08-06T14:50:27Z2021-08-06T14:50:27ZBeyond the cabinet reshuffle – what will it take to renew South Africa’s public sector?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415010/original/file-20210806-13508-1yvd1gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reshuffled his cabinet amid growing accusations of of graft, and an outbreak of violence unprecedented in 25 years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/full-text-ramaphosas-cabinet-reshuffle-whos-in-whos-out-20210805">has linked his cabinet reshuffle</a> to a larger purpose. As he put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are unwavering in our determination to build a capable state, one which is ably led and which effectively serves the needs of the people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Realising this vision will <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-way-forward-abandon-old-ideas-embrace-bold-experimentation-165539">take a transformation in the way</a> in which South Africans conceive of how to achieve public purposes – one that prioritises people and problem-solving over a preoccupation with plans and systems.</p>
<p>South Africans of many ideological hues have in their minds an image of the public sector as a well-oiled, top-down machine – always effective in delivering on clear goals set by planners and political leaders. “Get the plans right.” “Co-ordinate effectively.” “Fix the systems.” </p>
<p>These become the mantras of reform. But continuing pursuit of these dicta will not get the country where it needs to go.</p>
<p>For one thing, the image of a well-oiled machine presumes an omniscience which no organisation anywhere, public or private, actually has. For another, systems reform is a painstaking process; its gains are measured in years, with gains in the quality of service provision coming only after the upstream improvements are in place. Time is running out.</p>
<p>Most fundamentally, the preoccupation with plans and systems ignores a reality that increasingly has become recognised the world over – that, in shaping feasible ways forward, context matters. Even in places where bureaucratic “insulation” seems to prevail, public administrative systems are embedded in politics. </p>
<p>In some settings, background political, economic and social conditions support top-down bureaucratic machines. Such conditions are very far from South Africa’s current realities.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-way-forward-abandon-old-ideas-embrace-bold-experimentation-165539">South Africa's way forward: abandon old ideas, embrace bold experimentation</a>
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<p>But South Africa’s current public sector challenges are anything but unique. Indeed, counter-intuitive as it might sound to many South Africans, its public sector works somewhat better than those of most other middle-income countries, and those of almost all low-income countries. Yet many countries, even in the midst of messiness, have managed to achieve gains.</p>
<p>How? </p>
<p>By focusing on problems and on people.</p>
<h2>Problems and people</h2>
<p>A focus on concrete problems provides a way to cut through endless preoccupation with empty initiatives – endless plans for reform, endless upstream processes of consultation. Processes that are performative rather than practical, too general to lead anywhere. Instead, <a href="https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/building-state-capability-evidence-analysis-action">gains in public capacity can come via a different path</a> – through learning-by-doing, focusing in an action-oriented way on very specific challenges, and on evoking energy to address them by the responsible departments (or individual state-owned enterprises).</p>
<p>Action to address concrete problems needs to come, of course, from South Africa’s public officials. How to evoke their sense of agency?</p>
<p>Engaging with South Africa’s public officials, one quickly discovers that even the best of them are deeply disillusioned by their experiences. Yet many continue to have a deep reservoir of commitment to service. Evoking commitment is a classic challenge confronting managers everywhere. As <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801442926/state-building/#bookTabs=1">Francis Fukuyama puts it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All good managers (private and public) know that it is ultimately the informal norms and group identities that will most strongly motivate the workers in an organisation to do their best … They thus spend much more time on cultivating the right ‘organisational culture’ than on fixing the formal lines of authority.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Looking beyond the public sector, what of South Africa’s citizens more broadly?</p>
<p>A focus on people also involves transforming the relationship between the public sector and civil society (including the private sector). For reasons both good and bad, public officials generally engage with civil society cautiously. The good reason is that such relationships can all too easily fester corruptly in the shadows. The bad reason is a more generalised wariness – fuelled by a combination of arrogance, fear and inertia – to step outside the comfort zone of tightly managed bureaucratic processes.</p>
<p>The benefits of a transformed relationship can be large. It can be the basis for new, cross-cutting alliances between public sector reformers and reformers within civil society, across national, provincial and local levels. Investment in such alliances can help developmentally oriented stakeholders to overcome resistance to change, including by pushing back against predation.</p>
<p>To renew a relationship, all parties need to change their behaviour. What new behaviours does civil society need to learn?</p>
<h2>Civil society and transparency</h2>
<p>Shaped by its history, South Africa’s civil society organisations generally focus on holding government to account. This is a constricted vision of the role of civil society in a democracy. Indeed, it sometimes can have the unintended consequence of fuelling cynicism and despair, thereby deepening dysfunction. The <a href="https://www.thegpsa.org/about/collaborative-social-accountability">Global Partnership for Social Accountability</a> highlights how less confrontational approaches can add value:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have learned that focusing only on scrutinising and verifying government actions can have limited value in our problem solving. When they engage to focus on the problem at hand, civil society, citizens and public sector actors are better able to deliver solutions collaboratively – especially when they prioritise learning. When social accountability mechanisms are isolated from public sector processes they are not as effective as collaborative governance. Collective action requires efforts that build bridges.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Transparency remains key. Transparency in how civil society engages with officials in the public sector can reduce the risk that more collaborative governance becomes a vehicle for corrupt collusion. Transparency vis-à-vis outcomes can signal to citizens that public resources are not being wasted but are helping to improve results. The combination of participation and transparency can help enhance social solidarity and legitimacy of the public domain.</p>
<p>As Ramaphosa put it in his cabinet reshuffle speech:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The task of rebuilding our economy and our society requires urgency and focus. It requires cooperation among all sectors of society and the active involvement of all South Africans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or, as per Hugh Masekela’s classic song (quoted by Ramaphosa in his <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-2018-state-nation-address-16-feb-2018-0000">first state of the nation address to parliament as president</a> in early 2018, “Thuma Mina”. Send me.</p>
<p><em>This article builds on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-way-forward-abandon-old-ideas-embrace-bold-experimentation-165539">piece that appeared</a> in The Conversation’s ‘foundation’ series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Levy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa’s public sector works somewhat better than those of most other middle-income countries. Yet, unlike them, it has not managed to achieve gains in the midst of messiness.Brian Levy, Professor of the Practice of International Development, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1576982021-04-14T14:25:49Z2021-04-14T14:25:49ZWhy converging newsroom cultures can make media houses more sustainable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392924/original/file-20210331-19-o4wv2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traditional media houses must adapt, innovate and converge to survive in the digital age.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Until the arrival of the world wide web, the media model that worked revolved around money made from selling advertisements and from revenue from subscriptions or copy sales. But online delivery has left traditional media struggling to find new revenue sources while using web metrics to <a href="https://medium.com/code-for-africa/six-skills-you-need-to-run-a-modern-sustainable-newsroom-4f750d38e4af">quantify audience numbers and engagement</a>. </p>
<p>To cope they have begun to use web metrics to inform how they sell online content and attract diverse, digital revenue sources. These have received substantial attention across media houses struggling to sustain themselves financially on digital platforms.</p>
<p>But as <a href="http://repository.daystar.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/123456789/3299/An%20Actor-Network%20Analysis%20of%20the%20Use%20of%20the%20World%20Wide%20Web%20in%20a%20Kenyan%20Newsroom%e2%80%99s%20Journalistic%20Practice%20A%20Case%20Of%20Capital%20Fm%20.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">my 2017 PhD research</a> shows, there are other factors that contribute to the strength and sustainability of a media house. </p>
<p>One of them is how news outlets are organised – how they conduct their day-to-day business. In particular, how they marry traditional practices (before the arrival of the internet), with the demands of making news available for online distribution.</p>
<p>My research focused on a case study of a Kenyan commercial FM radio station that had incorporated the web and other digital technologies in its journalistic practice. The station was making money from its digital platforms. The interesting question was: why?</p>
<p>The study showed the emergence of two distinct organisational cultures in the newsroom. These cultures – hierarchical and non-hierarchical – enabled production speed and innovation respectively. </p>
<p>In hierarchical cultures there is a clear chain of command. Reporters, news readers and camera personnel develop content that is reviewed by a team of editors who are overseen by an editorial director. Content produced in hierarchical cultures tends to follow prescribed patterns. </p>
<p>At the radio station where I did my research, radio scripts were no longer than four or five lines with an accompanying audio clip of about 20 seconds. Web stories were at least 300 words long with an accompanying photograph. </p>
<p>This formulaic approach tended to promote speed. On multiple occasions, I observed radio and web stories being written within 10 to 15 minutes because of the standardised approach that reporters took to developing the stories.</p>
<p>But in a separate working area where contributing writers and in-house editors worked together to develop and edit web content, I witnessed a more ad hoc working culture. Here, journalists collaborated frequently and there was little emphasis on hierarchy. Meetings tended to be informal interactions. And all the experimentation took place in this area. For example, members of this team conceptualised, created and published web series on YouTube and then embedded them in the website’s TV section. </p>
<p>I was persuaded that the station’s meld of hierarchical and non-hierarchical cultures contributed to its success. In my view, organisational culture can also make a difference. But only if it is disrupted.</p>
<p>My main takeaway from my research is that newsrooms need a blend of both cultures: the old ways of doing things provide a bridge to the past, while the new enable news organisations to exploit and adapt to the nimbleness of emerging and changing technologies.</p>
<h2>A tale of two systems</h2>
<p>The adoption of digital technologies and the emergence of two working cultures at the radio station were done at the behest of the owner and management. Driven to establish the station as a pioneer and market leader, they moved early to incorporate digital technologies more deeply even with the early uncertainty that the venture wouldn’t pay off. </p>
<p>The station had a typical, traditional newsroom with an editorial director overseeing a team of editors, reporters and news readers. They produced news for radio, their website, and mobile breaking news platforms. The coverage included sports, general news, politics, and business.</p>
<p>But it also had a team that focused purely on generating digital content for its website and social media platforms. This content was sourced from a small team of editors and a network of external contributors. It included lifestyle features, celebrity gossip and web video series. This content was more playful and experimental than what was generated in the newsroom.</p>
<p>News had been the station’s traditional money-maker primarily through advertising and sponsorship of radio news bulletins. But the lighter content from the exclusively digital team had drawn audiences, attracting new advertising clients. By the time of conducting my research in 2016, the lifestyle section of the website had begun making more money than the news section of the website.</p>
<p>The digital set up was much less formal than than the traditional newsroom. Here, the team relied on a network of freelancers who worked on exclusively digital content with weekly deadlines. The team worked non-hierarchically. Editors allowed for greater collaboration and interaction among the contributors, themselves, and a webmaster who contributed story ideas.</p>
<p>There was a physical separation between the newsroom and the digital department. But the company bridged the gap by embedding new roles, like a social media manager, into the traditional newsroom. It also allowed certain personnel – such as a business writer – to work in both spaces. </p>
<p>Journalists working in traditional newsrooms are used to hierarchical, structured routines and practices. In my research, I found that these journalists have been disrupted by the entry of digital spaces where younger, tech-savvy content creators work on rolling deadlines within evolving structures and routines. </p>
<p>The result is separation and tension between the two. This has left media houses struggling to take advantage of their divergent but complementary strengths.</p>
<p>Research has established that even with digital technologies there are aspects of journalistic labour that have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0957926504045032">remained rooted in routine</a>. Take the gatekeeper role of the editor, for example. This role contributes to the verification of content and strengthens the credibility and trustworthiness of a news brand. By contrast, the flexible digital structure enables experimentation and creativity, which is useful when dealing with the dynamism of the profession of journalism.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-economic-questions-are-key-to-africas-media-freedom-debate-96429">Why economic questions are key to Africa's media freedom debate</a>
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<p>There is therefore room to enable and encourage these two types of cultures in contemporary newsrooms.</p>
<h2>How to enable disruption</h2>
<p>Team members should possess different abilities ranging from management, to legacy editorial, digital, and business development skills. </p>
<p>Teams should also be a mix of new hires and experienced editors, tech-savvy content creators and technically challenged news gatherers. The goal would be to harness the technical know-how and creativity of the denizens of the digital space, while making use of the experience, institutional knowledge and networks held by those in the traditional newsroom.</p>
<p>Participatory, informal discussions could then be had alongside top-down, formal interactions to engender a hybrid innovative and imitative environment. </p>
<p>Towards this end, media houses with digital and traditional newsrooms in Africa can engender more collaborative environments to address the tensions that often emerge between the old and the new. This would go a long way towards sustainability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wambui Wamunyu is affiliated with Kenya Editors Guild.</span></em></p>Media houses with digital and traditional newsrooms need to create collaborative environments to address the tensions that often emerge between the old and the new.Wambui Wamunyu, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, Daystar UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1389322020-06-19T05:07:06Z2020-06-19T05:07:06ZInformal feedback: we crave it more than ever, and don’t care who it’s from<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342908/original/file-20200619-70396-112cfgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=148%2C148%2C6804%2C4723&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 crisis has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-28/coronavirus-could-reshape-how-australians-work-forever/12097124">changed the way</a> many of us work. With the switch to working from home, in particular, a fundamental workplace behaviour has gone by the wayside. </p>
<p>Informal feedback.</p>
<p>At the office it is easy to get, and give. But <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australians-brace-for-a-year-of-working-from-home-20200413-p54jac">working from home</a> makes it hard. Every interaction requires dialling a number, typing out a message or scheduling a video meeting. That little bit of extra effort means many of us may not bother, given other demands. Indeed a <a href="https://www.eaglehillconsulting.com/about-us/news/announcements/nearly-half-of-u-s-employees-feel-burnt-out-with-one-in-four-attributing-stress-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/">survey of 1,001 US employees</a> in April found lack of communication was a common reason 45% said they felt burnt out. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-the-isolation-working-from-home-has-surprising-downsides-107140">It's not just the isolation. Working from home has surprising downsides</a>
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<p>So feedback is especially essential now. </p>
<p>But how to achieve it? </p>
<p>Traditional management thinking would assume the key source of feedback employees need is from supervisors, and put resources into that. </p>
<p>But this might be the time to change that. Our research shows the same organisational benefits can be achieved through a broader culture of feedback between colleagues, making managerial feedback non-essential.</p>
<h2>Managers not that important</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hrm.21960">study</a> investigated the degree to which two different sources of feedback – manager feedback and colleague feedback – influenced worker’s willingness to take on more office tasks. </p>
<p>To do so, we surveyed 300 employees and their 64 managers three times over three months in late 2018.</p>
<p>In the first month, employees rated the level of performance and developmental feedback they got from their managers and colleagues, using a “Likert scale” of one to five, one being strong disagreement and five strong agreement. For example, they were asked: “My co-workers provide me with valuable information about how to improve my job performance.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/six-effective-ways-to-have-that-difficult-conversation-at-work-39559">Six effective ways to have that difficult conversation at work</a>
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<p>In the second month, employees rated their work engagement and whether their feedback expectations were being met. These expectations are part of what researchers call the “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226857215_Psychological_and_Implied_Contracts_in_Organisations">psychological contract</a>” between an individual and an organisation – personal beliefs about the reciprocal obligations between the worker and the workplace. </p>
<p>In the third month, we asked the employees’ direct managers to report on any extra tasks those employees had taken on over the past quarter. We asked them to assess if the employee was innovative, such as “creating new ideas” and “transforming the ideas into innovative applications”. We also asked how they helped others, such as “giving their time to help others who have work-related problems”.</p>
<p>Our hypothesis was that receiving high levels of manager feedback would be associated with high scores on these measures.</p>
<p>The results of our analyses did show feedback from managers was important. It increased employee engagement <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2018.11942abstract">by about 13%</a>. </p>
<p>Unexpectedly, however, our results also showed managerial feedback wasn’t any more important than feedback from colleagues.</p>
<p>That is, employees who rated feedback from managers low but feedback from colleagues high scored just as well on the engagement scores from their managers.</p>
<p>So the source of feedback did not matter, so long as it was there. </p>
<h2>Decentralising feedback</h2>
<p>Our results are in line with research showing the best feedback <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21785">for fostering innovation</a> comes from a source that understands the work, is <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ca77/ee3e85c909b7adf15924e1765e4679218a85.pdf">immediate</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21785">frequent</a>.</p>
<p>They show the potential of decentralised work cultures to pick up the slack when conditions, such as working from home, mean workers aren’t having their psychological contract fulfilled by managers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/say-yes-to-mess-why-companies-should-embrace-disorder-72030">Say yes to mess – why companies should embrace disorder</a>
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<p>Promoting an organisation-wide culture of constructive and supportive feedback is even more important to overcome the hurdles in remote working to getting enough informal feedback.</p>
<p>It will take leadership from the top, and bottom.</p>
<p>But you can do it. And we think someone should, informally, tell you that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than ever workers want feedback, and if managers can’t give it other colleagues can.Nathan Eva, Senior Lecturer, Monash UniversityAlex Newman, Associate Dean (International), Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin UniversityHannah Meacham, Monash UniversityTse Leng Tham, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Management, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325132020-05-26T04:44:48Z2020-05-26T04:44:48ZOpen, honest and effective: what makes Jacinda Ardern an authentic leader<p>The qualities that have made Jacinda Ardern New Zealand’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/19/jacinda-ardern-poll-high-popularity-national-simon-bridges-new-zealand-covid-19">most popular prime minister</a> in a century were on display this week as she took an earthquake in her stride during a live television interview.</p>
<p>“We’re fine,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/25/new-zealand-pm-jacinda-ardern-live-tv-earthquake-wellington">she declared</a> cheerfully as the 5.9-magnitude quake shook New Zealand’s parliament house in Wellington for 15 seconds. “I’m not under any hanging lights.”</p>
<p>Her coolness under pressure, self-discipline and the decisiveness of her government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has led some to call Ardern <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-leadership-coronavirus/610237/">the most effective national leader</a> in the world.</p>
<p>But the key ingredient to her popularity and effectiveness is her authenticity.</p>
<p>In the words of Helen Clark, New Zealand’s prime minister from 1999 to 2008, Ardern is a natural and empathetic communicator who doesn’t preach at people, but instead signals that she’s “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-leadership-coronavirus/610237/">standing with them</a>”:</p>
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<p>“They may even think: ‘Well, I don’t quite understand why the government did that, but I know she’s got our back.’ There’s a high level of trust and confidence in her because of that empathy.”</p>
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<p>These insights are confirmed by my own research into authentic leadership.</p>
<h2>How we respond to authentic leaders</h2>
<p>As a lecturer in business leadership, I’m particularly interested in the value of authenticity in the workplace. Part of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2019.78">my research</a> (with colleagues Steven Grover and Stephen Teo) has involved surveying more than 800 workers across Australia to find out how the behaviour of their leaders shapes their feelings about work.</p>
<p>For better or worse, leaders often represent the entire organisation to their employees. How we feel about our boss transfers into how we see the company as a whole, just as political leaders represent the nation.</p>
<p>The results from that survey were decisive: employees were, on average, 40% more likely to want to come to work when they saw their line manager as an authentic leader; and those who came to work because they wanted to were 61% more engaged and 60% more satisfied with their jobs.</p>
<p>At a time when careers routinely span multiple organisations and the nature of work becomes more transient, these results demonstrate the value of positive personal connections in the workplace.</p>
<p>Our research also sheds light on four qualities we value in authentic leaders. </p>
<p>But first, let’s dispel a common misconception.</p>
<h2>What authentic leadership isn’t</h2>
<p>Authentic leadership doesn’t just mean “being true to yourself”. This notion has led some to describe the likes of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/former-white-house-aide-calls-trump-most-authentic-president-1311447">Donald Trump</a> as authentic.</p>
<p>But authentic leaders are not simply callous, self-serving individuals with no social filter. According to Claudia Peus and her co-authors of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1042-3">seminal 2012 article</a> on authentic leadership:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Authentic leaders are guided by sound moral convictions and act in concordance with their deeply held values, even under pressure. They are keenly aware of their views, strengths, and weaknesses, and strive to understand how their leadership impacts others.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>1. Authentic leaders know themselves</h2>
<p>Authentic leaders manifest the Ancient Greek maxim to “know thyself”. They know what truly matters to them, and their own strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>Our values are often hidden assumptions; revealing them requires an active and honest process of personal reflection.</p>
<p>Before we can lead others, we must first lead ourselves.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/leadership-what-it-is-and-isnt-27019">Leadership: what it is (and isn't)</a>
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<h2>2. They follow a moral compass</h2>
<p>Authentic leaders have the courage to stand up and act on their values, rather than bending to social norms. Doing what you feel is right is rarely easy, especially when lives are on the line, but that’s when it matters the most.</p>
<p>An example comes from the last time businesses around the world were struggling this badly, the 2008 global financial crisis. When the board of US-based manufacturing company <a href="https://www.barrywehmiller.com/home">Barry-Wehmiller</a> wanted to discuss layoffs, chief executive Bob Chapman refused.</p>
<p>Instead, Chapman asked everyone to take four weeks’ unpaid leave, <a href="https://www.inc.com/laura-montini/how-you-can-actually-boost-morale-in-your-companys-darkest-days.html">saying</a>: “It’s better that we should all suffer a little than any of us should have to suffer a lot.” The company has since gone from strength to strength under his “<a href="https://www.trulyhumanleadership.com/?page_id=36">truly human leadership</a>”.</p>
<h2>3. They appreciate their own biases</h2>
<p>Authentic leaders are aware of their own biases and strive to see things from multiple viewpoints. We cannot know all sides to an issue and must work to understand and respect others’ perspectives before forming opinions or making decisions.</p>
<p>Acting in the best interests of the collective requires a lucid and compassionate understanding of how our actions affect other people.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/could-managers-be-any-more-authentic-3-ways-you-can-improve-your-leadership-skills-by-watching-friends-123600">Could managers BE any more authentic? 3 ways you can improve your leadership skills by watching Friends</a>
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<h2>4. They are open and honest</h2>
<p>Authentic leaders cultivate open and honest relationships through active self-disclosure. Dropping one’s guard and letting people in isn’t always easy, especially in the workplace. Yet only when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable in front of another person can they open up to us in return.</p>
<p>Australian prime minister Scott Morrison appears to have learnt this lesson since the beginning of the year, when his response to Australia’s catastrophic bushfire season led to unfavourable comparisons with Ardern. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-should-leaders-respond-to-disasters-be-visible-offer-real-comfort-and-dont-force-handshakes-129444">How should leaders respond to disasters? Be visible, offer real comfort – and don't force handshakes</a>
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<p>After the Morrison government revealed a $<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-jobkeeper-60-billion-snafu-like-your-house-builder-revising-quote-morrison-139282">A60 billion budgeting error</a> over its COVID-19 JobKeeper package, he swallowed his pride and accepted fault, acknowledging that “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pm-economists-look-beyond-jobkeeper-and-its-60b-bungle-20200524-p54vxv.html">responsibility for the problem ultimately rested with him</a>.”</p>
<p>It’s a stark contrast to Trump’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/26/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-briefings-analyzed.html">refusal to admit any mistake</a> in his handing of the US response.</p>
<h2>Authenticity: the power to unite</h2>
<p>Support for an authentic leadership approach isn’t unanimous. A notable critic, professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, has <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/jeffrey-pfeffer-why-leadership-industry-has-failed">stated that</a>: “Leaders don’t need to be true to themselves; in fact, being authentic is the opposite of what they should do.”</p>
<p>But our research reveals the power of authenticity to unite people behind a collective cause. Relationships built on mutual trust and shared values are the key.</p>
<p>Jacinda Ardern’s unprecedented popularity mirrors these results. When we see authentic leadership, we know instinctively that we prefer it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrei Lux receives funding from the Centre for Work and Organisational Performance. He works for Edith Cowan University and is a Director of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.</span></em></p>Authentic leadership doesn’t just mean ‘being true to yourself’. It requires self-awareness, a moral compass, understanding your own internal biases and vulnerability.Andrei Lux, Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1062422018-11-19T19:06:36Z2018-11-19T19:06:36ZToppling bankers can be satisfying, but it’s not enough to heal a sick culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245020/original/file-20181112-83586-1heacsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Relying on a change in the top job to change the organisation is a recipe for future disappointment. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>AMP’s chief executive Craig Meller, chairperson Catherine Brenner and other directors fell on their swords after the banking royal commission revealed the insurer had spent a decade charging customers for phantom services and lying to the corporate watchdog. </p>
<p>NAB senior executive <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-17/nab-executive-andrew-hagger-quits/10255028">Andrew Hagger resigned</a> after the commission revealed he had withheld critical information from regulators about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fees-for-no-service-how-asic-is-trying-to-make-corporate-misconduct-hurt-103089">“fee for no service”</a> lurk.</p>
<p>Freedom Insurance directors David Hancock and Katrina Glendinning bailed out after the commission revealed their company’s aggressive sales tactics included selling a complicated insurance policy over the phone to a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-17/nab-executive-andrew-hagger-quits/10255028">man with Down syndrome</a>.</p>
<p>There’s symbolic power in heads rolling when organisations do wrong. It can be particularly cathartic for victims of bad behaviour. </p>
<p>But merely changing leaders is no guarantee of a fresh start or new direction for those organisations. On its own it will not heal a sick culture or prevent future malfeasance. </p>
<h2>Not so simple</h2>
<p>A change in leadership, granted, may be necessary. Staff and stakeholders need to be able to trust their leaders. But this is only the start, not the solution. </p>
<p>My research has been focused on the particular leadership and management qualities that will effect the way an organisation changes. </p>
<p>Change is not a simple process. An organisation’s culture is influenced by its many established structures, processes and policies. These evolve over time. They influence, and are influenced by, the behaviours and attitudes of staff. Multiple factors will probably need to be addressed simultaneously to effect change. </p>
<h2>Politics’ revolving door</h2>
<p>The limitation of relying on leadership change as a singular strategy is demonstrated by Australian federal politics. In the past decade both major parties have twice deposed incumbent prime ministers. </p>
<p>In each case the motivation for change was the idea a new leader would improve the party’s electoral popularity. That has proven a flawed strategy, with each new leader also subsequently shafted. The most recent change, replacing Malcolm Turnbull with Scott Morrison, looks like it will work no better.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-economics-of-australias-too-common-leadership-spills-102049">The economics of Australia's too-common leadership spills</a>
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<p>The irony is that such moves have increased the public’s disillusionment with the culture of the major parties. It has compounded perceptions there is something rotten with the political system. A revolving door of leaders has done nothing to reverse the view politicians are out of touch with the community. </p>
<h2>Sticky wicket</h2>
<p>Cricket Australia provides another case study where leadership change is no guarantee of cultural change. </p>
<p>The scandal of the Australian men’s cricket team being caught cheating quickly led to senior players being disciplined. Then a sweeping cultural review was commissioned. </p>
<p>Finally, after the release of the report, chairman David Peever buckled to demands he take responsibility for overseeing a culture of “winning without counting the costs”. Then two of the organisation’s senior executives, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/news/cricket-australia-high-performance-chief-pat-howard-sacked/articleshow/66532169.cms">Pat Howard</a> and <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/sacked-ca-executive-ben-amarfio-escorted-from-building-in-messy-exit/news-story/8c4c874aa667a5389fab28727e9ba901">Ben Armafio</a>, were sacked.</p>
<p>Despite the various changes, it’s still not clear the organisation has changed sufficiently to rebuild trust internally or with the public. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cricket-australias-culture-problem-is-it-still-doesnt-think-fans-are-stakeholders-in-the-game-105843">Cricket Australia's culture problem is it still doesn't think fans are stakeholders in the game</a>
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<p>What’s true for a cricket team or political party is true for a bank or any other type of company. Relying on a change in the top job to change the organisation is a recipe for future disappointment. </p>
<p>New directions are easy to spin, yet quite hard to initiate and see through. There is a need for multilayered actions to improve engagement and restore trust. The entire organisational culture needs to repeatedly reinforce an ethical vision. Everyone needs to know what needs to change, and be engaged in making those changes. </p>
<p>In short, the entire organisation needs to own the solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Mathew Donald ( or Dr Mat) does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s symbolic power in heads rolling when an organisations does wrong. But cultural change is more complicated than that.Dr Mathew Donald ( or Dr Mat), Academic - Management, Leadership and Organisational Change, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1027882018-09-26T06:47:00Z2018-09-26T06:47:00ZThere is nothing sacrosanct about corporate culture; we can and must regulate it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238018/original/file-20180926-149961-ijkhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Board-level risk indicators include one person dominating meetings or a culture of blaming and withholding information.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost every inquiry into financial institutions, no matter the country, finds evidence of systemic misconduct. Customers overcharged, deceived and defrauded. At the root of the problem is organisational culture. </p>
<p>It’s a safe bet Australia’s <a href="https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry</a> will find the same. So what to do about it? </p>
<p>Banks say good culture cannot be regulated into existence. As the <a href="http://group30.org/images/uploads/publications/G30_BankingConductandCulture.pdf">G30 Banking Conduct and Culture Report</a> states boldly: “Culture cannot be regulated.” Governments tend to agree. Regulators <a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/media-centre/speeches/helping-regain-trust">insist they won’t “prescribe risk culture”</a>. </p>
<p>But this is a furphy. We can and should regulate for good corporate culture. </p>
<p>De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Netherlands’ central bank which also acts as prudential regulator of financial services, has for seven years explicitly regulated the internal cultures of Dutch financial institutions. </p>
<h2>Identifying high-risk behaviour</h2>
<p>DNB has a specialist unit of trained organisational psychologists who work within institutions to identify patterns of individual and group behaviour that increase the risk of misbehaviour. </p>
<p>The unit operates independently of the DNB’s ordinary supervisory functions such as checking financial performance and compliance. It is especially interested in observing how those in leadership roles behave. Rules and policies might look good on paper but when bosses tolerate misconduct or reward excessive risk-taking there is a greater chance rules will be broken. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-steps-business-can-take-to-ensure-aggressive-performance-targets-dont-drive-bad-behaviour-99855">Five steps business can take to ensure aggressive performance targets don't drive bad behaviour</a>
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<p>Rather than just checking a bank’s board is expert (compliance checking), the DNB psychologists will observe the group dynamics of a board meeting. They assess things like its “communication climate”. Do the financial experts on the board get annoyed when non-experts ask fundamental but important questions? Can board members challenge the leader or the opinion of others? </p>
<p>The psychologists scrutinise body language such as facial expressions, posture and listening behaviour. This enables them to “zoom in” on underlying behavioural patterns that pose risks. For example, investigators might find one or two people dominate meetings, or that there is a culture of blaming, withholding information or competition between coalitions within organisational groups. </p>
<p>Having identified problems in an organisational culture, DNB investigators propose actions to reduce the risk of misconduct. They recommend changes to the financial institution’s supervisory board. If the culture is deemed high risk, the DNB will intervene directly.</p>
<h2>Actions speak volumes</h2>
<p>Paradoxically while the prevailing view in Australia is that corporate culture cannot be regulated, the corporate and prudential regulators are following the Dutch example. </p>
<p>The Australian Securities and Investment Commission is embedding agents in the five biggest financial institutions. The commission’s new head, James Shipton, has cited what the Dutch central bank does to support the idea of these agents sitting in on board meetings. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/embedding-regulators-in-banks-can-help-change-cultures-of-wrongdoing-despite-the-risks-101238">Embedding regulators in banks can help change cultures of wrongdoing, despite the risks</a>
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<p>The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has copied the DNB process even more explicitly. In 2017 it began a pilot program to assess risk culture. The assessment included interviewing staff and observing board interactions. Behavioural psychologists were employed to assist in these “cultural reviews”. </p>
<p>The program was openly based on the DNB model, though with important differences. There was no separate review unit, for example. </p>
<p>APRA has also ventured into cultural regulation through its inquiry into <a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/sites/default/files/CBA-Prudential-Inquiry_Final-Report_30042018.pdf">bad behaviour at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia</a>. The inquiry’s final report excoriated the bank’s culture. In an <a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/file/6346">enforceable undertaking</a> the bank agreed to develop a remedial plan, approved and monitored by APRA, to fix its culture. </p>
<p>Given this, it might be considered odd APRA’s report still denies culture can be regulated. “The onus falls squarely on CBA itself,” it states, before approvingly quoting the G30 report: “Supervisors and regulators cannot determine culture.”</p>
<p>But in our view, no matter what ASIC and APRA say, these processes are clearly exercises in regulating for good corporate culture.</p>
<p>The core feature is that outside agents have the authority to assess behaviour within an organisation, and the power to make that organisation change the way it does things. </p>
<h2>Resistance is ideological</h2>
<p>The reluctance to admit this can and is being done, we think, is because it impinges on a “sacrosanct” idea about the sovereignty of how corporations run their internal affairs. We have argued this claim is more <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10383441.2018.1500077">about ideology than logic</a>. </p>
<p>APRA is now “re-scoping” its cultural-review program <a href="https://www.apra.gov.au/media-centre/speeches/helping-regain-trust">because it thinks it too costly</a>. Meanwhile the royal commission continues to show the high cost of not intervening in corporate culture. </p>
<p>The evidence from the royal commission shows regulators must do more. Without doing something to regulate the cultures that lead to corporations behaving badly, any other new regulation will achieve little.</p>
<p>A step away from full DNB-style cultural reviews would be a step in the wrong direction. APRA needs the resources to follow the Dutch lead. An autonomous supervisory unit, separate from APRA’s other supervisory teams, working a similar way to the DNB specialist unit, is the way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Ann Wardrop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. In addition to her academic appointment she is a director of the not-for-profit Banking and Financial Services Law Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wishart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is a furphy that regulation for good corporate culture is impossible. It is done in the Netherlands and it is already under way in Australia, albeit in an unacknowledged, and limited, form.David Wishart, La Trobe UniversityDr Ann Wardrop, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1024592018-08-31T12:25:48Z2018-08-31T12:25:48ZStop working on your commute – it doesn’t benefit anyone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234333/original/file-20180830-195301-1z12kr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Just stop.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our journey to and from the office has been taken over by work. Rather than reading a book, catching up with the news, or just relaxing, our commute time is now increasingly spent reading and replying to work-related emails. The transport we use to get to and from our jobs has become another venue for work.</p>
<p>The sad thing is that we consent to this extra work, despite it not being remunerated. Hours spent commuting are unpaid – they add nothing to our bank balances, though they save our employers the expense of higher wages.</p>
<p>The extension of work into commute time reflects the presence of an intrusive and pernicious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/22/24-7-late-capitalism-ends-sleep-jonathan-crary-review">“always-on” culture</a>. It reflects an environment where we are enslaved to work, even when not physically in the office. Our busyness, however, can only come at the expense of the quality of our lives and our health. We must fight to resist it.</p>
<h2>Work-life imbalance</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45333270">Research</a> shows how workers fit work into commute time, in part, to ease the burden of work. Answering emails on route to work can help to save time once you’re at work. Equally email can be answered on the way home from work to ease the pressure of work during the next working day. Work can also be done on the move that could not be finished at work.</p>
<p>But here “savings” of time and effort are <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206307302552">likely to be illusory</a>. Employers are not going to cut email traffic just because workers are replying to emails on the way to and from work. To the contrary the incentive is for employers to encourage email traffic outside of regular hours in order to exploit the free work of workers.</p>
<p>Work “saved” during commute time, in this case, may translate into more work during paid work time. Workers again may be in the position of doing more work, for no extra pay. Out-of-hours working implies that work cannot be fitted into paid hours. It suggests that workers are overworked (and underpaid) for the work they do.</p>
<h2>Always-on culture</h2>
<p>New technology enables us to connect with our work, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mobile-working-ruins-work-life-balance-unless-youve-got-a-good-manager-89182">beyond normal hours</a>. Laptops and iPhones mean we have instant access to our work and workplaces. Wifi on trains and buses has helped to turn commuting into work time. But technology itself does not explain why work is performed outside of regular hours. For that we need to look at organisational culture.</p>
<p>Organisations increasingly demand that their employees give their bodies and lives to work. Staying late at work is a badge of honour. Presenteeism – the act of being present at work for longer than is required – is rife in workplaces and reflects on the culture of overwork that is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/is-28-hours-ideal-working-week-for-healthy-life">endemic in modern society</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234413/original/file-20180831-195301-1nj9932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Staying late has become a badge of honour in some companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Working during commute time is simply an extension of the same culture. It demonstrates the way work has taken over our lives. We find time to work even when not at work because we are exposed to a culture that venerates hard work.</p>
<h2>Few benefits</h2>
<p>Yet, all this extra work seems to bring few economic benefits. Productivity <a href="https://theconversation.com/debunking-the-uks-productivity-problem-88042">remains low</a> in the UK despite workers working all hours. Commuters are no more productive for answering emails on the go. Indeed productivity is likely to be lower due to the stressed out and exhausting nature of long commute and work schedules.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-10/the-six-hour-workday-works-in-europe-what-about-america?">Research</a> continues to show the negative health effects of long hours of work. By working more we suffer ill-health, physical as well as mental. We also neglect our families, friends and communities. And we lose the ability to think and act beyond the roles we fill as workers.</p>
<p>Work may now be a normal part of commuting time but its performance imposes high costs on us and society more generally. In a rational world, we would move to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36249647">ban out-of-hours email</a>, not just to protect free time, but also to safeguard health. Beyond this we would look to challenge the hegemony of work and promote ways of living that are less work-centred. Cutting work hours would be the only sane way of restoring any semblance of balance between jobs and life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Spencer has previously received funding from ESRC, EPSRC, and FP7</span></em></p>Non-stop working cultures comes at the expense of the quality of our lives and our health.David Spencer, Professor of Economics and Political Economy, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008892018-08-13T20:18:00Z2018-08-13T20:18:00ZYour colleagues are not dinosaurs – it’s workplace routines that make innovation difficult<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231425/original/file-20180810-30455-8q5slq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An example of how routines can limit innovation is classes and terms that run for a set time, which limits the flexibility of educators and students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-lecturing-students-university-lecture-theatre-478472935?src=Iv8U0m2j4JkdqPH3_M8LxA-1-4">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In many sectors, the disruptive changes now occurring are so major that they have been described as the “<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/">fourth industrial revolution</a>”. In response, organisations are focusing on innovation – hackathons, innovation labs and design jams are popular. Unfortunately, many innovations do not make it through to implementation. </p>
<p>Many explanations are offered. One is change resistance, but this is oversimplified and usually inaccurate. A more nuanced view is that implementing innovations is much harder than thinking them up in the first place. </p>
<p>An essential factor in being able to implement innovations is to diagnose the sources of resistance. One major source is the routines we find in all organisations.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-build-innovation-into-your-organisation-56494">Three ways to build innovation into your organisation</a>
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<h2>Routine works at various levels</h2>
<p>An organisational routine is the collection of knowledge, systems, processes and practices that form the fabric of “how we get things done”. Routines can exist at several levels:</p>
<ul>
<li>macro – organisational, inter-organisational and even national routines</li>
<li>meso – policies, processes, information systems, knowledge and ways of doing things</li>
<li>micro – the way people perform their jobs from day to day. </li>
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<p>Routines exist to enable the organisation to function more efficiently, and to help people carry out their jobs. </p>
<p>For example, school or university teaching is usually divided into terms of, say, 14 weeks and then into 50-minute periods. Students and educators organise their personal teaching and learning routines around this model. </p>
<p>This is supported by meso-level routines. For example, school terms are integral to the management of the institutions themselves, including hiring, holidays and timetabling. </p>
<p>At a macro level, teaching routines are part of the fabric of wider society. For example, legislation governs the number of days that schools are required to open each year. </p>
<p>Let’s imagine a university lecturer who wants to implement a seemingly trivial innovation. They want to make attendance at class optional; deliver course materials online in a series of 12-to-15-minute “mini-lectures” instead of 50-minute lectures; and allow students’ progress to be self-paced, so they are not required to complete the course within the normal 14-week term. This plan quickly runs into trouble due to the existence of organisational routines based on the term structure. </p>
<p>The disruptive effects occur even at a macro level. For example, if an institution is funded on the basis of the number of students who complete courses, then uncertain completion dates make this hard to estimate. Full-time students might receive income support, and full-time status is difficult to determine if courses have no fixed completion time. </p>
<p>At a meso level, staff workload management systems would be disrupted. Existing processes and information systems might not be fit for purpose. </p>
<p>At a micro level, staff would need to structure their course materials differently, and students would need to change the way they study. </p>
<p>All of these routines would need to be rebuilt for the innovation to be successful. </p>
<p>Even a seemingly minor innovation can pose implementation conundrums. Often these are legitimate and have nothing to do with resistance to change. </p>
<p>The good news is that routines can often be flexible. Compromises might be possible to achieve the benefits of the innovation without stretching routines to breaking point. In our example, a choice of 14-week and 28-week course completion options could be offered, rather than making the completion date entirely flexible.</p>
<p>However, “flexing” or redesigning organisational routines is probably not going to happen in response to every promising prototype that comes out of the innovation lab. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/working-four-day-weeks-for-five-days-pay-research-shows-it-pays-off-100375">Working four-day weeks for five days' pay? Research shows it pays off</a>
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<h2>Five ways to promote innovation</h2>
<p>Based on our understanding of organisational routines, we have some suggestions to help implement innovations. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Analyse affected routines as part of the implementation plan. The scope should include micro-level routines (how people perform their jobs), meso-level routines (organisational systems, IT systems, processes, knowledge and shared understanding), and macro routines (inter-organisational or national policies and systems, legislation). Be realistic about the scale of the change required. Does the value of the innovation justify it? </p></li>
<li><p>Modify the innovation to reduce major disruption to routines. Can the innovation be modified so existing routines can be “flexed” rather than disrupted completely? Can you remove or limit macro-level disruption, as these routines will be the hardest to change? </p></li>
<li><p>Develop new routines to replace the old ones. Organisations need routines to function efficiently. The innovation implementation process needs to include the design of new or changed routines. </p></li>
<li><p>Create a separate organisational unit or brand. New routines can be developed and trialled before being rolled out to the whole organisation. </p></li>
<li><p>Aim for a more agile organisation overall. Many apparently promising innovations genuinely do not justify the effort involved in implementation. However, if there is a regular pattern of innovations never making it out of the lab, a wider examination of your organisation’s agility and change readiness may be required. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The very routines that make organisations great at the way they currently do things can also be major obstacles to change, and pointing this out does not mean your colleagues are dinosaurs. Being savvy about the role and importance of organisational routines is essential for successfully implementing innovations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-it-take-to-raise-australian-productivity-growth-83505">What would it take to raise Australian productivity growth?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Tate receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Everyday routines help individuals and organisations work efficiently, but can also be one of the biggest obstacles to innovation. Here’s a five-point plan for implementing innovations.Mary Tate, Research Fellow (DECRA), Information Systems, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/981162018-06-12T10:12:58Z2018-06-12T10:12:58ZWhy every company should embrace the World Cup<p>Whether you like it or not, football is set to invade your workplace. With the 2018 FIFA World Cup starting on June 14, expect coffee breaks, lunches and hallway chats to be dominated by talk of the beautiful game. Not to mention the people who will keep up with the latest scores during working hours – ten games in the group stages will take place during European working hours. </p>
<p>But don’t fear: this does not have to be a big waste of time and resources. Yes, the time spent fussing about football may not be spent on finalising a report, advancing a project, or analysing industry trends. (Indeed, estimates suggest that employees watching the 2010 World Cup during working hours could have costed <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/world-cups-bad-influence-73653">as much as US$10.4 billion in lost production time</a>.) But there are multiple ways to make up for this by embracing the tournament. </p>
<p>According to Gallup’s 2017 global survey, the <a href="http://news.gallup.com/reports/220313/state-global-workplace-2017.aspx">State of the Global Workplace</a>, only 15% of full-time workers are truly engaged at work. Almost a quarter of employees <a href="https://www.adeccousa.com/employers/resources/us-workforce-attraction-and-retention-report/">surveyed by recruitment agency Adecco</a> said they don’t think their employer tries to improve their happiness. And <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/01/what-matters-more-to-your-workforce-than-money">don’t expect paychecks to do the job</a>: the best predictor of workplace satisfaction, according to the Glassdoor research group, is the culture and values of the organisation, while compensation and benefits were consistently rated among the least important factors.</p>
<p>The true bane of an organisation’s existence is lack of engagement and job satisfaction among its employees. The World Cup is a timely opportunity to engage workers. With an estimated audience of 3.5 billion worldwide, it is <a href="http://whatculture.com/sport/10-most-watched-sporting-events-in-tv-history?page=2">the most-watched sporting event in TV history</a>. Beyond the excitement of the tournament, it brings people together and allows them to bond with colleagues outside their normal work tasks.</p>
<h2>Boosting the bottom line</h2>
<p>It can also help a company’s bottom line in the long run. Employees will be more productive because they return to their desks energised. Emotions are likely to run high during games, resulting in a more informal and relaxed environment. These environments are known to enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation – they simply want to come to work. </p>
<p>Committed employees perform better and are less likely to switch jobs: Gallup estimated that business units in the top quartile in terms of engagement are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than those in the bottom quartile. There are also many <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/research/satisfied-employees-drive-business-results/">studies</a> showing that satisfied employees drive business results. Management consultants Bain & Company <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/12/engaging-your-employees-is-good-but-dont-stop-there">found</a> that inspired employees are almost three times more productive than dissatisfied employees.</p>
<p>Companies may benefit from enhanced innovation since relaxed, friendly, and fun environments spur creative thinking and good ideas. This is why <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-people-get-their-best-ideas-in-the-shower-2016-1?r=US&IR=T">72% of people report getting creative ideas in the shower</a>.</p>
<p>You may see an improvement in the execution of <a href="https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/thought-leadership/wharton-at-work/2011/02/change-initiatives">change initiatives</a> as a result of bringing different elements of the organisation together. A fun and pleasant work environment encourages employees <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288964506_A_spoonful_of_sugar_Some_thoughts_on_'fun_at_work'">to form connections</a> beyond the people they mostly associate with, such as their specific team or age group. Football is a powerful icebreaker, allowing employees to transcend job titles and bridge silos. Alongside discussing semi-final results, employees can learn more about each other’s job functions and will, in turn, be better able to support each other, saving time and helping implement good ideas more effectively.</p>
<h2>Three ways to get involved</h2>
<p>We suggest three levels of boosting employee engagement through World Cup mania. The first is to encourage conversations about the event. Don’t monitor or try to stop watching games during business hours – this will just make your staff resent you. Instead, engage with what’s going on.</p>
<p>Second, you could organise a TV screen in the office. To see the culture benefits for your organisation, keep it in-house and don’t allow external factors to interfere with the experience.</p>
<p>Third, get competitive and sponsor a sweepstake on the outcome of the tournament. A real competition within the organisation will get people involved at a deeper level. Not only is making predictions <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/00197850410532131">fun and highly engaging</a>, friendly competition can take place among staff, but also across departments. </p>
<p>Putting proceeds from the competition to charity can also <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w22316">increase employee engagement and sense of purpose</a> and you might have an attractive prize to increase participation for those who are not football fanatics by default.</p>
<p>While encouraging football mania can be a better time investment than you thought, stay alert and remain inclusive toward those who are not natural football fans. While this article is written by two football fans who happen to be female, you may still encounter concerns that such an event is not catered towards women at the workplace. In our experience, as long as the fuss is happening everywhere and involving everyone in the fun, you are safe. </p>
<p>So, get cracking on those World Cup screens and create your in-house engagement. It’s a great way to effectively engage and inspire your organisation – and have fun along the way.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>More evidence-based articles about football and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/world-cup-2018-11490?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">World Cup</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-football-teams-who-sing-their-national-anthem-with-passion-are-more-likely-to-win-96765?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Why football teams who sing their national anthem with passion are more likely to win</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/conifa-how-the-other-world-cup-is-helping-unrecognised-nations-through-football-98104?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">CONIFA: how the ‘other World Cup’ is helping unrecognised nations through football</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/does-spending-big-in-the-football-transfer-window-get-results-two-experts-crunch-the-data-89184?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=WorldCup2018">Does spending big in the football transfer window get results? Two experts crunch the data</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The true bane of an organisation is a lack of engagement and job satisfaction among its employees. World Cup mania could actually help.Ina Toegel, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Change, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Maude Lavanchy, Research Associate, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/785472017-06-08T16:31:39Z2017-06-08T16:31:39ZMajor change at work can trigger loss and grief. Organisations must accept this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172723/original/file-20170607-11305-yeecef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Employees are often unsettled by change in their organisations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is hardly an organisation in the world – big or small – that doesn’t have to adapt to changing circumstances. The pace of development in technology, the quick pace at which new rivals come on the scene, even the rapid turnover of leaders, all require shifts in the way things are done.</p>
<p>But it’s never easy to steer people through change. And, inevitably, there’s resistance. So how can organisations manage it in a way that gets them the outcomes they want?</p>
<p>The default when things don’t go well is to blame employers for being resistant to change. This may be convenient, but it doesn’t deal with the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24362547">real issues</a>. </p>
<p>Over the last few decades organisations around the world have been pushed into large-scale changes, such as downsizing, outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions, or restructuring. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15416518.2015.1039637">success rate</a> in large scale changes is around 20%.</p>
<p>Change is inevitable. But forced change is emotionally more intimidating and disturbing than is generally assumed. This predisposes employees to be negative about it. What’s very often missing when organisations announce major change is that they don’t recognise this. In fact they should be concerned with issues such as loss, emotional trauma, grief and mourning.</p>
<p>Leaders, managers and change consultants have a great deal to learn about the ways in which employees experience change and the sense of loss they suffer. Change has little chance of success unless the severity of loss is acknowledged, grief is enfranchised and mourning is encouraged.</p>
<h2>Loss</h2>
<p>Work is central to many people’s lives and their identities. Therefore forced changes to jobs or work structures are <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/eb028998">experienced</a> particularly intensely.</p>
<p>People become emotionally attached to things, the more important these things are, the more individuals want to hold onto them. The awareness of loss is therefore much more profound and creates more anxiety. </p>
<p>Any change involves some sort of loss. There are tangible losses like loss of income when a person is retrenched or downgraded. And there are abstract losses such as loss of control, status or self-worth.</p>
<p>For the most part, the deeply felt emotional losses are ignored when dealing with change or in debates about resistance to change. Most studies about corporate rationalisation, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00593.x/abstract">focus</a> mainly on costs and the performance of the survivors.</p>
<p>Where emotions from change are studied, the focus tends to be on the loss of a job. But the subjective losses and subsequent emotional experiences of individuals tend to be underplayed.</p>
<h2>Grieving</h2>
<p>Profound loss is associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15325020902724198">grief</a> – a deep sorrow that causes piercing distress. Although the experience of grief is common, there are marked differences in how intensely and for how long people grieve. It’s more intense when there’s greater degree of attachment to what was lost. The rational size of the loss isn’t relevant – merely the emotional intensity with which the individual experiences the loss. </p>
<p>Organisations tend to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15325020902724198">indifferent</a> and reluctant to acknowledge the intensify of loss felt by individuals. Often demonstrating, or talking about emotions is taboo, and when it happens it’s interpreted as resistance to change. The indifference and carelessness of executives can compound the experience of emotional trauma. In the minds of many, grief is associated with weakness, cowardice or even hysterical exaggeration. </p>
<p>As a result, many employees fear that they’ll be seen as weaklings or disloyal if they show their hurt and pain. </p>
<p>When grieving is denied or discouraged, repression or suppression is the only alternative. This leads to individuals being unable to engage with change, and can even cause other pathologies. <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/02683940010305289">Research</a> has shown that restructuring, especially downsizings, instils in affected people intense fear, anxiety, distrust, , perceptions of betrayal and rejection. These tend to transpire into lack of focus and higher rates of absenteeism and turnover. And <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/02683940010305289">occupational injuries and illnesses</a> are much higher at workplaces that goes through transformations.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285875563_Healing_emotional_trauma_in_organizations_An_OD_framework_and_case_study">study</a> titled “Healing emotional trauma in organizations” describes how a group of executives were negatively affected. This is after they went through a restructuring that logically should have caused no distress. But they were unable to look forward to plan their strategy as they remained stuck in emotional trauma of the restructuring.</p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>Executives can’t expect employees to leave their emotions at the door when they come to work. They must embrace people’s sense of loss and help them adapt to it if they want change to be successful. </p>
<p>Organisations must build systems that ensure grieving and mourning are allowed so that employees can heal and move on through and past the change. </p>
<p>To ease the pain that comes from change, loss and pain must be publicly acknowledged and mourned in the organisation. Sharing destigmatises the loss and grief as the bereaved employees find validation from peers and managers through their narratives. </p>
<p>This must happen in a safe space, without logical explanations, platitudes or superficial suggestions. In the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285875563_Healing_emotional_trauma_in_organizations_An_OD_framework_and_case_study">case study</a>, a group of executives felt healed and prepared for the future after the opportunity to tell and share their stories. The anomaly is that nothing has changed rationally or logically to their situation, but psychologically they would be able to move on. </p>
<p>If safe and constructive environments are created, employees won’t find it necessary to vent their emotions in the passages, around the water cooler or in tea rooms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mias de Klerk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many large scale organisational changes end up as failures most of the time employers are blamed for being resistant to change. This may be convenient, but it doesn’t deal with the real issues.Mias de Klerk, Professor: Organisational behaviour, human capital management, leadership development, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774122017-05-12T12:07:31Z2017-05-12T12:07:31ZThe scandal might be over but LIBOR ethics remain fundamentally flawed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169117/original/file-20170512-3664-16t9dx6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was a trader at HSBC, Citibank, Crédit Agricole and Merrill Lynch, being able to accurately predict the the <a href="https://www.theice.com/iba/libor">London Interbank Offered Rate (or LIBOR)</a> each day was a central part of my job. It was, and still is, the most important benchmark in finance – underpinning derivatives worth trillions of dollars. Predicting the number correctly was lucrative. Predicting it incorrectly could often be disastrous. </p>
<p>To guess the rate correctly, an endless list of things had to be taken into account. When would central banks change their interest rates? In what direction and by how much? What was already anticipated by the market? What could influence the central bankers’ decision going forward? The inflation rate, certainly. But a range of other factors also mattered: the unemployment rate, retail sales, household consumption, the exchange rate, etc. During crises, the ability of banks to borrow money also mattered, as well as how this ability (or inability) was judged to change in the future. </p>
<p>LIBOR was like a puzzle that never could be solved completely. Some days you might get very close, or even be spot on. But then, the next day arrived with a new box of jigsaw pieces and you had to start all over again. For me, it was one of the most intellectually stimulating parts of being a trader. </p>
<p>But it also became a daily source of irritation. This was especially the case if you were a trader not working for one of the banks involved in setting LIBOR (the benchmark is taken from the average rate that a panel of banks say they are willing to lend to each other), or not seated physically close to one of the traders responsible for inputting the numbers – both of which were true in my case. LIBOR sometimes appeared to be deliberately skewed in one direction or the other: high when I bet on it to be low or low when I bet on it to be high. </p>
<p>This got worse in the years building up to the financial crisis, as bank staff (<a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/barometer-of-fear/forthcoming/">including myself</a>) increased their <a href="http://voxeu.org/article/excessive-risk-taking-banks-new-ereport">risk-taking activities</a> exponentially. The jigsaw puzzles got bigger and bigger– and the desire to solve them did too. The crisis itself did not act to reduce risk-taking behaviour. It did, however, turn my irritation with LIBOR into frustration. To me, LIBOR seemed to have become more and more incorrect.</p>
<p>When the financial crisis erupted, everything I did as a trader revolved around fear, or what the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan <a href="https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/es/09/ES0924.pdf">coined</a>: “the barometer of fears of bank insolvency”. He argued that LIBOR, when put in a specific context, was a kind of fear index related to banks. But I remember how surprised I was when talking to central bankers about LIBOR at the time, about the fear they were trying to fight. For different reasons, what’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/18/libor-scandal-the-bankers-who-fixed-the-worlds-most-important-number">been called</a> the “world’s most important number” had become extremely important to them and they, too, were desperately trying to solve the jigsaw puzzle – but often failed to understand exactly how it was calculated.</p>
<p>But what could be done? LIBOR was not regulated. Neither was it overseen by the central banks. Instead, the rules of the game were in the hands of a small handful of banks <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/191762/wheatley_review_libor_finalreport_280912.pdf">and a lobby working on their behalf</a>.</p>
<h2>Notes on a scandal</h2>
<p>The LIBOR scandal – the discovery that LIBOR had been systematically manipulated by banks – <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e82cf02c-dd80-11e6-86ac-f253db7791c6">erupted in 2012</a>. Since then, efforts have been made to safeguard against manipulation and collusive practises in relation to setting the number. Banks have been fined billions for their involvement and tried to install better ethics into their organisational cultures, with terms such as <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/speeches/conduct-risk-briefing">“conduct risk”</a> becoming a new buzzword. </p>
<p>The British Bankers Association, the bank lobby – which used to oversee the LIBOR fixing mechanism together with the banks themselves – is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/sep/25/bba-libor-setting-role-stripped-banks">no longer involved</a>. The process is now regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and LIBOR manipulation has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-confirms-manipulation-of-key-forex-benchmark-to-be-made-a-criminal-offense">become a criminal offence</a>. Steps have been taken to put things right.</p>
<p>But despite a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/apr/02/libor-regulations-rate-rigging-scandal">string of regulatory changes</a>, the puzzle continues to evoke irritation, frustration and fear – for different reasons. Traders are irritated by the army of compliance officers now occupying their dealing rooms, and “banker bashing” <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22382932">has hardly diminished</a>. Members of the public are frustrated by the fact that no senior bankers have been held to account for the LIBOR scandal, let alone the financial crisis. Regulators are frustrated by <a href="http://blog.applied-corporate-governance.com/ethics/banking-culture-review-a-worthy-but-doomed-effort/">slow progress</a> towards an ethical banking culture. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, those that have been investigated, prosecuted, sentenced – or are waiting for that to happen to them – live in fear of ending up as fall guys for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/libor-one-man-found-guilty-but-culture-change-is-still-needed-in-financial-sector-45634">system or culture</a> in which they were actively participating and contributing to – <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/kamal-ahmed/7891774/The-financial-crisis-blame-game-have-we-got-it-right-in-just-blaming-the-bankers.html">yet did not, themselves, create</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps the question, then, is not so much whether the changes that have been introduced are sufficient to prevent future scandals, but whether LIBOR is a puzzle that is impossible to solve in and of itself.</p>
<p>The issue with LIBOR has always been ethics. Or the lack of them.</p>
<p>LIBOR manipulation was unethical, even though the process lacked regulation and legal precedents. It was unethical, regardless of whether it was widespread or maybe even encouraged by senior management. LIBOR manipulation was unethical, even if, as suggested by a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39548313">recent BBC Panorama investigation</a>, officials at the Bank of England knew about it. But then it was embedded in an unethical culture. </p>
<p>Perhaps we should ask ourselves a more difficult question: can betting on LIBOR, betting on the “barometer of fear” or betting on the health of the global financial system ever be considered ethical?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexis Stenfors is the author of Barometer of Fear: An Insider’s Account of Rogue Trading and the Greatest Banking Scandal in History.</span></em></p>LIBOR continues to evoke irritation, frustration and fear – for traders, central bankers and the public.Alexis Stenfors, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Finance, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/743832017-03-13T14:35:31Z2017-03-13T14:35:31ZLessons from Samsung and South Korea in cracking down on corruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160496/original/image-20170313-19247-1r0ipby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protestors in South Korea calling for punishment.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sagase48 / Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Korea’s scandal-plagued president, Park Geun-hye has been <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/asia/park-geun-hye-impeached-south-korea.html">forced from office</a>. Park was impeached by the country’s constitutional court <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/09/samsung-linked-scandal-takes-down-south-koreas-president/">over accusations</a> that she helped a friend win bribes from Samsung and other South Korean conglomerates. </p>
<p>The impeachment follows swiftly on from the arrest of Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto head of Samsung, the country’s biggest conglomerate. He is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39214545">on trial</a> for a string of corruption charges, including bribery and embezzlement, linked to Park’s impeachment. He has denied any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Prosecutors allege that Lee donated 41 billion won (US$36m) to non-profit organisations linked to Park’s close friend and advisor, Choi Soon-sil, to secure government support for a merger that would help him to the top of the Samsung group. </p>
<p>Choi, meanwhile, is in detention, accused of using her personal ties with the president to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/20/choi-gate-prosecutors-accuse-south-korean-president-of-collusion">meddle in state affairs</a> and encourage local firms to also donate millions of dollars to non-profit foundations under her control. </p>
<p>All parties deny having done anything wrong. But for a country that ranked the 37th least corrupt out of 167 nations in the <a href="https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015/">Corruption Perceptions Index 2015</a>, this is a major blow. And South Koreans are up in arms – <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-korean-protests-the-first-to-bring-down-a-president-in-a-long-history-of-civic-activism-69162">hundreds of thousands</a> have protested over the reports of corruption and called for Park’s impeachment. </p>
<h2>The mechanics of corruption</h2>
<p>Extensive conflicts of interests, intricate webs of connections and widespread clientelism – where goods or services are exchanged for political support – are the distinctive features of corruption. And they are all too common in the <a href="http://harvardlawreview.org/2010/11/on-political-corruption">political world</a> across the globe. </p>
<p>In the absence of proper regulations and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Globalization-of-Corporate-Governance/Dignam-Galanis/p/book/9781138272750">corporate governance measures</a>, intimate relationships between economics and politics can lead to corruption. The mechanics is simple and intuitively understandable: through the exchange of favours between business and government, the former can distort political outcomes as a result of the undue influence of their vast wealth. </p>
<p>Besides the devastating effects that corruption may produce on <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/governance/brief/anti-corruption">the poor and the economic growth</a>, the distortion of political outcomes may also exert a series of adverse effects on daily business practice. The advantages that a company may gain from a corrupt political system can harm competition. Not only is it bad for competitors, it tends to harm consumers too, as lack of competition <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/suppdem.htm">typically drives up prices</a>.</p>
<h2>Culture change</h2>
<p>To counter a distorted relationship between business and government, it is not enough to wait until criminal prosecutions are possible. Not least because there is a whole grey area in which businesses can legitimately influence politics – through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/12/lobbying-10-ways-corprations-influence-government">lobbying</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, we need to change the way in which companies operate and enhance a culture of anti-corruption. For instance, it could be possible to impose on corporations a transparency rule where they must publicly declare if they or their lobbyists, directly or indirectly, have on the payroll former politicians or public officials’ close relatives.</p>
<p>The way that corporations are structured is also an important factor in how open they to corruption. Most companies are organised according to a military model, which is incredibly hierarchical. They adopt a <a href="http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/users/klemperer/IO_Files/production,%20information%20costs%20Alchian%20and%20Demsetz.pdf">logic of control</a>, which encourages loyalty and obedience to superiors and the company as a whole, but dissuades individualism. These kinds of <a href="https://chomsky.info/20000516/">tyrannical structures</a> foster a culture that passively accepts misconduct. </p>
<p>A recent example of this is Rolls Royce, which recently paid £671m to settle bribery claims that dogged the company for years. An <a href="https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/sfo-v-rolls-royce.pdf">investigation by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office</a> into the company revealed that it had an extremely hierarchical and disciplined structure, which ensured high levels of internal confidentiality and facilitated corrupt practices for several years.</p>
<p>If this is true, the particular corporate structure of Samsung could well have played a role in the present scandal. Samsung is a business conglomerate characterised by the <a href="http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_globalstudies/vol1/iss1/6/">concentration of economic power</a>. In fact, in South Korean culture it is called a chaebol, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/the-chaebols-the-rise-of-south-koreas-mighty-conglomerates/">which means dynasty</a>. </p>
<p>Chaebols have been <a href="https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/samsung-and-the-south-korean-success-story/?_r=0">central to the success</a> of South Korea’s development and economy today. Each one is controlled by a founding family that, although typically holds only a small portion of the total equity, exerts an unchallenged power within the group. The chairmen are absolute rulers and key managerial posts are almost always given to their relatives. It is this kind of culture of unswerving loyalty that <a href="https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/apec/sites/apec/files/files/discussion/PSLee.PDF">research indicates</a> makes it easy for a company’s top management to be enmeshed in corrupt practices.</p>
<p>If we want really to fight corruption in the business world we must also have the courage to transform the internal structure of big companies. Their efficiency must be safeguarded, but the individualism and accountability of employees must be enhanced at the same time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Costantino Grasso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fighting corruption in the business world requires transforming the internal structure and culture of big companies.Costantino Grasso, Lecturer in Business Management and Law, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720302017-02-27T11:53:07Z2017-02-27T11:53:07ZSay yes to mess – why companies should embrace disorder<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158282/original/image-20170224-32722-1vyse02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Organisation is big business. Whether our lives – all those inboxes and calendars – or how companies are structured, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/why-time-management-is-ruining-our-lives">multi-billion dollar industry</a> helps to meet this need. </p>
<p>We have more strategies for time management, project management, self-organisation than at any other time in human history. We are told that we ought to organise our company, our home life, our week, our day and even our sleep all as a means to becoming more productive. Every week, countless seminars and workshops take place around the world to tell a paying public that they ought to structure their lives in order to be more productive.</p>
<p>This rhetoric has also crept into the thinking of business leaders and entrepreneurs, much to the delight of self-proclaimed perfectionists with the need to get everything right. The number of business schools and graduates has massively <a href="http://www.franklin.edu/blog/what-jobs-will-a-business-degree-prepare-you-for/">increased</a> over the past 50 years, essentially teaching people how to organise well.</p>
<p>Ironically, however, the number of businesses that fail has also steadily <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/03/07/fast-growth-companies-fail/">increased</a>. Work-related stress <a href="http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/stress/">has increased</a>. A large proportion of workers from all demographics claim to be <a href="http://smallbusiness.chron.com/key-reasons-job-dissatisfaction-poor-employee-performance-25846.html">dissatisfied</a> with the way their work is structured and the way they are managed. </p>
<p>This begs the question: what has gone wrong? Why is it that on paper the drive for organisation seems a sure shot for increasing productivity, but in reality falls well short of what is expected?</p>
<h2>New solutions to old problems</h2>
<p>This has been a problem for a while now. Frederick Taylor was one of the forefathers of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3jXZpwWopf4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=principles+of+scientific+management+1911&ots=SB_ddbe4CE&sig=FqPE8IionYZpc2gkJhAcmbkZD6c#v=onepage&q=principles%20of%20scientific%20management%201911&f=false">scientific management</a>. Writing in the first half of the 20th century, he designed a number of principles to improve the efficiency of the work process, which have since become widespread in modern companies. But even though the issues have been around for a while, new research suggests that this obsession with efficiency <a href="http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/24668/">is misguided</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158284/original/image-20170224-21964-q4o9zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tidy desk, tidy mind?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The problem is not necessarily the management theories or strategies we use to organise our work; it’s the fundamental assumptions we hold in approaching how we work. Here it’s the assumption that order is a necessary condition for productivity. This assumption has also fostered the idea that disorder must be detrimental to organisational productivity. The result is that businesses (and people) spend time and money organising themselves for the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/8931e3f1-de21-4d1e-b64f-357927469baa">sake of organising</a>, rather than actually looking at the end goal and usefulness of such an effort. </p>
<p>What’s more, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8nbqpvixpVYC&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=eric+abrahamson+mess&ots=hVUmBrys3F&sig=cK--HtMdTjDtX6xH5Ix5g2IhFJg#v=onepage&q=eric%20abrahamson%20mess&f=false">recent studies</a> show that order actually has diminishing returns. Order does increase productivity to a certain extent, but eventually the usefulness of the process of organisation and benefit it yields reduces until at one point any more increase in order reduces productivity. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191308502240058">Some argue</a> that in a business if the cost of ordering something outweighs the benefit of ordering it, then that thing ought not to be ordered. Instead, the resources involved can be better used elsewhere. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://www.mariansalzman.com/PDFs/NYT_06-1221.pdf">research</a> shows that, when innovating, the best approach is to create an environment void of structure and hierarchy and enable everyone involved to engage as one organic group. These environments can <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-18153-0_4">lead to new solutions</a> that, under conventionally structured environments (filled with bottlenecks in terms of information flow, power structures, rules, and routines), would never be achieved. </p>
<h2>Who’s on board?</h2>
<p>In recent times companies have slowly <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/40f9/6a8deddd30315b40d4dce9fd01ba0ba170c1.pdf">started to embrace</a> this disorganisation. Many of these organisations embrace it in terms of perception (embracing the idea of disorder, as opposed to fearing it) and in terms of process (putting mechanisms in place to reduce structure). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158286/original/image-20170224-32726-1h3qy91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Google has embraced a more disorderly approach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A large Danish manufacturer of hearing aids, Oticon, for example, used what it called a “<a href="http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.14.3.331.15166">spaghetti</a>” structure in order to reduce the organisation’s rigid hierarchies. This involved scrapping formal job titles and giving staff huge amounts of ownership over their own time and projects. This approach proved to be highly successful initially with clear improvements in worker productivity in all facets of the business. </p>
<p>In similar fashion, the former chairman of General Electric embraced disorganisation, putting forward the idea of the “<a href="https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=13424380509&searchurl=tn%3Dmanagement%2B9th%2Bedition%26sortby%3D17%26an%3Dstephen%2Bp%2Brobbins">boundaryless</a>” organisation. Again, it involves breaking down the barriers between different parts of a company and encouraging virtual collaboration and flexible working. Google and a number of other tech companies <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-24921-6_9">have embraced</a> (at least in part) these kinds of flexible structures, facilitated by technology and strong company values to glue people together. </p>
<p>A word of warning to others thinking of jumping on this bandwagon: the <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-18153-0_4">evidence</a> so far suggests disorder, much like order, also seems to have diminishing utility, and can also have detrimental effects on performance if overused. Like order, disorder should be embraced only so far as it is useful. But we should not fear it – nor venerate one over the other. This research also shows that we should continually question whether or not our existing assumptions work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Dinuka B Herath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whether it’s our inboxes and calendars or how companies are structured, we’re obsessed with making things orderly. But research suggests it’s time to break free.Dr Dinuka B Herath, Lecturer in Organization Studies, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644952016-08-29T14:39:36Z2016-08-29T14:39:36ZGlobal leadership is in crisis – it’s time to stop the rot<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135627/original/image-20160826-17876-jb7xyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C260%2C1000%2C601&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bad leaders are bad news – for their followers and for the world as a whole.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>People around the world are <a href="http://qz.com/768342/robert-mugabe-will-not-allow-an-arab-spring-in-zimbabwe-as-police-crush-another-anti-government-protest/">angry</a> and frustrated with those who “lead” them. Increasingly, leaders and leadership generate <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/top-10-trends-of-2015/3-lack-of-leadership/">scepticism</a> and, in some cases, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-burundi-politics-idUSKBN0OI1FK20150602">open revolt</a>. </p>
<p>People’s trust and faith in leadership and the institutions they represent is evaporating at an alarming rate. There’s a deepening, widening crisis in the legitimacy and credibility of leadership. This crisis can be attributed to five primary sources: unable; unintelligent; immature; immoral and/or destructive leaders.</p>
<p>I estimate that at least 30% – and rising – of the world’s current leadership is virally infected by one or more of these sources. It is crucial that this crisis is tackled, and leadership is reimagined to fit the new world order. </p>
<p>Without this process of reimagining, the world’s very future may be at stake. Bad leaders will destroy people, <a href="http://qz.com/576459/jacob-zumas-erratic-leadership-has-done-long-term-harm-to-south-africas-economic-future/">wreck economies</a> and tear societies apart – irreparably.</p>
<h2>Unable leadership</h2>
<p>More and more leaders are emerging without the abilities and qualities needed to lead effectively in a changing world. This is typified by variety, interdependency, complexity, change, ambiguity, seamlessness and sustainability. </p>
<p>Today’s leaders often have obsolete abilities for this new world. They appear unable to reinvent themselves fast enough to adapt to the ongoing shifts. They lack the required levels of, for instance, resilience, responsiveness, agility, risk-taking, creativity and innovation. Simply put, many leaders have reached their “sell-by date”.</p>
<p>There is a rapid increase in leadership <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287394318_When_leaders_burn_out_The_causes_costs_and_prevention_of_burnout_among_leaders">burnout</a> and leaders being rejected by their organisations. </p>
<p>This is driven by the constant stress they’re under, which mercilessly exposes <a href="http://www.hogandarkside.com/">their hidden weaknesses</a>. And because they are constantly under pressure, leaders are unable – or don’t make – time to build and maintain the essential qualities of hope, passion, confidence, efficacy, courage and perseverance in their followers. They don’t equip their followers with the <a href="http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=leadershipfacpub">psycho-social capital</a> they need to deal with the world.</p>
<h2>Unintelligent leadership</h2>
<p>Unintelligent leaders either overemphasise one or lack in some of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-world-needs-intelligent-leaders-and-what-it-takes-to-be-one-59277">five interdependent intelligence modes</a>: intra- and interpersonal; systemic; ideation; action and contextual.</p>
<p>They fall short on the insight and wisdom needed to deal effectively with the new world. Leaders are are dumbing down. </p>
<p>They have poorly crystallised identities. They don’t understand themselves, others and their reciprocal impact. They tend to get trapped and overwhelmed by detail instead of seeing the big picture. </p>
<p>They’re also are unable to be big dreamers who look constantly ahead: they’re stuck in the here-and-now. They do not have the insight to affect lasting, large-scale change and constructively engage with the new world.</p>
<h2>Immature leadership</h2>
<p>Many leaders are stuck at earlier <a href="https://theconversation.com/maturity-makes-great-leaders-the-journey-from-dwarf-to-giant-61417">maturity stages</a> and struggle to migrate to higher levels.</p>
<p>Some seek constant approval from others because their self-worth has not been affirmed. They have no confidence in their own ability. Others strive to satisfy their egocentric interests and needs single-mindedly. </p>
<p>Some proclaim ad nauseam to be the one and only, indispensable saviour of the world. Others push in an uncompromising manner for the realisation of narrow organisation specific goals to the detriment of the common good. </p>
<p>Because such leaders are stuck at earlier maturity stages they are unable to graduate to maturity stage five, the highest level. Those who have reached this stage <a href="https://theconversation.com/maturity-makes-great-leaders-the-journey-from-dwarf-to-giant-61417">have embraced</a> their role as a servant and steward who is in service to humanity, and drive commonly shared pursuits.</p>
<h2>Immoral leadership</h2>
<p>Ethical leaders do the right thing for the right reasons in the right way in the right place and at the right time with the right people.</p>
<p>But a growing number of leaders lack a moral conscience, compass and courage. They are arrogant, cowardly and secretive. They have little or no integrity, and pursue their own personal interests and needs. They shy away from any accountability for their own decisions, actions and the consequences of these.</p>
<p>Immoral leaders’ followers are very rarely <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104898430600110X">empowered and enabled</a> to do their jobs well. These leaders feel threatened by their followers and tend to actively block their development.</p>
<h2>Destructive leadership</h2>
<p>The previous four sources I’ve described pertain to a “lack of”. </p>
<p>This fifth source relates to the “presence of” something: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-toxic-leaders-destroy-people-as-well-as-organisations-51951">toxicity</a>. Toxicity manifests in leaders’ ongoing, deliberate actions to undermine their followers’ sense of dignity, self-worth and efficacy. </p>
<p>These destructive actions may be physical, psychosocial, spiritual or all three. </p>
<h2>The imperative of reimagining leadership</h2>
<p>What can be done to deal with these sources of the world’s leadership crisis?</p>
<p>The first, knee-jerk response is to embark on a frantic search for a silver bullet. But such missions often cause more damage than the existing crisis. A supposedly new and “better” form of leadership is posited. This lulls people into a false sense of security. The hard reality? There is no magic wand.</p>
<p>It’s imperative not to start with answers to given questions, but rather up front to identify the right questions about future-fit leadership and then seek answers. It’s time to reimagine leadership anew, both in terms of new questions and answers that will have lasting benefits. Here are six possible questions to help us find useful answers:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><em>Where?</em> It’s important to choose an appropriate leadership vantage point from which to look at leadership. I contend this entails taking a complexity, long term perspective of leadership. This will allow organisations and societies to reimagine leaders as holistic, organic, integrated and dynamic whole persons. </p></li>
<li><p><em>Where to?</em> This involves crafting a leadership excellence model that is matched to the leadership challenges, demands and requirements of the new world.</p></li>
<li><p><em>What?</em> This encompasses systemically reinventing and reprogramming the five leadership facets of ability, intelligence, maturity, morality and authenticity at a much deeper level in order to match leaders closer to the new world.</p></li>
<li><p><em>How?</em> Continuous lifelong, blended leadership development across all leadership facets must occur and form part of leaders’ key performance areas. Leadership capacity, and its development, must be set as a national priority by countries’ governments, and by organisations.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Who?</em> Everyone must be enabled and empowered to be a leader. All leaders must be encouraged to take a leadership oath in which they’d publicly commit to leadership excellence and being held accountable accordingly.</p></li>
<li><p><em>When?</em> The identification, growth and development of leadership must start in early childhood at school level already, and continue throughout a person’s whole life.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There is much to do if we’re to tackle the world’s deepening, widening leadership crisis. Without better leaders, the future of the world is truly at stake with the growing risk of a world implosion. We need to reimagine and nurture leadership for this new world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theo Veldsman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s a widening global crisis in the legitimacy and credibility of leadership. It can be attributed to five sources: unable; unintelligent; immature; immoral and/or destructive leadership.Theo Veldsman, Professor and Head, Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/564942016-04-13T00:52:29Z2016-04-13T00:52:29ZThree ways to build innovation into your organisation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117612/original/image-20160406-28950-23gzwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's not easy to build an innovative culture when everyone's focused on just keeping the organisation afloat.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the explosive rate of innovation transforming our world, how established organisations innovate <em>themselves</em> is another matter altogether. </p>
<p>The string of defunct or struggling organisations such as Kodak, Nokia, Blockbuster, Blackberry or Borders Books attests to the fact that incumbent, established and erstwhile successful organisations either resisted, or were unsuccessful at attempting intrinsic innovation. At the same time, <a href="http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/2015-Global-Innovation-1000-Fact-Pack.pdf">industry research</a> indicates that there is no statistical relationship between R&D spend and business, revenue and net margin growth.</p>
<p>Given that the real economy comprises mostly of established enterprises, be they government agencies, public or private firms, how can we realise the real potential of enterprise-wide innovation? The benefits are there for the taking, and include substantially improved enterprise agility, resilience, productivity and enhanced wealth creation.</p>
<p>While product based R&D spending and innovation may deliver hero products or service offerings, investing in an enterprise wide innovation capability is evergreen, as the organisation <em>itself</em> becomes a sustainable innovation incubator. Product and service based innovation is then a consequence - woven into the DNA of the entire organisation.</p>
<p>The key is to get it right.</p>
<h2>Innovation or improvement?</h2>
<p>Innovation means different things to different people, and is often context specific. </p>
<p>For example, an innovation in the air traffic control industry will differ from an innovation that relates to the use of smartphone technology. In the former, people may die if the innovation’s downstream impacts are poorly understood, while in the latter, failure may be an inconvenience, or even encouraged as a way of helping in the rapid evolution of the product.</p>
<p>Additionally, the fact that a new product or service offering may be marketed as “innovative” further blurs the distinction between an incremental improvement and a transformational or even disruptive innovation.</p>
<p>For any established organisation to really make sense of innovation, its C-suite executives must see past the innovation headlines to identify its potential value and risk to their own organisation.</p>
<p>So, in the new <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3005977/3-pillars-innovation-economy">innovation economy</a>, how does the C-suite of established organisations transition their enterprise to becoming “innovative” without either compromising effective <a href="http://rob-livingstone.com/2016/03/maintaining_governance_in_new_world_of_it/">governance</a>, or diverting valuable resources from keeping the business running? </p>
<p>The key to building a sustainable enterprise wide innovation capability is to consider innovation through the three lenses of your (1) business strategies, (2) intrapreneurship and (3) organisational culture.</p>
<h2>1. Rethink your high level business strategy</h2>
<p>Conventional approaches to developing enterprise-level business strategies are being tested in the new world of technology-led change, marketplace disruption, globalisation and rapidly shifting customer needs. Ensuring that your high level business strategies remain relevant when confronted with innovation and change is key. This is not the world of fixed strategic plans.</p>
<p>Long term business strategies, while useful as a guide, have the potential to rapidly become irrelevant when organisations have to either respond to, or initiate rapid transformational change. </p>
<p>The important skill then becomes being able to rapidly review and alter key elements of the business strategy, while retaining its overall integrity.</p>
<h2>2. Recognise and protect INtrapreneurs</h2>
<p>An intrapreneur is an entrepreneur who operates within a large firm to drive value through internal innovation. Problems is, in the absence of an appropriate process, explicit executive support and protection, their life expectancy in established organisations is limited.</p>
<p>In their recent paper <a href="http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJLIC.2014.063886?journalCode=ijlic">on realising the value of intrapreneurs</a> UTS’s Prof. Ken Dovey and entrepreneur Dr Bruce McCabe offers valuable insights of three real world cases from very different industries. In each case, organisations failed to realise the value of the talent that was recruited at significant cost to lead an attempt at innovation. </p>
<p>Innovation should not rely on a job role or title, but should be an intrinsic organisational capability.</p>
<h2>3. Build an innovation culture: incubate, don’t mandate</h2>
<p>Top-down initiatives calling for “innovation” or one-off ideas are unlikely to result in an a sustainable innovation capability.</p>
<p>Within your organisation, in what way are the insights of your junior staff valued and assessed? Those involved in the development of innovative ideas soon become disheartened when their ideas are dismissed by senior executives who do not understand their origins or context. This has a corrosive influence on any executive level attempts at fostering innovation.</p>
<p>Remember when it comes to innovation in established, hierarchical organisations - <em>insights trump seniority and ego</em>.</p>
<p>The critical success factors that result in a sustainable, enterprise-wide innovation culture lies in the C-suite:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Architecting and implementing a holistic enterprise strategy which embodies agility. Innovation will not thrive if the organisation is change resistant.</p></li>
<li><p>Developing innovation processes that are transparent, inclusive and secure. Individual innovation can be unpredictable, however collective innovation requires a process. Understand that enterprise-wide innovation is <a href="http://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovation_is_not_the_holy_grail">not an ideas-fest, ideology,</a> marketing strategy or competition where “winner takes all”.</p></li>
<li><p>Reviewing staffing strategies, incentive schemes and structures to maximise executive and employee (or contractor) engagement. Innovation will most likely fail if the staffing strategy is based on a revolving door of casual, contract and interim staff.</p></li>
<li><p>Defining and measuring strategic leadership competencies for innovation throughout the organisation.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>When the organisation is already being adversely impacted by change, the proof that existing business strategies and innovation capabilities have fallen short of the mark should be plain to see.</p>
<p>But before you call in the consultants, stress test your business strategies, intrapreneurship and culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Livingstone has no financial interests in, or affiliations with any organisation mentioned in this article. He teaches postgraduates in Strategy, Leadership and Innovation as part of the MBT program at UTS. He is also the owner and principal of an independent Sydney based IT advisory practice.</span></em></p>Before you call in the consultants, stress test your business strategies, intrapreneurship and culture.Rob Livingstone, Fellow of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.