Foreign Mind - Always better?

My friend Jim Collins (Good to Great, 2001) conducted research into what eventually narrowed down to 11 companies to see what made them move from good to great organizations. Mind you, these are homegrown US companies, but what intrigued me was that 10 out of 11 of the companies had CEOs who came from inside the organization. It stands to reason therefore that if we pay attention to Steven Covey (1988) and begin with the end in mind, we would change the face of many of our organizations locally. In fact, the research by Collins (2001), the good to great companies did not have to worry about the needed change in the organization since they employed the right people.

Organization fit is not something we seem to focus on in organizations locally. We seem quite taken with charisma and therefore will always seek to retain leaders who are ‘Larger-than-life’ riding in on the proverbial ‘white charger’ to save the day. Employing the right people in the beginning is not a priority for many organizations in Jamaica. An informal survey conducted with three MBA cohorts at a local university found that the majority of participants were more concerned with earning potential than positively influencing their organizations. Why do we have these persons in our organizations in the first place? Is it then any wonder that so many of our organizations are stagnant and economic development is grinding at an exceeding slow pace?

When organizations need to make fundamental change, do we always need to look outside for leadership? If we have selected the right people, and developed them, why go outside? The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica versus Grace Kennedy? Why is quality leadership not available when needed? Yes, I know, new ideas and all that. In times of crisis, we look to someone with answers, strength and that map of the future. It can be said that the ‘home grown’ managers are too concerned with climbing the ladder and celebrating their ‘arrival’ that they do not want to confront the harsh realities and act accordingly. We do not encourage a culture of discipline (just take a drive on any of our main thoroughfares or look at the constant phone use in class!) Disciplined people do not need a bureaucracy. Change requires having unwavering faith, discipline and being able to confront reality. Our homegrown leaders do not have these adaptive qualities and since we do not employ based on organization-people fit and adaptive capacity, we continue to be "Third World and Third Rate". We will always default to the outside, we still maintain that ‘if it is from foreign it is better’.

Change is the only constant

Life is dynamic. Simple. Times change, people change, we change, the organization changes. However, people simply do not like change. It is human nature to resist change and Jamaicans just do not like change. We see it in our institutions, public and private. When we ask our employees to think outside of the box, the response is minimal; employees stay with a company for years because they fear leaving the security of tenure, even though the organization may be bad. Especially if there is a risk associated with the change, we resist. Employees only demonstrate any desire to change their behaviours when they are dissatisfied. The result then, is typically separation with the organization. Despite this, some employees stay and it becomes challenging for the organization to facilitate those behaviour changes to help propel the organization and remain competitive.

Competition requires that organizations must change the way they do business and how they treat with customers. Changing employee behaviours from one of indifference towards customers to seeing the customer as essential to the business, has proved difficult in so many cases. One well known organization, known for its poor service, changed strategy by outsourcing it's customer contact department only to demonstrate no change in service. Despite the high turnover in front line staff there are some food establishments for example, that we have come to expect poor service from. Changing employee behaviour takes work because we do not want to change. Employees are happy with the status quo and they do not believe that the change is of benefit to them. Hence the "...come fi drink milk not count cow" syndrome.