Searching for the perfect republic in the emperor's new clothes
* JOWITT MBONGWE | Friday December 5, 2008 00:00
More than ever before there is a critical need to advance intellectual and political dialogue to produce ideas and solutions that would light our path into the future and provide fuel for the new leadership brand to find the right routes to pursue the right developmental agenda.
As often, I will draw from my passion - human capital management - to argue that, for ages we have embraced cutting edge ideas straight from the originators, refused to listen to unbranded citizen natives for fear of being fed with distorted generics, behaved as if we have discovered the Aristotelian eudaemonia, invited all to join talk shops, switched off soon after the departure of our adopted foreign brands, squandered the opportunity to adapt and in no time slumbered back into inertia.
Do we ever learn? Do we ever listen to others perspectives on the way we are managing ourselves, our organisations and the economy? Who will brand our own thinkers, researchers, writers and teachers? Why, why, why do we see enemies in those who hold different views from ours, those who dare voice out their perspectives, in other words those who think?
Descartes, is famously said to have pronounced, 'I think, therefore I am' (corgito ergo sum) which is a basic truth and the foundation of all the knowledge possessed by humans. Thus, the best thing that leaders should do is create an environment that does not inhibit thinking or imprison the human spirit.Although premised on human capital management, this article will draw from philosophy and from the disciplines of social science, psychology, economics, political science and others to build a case for the country to graduate into maturity by learning lessons from experience, developing insights into the future and using ethical principles to guide the governance of our institutions, beginning with the state. The article argues that only conscious strategic learning offers the key to the gates of prosperity.
Around the world, we read about the instability of the natural environment, which continues to transact cyclones, floods, droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes. We also know that the global economy is coming to terms with the current economic and financial market vicissitudes, which have demonstrated how precarious the post globalised world can be. The world has learned lessons and in response has shattered some of the free market beliefs that have dominated economic development for decades, unleashing the reality of far reaching state interventions into the operations of the market. Are we witnessing another shift in the pendulum, which swung from interventionist states that preceded the 1980s to primarily private sectorled economic development as key features of the 21st century?
Thus, said, is it now time for leaders across the economic and social spectrum to turn to human capital management for key lessons on drawing solutions from the only acknowledged source of sustainable competitiveness - human capital. I am reminded of the strong words of caution once said by Garratt (2000) in arguing for conscious learning when he said, 'it is not another management fad that leads to organisational bulimia where executives binge on it for a year or two, get bored, throw up and then try something else.'Judging by the rate at which our bureaucratic and executive leadership embrace and immense themselves in leading edge solutions, use compliance to force adoption, only to get bored and wait for another opportunity to jump into another multi-million dollar band wagon, one cannot help but feel sick at the reality of half-hearted learning and lack of a sense of urgency in pursuing genuine transformation.
I will now apply the multi-disciplinary principles and ideas from human capital management and other related fields to address wider issues and challenges that the country needs to address if it is to cross the Rubicon from excellence in planning, to excellence in execution.Ever since Plato wrote 'The Republic' in which he discussed the attributes of his model political entity in which individuals and institutions embrace ethics and good governance, the world has produced many frameworks, which in turn bred different kinds of leaders from totalitarian dictators, authoritarian theocrats, reclusive psychopaths, denialist snobs, corrupt 'born agains', polygamous cultural paedophiles and many other unique types.
In a recent article on 'Botswana's moral renaissance' I quoted from former United States Secretary of State, Collin Powell when he said 'Untidy truth is better than smooth lies that unravel in the end anyway.'......The job of a leader is not to be a good organiser, but to be a good disorganiser....Every organisation should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes. From the above quotation, it is critical to highlight the last statement on the need to tolerate rebels, or even innocent children, who tell the emperor that he is parading practically naked with no clothes, whilst his subjects either watch and say nothing because they are afraid of telling the truth or choose to reinforce the emperor's belief that he was elegantly dressed in a state of art invisible outfit.
The parable of the naked emperor is instructive of individuals, be they business or national leaders to embody the values and embrace the culture of deliberation and heed the honest thinking of others rather than suppress difference or expect followers to blindly pledge allegiance even in the face of their misguided and irrational egocentricity.
Like in the parable of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' written by Dutchman, Hans Christian Anderson, there are many who are prepared to pretend to see the emperor's non-existent fabric of dreams for fear of proving themselves unfit for the public positions they hold or incurring the wrath of the emperor. This is the most dangerous frame of mind in Botswana in modern times. In a natural response to change, the nation has been divided, with many welcoming the emphasis on doing and delivering tangible developmental outcomes, some urging caution whilst others lamenting the dearth of processual justice as outcome justice takes the fore.
As the country defines its democracy and reveals its level of maturity, the doctrine of 'ends justifying means' needs to be debated across all sections of society. Outcomes that are perceived to be just and fair because they address the needs of the majority, but planned and delivered without the opportunity for deliberation by key stakeholders fail the litmus test of democratic tradition.In particular, I would like to discuss the principle of reciprocity in 'Deliberative Democracy', which holds that citizens owe one another justifications for the mutually binding laws and public policies they collectively enact. According to Gutmann and Thompson (2002), providing people with basic opportunities is an obligation to provide people with what they have a right to receive and it cannot be tampered with because democratic foundations must both be procedural and substantive.
Reinforcing their argument on the principle of reciprocity, Gutmann and Thompson observed that democrats may be mistaken when they assert claims based on substantive principles either because they draw incorrect implications from correct principle or because they rely on indefensible principle. Thus both procedural and substantive principles are necessary to meet the criteria for justice and fairness in a democratic society.A central theme of Plato's 'The Republic' was the question of justice and the need for all to embrace it as a virtue. Although Plato discusses a number of things including the law of contradiction, the fallacy of arguing in a circle, the distinction between essence and accidents of a thing or notion, between means and ends, between causes and conditions; also the division of the mind into the rational, the concupiscent and irascible element, or the pleasures and desires into necessary and unnecessary, the central theme of 'The Republic' is the need for rulers to provide ethical leadership in order to produce ideal societies - based on morality and justice. Plato did not hide his admiration for democracy, but cautioned against doing things for the sake of popularity and against principle or need.Batswana not only love democracy but have embraced it since independence as the basis for government and the foundation of the political governance of the country. Thus, whilst it is good for leaders to construct models of the ideal Botswana they would like to build, they should never lose sight of the principles of democratic governance, particularly the need to uphold justice and fairness as the basis of state and individual accountability.
When justice either does not exist or is not seen to exist, fear takes root and breeds distorted realities where compliance is mistaken for support and agreement. Fear is said to cause people to act out in ways that negatively impact on others be they at work or in the community, thus posing a barrier to their productivity and/or wellbeing. In response to fear, people, including (workers and managers) often show certain behavioural tendencies such as becoming controllers who engage in micro-management to achieve their own desires for perfection; or worriers infected with the avoidance syndrome; or fakes in order to hide from insecurity; or prisoners in order to combat the insecurity that has captured your consciousness; or victims in order to deploy defence mechanisms; or attention seekers in order to detract from insecurity (Horn, 2004).
In an opinion essay on Arab regimes, Galal Nassar (2008) said; 'Fear is now one of the most pervasive factors in perpetrating political regimes. Leaders who maintain control by increasing apprehension over eminent dangers benefit by ever keeping danger close at hand. Intimidation leads to corruption in communities, in education systems and the workplace, which only reinforces fear and insecurity, bitterness and inequality.'
Said Nassar: 'Arab regimes impose a whole range of restrictions on political expression, thinking it their duty to control all aspects of political life - but it is as deep-rooted in the family, school and workplace. Fear promotes self-censorship. This is the ultimate triumph of authoritarianism, the internalisation of fear, when one carries a private security antenna, a voice inside warns people to stay out of politics and spare themselves the pain.
Debate should be a source of joy rather than despair, because the open recognition and analysis of our differences contributes to the innovation in this world'.All shades of thought and opinion need to be heard and listened to in the journey to building a vibrant and thriving democratic republic that is based on ethics and justice and in which reciprocity is the guiding principle in a democracy that encourages deliberation. The focus on delivery of public policy or national strategy must be adequately informed by the principles and practice of good human capital management. Research has revealed that individuals and groups acting in the context of an organisation or at community or national level will not be positive or exited about things they do not feel or believe in.
In today's Botswana it appears the mantra of management is to induce compliance amongst the citizens and workforces in order to achieve national and organisational agenda. When Mac McIntire (2004) remarked that 'as long as employees comply by looking like, sounding like, and acting according to requirements, that is all a manager can expect from employees. The same applies to citizens.It is important (Mac McIntire, 2004) to understand that if people do things out of compliance rather than commitment, they do so because they are told to, not because they want to; if non-sentient employees need managers to think for them...then they can only act when managers are around to give orders; if managers only need compliance...there is no need to create a productive work environment or quality of work life; employees who are not committed and who toil out of compliance have to fake the behaviours they exhibit at work; and when a person is committed to something in one's heart, certain behaviours and actions naturally follow.'
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development - CIPD (2007) employers want employees who will do their best work, or go the extra mile. These are engaged employees with a positive psychological contract. To strengthen engagement, it is important to provide opportunities for people to feed their views upwards, to feel well-informed about what is a happening around, to believe that those in authority are committed to the organisation and having fair and just management processes for dealing with challenges.
Managers and leaders in Botswana should know that commitment and engagement at organisational or at national level, is not sustainable if emanating from fear or is a product of coercion and/or if it is mere compliance. Threats of dismissal are fear tactics and they breed insecurity, leading to lower productivity and a propensity to stick with business as usual rather than risk change and expose oneself to visibility and termination. Threats are not part of the language of strategy or of performance management.
Peter Senge (1990) proposed that leaders should be designers - crafting the vision, purpose core values followed by adopting policies, strategies and structures that translate the principles guiding their organisation or their nations into reality. Leaders should also be teachers - not 'authoritarian experts whose job is to teach people the correct view of reality' but rather facilitating insight into current reality. Senge also proposes that leaders be stewards - act as servants and service givers.
Strategy monopolised at the top echelons of public sector organisation and not made part of everyone's responsibility in spite of the adoption of tools that are clearly premised on the link between strategy and business operations such as the Balanced Scorecard.Its never too late, let us go back to the people - because people make the difference - ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things, going the extra mile because of the level of their engagement.
Finally, in Botswana both at organisational and national levels, there should be no room for naked emperors who parade with no clothes and whom people are afraid to tell the truth. Our national vision provides the right model for the kind of republic we aspire to build - a republic where there is justice and where ethical conduct is held in high esteem, a republic where the rulers and the ruled share information that strengthen the bonds of trust, where people do things out of passion, without manipulation deception or coercion, where there are high levels of engagement and commitment to the ideals that benefit individuals and communities.
* Jowitt Mbongwe is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD); a human capital and strategy consultant and Managing Director of Global Consult.